Leaders from 192 countries arrive in Copenhagen today for what’s being called “the most important meeting in history” – COP15, the UN Climate Change Conference.

First, a primer: “COP15″ stands for the 15th Conference of Parties, not COPenhagen. A UN meeting might not sound like such a big deal, but if you’ve heard of the Kyoto Protocol, which came out of COP3, you can begin to imagine its significance.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that requires participating nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a certain amount by the year 2012. It’s become the most important model for the international cooperation necessary to take on climate change, but it’s also an embarrassing reminder of U.S. leadership’s refusal to take action. (As of today, the U.S. has still not signed on to the agreement.) The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 and, unfortunately, is not nearly strong enough to fight the giant of climate change.

Delegates at COP15 will work to negotiate Kyoto’s replacement. And with the winds of change in the air, all eyes are on Copenhagen where delegates will hopefully seal a deal — produce a legally binding treaty. Delegates are mostly government officials, but this year the UN opened its doors to a persistent group, the International Youth Delegation (check out the IYD at youthclimate.org). Inside the conference, people younger than 35 can attend meetings, make speeches, organize subcommittees, issue policy papers, take direct action, lobby federal delegations, and broadcast articles and media.

TILE’s Environment partner, 1Sky, has been especially active in leading the effort at home. In the month of November alone, 1Sky activists held more than 200 gatherings asking Obama to push for a legally binding treaty in Copenhagen. They launched an aggressive online messaging campaign about bold federal action on Twitter. They rallied young people to “Make Art For Climate” to illustrate the urgency to President Obama and the Senate. They organized over 100 house parties and made over 1,000 calls to Senate offices demanding strong legislation during the first two days the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” was brought before the Senate.

Rainforest Action Network (RAN), another TILE charity, organized a flood of major demonstrations, teach-ins and civil disobedience actions across the country during last week’s lead up to the gathering. Their “Mobilize N30″ campaign draws attention to climate justice for those nations that will be hit hardest by the crisis who are also the least responsible for its cause. RAN is determined to help working class people, indigenous people and people of color from around the world get the voice they deserve in Copenhagen. Stay tuned to see their grassroots action on the ground at COP15.

President Obama is the most engaged president on climate change we’ve ever had. He was called on to come to Copenhagen and he responded. Now he’s being asked to push for a legally binding treaty, one that sets mitigation targets for every country, protects forests from destruction, helps poor countries develop more responsibly than today’s developed nations did, and helps poor countries handle the present and increasing environmental effects on the front lines of the climate crisis.

Check out the 1Sky and RAN pages to get involved and amplify your voice for COP15!

- Gita