Activists launched what they called the world’s biggest campaign to combat global warming on Friday, urging governments to agree a tough UN climate pact at talks in Copenhagen starting in 100 days’ time.
Environmental organizations, trade unions, religious groups, scientists, anti-poverty campaigners and others representing tens of millions of people teamed up to put pressure for curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
“Time is running out,” said Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Global Campaign for Climate Action “TckTckTck” campaign, meant to refer to the sound of a clock ticking as the UN meeting draws closer and climate change becomes irreversible.
TckTckTck would include actions such as rallies or online advertisements to show, for instance, how people in developing nations are already suffering from global warming and how a shift to green jobs could help recovery from recession.
Friday was exactly 100 days from the Dec. 7 start of the two-week meeting in Denmark due to agree a successor to the UN’s Kyoto Protocol to rein in changes such as more droughts, floods, rising sea levels, spread of disease and heatwaves.
“We are deeply anxious that the negotiations are not where they need to be,” Naidoo said in a telephone interview from South Africa. In a statement, TckTckTck called itself “the biggest ever climate change campaign.”
He urged a “massive push by ordinary men, women and young people in the remaining 100 days.”
Two negotiating sessions remain before Copenhagen, in Bangkok and Barcelona.
He said Friday was the official launch of the campaign, which has already staged some events such as installing a loud ticking noise in a hotel in Bonn where climate negotiators met in June.
Participants include environmental groups Greenpeace and WWF, Christian Aid, Oxfam, the World Conference of Religions for Peace, the Union of Concerned Scientists, an international umbrella group for trade unions, the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF and a group run by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
“The outlook is looking bleak — but it doesn’t have to be,” Greenpeace wrote in a report on the state of the UN talks.
It said negotiators were deadlocked over whether developed nations would adopt strong 2020 targets and whether they would also provide billions of dollars to help developing nations.
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