Act Now – Change the Future (Greenpeace International)

Barack Obama, President of the United States

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

And every other Head of State of the so-called developed nations,

Dear Sirs,

We expected the climate summit in Copenhagen to agree a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty to protect the climate.

You know the science is clear – to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, global average temperatures must peak well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and return far below 1.5°C thereafter. This requires cutting emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 80 percent by 2050.

This is needed to ensure the survival of the world’s most vulnerable nations and ecosystems and, ultimately, all humanity.

Although you and other political leaders collectively failed to get the agreement needed, the fight to save the climate is not over.

The decision to move the legal agreement to 2010 provides a last chance for you to demonstrate leadership. In order to secure agreement you, as Head of State must remain engaged until the treaty is in effect.

We expected leadership from you. We still expect you to deliver. The coming months offer the last chance for you to show us that leadership. Failure is not an option. You cannot change the science; you can change the politics. If the politics don’t change, we have to change the politicians.

Industrialized countries bear an historic responsibility, have the greatest capacity to take action and have the highest per capita emissions. As a leader of an industrialized country, your responsibility is to commit to deep emissions cuts.

At Copenhagen, the so-called ‘Accord’ was presented as a ‘take it or leave it’ deal that was rightly rejected by many countries and not even formally adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP).  The ‘deal’ is in fact a major concession to climate polluting industries. It will propel the world towards a 4°C temperature rise, with all the devastating climate impacts that this entails.  A legally binding agreement is needed to avert climate catastrophe – and this is what we need you to deliver in 2010.

You must: take a lead; commit to emissions cuts of 40% by 2020; commit to provide funding to help developing countries onto a clean energy pathway, protect tropical forests and adapt to climate change impacts that are now unavoidable. And this must be enshrined in a legally binding treaty.