Copenhagen Accord on climate change announced.
In the culmination of two years of negotiations, delegates gathered for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark did their utmost to act in the best interest of the public they serve. The resulting Copenhagen Accord provides an agreed point from which to move forward. Supreme Master Television’s correspondent brings us highlights.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: After global leaders arrived, they began a day of their own meetings to help advance toward unified action to curb global warming. By the evening of Friday, December 18, US President Barack Obama announced a broad outline with objectives formed in cooperation with leaders of China, Brazil, South Africa, and India.

NM Barack Obama – US President (M): Going forward, we’re going to have to build on the momentum that we established here in Copenhagen to ensure that international action to significantly reduce emissions is sustained and sufficient over time.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: The Copenhagen Accord urges countries to cooperate in creating goals as negotiators plan for a legally binding agreement at the next meeting in Mexico City, Mexico in December 2010.

Wen Jia Bao – Prime Minister of China (M):We will honor our word with real action. Whatever outcome this conference may produce, we will be fully committed to achieving and even exceeding the target.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent:: Furthermore, decisions were made regarding financial assistance for developing countries to cope with climate change.

Yvo de Boer – Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (M): We’re actually getting quite close to the US$30 billion that a number of people have talked about, and it is good that the secretary is now talking about US$100 billion annually for 2020.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – Brazilian President (M):For a long time, we have been discussing the climate change issue. And more and more, we see that the problem is even more severe than we could have ever imagined. If it is necessary for us to make more sacrifices, Brazil is willing to tap money to help other countries. We will do it.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: In addition, developed countries will commit to at least 80% emission reductions by 2050, with shorter term commitments to be determined later.

NM Barak Obama – US President (M): We’ve come a long way, but we have much further to go.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: According to climate scientists, the fastest way to significant planetary cooling is the reduction of shorter-lived gases such as methane; and the quickest and least expensive way to do that is to eliminate animal products from our diets, replacing animal agriculture with organic vegan farming.

Throughout the climate summit, this vital and effective veg solution was discussed by civil group delegates and the media. Forums were held, with films about the devastating impact of livestock and meat on climate change.

Members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association also strived to remain at the frontlines of the campaign by displaying and distributing information at the main entrance of the Bella Center conference venue, providing delicious vegan sandwiches to appreciative busy participants and passersby.

(M): I think your voice here is very good, so keep up the good work.

Besides giving presentations at public side events, our Association members were interviewed by journalists, radio, television, and print media groups from around the world. In addition, announcements about the harms of animal products along with the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle were printed in The COP15 Post newspaper
as well as broadcast on TV, featuring scientific findings and excerpts from interviews and conferences with Supreme Master Ching Hai.

Our Association member (M): During the First World War, Denmark totally gave up eating meat because it had an embargo,and during these three years, the total death rate went down by 17% and they were the only country where nobody died from hunger.

Ralph – Member of the Austrian Association against Animal Factory Farming (M): We drove the whole way from Austria, Vienna to Copenhagen to the climate summit in order to bring a very very very important topic and this topic is the connection between climate change and the mass production of meat; the animal factory farming in the world.

Bill McKibben – Co-founder and director of 350.org movement (M): Ending that kind of factory farming is key.

Vegan activist (F): It’s the #1 cause of the global warming.
George Monbiot – British journalist for The Guardian, Shining World Hero Award laureate (M): We still need to get out of livestock and everyone go vegetarian or vegan.

Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan – Governor of Delta, Nigeria (M): Meat, anyway, is very harmful to the body.

Claude Turmes – VP of European Greens, European Parliament Member (M): A more vegetarian-based diet is important. Moving on methane is a quick and very big step.

Lea Backes – Danish delegate, UNICEF Children’s Climate Forum Copenhagen 2009, Vegan, age 15 (F): I hope that many more people become vegetarians and vegans in the future, because it really will affect our planet, in a good way. Be veg, go green, save the planet.

Ancha Srinivasan - Senior Climate Change Specialist, Asia Development Bank (M): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

Marianne Thieme – Member of Dutch Parliament, Vegan (F): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

Gregor Robertson - Mayor of Vancouver, Canada (M): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

This is Supreme Master Television, reporting from Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: Our respectful appreciation, dedicated global negotiators and leaders, for your efforts in arriving at the Copenhagen Accord, and world co-citizens foryour supporting endeavors. We are grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her steadfast encouragement and guidance for humanity at this time.

May the day come very soon that all governments make the wisest choice of adopting the most efficient, low-cost and rapid initiative to save our planet – the organic vegan diet. During an interview on climate change for the July 12, 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent, Supreme Master Ching Hai was asked to share her perspective about decision-makers’ climate priorities for the Copenhagen conference.

Ben (m): What advice would you give to the leaders making these very important decisions for the people of the world?


Extra News
The United Kingdom’s Environmental Agency reports that with large organizations’ better management of air conditioning, lighting and heat, the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment program could see emissions reduced 50% more than originally anticipated.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8348909.stm

Chinese scientists estimate that climate change has caused desertification to approximately 20% of the country’s total surface area, placing at least 15% of species at risk of extinction, and costing the government more than US$74 million in damages per year.  
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/climatesos/2009/12/200912712326318562.html

Extended drought and irrigation in California, USA have resulted in the loss of billions of gallons of water, with future prospects less and less sustainable for the state, especially as the nation’s largest produce supplier.  
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/12/14/californias.troubled.waters

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finds that pesticides from agricultural runoff are being ingested by Pacific Salmon and are limiting their size and growth, thus jeopardizing efforts to restore their populations.