Customers of The Co-operative Food have sent world leaders a clear message ahead of the crucial Copenhagen summit on climate change later this week.

More than 200,000 shoppers paying for goods at 1,700 Co-operative stores have used the chip and pin machines at the tills to make their views known.

Eight out of ten customers agreed an ambitious global deal was needed at the summit, providing a clear signal that they want to see the politicians deliver a treaty that is both safe and fair.

This simple checkout research devise enables The Co-operative to gain a snapshot of customers' views on a wide range of issues.

Chris Shearlock, Sustainable Development Manager at the Co-operative Group, said: "This latest research amongst shoppers in our stores provides us with an overwhelming mandate to continue our work to combat climate change.

"It shows that our customers and members are genuinely concerned about this and is in sharp contrast to recent suggestions in the media that the public are 'apathetic' on climate change issues. We were impressed by the degree with which our customers voted so overwhelming in favour of an ambitious global deal, irrespective of where in the UK they are from.

"As a business, we have reduced our own emissions and pioneered support for renewable energy, but we understand that what is really needed is a robust legislative framework to address these very real concerns.

"This means a deal that includes tough and binding emission targets to keep global warming under the 2°C danger level and at least $200 billion a year to the developing world, in addition to existing aid commitments, to help them deal with the effects of climate change."

To enable its members to voice their concerns, The Co-operative is chartering trains and coaches from 21 locations across the UK to take thousands of its members and customers to London on Saturday 5 December to take part in The Wave, the UK's largest ever climate change protest arranged to coincides with the start of the Copenhagen Summit (see blog post below for details)

http://www.co-operative.coop/thewave

Notes to Editors

• The Co-operative's involvement in The Wave builds upon many years of campaigning and taking action to combat climate change. As early as 1998, The Co-operative Bank began declining finance to businesses that invest in the extraction and processing of fossil fuels.
  


• From 2006 to 2008, The Co-operative campaigned with Friends of the Earth for the introduction of a strong Climate Change Bill. This led to The Climate Change Act (2008), which made the UK the first country in the world to establish long term, legally binding emissions targets.
  


• To get its own house in order, The Co-operative is investing nearly £20m in energy efficiency measures around its 4,000 properties, buys nearly all its electricity from renewable sources and is actively building new wind farms on its land.
  


• This year, The Co-operative will complete the second phase of its £2m Green Energy for Schools schemes, which will see 180 schools around the UK receive solar panels, wind turbines or biomass boilers.
  


• The Wave is organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition. 11 million strong, they are the committed supporters, campaigners, hearts, minds and voices of over 100 organisations. Further information on the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition can be found at: http://www.stopclimatechaos.org
  

Attendees of the ICA General Assembly voted unanimously in support of the motion below, which was presented by the ACT! Project Principal, Bob Burlton.

The resolution included a presentation of the ACT! website and campaign, as Bob Burlton encouraged members of the ICA to use the web tool to create a global co-operative voice on climate change.

ACT! remains in its early stages but the passing of the following resolution will add momentum to the campaign as support continues to grow.

RECALLING that the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) represents 1billion cooperators around the world active in many important sectors of the worlds aconomy, including agriculture, food production and fisheries, energy, communications, banking, insurance, housing, health and welfare provision, and in the distribution of goods and services as consumer co-operatives.

REMINDING that the ICA is the largest membership-based non-governmental organisation recognised by the United Nations.

During the sector meetings of the ICA General Assembly in Geneva the Consumer Sector unanimously passed a motion to support the ACT! campaign and international co-operative action on climate change.

The motion passed, was as follows;

CCW, the consumer co-operatives' sector of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA)
supports the worldwide co-operative policy for co-operatives to engage actively in opposing climate change.

Therefore, it welcomes and supports the initiative of Cooperatives Europe, the European region of the ICA, in establishing ACT ! -Co-operatives Addressing the Climate Threat,
as the best means available to date, to encourage international, multi-sector activity by co-operatives to address the climate threat. CCW considers such co-operative activity to be very important, including for consumer co-operatives worldwide.

Conscious that it is necessary for ACT ! to be self-funding, CCW agrees to support the work of ACT ! with a donation of 7,000 euros in 2009, and in order to assist its forward planning, CCW declares its intention, in principle subject to appropriate ACT ! work programmes, to also donate 7,000 euros in both 2010 and 2011.

These donations may, if required, be drawn from existing CCW financial reserves to avoid any adverse impact on "business as usual" CCW activities.

In what was an historical day in the history of the co-operative movement, Dame Pauline Green became the first female President of the ICA (International Co-operative Alliance), as representatives from all sectors and global regions gathered under the theme of "Global Crisis- Co-operative Opportunity".

The biennial ICA General Assembly, hosted this time in Geneva, was opened with a moving video tribute to the late former President, Ivano Barberini, introduced by the LegaCoop President Guiliano Poletti.

The ICA then welcomed keynote speaker Jeremy Rifkin, to talk on the topic of climate change and how co-operatives could be the lead in a new distributed renewable energy network.

In his dramatic, roller coaster of a speech, Rifkin, highlighted that the age of our current oil based economy was now coming to an end. Discussing the recent economic collapse and the role in which past and present energy eras had played in the process.

While many speakers would prefer to stay clear of the subject of human extinction and present an apocalyptic view of climate change, Rifkin, tackled it head on with. Highlighting the increasing severity of climate change, due to the further understanding and identification of feedback loops, by top global scientists and how even the most conservative estimates and targets are continually being ignored by politicians. "A three degree rise, would take us to a temperature not seen for 3 million years, a rise in CO2 in the atmosphere to 450ppm which we are currently heading to, would create a temperature rise of at least six degrees, I believe this would see the extinction of the human race within the next 100 years".

While delivering a refreshing documentary of the most recent science and the pitfalls of modern Industrialised economies, the presentation moved on to focus on how we could, once again, undergo economic revolution, within the next 30 years. By highlighting the conditions that led to previous industrial revolutions, Rifkin gave a convincing case to suggest that recent communication developments could allow a more co-operatively distributed renewable energy revolution to occur, in such a short space of time.

Finally Rifkin spoke on the up and coming Copenhagen Climate talks and how countries had to stop coming to the table fighting for geopolitical position, wanting simply to limit their own countries emission reductions to a minimum in the fear of losing economic position. Instead we need to create hope and something to aim at. We need to make the leading position on climate and energy the aspiration for politicians. Rifkin believes one way to change current political actions would be to open up the climate discussions, "Representatives of business, social, political and in particular civil society should have been involved in the Copenhagen talks; this must change in the future".

Jeremy Rifkin continually voiced a desire to work with the co-operative movement. He believed that co-operatives could deliver a community, person owned energy network, that could be the only way to save humanity.

Following the presentation, discussions between the newly elected ICA President, Pauline Green and Jeremy Rifkin were held, and the co-operative movement will be working closely with Rifkin in the future, to ensure that Co-operatives are not only living by their values of equity and social responsibility correctly but are also at the forefront of paving a way to a new future, less reliant on fossil fuels.

Three thematic sessions on the global crisis were well attended during Thursday afternoon's session. The energy that Rifkin's keynote speech had brought to the morning session, carried through to the afternoon as presentations on energy co-operatives and later on the fight to tackle climate change were heated and involved a good level of discussion between panel members and the audience.

Ray Collins the Communications Manager took the opportunity to present the ACT! campaign as a focal point that will facilitate further co-operative action on climate change, whilst harnessing the examples and knowledge we already have.

Agreeing a climate change deal in Copenhagen in December is crucial to fighting global hunger, the United Nations said on Monday.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held a three day summit in Rome on how to help developing countries feed themselves. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told government leaders and officials present that,

"There can be no food security without climate security."

"Next month in Copenhagen, we need a comprehensive agreement that will provide a firm foundation for a legally binding treaty on climate change," said Ban Ki-moon, according to Reuters.

Co-operatives have a presence across many sectors in all regions of the world. Co-operatives of all sectors in the developed world have a responsibility to ensure all is done in Copenhagen and beyond to alleviate world hunger. The co-operative values of equity and social responsibility require us all to act on climate change and use this opportunity to tackle global poverty. Co-operatives are rooted in the developing world and can be part of the answer to mitigating the effects of climate change and alleviating hunger. This clear link which is unique to the co-operative movement must be realised, and the values and principles that differentiate us from other forms of business need to be lived by. We have a duty to unite as a single co-operative movement to produce a more sustainable future.