In a video interview with RNW, United Nations Climate Chief - Dutchman Yvo de Boer - says that with the coming conference in Copenhagen now is the time for environmental organisations and other NGOs to make themselves heard more than ever before. And not - just - in conference halls or in the margins of official events, but out on the streets. Only then will world leaders truly understand that the world is waiting for them to take massively important decisions.

Watch the RNW video by Willemien Groot and Marijke van den Berg

Copenhagen Conference

Aims of the summit:

• For countries to take measures to ensure global temperature does not rise more than 2 degrees Celsius (The global temperature has already risen 0.8 degrees Celsius);
• For industrialised countries to specify their planned cuts in CO2 emissions;
• For newly industrialised nations such as India and China to specify what they plan to do to curb CO2 emissions;
• For rich countries to make firm commitments on how much financial aid they are willing to give to poorer countries;
• For a series of firm agreements to emerge which form a basis for direct action by developing countries.

The problem with conferences such as the upcoming Copenhagen summit is that the participants soon get bogged down in procedures and detail. This is well reflect by the fact that despite lengthy negotiations, the draft text for possible new climate treaty encompasses some 160 pages. That’s too much text for total agreement to be reached in just two weeks.
 
The coming conference is already set to be surrounded by various demonstrations and campaigns – many of them with strong local support among the Danes. Many people already believe that a new summit which fails to yield results would be unacceptable. This is one reason why ‘ordinary’ people are getting actively involved, says Dutchman Willem Verhaak of environmental campaigning organisation Friends of the Earth Netherlands.

"Well then the people and also the companies have to act themselves. They have to take measures to cut their own CO2 emissions but also they have to force the politicians to come to an agreement next year. Because without an international agreement it's impossible to fight global warming."

More pressure
Yvo de Boer, the Dutch head of the UN’s own climate agency UNFCCC, agrees that people need to take their views to the streets to make sure their message gets home to political leaders. He says protest does help:

"I think it does. I think politicians are very sensitive to popular backing. I think that they need to know that people are behind them on this and that needs to be expressed publicly."