Another day has dawned cold and gray here in Copenhagen, but there’s plenty of reason for excitement and optimism.
Greenpeace of course has a delegation on the ground representing the millions of activists worldwide who have taken action to call for a deal that will do what the science says we must do to avert an utter climate catastrophe. I’m lucky enough to be part of the web team that will be updating you on what’s happening both inside and outside the UN climate summit.
I’ll be working alongside some other fabulous Greenpeace webbies. We shot this video to introduce ourselves:
The pieces are all in place for a fair, ambitious, and legally-binding climate deal here in Copenhagen. All that’s lacking is the political will to make it happen.
But, as our executive director, Kumi Naidoo, told a packed house at Copenhagen University last night, our leaders all seem to suffer from a “common medical condition:” they’re hard of hearing when it comes to calls for bold action on climate change. The Greenpeace delegation is here to remind the people negotiating the future of the planet here in Copenhagen that millions of you are calling for them to live up to their moral obligation.
Today over 56 newspapers from all over the world are joining the call “because humanity faces a profound emergency.” These papers are all printing the same editorial – in 20 languages – which states, in part:
Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.
But there is more than enough reason to have hope that these negotiations could be the turning point. Just yesterday, for instance, South Africa became the latest country to announce the emissions reductions targets they were putting on the table: 34% below business as usual over the next 10 years, peaking at 42% by 2025. This makes South Africa “one of the stars of the negotiations.” Let’s hope the other delegates at the conference are decent enough at astral navigation to follow their lead!
Stay tuned for more updates.
