19 December 2009 - Copenhagen,
Denmark — The following
is a letter from Kumi Naidoo, Executive
Director of Greenpeace International, to
our supporters at the conclusion of negotiations
by heads of state at the Copenhagen climate
summit.
Dear friends,
Like tens of millions
of people around the world who have been
working so long and so hard for a fair,
ambitious and legally binding (FAB) treaty
to come out of the Copenhagen climate summit,
I held on to my hope until the very end.
My hope our leaders would stop talking and
start acting. That they would agree a treaty
to avert the threat of climate catastrophe.
My hope has been dashed.
Despite a mandate from citizens around the
world, and over 120 world leaders attending
the Summit, the bickering continued. Our
leaders did not lead, they did not act.
The summit has failed to produce anything
that could be called a FAB deal.
The city of Copenhagen
is a climate crime scene, with the guilty
men and women fleeing to the airport in
shame. World leaders had a chance to change
the world. To seize the day, and put us
on a path way to peace and prosperity. To
embark on a path of climate justice. In
doing so, they could have banished the spectre
of catastrophic climate change.
In the end they produced
a poor deal full of loopholes big enough
to fly Air Force One through.
Trust went missing
A lack of trust between developed and developing
countries played a large role in preventing
any real progress. Leaders from industrialised
countries have had plenty of time to commit
to ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions
and to find the billions of dollars needed
to help developing countries both adapt
to and mitigate climate change.
Developing countries
showed a willingness throughout the year
to take on their share of the effort. Developed
countries failed to move far enough. Bringing
up the rear has been the US. It must take
the lion’s share of the blame.
Beating climate change
Climate scientists around the world tell
us we have to ensure global emissions peak
by 2015 in order to avoid average global
temperature rising more than 2 degrees C
above pre-industrial levels.
To achieve this, industrialised
countries as a group - which have the greatest
historic responsibility for the problem
- must make the largest emission cuts. They
also need to provide at least USD 140 billion
a year to help developing countries get
onto a clean energy pathway, to protect
tropical forests, and to adapt to those
climate change impacts that are unfortunately
now inevitable.
Any agreement must be enshrined in a legally
binding treaty. This is the job the politicians
did not do in Copenhagen.
Make them finish what
they started
It is now our job – yours and mine – to
make sure our 'leaders' see sense, get back
to work get the job done!
Greenpeace, like many
other groups around the world, will continue
to peacefully pressure our leaders to do
what must be done to save human lives and
protect species which cannot speak for themselves.
More and more people
are recognising the urgency of climate change.
We believe there is an historic inevitability
of forcing nations to act. The question
is, whether we can force them to take the
necessary action soon enough.
The final rub
In a cruel irony I have
just learned that the three Greenpeace activists
who, posing as world leaders, entered the
Danish Palace for the State Dinner on Thursday
night to unfurl a banner calling for a real
climate deal are to spend the next three
weeks in jail.
They will be away from
their families over Christmas and the New
Year. The real leaders, who attempted to
get real action are now in jail, while the
alleged 'leaders' got clean away, and are
fleeing the Copenhagen climate crime scene
in private jets and 747s.
Kumi Naidoo
Executive Director
Greenpeace International
