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Dear Seal the Deal! supporters,
Thank you for your support and enthusiasm over the past months for the Seal the Deal! campaign leading up to the landmark UN Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen in December.
Through your action, along with millions more, governments were encouraged to sign a climate deal: The Copenhagen Accord.
While the Accord falls short of the high expectations of many, it does take forward a common and shared goal to combat one of the greatest challenges facing present and future generations.
It is also an agreement upon which governments, the private sector and the civil society can build if its provisions are fully implemented.
Countries agreed to work towards a common, long-term goal to limit global temperature rise to bellow 2º Celsius.
Developed countries committed to establish and implement targets for greenhouse gas emissions, and a number of developing countries, including major emerging economies, agreed to implement nationally appropriate mitigation actions and to communicate their efforts every two years.
Countries also agreed on the importance of acting to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and to provide support for the most vulnerable to cope with climate change.
To support these priorities, countries pledged up to $30 billion a year for developing countries between 2010 and 2012, to be disbursed through a Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.
Countries also backed the goal of mobilizating $100 billion a year by 2020.
In the coming months, the UN Secretary-General will work with Member States to ensure the commitments enshrined in the Copenhagen Accord, can be converted into a global, legally binding treaty as soon as possible in 2010.
In the words of the UN Secretary-General, "While I am satisfied that we sealed a deal, I am aware that the outcomes of the Copenhagen Conference, including the Copenhagen Accord, did not go as far as some had hoped. Nonetheless, they represent a beginning - an essential beginning. It will take more than this to definitively tackle climate change. But it is an important step in the right direction. Thank you for your commitment and support, and thank you very much."
We must all look at what more we can do before the UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico next year.
Added to this, we request your support for the UN International Year of Biodiversity in a bid to halt the devastating species loss which is occurring every day, and causing irreversible damage to the world's life support systems.
World Environment Day in June will be one of the principle vehicles through which the UN will raise awareness of the current biodiversity crisis to enhance political attention and action.
Please keep and eye on the website http://www.unep.org/wed for further details.
We look forward to your continued support throughout 2010 and beyond.
The Seal the Deal Campaign Team