Countdown to Copenhagen is a global campaign demanding a fair climate deal for the worlds poorest.
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NGOs treated like enemies
Today is the day where registered NGO representatives, who have followed the climate talks closely session after session, year after year, were not allowed to enter. Friends of the Earth (In Denmark Noah) is one of the targeted organistions. This is a very worrying development where NGOs, who are following the talks to ensure transparency and to bring the voices of civil society into the negotiations, are locked out. NGOs like Friends of the Earth are present to work for an fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement. They should be seen as supporters, not as enemies!
I support Friednds of the Earth and hope that the UNFCCC reconsider their decision and opens the door again.
512,894 signatures for a fair climate deal
That's how many petitions Countdown to CO2penhagen collected, and that's what Archbishop Desmond Tutu handed over to Yvo de Boer this afternoon at Copenhagen Town Hall Square.
Knock, knock: 100.000 people at your door!
100.000 people joined the big climate demonstration in Copenhagen today.
The demonstration is at Bella Center right now, trying to get the worlds leaders to open up and listen to the demands for a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal.
EU wants to be a leader, but fail
I am not impressed. Council conclusions from the European council yesturday are presented as a success in media.
It is true that there are money but a big part of these money consist of existing commitments and money previously allocated for development assistance, By launching it as a "new" initiative EU is entering into the business of recycling. Recycling is good when we talk about the environment but when we talk about money...
I am also wondering where the ambitions are when I try to find text about long term finance. The climate crisis is not ended in 2012 and there is a need for a long-term, sustainable financial mechanism which can deliver predictable and adequate funding, additional to existing development assistance commitments.
Don't kill Kyoto
Negotiations are going on and the industrialised countries are standing in line to distance themselves to the Kyoto protocol, which is the existing legally binding agreement to combate climate change. The Kyoto protocol includes binding comitments for industrialised countries and they are now hoping for a COP15 solution with less pressure on their shoulders. However, if this will be the result of COP15, developing countries are the ones who will pay the bill, and for countries like Ethiopia or Malawi the bill comes as draught year after year.
Carry the burden
Indian DCA partners got peoples attention at the climate summit in Bella Center, when they presented the rich countries with an overdue invoice with the amount of 150 billion dollars – a year.
“Today, the poor countries are hit hardest by the climate changes, even though we haven’t polluted half as much as the rich countries. This has to end,” Says Malla Reddy, leader og Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre in Anantapur, India.
One of Countdown to Copenhagens core messages are, that the financial responsibility of solving the climate crisis rests on the shoulders of the polluters; the rich, developed countries.
For the sake of our children
“We owe it to our children to make an effort here, so they don’t inherit a wasted planet,” says John Devaram from SPEECH – Society for peoples education and economic change, India.
Read more on Countdown to Copenhagens demands for a fair climate deal here: