Recovering from the post-copenhagen blues? Want to tell world leaders you expect better? Want to show your support for the activists who spent 20 days in prison over Christmas and New Year for interrupting the heads of state dinner with some simple truths about the scale of failure?

Then take action here. Read more »

Did Danish authorities really hold our activists in prison for 20 days because they were diligently investigating how they got onto a red carpet at a state dinner during the Copenhagen climate conference? New evidence suggests not.

To non-violently paraphrase Michael Corleone, "If history teaches us anything, it's that you can get past security anywhere." But here's a fact: it really, really, pisses them off.

Update 6 Jan 10: They've been released! Our four activists endured 20 days in a Copenhagen jail following a peaceful protest at the State Banquet for world leaders attending the UN climate summit. The four activists still face trial in the Danish courts, and possible prison sentences. You sent over 12,000 letters to the Danish Embassy in London during their detention - thank you so much for your support ensuring their release.

Four of our activists face the prospect of Christmas in jail this year over charges relating to a protest at the Heads of State dinner at the Copenhagen climate summit. But the leaders who did practically nothing about the greatest threat to our planet got away.

Two years have passed since world leaders promised all of us a deal to stop climate change. After two weeks of UN negotiations, politicians breezed in, had dinner with the Queen and then failed to deliver any meaningful action on climate change.

As we all try to come to terms with the historic failure of nerve and vision that paralysed the Copenhagen climate summit, the response of Greenpeace members around the world has been fast and focused: expressing their condemnation of world leaders unwilling or unable to lead in a time of crisis, and demanding the release of the four Greenpeace activists who face spending Christmas in jail after making a peaceful protest at the Danish Queen's dinner for Heads of State.

Copenhagen

Over 100 Greenpeace staff and supporters held a candle-lit vigil outside Vestre Fængsel prison, Copenhagen, where four of our activists face spending Christmas in jail - held in isolation and without trial. Three of them took part in the peaceful protest at the Danish Queen's Heads of State dinner during the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

Spontaneous demonstration by NGOs outside the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, after world leaders failed to agree on a fair, ambitious and binding treaty. © Greenpeace/Myllyvirta

This article by our climate campaigner Joss Garman is reposted from yesterday's Independent on Sunday:

The most progressive US president in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speaker-phone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, such is the opposition on Capitol Hill to any action that could challenge the dominance of fossil fuels in American life. And so the nation that put a man on the Moon can't summon the collective will to protect men and women back here on Earth from the consequences of an economic model and lifestyle choice that has taken on the mantle of a religion.

It's over. The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties has this afternoon officially drawn to a close (or rather all but collapsed), but what are we left with? Very little is the honest answer and, no matter how the politicians spin it or how the media interprets it, it sucks.

Obama called it a "historic first step" and it's neither historic nor a first step. The Kyoto Protocol was both, yet in the 12 years since it was laid down, we've barely progressed - the increasing severity of climate change impacts and the urgent warnings from scientists should have had leaders scrabbling for solutions. Instead, yesterday a small group of these leaders flew in, claimed the deal was done and flew out again, leaving chaos in their wake – and other leaders outraged. Read more »

It's a gut-busting, heart-breaking cop-out and I'm so very, very angry although sadly not very surprised. The exhaustion we're all feeling in the Greenpeace team here in Copenhagen only adds to the appalling sense of frustration - our leaders swanned in and let us all down. The deal isn't fair or ambitious and it certainly isn't legally binding. Even though the agreement, such as it is, has yet to be sealed, they have failed.

I hoped it would be different but the skewed nature of international diplomacy has led the Copenhagen summit through two turbulent weeks into an exercise in arm-twisting and back-room deals. The bullying tactics of the developed countries have ensured they have got what they want, despite the attempts of some developing countries to stand their ground. Read more »

While we're waiting to hear the announcements from Copenhagen - here's a blow by blow account of what's happened at the Summit so far - written by Martin Lloyd, our climate communications manager:

With thousands of negotiators and hundreds of points to agree it may be impossible to come up with a comprehensive account of what happened. But I'll try and list some of the highlights.

At the start of the year the game-plan for success when it came to getting a fair, ambitious and binding agreement looked like this.

1. Rich countries needed to show they were serious by offering significant and guaranteed funds to support action by the developing world.

2. The developing world would then have the confidence to commit to action

3. Which would let Rich nations commit to stronger action

4. The handful of holdout nations would then face a world united for climate action

As the talks started, despite two years of negotiations there was almost no progress to report. Only a series of commitments from the developing world, all conditional on the rich countries coming up with the money.

So, what happened? Read more »

We thought it unfair that among the Heads of State invited to the Queen's dinner in Copenhagen, that a representative of the whole planet wasn't invited. Earth needed a voice, it needed representation. So we sent two to crash the party...

Hours before the Copenhagen climate summit comes to a close, the future of our planet lies in the hands of world leaders that have just breezed into town. And somehow, instead of getting down to the nitty gritty, they were dining with the Queen.