Climate Advocacy Institute participants spread the message

September 24, 2009

Tags: 350, 350.org Climate Track, cai09, climate change, global warming

As the 350 movement gains momentum, CAI participants are taking part in the many events and activities that are helping to achieve the 350.org goal. On September 21st, thousands of people from around the world took part in the Global Wake-Up Call; an alarm to world leaders to show the demand for a climate treaty this December in Cophenhagen. October 24th marks 350.org’s Day of Action, an international effort to reach world leaders, in which activists are organizing events in their own communities. Here’s how some of the CAI participants have been helping out with these and other events:

Begum, in Budapest, participated in the Wake-Up Call at Mu School (CEU) and also in Godo Square, one of most crowded and well-known places in Budapest. He is also helping plan an event for the October 24th day of action.

Participants gather at Wake-Call event in Budapest

Farah, in Lebanon, helped with a Wake-Up Call event in the Ein El-Mreiseh square, where a Climate Change Countdown Clock is to be erected. They called on Arab Heads of State to engage in the climate negotiations. Activists sounded their cell phones, honked their horns, played musical instruments, and held banners to get attention.

Bhuwan, in Nepal, is helping to organize the global premiere of “The Age of Stupid,” a documentary on climate change. In addition, he helped with the South Asian Youth Summit on climate change earlier this month in Nepal.

Will, in Turkey, has been busy planning an October 24th Day of Action event there. He also helped out with the South Asian Youth Summit.

South Asian Youth summit shows support for 350 movement

Sarah, in Egypt, is collecting short film submissions on climate change for a music/film screening on October 24th. She is also participating in the World Wide Views Day on Global Warming in Egypt on September 26th, where citizens can vote on climate change issues and share their opinions with world leaders.

For more information on these events, and how you can participate in the 350 movement, check out the 350.org or the Climate Advocacy Institute website.

Written by admin · Filed Under 350.org Climate Track, Final Projects, News

Arab Leaders Wake Up!

September 22, 2009

Tags: 350, cai09, climate change, global warming, IndyACT

IndyACT Slams Arab Heads of State for Lack of Action on Climate Change

BEIRUT – on September 22, 2009: Last night more than 100 environmental activists sounded the alarm in Ein El-Mreiseh square, where a Climate Change Countdown Clock will be erected to mark the short three-month time we still have to reach a global agreement that would save the planet form climate change during a summit in Copenhagen. They called on Arab Heads of State, who most of them missed a key climate summit today in New York, to wake up and engage the negotiation process.

: IndyACT in Action

Members, supporters and partners from the global league of independent Activists-IndyACT sounded the alarms of their clocks and mobile phones, honked their horns and banged their musical instruments, making a tremendous noise in a symbolic action, part of a global ‘Wake-Up call’. The activists also held up a banner saying “it is time for climate action”, and another sign that says “Wake UP 12:18” to mark the 18th of December when a new global climate agreement is supposed to be reached. This global call, which took place simultaneously with over 2000 similar events in more than 120 countries, is a joint effort of the “TckTckTck” Campaign; an international alliance including IndyACT, 350.org, Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, and many others. The action comes amid expert warnings that the UN climate pact in Copenhagen in December risks failure unless world leaders revive bogged-down negotiations at today’s UN Heads of State climate summit, ahead of the UN General Assembly.

“Again Arab leaders missed yet another opportunity to defend the survival needs of the region from climate change impacts.” said Wael Hmaidan, Executive Director of IndyACT. “While today’s climate summit is attended by Presidents of the US, France, China and many others, only Algeria participated at the Presidential level from the Arab region”, added Hmaidan.

At the summit today, Heads of State will be discussing how the effort to fight climate change should be shared between the developed and developing countries, and how much financial and technological assistance will be transferred from the industrialized to the poor and most vulnerable countries to help them achieve a low-carbon growth. IndyACT has been participating in all the negotiation sessions similar to this one that should lead to achieving an ambitious, fair and binding agreement in Copenhagen. In all of these sessions the Lebanese and many other Arab delegations have never taken the floor to speak even once. “The main Arab countries engaging the negotiations are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who only defend their oil trade. The Arab region is more than oil, and we have to know that if climate change is not addressed properly, we will lose our agriculture, water, economy and livelihood of our people in the region and globally”, declared Hmaidan.

IndyAct along with international NGOs and civil society worldwide consider the Copenhagen Summit as a key moment in our history, and call all the Arab governments to have an active and positive role in reducing global CO2 concentration in the atmosphere to 350 ppm (parts per million). 350 ppm is the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere that we need to reach to keep the global warming below two degrees Celsius and avoid catastrophic climate change impacts.