We’re at the European Union to discuss climate change. What goes on here is key to achieving a climate deal.

I’m in Brussels for the European Union (EU) climate hearing. You can take part as well by watching the Livestream from 10:45 GMT/11:45 BST/12:45 CEST or follow the action via our twitter feed http://www.twitter.com/climatehearing

The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful autumn day. Two of our climate witnesses are here: Forida from Bangladesh and Mohit from India. They’re getting ready to speak at the EU today. They’re also speaking with press and TV crews from all over Europe. They both look a bit nervous and a bit cold. I don’t think that they’re used to European autumnal days, or standing up and speaking in front of politicians and media.

The weather here today might be seasonal but both Forida and Mohit are keen to tell us about how their villages are suffering as the seasons are becoming unpredictable. They describe how summers and winters are merging and the monsoons are starting and ending at different times. In communities where people rely on the crops that they grow to survive, these are serious problems.

So, we’ve come to Brussels to meet with the politicians who will represent the 500 million people of the European Union at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. In the UK, debate about the EU hardly ever gets very intricate - most people don’t know what it does on our behalf. Often, when Europe comes up, we don’t get beyond how straight bananas should be.

At the Copenhagen Summit the EU will negotiate as a single block. The man who will represent the 27 countries and 500 million people is Artu Runge-Metzger. That’s quite a big job he’s got. As he’s a busy man (I imagine), we’ve brought Forida and Mohit to him and European climate negotiators. We want them to see first hand the effects that climate change is having on people’s lives.

It’s vital that we influence the EU’s plans for tackling global warming in the run up to Copenhagen. It’s also vital that we remind Mr Muller that traditionally the EU has been a progressive force in the climate change debate. For instance, last December the ‘European Climate and Energy Bill’ was passed. This made the EU the first major polluter to formally accept cuts - 20% by 2020. OK, but that’s not enough to keep us within the 2 degrees ‘danger zone’.

As Copenhagen gets closer the EU is yet to make any meaningful offers of money to help poorer countries adapt to the effects of climate change. Recently they seem to have joined in the giant game of ‘wait and see’. They’re refusing to make commitments until they’ve seen what the other major polluters, USA and China, are up to. It’s like some giant blinking contest and at the moment no one is budging.

We need to make sure that they understand that inaction has consequences for the planet and especially for the most vulnerable people on it. That’s why Mohit and Forida are prepared to stand up and make sure that the politicians who represent 500 million people understand the urgent threat that we all face.

So please take part in the Climate Hearing with us for Blog Action Day, by watching, tweeting and blogging about the hearing and encouraging your friends and family to do the same and using the #BAD09 and #climatehearing tags.

Tags: #BAD09, Blog Action Day, climate change, climate hearing, Environment, EU, Livestream

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am and is filed under Campaigns Blog, Campaigns News, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.