Towards Copenhagen

Rising Tide international network will be at Copenhagen this year. Below is all you need to know about our flourishing climate grassroots movement.
Be there! or take local action to join the voices from the whole world pushing for Climate Justice once and for all. There's a host of dates to choose from: See: http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22201 and http://www.global-n30-callout.org/
See you at the action!

Copenhagen 2009: A call to action

From the 7th to 18th of December 2009, the largest ‘climate summit’ ever to be held will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. This summit has been billed as our ‘last, best hope’ to do something about climate change. But the UN talks will not solve the climate crisis. We are no closer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than we were when negotiations began fifteen years ago: emissions continue to rise at ever faster rates, while carbon trading allows climate criminals to pollute and profit. It is time to say enough! No more business as usual, no more false solutions!

Reclaiming power from below

On the 16th of December, at the start of the high-level ‘ministerial’ phase of the two-week summit, we, the movements for global justice, will take over the conference for one day and transform it into a People’s Summit for Climate Justice. Using only the force of our bodies to achieve our goal, our Reclaim Power! march will push into the conference area and enter the building, disrupt the sessions and use the space to talk about our agenda, an agenda from below, an agenda of climate justice, of real solutions against their false ones. Our action is one of civil disobedience: we will overcome any physical barriers that stand in our way – but we will not respond with violence if the police try to escalate the situation.

Change the system, not the climate!

Our goal is not to shut down the entire summit. But this day will be ours, it will be the day we speak for ourselves and set the agenda: climate justice now! We cannot trust the market with our future, nor put our faith in unsafe, unproven and unsustainable technologies. We know that on a finite planet, it is impossible to have infinite growth – ‘green’ or otherwise. Instead of trying to fix a destructive system, we are advancing alternatives that provide real and just solutions to the climate crisis: leaving fossil fuels in the ground; reasserting peoples’ and community control over resources; relocalising food production; reducing overconsumption, particularly in the North; recognising the ecological and climate debt owed to the peoples of the South and making reparations; and respecting indigenous and forest peoples’ rights.

Global movements for climate justice

Ten years ago at the protests against the WTO in Seattle, a global movement emerged to proclaim that another world was possible. Today, this world is not just possible – it is necessary. In Copenhagen, we will come together from many different backgrounds and movements, experiences and struggles. We are indigenous peoples and farmers, workers and environmentalists, feminists and anticapitalists. Now, our diverse struggles for social and ecological justice are finding common ground in the struggle for climate justice, and in our desire to reclaim power over our own future.

Get involved – join our climate justice action!

* Join the Reclaim Power! action in Copenhagen – and spread the
word! We want to generate a sense of excitement, we want our
actions to resonate around the world, and the way to do that is
through countless individuals, groups and movements declaring
their intention to take part.
* Organise events where you live. Get in touch if you want to invite
someone to report on the Reclaim Power! action and the issues at
the heart of our protest

For more info and involvement go to: www.climate-justice-action.org and climatecamp.org.uk.

Useful Links

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Click here to download translations of the call out text into 18 different languages, including Croatian, Mandarin, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, French, German, Hebrew, Russian, Thai and many more. Please post it on any related websites, blogs or lists that you haven't already seen it on.

Click here to read a personal perspective of the September 2008 mobalising meeting in Copenhagen.

A Call to Climate Action:

We stand at a crossroads. The facts are clear. Global climate change, caused by human activities, is happening, threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of people and the existence of millions of species. Social movements, environmental groups, and scientists from all over the world are calling for urgent and radical action on climate change.

On the 30th of November, 2009 the governments of the world will come to Copenhagen for the fifteenth UN Climate Conference (COP-15). This will be the biggest summit on climate change ever to have taken place. Yet, previous meetings have produced nothing more than business as usual.

There are alternatives to the current course that is emphasizing false solutions such as market-based approaches and agrofuels. If we put humanity before profit and solidarity above competition we can live amazing lives without destroying our planet. We need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. Instead we must invest in community-controlled renewable energy. We must stop over-production for over-consumption. All should have equal access to the global commons through community control and sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water. And of course we must acknowledge the historical responsibility of the global elite and rich Global North for causing this crisis. Equity between North and South is essential.

Climate change is already impacting people, particularly women, indigenous and forest-dependent peoples, small farmers, marginalized communities and impoverished neighbourhoods who are also calling for action on climate-and social justice. This call was taken up by activists and organizations from 21 countries that came together in Copenhagen over the weekend of13-14 September, 2008 to begin discussions for a mobilization in Copenhagen during the UN's 2009 climate conference.

The 30th of November, 2009 is also the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) shutdown in Seattle, which shows the power of globally coordinated social movements.

We call on all peoples around the planet to mobilize and take action against the root causes of climate change and the key agents responsible both in Copenhagen and around the world. This mobilization begins now, until the COP-15 summit, and beyond. The mobilizations in Copenhagen and around the world are still in the planning stages. We have time to collectively decide what these mobilizations will look like, and to begin to visualize what our future can be. Get involved!

We encourage everyone to start mobilizing today in your own neighbourhoods and communities. It is time to take the power back. The power is in our hands. Hope is not just a feeling, it is also about taking action. To get involved in this ongoing and open process, sign up to this email list: climateaction@klimax2009.org

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