Copenhagen, Denmark is the site of the COP15 conference that will likely be a vital step in creating new global protocol to fight climate change.

From December 7th through the 18th, over 170 governmental representatives will come together for critical climate change discussions. This conference will be the last time these key representatives meet on a governmental level before the Kyoto Protocol expires and must be renewed in 2012.

Discussions in Copenhagen will give leaders the platform to develop new ideas that can be implemented into a global agreement in 2012. Journalists, NGOs and other government agents will also be in attendance, for an expected 8,000 people visiting the city throughout the conference. The host of the meeting is the Denmark government, being represented by Connie Hedegaard, the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy as well as Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

Here are some ways you can get involved online:

Hopenhagen is one of several current opportunities for youth to help shape the future they will inherit, and for old-timers like me to improve the future we will pass along.

Here are some of the others:

Tck Tck Tck

Organized by the Global Campaign for Climate Action, Tck Tck Tck is an alliance of civil society organizations, trade unions, faith groups and individuals using social media and the internet to demand a “fair, ambitious and binding” climate treaty. Partners include the World Wildlife Fund, Oxfam and Amnesty International, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the World Council of Churches and the Global Campaign Against Poverty, among others.

1Sky

Back in the United States, the meta-group 1Sky is mobilizing people to shower Senators with telephone calls in call for action on a climate bill this year. 1Sky has set up a system that makes it easy to let your fingers to do the marching straight into the offices of your Senators.

 

Raise Your Voice

Danish government, YouTube and Google have created a web site for people to post their own videos and “raise their voices” about global climate change. The best of the videos will be featured Dec. 15 during a CNN/YouTube “debate” at Copenhagen and on an Earth Globe at the conference.

 

Focus the Nation

FTN has created a network to help climate activists communicate about their plans and to join groups working on climate campaigns this fall. FTN also helps local groups organize Clean Energy Forums.

We Can Lead

The Apollo Alliance is working with Ceres, the Clean Economy Network and others to help businesses lobby the Senate Oct. 6-7 for clean energy and climate legislation. (To point out that businesses have a stake in climate action is a vast understatement. Converting the world to clean energy technologies is likely to be the biggest market opportunity in the history of commerce.)

Power Shift 2009

A project of the Energy Action Coalition, Power Shift has organized tens of thousands of young people to march in Washington, D.C. in the past. This fall, it is organizing regional summits – 11 so far – to “exercise the political power of young voters and ask President Obama and Congress to pass a clean energy jobs plan by December to rebuild our economy, end our dependence on dirty energy, and bring America lasting security.”

International Day of Climate Action – Oct. 24, 2009

350.org is a coalition of more than 200 organizations encouraging local people to hold thousands of events around the world on Oct. 24 to “show our world and its decision-makers just how big, beautiful and unified the climate movement really is”. The group’s web site offers a tool kit to help local activists organize their events.

So far, 1,578 events are scheduled in 125 countries. The goal is to push for a global agreement that reduces atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to a maximum of 350 parts per million – the ambitious emissions reduction target advocated by Dr. James Hansen, the outspoken chief climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

For more information about the United Nations Climate Change Conference conference visit: http://cop15.dk