Mar 29 2009
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer today urged delegates to crucial negotiations starting today to take heed of yesterday’s Earth Hour call from hundreds of millions of people wanting decisive global action on climate change this year.
Handing over of the Vote Earth ballot box to UN Climate Chief Yvo e Boer, as the first UNFCCC intersessional meeting of the year kicked off in Bonn, Germany, today
The head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had earlier received a symbolic blue Earth Hour ballot box of “votes for earth” from a group of German scouts.
Taking the ballot box into the opening session of the climate talks, de Boer told delegates from 190 nations meeting to negotiate towards a new global climate agreement due to be decided in Copenhagen in December that they should heed the voices of millions.
"Around the world, millions of people in thousands of cities switched their lights off last
night in order to send a clear message that we must act on climate change," he said.
"Earth hour was probably the largest public demonstration on climate change ever. Its aim was to tell every government representative to seal the deal in Copenhagen.”
If concluded, a Copenhagen agreement would provide the basis for global action on climate change causing emissions past the 2012 expiry of the current – and clearly inadequate – Kyoto Protocol.
From the Sydney’s Harbour Bridge soon after WWF’s Earth Hour commenced to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge shortly before it concluded, lights went out around the globe as hundreds of millions of people from around 4000 towns and cities in 88 countries voted for earth with their light switches.
”The world’s concerned citizens have given the negotiations an additional clear mandate," de Boer said.
Throughout the session the blue box remained standing on the main negotiation table, visible to all delegates, observers and journalists from around the world.
“The suggestion that government delegates should take heed of their population’s voice and concerns on climate change is very heartening ,” said WWF’s global climate initiative leader Kim Carstensen.