The clock is ticking on climate change. In one month, 192 countries will meet at the international climate summit in Copenhagen to negotiate a new global treaty to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Everyone, including our political leaders, know what needs to be done in the deal: it must be fair, ambitious and binding. But at talks this week in Barcelona -- which aimed at trying to build consensus on key issues ahead of the final discussions -- progress was idling and political will from rich countries was severely lacking.

Heads of state need to step up and be the leaders people everywhere expect them to be. Today, aliens from Planet B went looking for climate leaders in Barcelona. Their message was delivered loud and clear to governments at the UN by TckTckTck -- a global campaigning force including 350.org, Avaaz, IndyAct, Greenpeace, and Oxfam -- watch the video and see photos below:

Here's a photo of the aliens with lead US negotiator, Jonathan Pershing:

Right now Copenhagen is the most important city in the world. In just 2 short months, the city might witness the formation of a global climate treaty. You've heard of the Kyoto protocol - the climate treaty that the US helped draft 12 years ago? The one that pretty much every other country has signed on to?

Well, the US, with 1/4 of global greenhouse emissions, has more excuses than a student with a late term-paper about why it hasn't done its part to help solve climate change. The people of the world aren't impressed.

Two years ago in Bali after a dramatic plea from Papua New Guinea in the final hours, the US and other leaders agreed to make a global treaty in Copenhagen in 2009. According to the Bali agreement, the plan needs to have four key elements to bring all nations together (here's the homework assignment). It needs to set mitigation targets for every country (reducing carbon emissions). It needs to protect forests from destruction (which cause 20% of global emissions). It needs to help poor countries develop more responsibly than we did by providing clean technology because the world can't afford to repeat the dirty energy economies of the 20th century. And it needs to help poor countries deal with the present and increasing effects of the climate crisis.

The road-map to Copenhagen, agreed on by the leaders in Bali, places a responsibility on every national government, but the path has been most difficult for the United States. Stubborn, short-sighted politics have delayed action for years, but the window of opportunity for a global deal in Copenhagen has added urgency to our fight.

When the the timetable was set, climate activists like myself stepped up efforts to get the US on track in the two years from December 2007 to December 2009. We threw ourselves into an election that promised change and took on challenges on a historic scale. But that clearly hasn't been enough.

Photo Credit: Robert Van Warden

We brought 12,000 activists to Powershift09 for the largest lobby day ever, and then stopped the U.S. Capitol plant from ever burning coal again. Just last month over 1,800 flash-mobs all over the world placed wake-up calls to world leaders on the need for climate action. And it's working; the global movement we've been working for is here and its beautiful.

The one tiny, little problem is that a handful of US senators stand between us and a global climate treaty. In Bali, they said the treaty needed to deal with 4 things, things that the senate (and specifically the finance committee) can provide.

Luckily, large environmental organizations are pulling out all the stops to fight for ambitious reductions in domestic emissions - as ambitious as we can get. (But boy are my fingers crossed that we can get something better.)

What we're lacking, and this is where you come in, are people fighting for those other three provisions. Adaptation, clean-tech transfer and forest protection receive mere lip-service in the initial draft of the Kerry-Boxer bill.

Developed countries need to put money on the table. How much? According to the Climate Action Network International policy paper, $150 billion per year, additional to existing aid, and raised from auction allowances. The European Commission Communication on Climate Financing is talking on a similar scale at least, calling for €50 billion annually by 2020.

What that works out to for the US, is in the range of 5% of allocation revenue for international adaptation, 5% for clean tech-transfer, and 5% for forest protection. The House climate bill in June allocated just 1%, 0.5% and 5%, respectively for those provisions. The Senate can do better and needs to do better. Whether we get a global deal or not could all come down to the next few weeks in the US senate.

We're so close to the global climate deal we need, but three of the four major provisions required aren't getting much attention. Let's give the senators on the finance committee a reason to look beyond their petty interests and own up to the responsibility we have to the world. Take a look at the senate finance committee members and how to contact them.

Two years ago, we could only hope that a good US Senate bill would be the biggest remaining obstacle to a good global climate treaty. It took millions of calls and letters, thousands of individual meetings and one of the largest days of action the world has yet seen to get us here. We're not done yet. If we can make the case for financing global solutions to the Senate, we can start to see the outlines of history -- the story we can tell our grandchildren about how we fought for, and won, a planet they can still enjoy.

Morgan Goodwin is a fellow at the Avaaz Action Factory in DC

Inspired by sustained support for an end to torture from the world community and a clear majority of Americans, Avaaz.org launched a metro billboard ad campaign to remind policymakers that torture is illegal, unethical and a top recruiting tool for the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.



The ads (which are running at Farragut North Station and in a Washington Paper) feature Osama bin Laden in an "I love Gitmo" t-shirt (an acknowledgement that Al Qaeda uses the prison to recruit terrorists) and include quotes from President Obama and Presidential candidate John McCain.

Click here to download the press release

Thanks go to the thousands of Avaaz members who donated to fund this campaign. Our global voices are vital if we are to see Guantanamo Bay closed, a total ban on torture, and the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into past practices. If you would like to make a further donation for this ongoing campaign - click here.

Some of the media achieved from the campaign is listed below:

Times of Malta

Agence France Press

Yahoo Espana

Middle East Online

On July 8th Italian Avaaz volunteers and members of the Avaaz European climate action factory -- a rapid response group of youth climate activists supported by Avaaz to raise the level of ambition for climate action in Europe -- organised a "strip mob" in front of the iconic Spanish stairs in Rome, Italy. The stunt's message was for bold climate action from the g8 leaders who were assembling in Italy for 2009 G8 Summit.

The team danced around to chants of "it's getting hot in here" whilst stripping down to reveal green underwear. They kept green underwear on, but threw their clothes at a dancer dressed as Berlusconi, who has been embroiled in public rows over his friendship with a young model. A large crowd of journalists and tourists cheered them on.

Photos and video below. For more information on the Action Factory projects in Europe and Washington DC, click here.

Thank you for participating in the Swine Flu campaign!


We stopped traffic in Geneva on May 27th as we descended on the World Health Organization (WHO) with a herd of cardboard pigs to deliver our petition! The 225 cardboard pigs represented the 225,000 Avaaz members that had signed the petition.

We certainly got our message across -- our campaign delivery went out around the world on ABC news, EFE TV, the Wall Street Journal, France 24, Kuwait News Agency, and Intellasia - as well as many other major news outlets.

When we handed over our petition, it became apparent how important our campaigning was and how valid our concerns were. Initially, the World Health Organization's Food Safety and Zoonoses director, Dr. Jørgen Schlundt, told us that the WHO and the FAO had not found a definitive link between the H1N1 virus and a factory farm and that the source was still under investigation. But he then admitted:
1) scientists have seen more disease breeding and mutating between animals and humans with the massive increase in industrial meat production;
2) he agreed that certain company's farming practices (Smithfields in this case) were dangerous;
3) he warned that new operations propagating in developing countries could make 'mistakes' in food safety that could be seriously risky to human health; and most importantly
4) he indicated that the political processes that determine the research and rules on factory farm biosafety are dominated by the industrial meat lobby. He said strong global regulations were essential, but, to date, unless there is a huge scare like BSE and people die, scientists are unable to push through the laws needed to prevent animal borne pandemics.

The message was clear - our public campaigning for investigation and regulation of factory farms is vital to ensure our food safety and counter the powerful meat industry. Our action showed the WHO that the world does not want to wait for another disaster - we want funding for scientists to investigate factory farms and we want preventive measures put in place that ensure public heath standards.

Click below to see the interview with Avaaz campaign director Alice Jay on Efe:

Dear friends,

During the Summit of the Americas, Avaaz sailed into the harbour at Port of Spain, Trinidad and delivered a message to President Obama to lift the Cuban embargo. The call came from more than 50,000 Avaaz members from the Americas.

Despite tight security, Avaaz Campaigner Paula Brufman and Trinidadian Avaaz members sailed by the site where the regional Presidents were meeting and hoisted a 'End the Cuba Embargo' banner up the mast. Public protest was closed down on the island, but an extraoridnary group of Trinidadian members and volunteers made this peaceful action happen with the consent of the coast guard. Great work!

The delivery of our message was quickly picked up by key news agencies and was reported around Latin America. See below for a video of the sailboat delivery and click here to see the media coverage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZPVMmOH6MY

At the Americas Summit President Obama announced a shift in US policy on Cuba and since then small steps toward dialogue have been taken. It is exciting to be a part of this vital change in regional policy. We will continue to campaign for constructive engagement and for the US to end the almost 50 year failed policy.

This week, Avaaz has been running an advertisement on Washington DC television spoofing ExxonMobil's hypnotically disingenuous ad campaign—you know, the ones where friendly, nerdy people tell you how their work at ExxonMobil will help the environment.

The message of our ad was simple: while ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies now talk a good game on climate change, they're still lobbying full-force to prevent a strong global climate treaty. The kind of treaty Obama can help create—if the rest of us give him the political support to do it.

Well, yesterday, ExxonMobil responded to the ad. Apparently, they were mystified.

"They seem to be critical of our desire to communicate our positions on climate change, which we don't understand," said Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers.

Mr. Jeffers, sorry for confusing you! Perhaps we could be more clear. We have no problem with ExxonMobil's "desire to communicate." It's ExxonMobil's positions on climate change that we're critical of... and the fact that the communications in question don't actually communicate them.

In fact, if ExxonMobil is really eager to communicate their positions on climate change, then they should be welcoming our ad! Take a look:

The truth is, Exxon spent at least $29 million on lobbying in the US last year alone—and is on track to spend even more on a lobbying and advertising blitz this year. While ExxonMobil might not be funding climate denialists to distort science any longer (it lost that battle), it hasn't switched sides in the climate wars. Now, they're just wearing the other side's uniforms. ExxonMobil's strategy is to divert the growing momentum for effective global and national policies by greenwashing itself—and lobbying hard behind the scenes.

Most of their ads showcase research projects or promote the virtues of personal energy efficiency. Unmentioned by the $400-billion-plus company is the fact that their entire business model relies on continually increasing the burning of carbon-based fuels. Watching the ads, a conscientious consumer could conclude that ExxonMobil is to clean energy what the Gates Foundation is to global health. The more appropriate analogy would be Phillip Morris.

(Sometimes the ads are misleading—not just in their underlying message—but also in their particulars: Last year, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority banned an ExxonMobil ad for claiming, falsely, that liquefied natural gas was "one of the world's cleanest fuels.")

ExxonMobil's feel-good ads showcasing hydrogen fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, and tire technology aren't about "communicating their positions on climate change." They're about calming down a public that has become rightly infuriated by fossil-fuel industry obstructionism of real climate action. And they're about distracting attention from ExxonMobil's own lobbying against the cap-and-trade legislation and binding global treaty that the world urgently needs.

We suspect that, in fact, Mr. Jeffers understands this all too well.

Dear friends,

Tibetans fighting the Chinese government's blackout are cut off from the rest of the world. Donate now, and help Tibetans beat the black-out.

• For $90 we can fund transmission of an entire hour of the Voices of Tibet radio network, which provides unbiased news across the Tibetan plateau
• $25 each from just 100 of us will support a new technology program that allows Tibetans to avoid censorship and safely communicate their plight with the world and each other
• For $100 from 100 of us, we can help upgrade a radio transmitter just over the border in India, so that it can broadcast deeper into Tibet and China for one month.

Today, Coldy 3000 took one step closer towards existence.

In just 4 days, over 123,000 Avaaz members from around the world answered Coldy's call and signed a petition urging the European Union to adopt strong efficiency standards for energy-using products. Today, Avaaz Campaign Director, Luis Morago, along with partners from Friends of the Earth Europe, Natuur en Milieu and some penguins delivered the petition straight to European decision makers -- specifically the Head of Unit of Transparency and Relations with Stakeholders, Gerard Legris, on behalf of President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. The delivery was a great success with plenty of interest from the press and many bystanders stayed, charmed by the penguins' music and dance. In the coming days, we will also be delivering the petition to high representatives of the Czech Presidency of the EU in Brussels.

But above all else, we're having an impact! Sources tell us that the debate is getting hotter and much more political, thanks largely to increased pressure from campaigning organisations. Stay tuned to the Avaaz blog for more info!

Here is a video of today's event, and check out the photos beneath!

Dear friends,

This week, European regulators will start setting new efficiency standards for fridges, TVs, and other products. Strong rules could massively cut Europe's climate pollution, but industrial lobbyists are pushing to weaken the proposals.

We've received an unusual message: a video sent back in time from the future ... by a talking fridge named "Coldy." Click the picture to watch the video and take action now: