Given the procrastination by governments and international institutions that seem to be dooming the Copenhagen Conference to a predictable defeat, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) stresses the importance of maintaining the summit’s climate objectives. A strong and ambitious political commitment needs to be made.

The ETUC is concerned about political announcements predicting that the Copenhagen Conference in December will not result in a legally binding treaty on climate change. Putting off the signature of a treaty under discussion for months would be a bad political signal for the planet and would seriously burden future generations.

ETUC Confederal Secretary Joël Decaillon commented: "It is essential to maintain the objectives that have been set for the Copenhagen Conference. The absence of an agreement would boil down to wasting an extremely important opportunity, particularly in a context of crisis that imposes another concept of development. The convening of such a conference would not have been as crucial just a decade ago. Today, it is urgent to reduce greenhouse gases and to limit the global increase in temperatures to 2° at most. The European trade unions also point out that climate change can and must have the ambition of becoming a driver of sustainable growth and of social progress in the fight against poverty and social inequalities."
Link to the video “Towards the Copenhagen Summit – John Monks’ contribution”: http://www.etuc.org/a/6677