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Canada, Japan and the USA climate-wrecking

December 12th, 2007

A message from Avaaz.org – The World in Action:

Dear friends,

The US, Canada and Japan are climate-wrecking at Bali – here’s our global emergency petition to save the talks, please click on the link below! ” We call urgently for the US, Canada and Japan to stop blocking serious 2020 targets for emissions reductions, and for the rest of the world to refuse to accept anything less.”

We’re here at the climate summit in Bali — but it’s reached crisis point. Working late, negotiators were nearing consensus that developed countries should pledge post-Kyoto emissions cuts by 2020–a step which the scientists say is needed to avert the worst ravages of global warming, and which will help to bring China and the developing world onboard. But then the news broke: the US, Canada and Japan rejected any mention of such cuts. Every few hours the draft changes.
We can’t let three governments hold the world to ransom: so we’re launching a global emergency petition before the summit climax in 48 hours. We’ll deliver our message every way we can — a stark full-page advertisement in the Financial Times Asia, stunts at the conference gates, direct to country delegations — telling Canada, Japan and the US to accept the option of post-Kyoto targets, and the rest of the world to settle for nothing less.

Please take a moment right now to sign the new global emergency petition — the text is in the box above, so click this link to sign automatically if you’ve taken action with us before — then tell all your friends: http://www.avaaz.org/bali_emergency/5.php
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the expiring Kyoto pact, but Japan, the US and Canada don’t seem to want a workable global deal to follow it. There is almost universal agreement in Bali that the idea of 2020 climate targets should be included, making possible a deal to bring the developing world onboard over time. As the news links below make clear, the US, Japan and Canada are destroying that delicate bargain, not even allowing the idea to be mentioned.
We’re doing everything we can. Tens of thousands of Canadian Avaaz members have launched an ad campaign telling their government not to betray them — our Japanese members are emailing their leaders — while our American members will send their own message to Bali as Al Gore and Congressional and local representatives land there, asking negotiators to ignore the official US delegation because it does not represent them.
Coming from every country on earth, all of us can play a direct role in the Bali face-off by signing this global emergency petition — delivered at the summit gates, in a full-page Financial Times ad, and direct to delegates. Add your name at this link, act now and spread the word — we have just 48 hours:
http://www.avaaz.org/bali_emergency/5.php
With determination and hope,
Paul, Ricken, Galit, Ben, Iain, Graziela, Milena and the whole Avaaz team
PS This article explains a bit of what’s going on:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/10/news/climate.php
The New Scientist has more detail here:
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007/12/bali-draft-hints-emissions-targets-may_10.html
We’re in the thick of things here at Bali — Avaaz was the only organisation allowed to demonstrate inside the fortified summit Saturday. As hundreds of thousands marched around the world, we brought over half a million voices to the heart of the decision-making venue, carrying big banners and scores of country flags. We’ve also been hosting the daily Fossil Awards of the Climate Action Network, the umbrella of all the NGOs here – see http://www.avaaz.org/fossils.

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, New York, Paris, Washington DC, Geneva, and Rio de Janeiro.

4 Responses to “Canada, Japan and the USA climate-wrecking”

  1. Just heard on the news there will be no line on reducing emission of green house gasses in the text of the agreement. I must be senile to have thought that reduction is what the conference was all about…

  2. What I don’t understand about all this – and it seems almost childlike – is because *some* countries don’t want to take part, why that allows the others to give up as well?
    Why does it just seem to be an all-or-nothing approach?

  3. Their appeal worked. See their letter below:

    Dear Friends,
    Wow – on Saturday, in desperate last-minute negotiations, the world faced down an effort by the US, Canada and Japan to wreck the crucial Bali Climate Change Summit. Over 600,000 Avaaz members mobilized to save the Bali talks, including 320,000 in the final 72 hours! Click below to read the whole story with photos and videos:
    http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_report_back/6.php
    Arriving in Bali, most countries wanted to work towards a new global treaty on climate change as well as new targets for carbon emissions by rich countries. But late last week, the US and Canada teamed up to undermine the talks — the US blocked the whole Bali summit consensus, and when a smaller group of Kyoto treaty countries tried to move ahead without the US, they were blocked by Canada. The summit was in danger of deadlock.
    The Avaaz community flew into action, signing and spreading petitions to each of the governments, supporting ad campaigns in Bali and Canada, marches around the world, and phoning and lobbying elected officials. At the summit, Avaaz members brought the storm of public criticism inside the conference walls with the only march allowed inside the venue, the largest climate petition delivery in history, daily press conferences and “fossil awards” for the worst countries in the negotiations, and constant lobbying of officials.
    In the final hours of the summit, Canada backed down completely and allowed Kyoto countries to agree to strong 2020 targets on carbon emissions, and the US team, now entirely isolated and actually booed by the world’s diplomats, compromised and agreed to call for “deep cuts” and “reference” the 2020 targets. This paved the way for the summit to agree to sign a new global climate change treaty by 2009.
    Usually these conferences are stuffy diplomatic affairs – but this time the world was watching, and speaking, each day. Together, we brought people-powered politics to the halls of power, and put our governments on notice: in the fight to save our environment, we will not be spectators. Click below to see a report on this campaign with videos and pictures:
    http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_report_back/6.php
    This is just the beginning. Every nation of the world has now agreed that they will enter into accelerated negotiations and, by 2009, sign a new treaty to confront global warming. We need this treaty to set binding global targets for carbon emissions, and a mechanism for meeting them, that keep the earth’s temperature from rising more than 2 degrees celsius – the amount that scientists say would be ‘catastrophic’. Such a treaty will change the world’s economy forever, weaning us off oil and fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy. Some leaders, in the pocket of the oil industry, will fight it tooth and nail all the way. And we will too. A great struggle to save our environment has begun, and this weekend, we showed together that the people of the world aren’t intending to sit this one out.
    With much respect and appreciation for this amazing community of people,
    Ricken, Ben, Milena, Paul, Iain, Sarah, Galit, Pascal and the whole Avaaz Team.

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