Five days left: save the Copenhagen talks

President Obama is joining the Copenhagen talks today. But he needs a push in the right direction.

Send him a message, and tell him to get the talks on track.

Dear President Obama,

The world is looking to you to secure a ambitious, fair and binding deal at the global climate change summit.

Please make sure the deal includes real carbon cuts in rich countries (including the USA & UK) of 40% by 2020 and guarantees adequate funding for clean development and adaptation in developing countries.

In research, we appreciate better than most the implications of our changing climate, I can not overstate the importance of achieving ambitious and binding targets at the Copenhagen talks.

Yours sincerely

Ian Elliott
Research Associate
University of Exeter, UK

This will make a real difference

Emailing your MP today will make a real difference to the Climate talks in Copenhagen this week.

Follow this link to find your MP's details, and a sample email, which asks them to put pressure on Gordon Brown to negotiate a 30% decrease in carbon emissions globally.

Here is a copy of my email to Ben Bradshaw MP

Dear Ben, Could you please contact Gordon Brown urgently on behalf of all your Exeter voters, and ask him to ensure that he secures a carbon emissions cut of at least 30% at the EU heads of government talks on Thursday and Friday this week. Without taking a strong position on our own carbon cuts, our influence at the rest of the talks in Copenhagen will be reduced and we stand less chance of getting a global deal. Yours sincerely,

** DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS **

A politically binding agreement to do something, sometime...

The NY Times is reporting that leaders are delaying a climate change agreement in favour of a less specific, but still politically binding, agreement to do something about the climate problem at a later date.

Many people, including climate scientists worldwide, see the Copenhagen climate talks as our last chance to get on track with reducing emissions and I have to admit that I see the talks as crucial.

Now more than ever it is important to keep up the pressure on our leaders to act in our best interest. This weekend will be The Wave. See the full details here. Also, in the middle of the Copenhagen summit there will be candlelight vigils held around the world. I'll blog more details in the future.

Working in the field of climate science I get to see first hand the concerns of scientists and also the onset of climate induced disease and species loss. Let's do everything we can to reduce the problems we are set to face in the future.