Climate Debt Bus in central London

The bus has made it to London and we’ve been touring the town – handing in a ‘climate invoice’ to Gordon Brown and ‘climate cheques’ to representatives of developing world countries.

In recent weeks our supporters have completed thousands of petitions telling the British government to pay its climate debt and standing united with developing countries in their determination to ensure economic justice is at the centre of a deal on climate change.

The petitions demand that the UK pay £17 billion each year to developing countries as compensation for the climate change that the UK has caused. Our petition was accepted by our own Gordon Brown, as the real one refused to come out. Gordon was then off on a tour of embassies to repay the debt.

We met ambassadors and representatives of the Indian, Philippine, Bolivian and Bangladeshi embassies. We left a strong impression and kept the pressure on the Government to agree a just and equitable agreement at Copenhagen, as well as encouraging poorer nations to stick to their demands in the face of strong opposition.

This event took place at the start of a fortnight of action in the UK, including the Wave which will take place on Saturday and is to be the biggest climate change demonstration in UK history.

Now our bus – running on recycled chip-fat- is off to catch the ferry to Calais on the first leg of our journey to Copenhagen. It will travel through Belgium, France and Germany, and stop off at Brussels (where we will take part in a demonstration) and Cologne and Hamburg (where we will meet the climate caravan) before settling outside the Klimaforum, the activist counterpart to the UN conference.