Half-way through the critical UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen – where delegates and world leaders are negotiating the future of the planet – more than 500 civil society groups supported the 'Real Deal Global Day of Action' event demanding a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty to avert catastrophic climate change. In Copenhagen, Greenpeace volunteers from 32 countries along with thousands other protestors peacefully marched from Christiansborg Slotsplads at the Danish Parliament to the Bella Centre where the UN climate summit is taking place to urge world leaders to show far greater political courage and commitment to tackling climate change.
"Millions of people are already losing their homes to the rising sea, their crops to worsening droughts and their sources of drinking water as glaciers melt. We cannot squander this opportunity to avert runaway climate change. Our message to the over one hundred and twenty heads of state who arrive next week in Copenhagen is united, it is global, it is loud and it is clear: The time to unite and change the future is now", said Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International Executive Director, who participated in and spoke at the demonstration.
The protestors will deliver seventeen giant ship sails bearing climate messages and images to Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the 'Climate Rescue Station' at Bella Centre. The march will culminate in a candlelight vigil at the UN summit.
Earlier, in Australia, about 80,000 people took part in a 'walk against warming', while in Hong Kong, about a thousand people participated in a 3-legged walk. In Beijing drums, historically used in China to sound the time, were played at the Yongdimen gate to remind leaders that time to reach a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal is running out.
Despite some key industrialised countries lowering expectations for a deal in Copenhagen, the first week of the talks has been dominated by a determined push for a legally binding agreement by developing countries which are literally fighting for their survival.
