United Nations Radio

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai, on Tuesday called on world leaders to provide leadership to combat climate change.

Wangari Maathai

Speaking on behalf of civil society at the climate change summit in New York, she said millions of people across the world have made a Global Wake Up call on leaders to act now and to act differently.

Ms Maathai said whether they come as erratic fires in California, devastating floods in Bangladesh and West Africa or melting ice in Iceland, the negative impacts of climate change are already upon us.

Addressing the leaders directly, she said in her own country, Kenya, over ten million people are at risk of starvation, their crops are failing, their children are hungry, their fields are parched and their cattle are dying.

Besides decades of environmental neglect and mismanagement that made communities very vulnerable, she added, now there is climate change.

"Nobody can claim that they did not know. Unlike delegations and negotiators, Your Excellencies have the power to turn this around in Copenhagen. There is no time to lose. This is the challenge of all time. Addressing it will take collective political will."

Negotiators are working on a deal on climate change which is expected to be sealed at a meeting on climate change in Copenhagen in December.

Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Gail Walker.

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