A global alliance of more than 200 environment, humanitarian and poverty campaign groups have given climate change negotiators a literal and metaphorical 'wake-up call' as they gather for the final official meeting before the global negotiations start in Copenhagen next month.

 

A thousand alarm clocks belonging to hundreds of local residents and conference observers rang out at 8.30am on 2 November as part of a protest organized by the TckTckTck campaign to mark the start of five days of talks in the Barcelona.

 

Negotiators from as many as 190 countries are gathering in the Spanish city for a meeting that is the last official event before environment ministers meet for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks in Denmark that begin on 7 December.

 

Ben Margolis, TckTckTck Campaign Director, said the UN meeting in Barcelona offered the last chance for critical elements of an international agreement on fighting climate change to be thrashed out before Copenhagen. 'We stand united to tell our leaders that time is running out to agree a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal,' he said.

 

TckTckTck said countries must commit to reducing emission of harmful gases by 40% from 1990 levels, warning that delay would add to the estimated 300,000 deaths in the developing world caused each year by the impacts of global warming.

 

'This meeting must set the tone for the Copenhagen talks,' Mr Margolis said. 'World leaders must get serious about locking in the deal the world expects them to make – one that preserves the planet for future generations, not leaves us all with a dangerous and uncertain road ahead.'

 

Meanwhile Greenpeace activists scaled Barcelona's landmark Sagrada Familia cathedral in a protest to call for action against climate change. They pasted a black and yellow poster reading 'Save the Climate' in Spanish on a crane amid the spires of the Antoni Gaudi-designed building.

 

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Global wake up call