Lucy Lawless and Jim Salinger offer nearly $5,000 to John Key

Actress Lucy Lawless and top climate scientist Jim Salinger will visit Parliament today to present Prime Minister John Key with nearly $5,000 to help get him to the Copenhagen climate talks in December.

A fundraising drive to get “Key to Copenhagen” started last month (1), as part of Greenpeace’s Sign On campaign (www.signon.org.nz). $4,781 was raised through cakestalls, sausage sizzles, donations and auctions across New Zealand.

“Copenhagen is the most important meeting of our time – it could set us on the path of positive change, or put the planet on a road of destructive climate change,” said Jim Salinger. “Despite recent suggestions the talks are set to fail, all that’s required to make them work is political will at the highest level.

“Global leaders, including John Key, need to go to the summit and ensure an agreement is reached to drastically reduce global emissions. It’s not going to be the bureaucrats that make the meeting a success; it’s going to be global leaders.”

The Danish Prime Minister has formally announced he's invited all heads of state to Copenhagen and 40 world leaders are confirmed as going, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2). It is also an increasing possibility that US President Barack Obama will attend (3).

“People from all corners of the country have given to the Key to Copenhagen cause, because they believe John Key must go to Copenhagen,” said Lucy Lawless. “The comments on the donation site say it all (4); New Zealanders care about this issue deeply and they want John Key to step up.

“The Prime Minister must listen to the over 160,000 people who’ve Signed On, go to Copenhagen and commit to a 40% by 2020 emissions reduction target,” said Lawless.

“New Zealand is currently placed badly in the international negotiations,” said Salinger. “We are stragglers compared to many other developed countries. This failure to act will cost us with our trading partners; you only need to look at last week’s Guardian article to see what we’re up against.” (5)

DETAILS: Lucy Lawless and Jim Salinger will arrive at Parliament at 1pm. They will have a cheque and a Copenhagen boarding pass to present to the Prime Minister.

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpp6RkLhRtg&feature=player_embedded

(2) http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5A521220091106

(3) http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,660386,00.html and http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hF8wtY0lOp7P0dKHO29oFAVRyGEwD9BO27IG1

(4) http://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/keytocopenhagen

(5) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/nov/12/new-zealand-greenwash