We're In Copenhagen To Keep The Pressure On

Share

More than 50,000 people turned up in London and Glasgow to tell our leaders we want tough action on climate change.



It was a fantastic day out and was splashed across the media all weekend so well done to everyone who came along, painted themselves (and each other) blue and made The Wave a success.

The UN climate summit is now underway in Copenhagen, and there is a growing sense that these negotiations could be the turning point.

President Obama has changed his travel plans to attend the final days of the summit. India and China have already signalled their positive intentions, and more counties are now showing their willingness to do the same. South Africa is the latest country to announce the emissions reductions targets they’re 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.

We need this momentum to carry through the next two weeks and deliver a global and binding agreement that keeps global temperatures below 2°C and emissions on the decline by 2015. That means we need an agreement that ensures:

    * greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by at least 40% by 2020 in comparision to what they were in 1990;
    * wealthy countries help developing nations by providing both money and technology to protect forests and switch to renewable energy; and
    * we end global deforestation by 2020 because these are critical areas that store carbon and account for nearly 20% of global emissions.