A petition to Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Your party and your government advance the principle of ‘stewardship’ But this principle is absent from your environmental policies, which are inadequate to preserve us from the curse of runaway warming.

In the name of future generations, we appeal to you:

• to block forthwith the construction of new coal-fired and nuclear power plants
• to phase out existing coal and nuclear plants by 2020
• to use your powers to designate locations on land and in the North Sea where wind parks may be rapidly constructed
• to introduce a feed-in tariff for renewable electricity

Moreover, we appeal to you to advocate the following measures during the coming climate negotiations in Copenhagen:

• 40% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020 in the wealthy countries
• an emissions peak not later than 2015
• major financial and technological support for climate measures in developing countries

ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING THE CLIMATE MARCH

• WISE
• Milieudefensie
• Jongeren Milieu Actief
• Climate Innovation Platform
• Concerned Citizens against Climate Change
• StadsLandbouw Amsterdam
• Milieucentrum Amsterdam
• Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel
• De Kleine Aarde
• DWARS

For our children’s sake: Save the climate!

Global warming is bringing the planet floods, droughts, fires and murderous heat waves. These will become worse unless we slash the amount of greenhouse gases (CO2 in particular) we throw into the atmosphere through our use of fossil fuels.

A think tank headed by Kofi Annan estimates 300,000 people now die annually as a result of warming, and by 2030 that number may be 500,000. Climate scientists say that continuing our current energy habits will raise average global temperatures by 5° C. this century, which would turn the southern halves of Europe, Asia and North America into uninhabitable deserts. Runaway warming and the flooding of coastal cities would then threaten the lives of most of the human race.

In December, 180 national delegations will gather in Copenhagen to write a successor to the Kyoto Treaty to bring this under control. Both the EU – a party to Kyoto – and the US now have climate legislation. But energy corporations have spent millions to lobby against and dilute such laws, so both sets of legislation are too weak to be effective.

This must not occur in Copenhagen!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Sign our petition to Premier Balkenende for an immediate end to the construction or planning of new coal and nuclear plants in this country, the phasing out of existing ones by 2020, the accelerated construction of wind parks in the North Sea and the introduction of a feed-in tariff for renewable electricity. And insist that the Dutch government support in Copenhagen the radical measures necessary to avert a climate catastrophe: 40% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020 in the wealthier countries, an emissions peak not later than 2015, and massive financial and technological help to developing countries to help them cope with the looming climate disaster created by a century and a half of Western fossil-fuel based industrialization.

The economic crisis is no excuse for inaction. Conversion to renewables is already creating new jobs and will continue to do so! Yes, together, we can move the Dutch government and all other governments.