Two days after the Copenhagen meeting came to a close, Greenpeace activists protested in Chapultepec Lake , Mexico City, enacting a future disaster scenario for Mexico after the failure of the COP15. The banners read 'Politicians You Failed Now solve Your Own Disaster' in Spanish and English. Mexico will be the venue of the COP-16 in 2010.
In the last two weeks, a lot of history was made. We witnessed world leaders attend the most important international meeting since the Second World War, President Barack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace, and the occurrence of the biggest climate march in history. Unfortunately, we also witnessed an historic failure of political leadership.
The Copenhagen Accord is neither fair nor ambitious and it certainly isn't legally binding. Climate activists feel cheated and ignored and the clock keeps ticking. Climate scientists around the world tell us we have to ensure global emissions peak by 2015 in order to avoid average global temperature rising more than 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels. In mere days we'll be welcoming the year 2010 and industrialised countries have made no commitment to reduce emissions.
So the bad news is, world leaders have failed us in Copenhagen and time is ticking away. But the good news is that next year in Mexico, leaders will get another change to save the world.
Don't let our hope sink. In the last two weeks, we protested, we witnessed, we came together to make our demands heard. We showed up in unprecedented numbers and forged a global coalition. That in itself, is a victory.
So now, let's redouble our efforts and get politicians to take real action.
