exciting event will also be webstreamed live, starting at 6pm Copenhagen time (CET) 12pm ET

Stream with audio running … audio level is low.

-->

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders from every corner of the globe will participate in a public forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sunday, December 13, during the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference.

Titled "Copenhagen and beyond: delivering a meaningful deal on climate change", the Global Greens event will take place 6 pm at Klimaforum09, DGI-byen, Tietgensgade 65, 1704 København. The forum is the only time they will speak together on one stage, outlining their views on what a meaningful climate agreement is and how it can be achieved.

With the outcome of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen uncertain; this forum will give a Green perspective on how a meaningful and sufficient global deal on climate change can be reached before it is too late. The leading Green politicians participating in the forum advocate a strong climate treaty and will play important roles in decision-making at all levels.

"Copenhagen is up against real deadline, not just those set by international diplomats," said Elizabeth May leader of the Green Party of Canada. "The real deadlines are in the risk of run-away global warming...The atmosphere is not negotiating with humanity. To save ourselves and future generations, GHG levels globally must stop rising no later than 2016. Copenhagen cannot be allowed to fail."

In December 2007, Global Greens, representing 70 Green Parties and Green groups, including the Green Party of the United States, issued a declaration on reduction of greenhouse gases that called for establishment "of a binding regime for global greenhouse gas reductions which is consistent with avoiding dangerous climate change". See also "Global Greens Second Congress 2008 -- Climate Change -- Time for Transformation Declaration."

"President Obama must step up to the plate in Copenhagen and provide leadership. The US has been the main culprit in climate change, remaining the world's worst emitter of greenhouse gases, blocking international action, and protecting corporate polluters. We're relieved that Mr. Obama has dropped the Bush Administration's policy of denial. But the Obama Administration's priority is still stage management -- providing political cover while proposing to do too little too late and peddling the woefully inadequate climate change bills pending in Congress," said said Mike Feinstein, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and former mayor of Santa Monica, California. Mr. Feinstein attended the December 2007 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali; in 2001, during his tenure, Santa Monica became the first US city to use 100% renewable energy for all municipal facilities.

US Greens have called for an end to subsidies and tax breaks to fossil and nuclear energy industries; enactment of socially equitable carbon taxes; incentives, legislation, and reforms to provide renewable energy technologies; rejection of environmentally destructive 'alternative' fuels produced from unsustainable or toxic feedstocks; rejection of 'clean coal'; comprehensive planning to protect and conserve water resources; an absolute limit on CO2 emissions; reduced fossil fuel use and an 80% cutback within ten years.

Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency -- confirming the Green Party's warnings -- called greenhouse gas emissions a severe threat to public health and urged strong regulatory measures to curb global warming, without congressional action if necessary.

Greens in the US insisted that there is "no climate security without peace, no peace without climate security" and said that the current US wars, especially President Obama's troop escalation plans for Afghanistan, and global military spending (about $1.4 trillion per year, at least half from the US) are impediments to worldwide cooperation in the fight against climate change.

Program for December 13:

• Moderation and introduction by Monica Frassoni, spokesperson of the European Green Party
  



• Welcome from Socialistisk Folkeparti, member of Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament
  



• Rebecca Harms, co-president of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament
  



• Marina Silva, the Brazilian Green Party’s potential presidential candidate; former Environment Minister of Brazil
  



• Wangari Maathai, Nobel Laureate, Kenyan Green; former deputy Environment Minister of Kenya (to be confirmed)
  



• José Bové, renowned global environmental activist, Green Member of the European Parliament and former spokesperson of the French small farmers’ association
  



• Christine Milne, Australian Green Senator and Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens
  



• Elizabeth May, Canadian Green Party leader; former Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada
  



• Catherine Grèze, French Green Member of the European Parliament, will facilitate a discussion with the audience.