At long last, Australia has received the “Fossil of the Day”. The Climate Action Network’s (in)famous award for the worst-behaving nation at the COP15 negotiations was delivered today in an awards ceremony reminiscent of the Oscars. Sadly, the glitz and glamour was not to celebrate Australia being F.A.B., but to commiserate to our leaders’ attempts to strong-arm Pacific nations into accepting weak emissions targets.
From the Pacific to Copenhagen, donations from GetUp members helped send a group of five impressive young delegates from the Pacific Islands. Their messages have been vital at these talks. They have let the world know their homes are already under urgent threat from climate change.
And their words echoed from an address in the plenary session to interviews with press from around the world. Their stories have helped wake this conference up to the scale of the global challenge we all face together.
We’ve put together this video so you can hear directly from the delegates themselves on why being at COP15 is so important to them, and the countries they represent. Click below to hear directly from Christina, Carlos, Paul, Luana and Rikana.
Reports are coming in that Kevin Rudd has been bullying our Pacific neighbours at the conference – many countries that these young delegates come from. Click here to call Stand up to Rudd the bully.
The Copenhagen talks are at crisis point and time is running out. Kevin Rudd has arrived in Copenhagen, but not in spirit. This is his chance to lead the world to climate action and redeem Australia on the world stage.
Tell our leaders to put forward their most ambitious targets and real financial support for developing countries by sending your urgent fax straight to Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong in Denmark. Click the link below:
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Copenhagen&id=896
Australia has a unique position for leadership at the conference, as the permanent chair of the Umbrella Group of developed countries. But so far it has held back on climate action by refusing to put its upper target of 25% on the negotiating table–a target which, if all countries adopted it, would be too low to reach Australia’s commitment to limit global warming to 2 degrees.
Australia has a special obligation to make ambitious cuts, being not only a developed country but the heaviest per capita polluter in the world. Movement at this crisis point could make an enormous impact.
Australia has also failed to commit to significant long-term aid for developing countries. Meanwhile, the proposed short-term funding will come out of existing aid budgets. Unless Australia and other rich countries give developing nations a fair deal, we won’t reach an agreement at Copenhagen.
Send your message direct to Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong in Copenhagen: now is the time to lead.
With so many Heads of State gathered under the one roof, this conference will shape the fate of the world. But as disputes erupt between rich and poor countries the talks are breaking down, jeopardising the world’s chances of reaching the deal it needs to solve the climate crisis.
If Kevin Rudd is to come home with a treaty–one that is fair, ambitious and binding, the only kind all countries can agree to–then Australia needs to be a leader in these negotiations, not a spoiler. Make sure that Kevin Rudd sees your support for climate leadership when he arrives in Copenhagen in 36 hours and meets with NGOs by clicking here to sign our petition:
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveKyotoSaveADeal
