Evo Morales
Evo Morales President of Bolivia, presented what is possibly the most ambitious rhetoric, to come out of Copenhagen thus far, when he made the demand that world leaders not only agree to limit the global temperature increase over the next century to 1 degrees Celsius, but further that rich countries should pay for climate change ‘reparations’, and proposed a climate court of justice, where countries might be prosecuted for climate ‘crimes’.
He said,
“Our objective is to save humanity and not just half of humanity. We are here to save mother earth. Our objective is to reduce climate change to [under] 1C. [above this] many islands will disappear and Africa will suffer a holocaust.”
This character rose to global environmental hero status when he held an official Maldives cabinet meeting underwater in October, bringing attention to the devastating impact that climate change will have on low-lying coastal and small island nations such as his.
John Kerry
“If (former Vice President) Dick Cheney can argue that even a 1 percent chance of a terrorist attack is 100 percent justification for preemptive action, then surely, when scientists tell us that climate change is nearly a 100 percent certainty, we ought to be able to stand together…and join in an all out effort to combat a mortal threat to the life of this planet.”
The Radiohead frontman asked world leaders to “get their shit together.”
The executive director of Greenpeace has congratulated activists for the role which they have played in bringing climate change to the public eye, and has called for a “Fair, Ambitious and Binding ‘treaty.’ Not a ‘deal’ or ‘agreement’ but a ‘treaty’.
Chair of Friends of the Earth International and Nigerian environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey brought the perspective of less-developed countries into focus by saying stuff like, “the impression that we came to COP 15 to beg for money is wrong, no we came to ask for climate justice, since Africa in particular has been put in a critical crisis situation we did not cause.” Bassey was refused entry into the Bella Center, which sparked outrage about the restricted access in general.