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Energised: Janine and Rosanne - two of the Copenhagen 3 - have been inspired by their trip to Denmark
By Rosanne White
With the weekend over, a sleepy Copenhagen 3 have departed Denmark for the UK after 36 hours of intense campaigning, marching and banner-waving.
The train journey has afforded us much time for reflection, to pull together the events of the weekend and evaluate our experience. Unanimously we are all feeling incredibly positive about the last couple of days and proud to have had the opportunity to attend the march, to stand up and say enough is enough, we need an ambitious deal on climate change.
For me, the highlight of the weekend has to be the sense of community and unity that we experienced as we met the thousands of other activists from all corners of the world.
In previous blogs I’ve commented on the fact that, despite the language barrier, our objective has been the same; that we want action on climate change here and now. This is so crucial and a message that I will be taking back to the UK.
I’ve met many people over the last couple of months who have felt unsure of the difference that they can make on an issue as huge as climate change; now I can go back and say that there are thousands, if not millions of people out there, who are passionate about the issue, all of whom come from individual communities from around the world but who are prepared to come together to campaign for change.
Many other activists appear to share this view. “It was a brilliant coming together of peoples from around the world, from different walks of life and different communities and different NGOs coming together as one,” said Chris Le Breton, a member of Be The Change, another organisation present at Saturday’s march.
This was echoed by Pushpanath Krishnamurphy, the seasoned Oxfam campaigner who walked the distance from Oxford to Copenhagen to raise awareness of the importance of the negotiations (check out his frankly brilliant trip at www.gopushgo.com).
“It’s great to be in Copenhagen,” he said. “There are all kinds of people here, it’s a really great way to finish such a long walk!”
And there really were a whole range of people marching in Copenhagen; not only representatives from every nation, but children, grandparents, NGOs, politicians, (including Chris Davies MEP) musicians, dancers and so many more, all part of a melting pot of activism.
Finally, I feel like I have so much to tell everyone in the South West when I return, armed with information and the word on the street from a massive movement of people. If anything, I’m even more passionate about campaigning for a positive outcome from the negotiations and will be bringing this extra enthusiasm home with me.
This weekend I’ve met people for whom climate change is already a reality, who can’t wait any longer, for whom climate change means food shortages, intense flooding and destruction.
But I’ve also been a part of the thousands of people who were prepared to travel for as long as it took to show the world’s leaders that they care about the decisions that are being made at this moment within the Bella Centre, which has filled me with optimism for a positive outcome.
With the negotiations stepping up this week, it’s now even more important that we push for the fair and safe deal that we’ve all been waiting for. We need to hear more support for a fair and binding deal, particularly from the Americans and higher targets for both cutting carbon emissions and providing a solid financial package to fund climate adaptation.
So let’s take the message from the thousands of activists who joined Saturday’s march. If we all act together and push for that fair and safe deal, we can save lives; here and now!
Rosanne is a volunteer for Oxfam South West, who has been blogging for the last week as she prepared to travel (by train!) to the Copenhagen climate march
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