The Peoples Climate Summit: a forum by people of the earth for all people of our earth – will that make any difference to climate negotiations?
There are 18 days left until the long awaited UN climate negotiations will be held in Copenhagen. After all the tremendous work, hopes, and wishes it seems that the negotiations will not be able to come up with a legally binding climate treaty yet.
„We need more time“, say the negotiators – the same negotiators who have worked intensively for the last two years on reaching a legally binding treaty, following the Bali roadmap that was supposed to get the world to an agreement in Copenhagen.
During these two years glaciers have continued to melt at an alarming rate, sea-level has increased, storms, wildfires, floods and droughts have taken many lives and have destroyed many homes, and permafrost continued to melt; and science has discovered the alarming fact that we already have too much CO2 in our atmosphere today to ensure long-term climate stability. Based on direct observations and model outcomes it is clear that we have a very narrow window of time to act. If we miss it, there is no turning back.
Based on that background, it seems like a bad joke when leaders now say that we need to postpone any legally binding treaty; that we need more time. There just is not much more time left to act, and the world leaders need to understand the full meaning of those words. Postponing decisions that are urgent for the survival of entire nations (e.g., Oceania) is like postponing to rescue a drowning person until you are done with an important phone call with your bank.
The peoples of the world will be uniting to express their opinion and concern about the agreement that needs to be reached. During the Klimaforum 2009, thousands of people will gather in Copenhagen at the same time as the UN negotiations, and discuss solutions for the climate problem.
The main goal of Klimaforum09 will be „a global climate declaration expressing the hopes, ideas, and visions of citizens groups and social movements from all corners of the planet.“ If you want to be part of the debate and have your opinion heard, please join the Forum after registration at the site.
Even though the world’s leaders will have the last say of course, the outcome of Copenhagen is in the hands of all of us. If world leaders realize that the citizens of the earth demand action now, they WILL come to an effective agreement. Well, at least, we hope so.
Maiken Winter
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