GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION

       International Demonstrations on Climate Change

                December 12th 2009

    at the time of the United Nations Talks on climate change (COP15/MOP5)
                                             in Copenhagen, Denmark

 

The Global Day of Action on climate 2009 has been a huge success demonstrating the rapid mushrooming of a massive global movement in reponse to the unparalleled threat we face from the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate and the seeming inability of the world's leaders to do anything effective about it.

Reports are still coming in and we are still struggling to grasp the true magnitude of this massive day of global protest.

But pride of place definitely goes to the magnificent demonstration of 100,000 or so people from all around the world in Copenhagen, itself, at the actual location of the UN Climate Talks. This included substantial numbers from nearby countries of North West Europe in many of which the 'national' demonstration had been timed for 5th December, a week earler, so as to allow people to concentrate purely on building the big Copenhagen demo on the 12th. This earlier wave of demonstrations had included a spectacular 50,000 strong march in London, a 15,000 strong demonstration in Brussels, an 8,000 strong protest in Glasgow, Scotland, a 2,000 strong noisy protest in Paris and further events in Dublin, Ireland, Belfast, Northen Ireland, Berlin and other places around Germany and Stockholm and other places around Sweden.

On the 12th itself the 100,000 in Copenhagen were matched by another 100,000 all around Australia (with 40,000 in Melbourne alone) and other substantial events like the 'Beat the Heat' rally in the Netherlands with 10,000, demonstrations in Madrid and New Delhi 5,000 or so strong (with further demonstrations in around 20 other locations around India) and thousands more in places like Nepal, Bangladesh and South Africa.

Meanwhile with the active involvement this year of a new international coalition of NGOs - the 'Global Campaign for Climate Action', and the newly formed "350" organisation there was a vast number of smaller actions ( maybe 3,000 ?) in just about every country of the world. These mainly took the form of "Vigils for a Real Deal" under the Tck Tck Tck brand (see here and here) or candlelight vigils under the '350'banner (see here) - but there were also plenty of other actions (or ones that mixed various elements of the internationally coordinated campaigns).

Reports are still coming in ....  keep watching the website. But in the meantime we will be building for another big effort next year because the very dissapointing results of the Copenhagen conference show that we still have a big struggle ahead of us, we still need to keep building that huge global movement ....

This webpage has been set up to publicise and promote plans for demonstrations on climate change, to coincide with the annual United Nations Climate Talks which are taking place this year (COP15/MOP5) in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 7th to 18th 2009.

We intend synchronised demonstrations around the world on Saturday December 12th 2009 - in as many places as possible - to call on world leaders to take urgent action on climate change.

The Copenhagen Climate Talks are the world's last chance to secure an emissions reductions agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol before it expires. There is a growing consensus among scientists that we have as little as ten years to stop and reverse the global growth in greenhouse gas emissions before 'runaway' climate change becomes uncontrollable. That means the international talks being held in Copenhagen in December 2009 could be our last chance to avert a global catastrophe of unimaginable proportions - perhaps the most important international meeting ever held. We feel therefore that there is an overwhelming need to demonstrate a global will for urgent and effective action at this time

The 'Call to Action' for the demonstrations is as follows

“We demand that world leaders take the urgent and resolute action that is needed to prevent the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate, so that the entire world can move as rapidly as possible to a stronger emissions reductions treaty which is both equitable and effective in minimising dangerous climate change.

We demand that the long-industrialised countries that have emitted most greenhouse gases currently in the atmosphere take responsibility for climate change mitigation by immediately reducing their own emissions as well as investing in a clean energy revolution in the developing world. Developed countries must take their fair share of the responsibility to pay for the adaptive measures that have to be taken, especially by low-emitting countries with limited economic resources.

Climate change will hit the poorest first and hardest. All who have the economic means to act, must therefore urgently and decisively do so.”

To help build for these demonstrations please click on your country in the column on the left to find a local contact, or if there is not yet one listed there contact us at

 info@globalclimatecampaign.org

             Demonstrating for action on climate, Istanbul, Turkey December 8th 2007