It is less than a month to begin the important conference in Copenhagen on Climate Change United Nations. Between 7 and 18 December, the countries at the meeting should agree a new international framework for emissions reductions after completion of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. More and more sectors of civil society are pressing political leaders to commit themselves to a binding agreement, fair and ambitious. Among the many initiatives taken in this regard stresses the international campaign "TckTckTck" (Tictactictac in Spain), which managed to bring together NGOs, unions, social movements and individuals.

"The campaign is based on the concept of time, that there is little time to act," explains Positive News Ciara O'Sullivan, coordinator of relations with the media Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), one of the participating associations. "The basis is the use of watches and clocks, symbol of time and alarm," he adds. A clear example was the "awakened" held last week at the start of the Barcelona conference, last appointment before the Copenhagen summit. There he met a group of 200 people who gathered at the door of Fira, hosted the event, to sound alarms than 1,000 clocks at the same time.

Top collaborating in this initiative internationally recognized organizations such as Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, Oxfam, and Amnesty International 350.0rg. In Spain, Climate Coalition, the main platform of struggle against climate change at the national level, has also announced that adds to the campaign. Besides some of the entities mentioned above are also present in this influential union CCOO Globalízate, SEO BirdLife, InspirAction, Ecologists in Action, ATTAC, among other associations.

"It's an unusual move, I've never seen so many organizations, including large ones, join in a campaign as widely to other sectors," said Antonio Gil, senior policy adviser for Oxfam climate change. Union to take coordinated action in all countries in order to mobilize the public and to pressure governments to take action soon. "Global warming is not a problem for the future, but already we're coming up," insists Gil.

The time for action

Oxfam adviser explains that although begin to act decisively at this time, heating is inevitably double over current levels over the next two decades. "The increase in temperature has been about 0.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and will reach 1.4 or 1.5 degree rise. According to scientists, to avoid irreversible increases that exceed our capacity to act, it must not exceed two degrees. Beyond this limit, the impacts will be catastrophic and irreversible. "

Gil goes on to state that industrialized countries should reduce their emissions by 40%, taking into account their levels of 1990, 2020. "Kyoto requires only a reduction of 5%. We're talking about a much more ambitious, but is a request according to the latest science research. With less than this level of reductions, the agreement will be inadequate. "

"The urgency has grown rapidly to the poorest and most vulnerable, who must be helped to take action against climate change impacts that are already inevitable," says Gil, who demand the development of a new international framework which all countries participate. It is also necessary to take agreements that are clear to the renewable energy sector. Otherwise, investment in this area begin to fall.

Different ways of working

Tictactictac available to entities and individuals interested in participating in the campaign different tools. The simplest is to sign for action against climate change. This can be done through their own website, which has already collected about three million signatures.

You can also learn how are the negotiations go through the campaign took to Negotiator (Take a business), featuring a group of volunteers from various countries bloggers who closely follow the negotiations. They are the Spanish Ferran Esteve, who can read http://adoptanegotiator.org/author/ferran-esteve/

For most activists, the campaign web allows to know the various activities and demonstrations planned. The latest took place during the aforementioned summit in Barcelona, where in addition to the awakened, also could see the "big-heads" of Oxfam International. In fact they are activists masquerading as major world leaders, which requires the committed involvement. Moreover, the last day of the conference, several members of Ecologists in Action blocked exit doors demanding to negotiate an agreement that reduced by 40% in emissions by 2020.

The next date marked on the calendar is the home of their own summit in Copenhagen next December 7. Will be the time for these actions are more visible than ever, especially on December 12, Global Day of Action Against Climate Change, which will break in the middle of international talks in hopes of forcing politicians gathered to make decisions most demanding civil society. To achieve this, events have been organized throughout the world.

CONTACT DETAILS:

www.tictactictac.org; www.coalicionclima.org

Photo: Clocks, symbols of the campaign. Courtesy of the website.