Today, Coldy 3000 took one step closer towards existence.

In just 4 days, over 123,000 Avaaz members from around the world answered Coldy's call and signed a petition urging the European Union to adopt strong efficiency standards for energy-using products. Today, Avaaz Campaign Director, Luis Morago, along with partners from Friends of the Earth Europe, Natuur en Milieu and some penguins delivered the petition straight to European decision makers -- specifically the Head of Unit of Transparency and Relations with Stakeholders, Gerard Legris, on behalf of President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. The delivery was a great success with plenty of interest from the press and many bystanders stayed, charmed by the penguins' music and dance. In the coming days, we will also be delivering the petition to high representatives of the Czech Presidency of the EU in Brussels.

But above all else, we're having an impact! Sources tell us that the debate is getting hotter and much more political, thanks largely to increased pressure from campaigning organisations. Stay tuned to the Avaaz blog for more info!

Here is a video of today's event, and check out the photos beneath!

Thanks for everything you do! The Avaaz community has responded extraordinarily to refugee Liberata Rumumba's video appeal from eastern Congo, with over 150,000 Euros donated so far to our campaign for European peacekeepers to protect the civilians of Congo, by almost 6000 people.

This has enabled Avaaz to run ads all this week in Brussels and the key European states which could send peacekeepers - Sweden, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands - ads you can see by scrolling down the Congo entries on this blog or clicking the links above. We've followed up the ads with direct conversations with senior officials and politicians in every country.

Meanwhile, crucially, we've been able to commission polls in these countries and in Germany, supposedly one of the principal opponents of an EU deployment to Congo. Those poll results are coming in now and they're very exciting. We'll release them to the media and here tomorrow, before European foreign ministers meet.

Last week UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke on the phone to Belgian foreign minister Karel de Gucht, asking for a European bridging force. But things were looking bleak when, after speaking with European counterparts, de Gucht told the media other states were refusing to commit troops. Late last week, EU High Representative Javier Solana was dismissing the idea, and our information was that the proposal was collapsing.

But late last week our ads ran, and last Friday, Ban Ki-Moon took things up a notch and wrote formally to Solana and Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, asking them to help organise a European force for Congo. The Belgians have decided to make one more push at the foreign ministers' meeting tomorrow.

We're helping to organise a symbolic protest outside this meeting in Brussels, and sending briefings, poll results and ads to government contacts - doing everything we can to get the message through. We'll keep you posted...

In English (click image to download print-ready PDF):

In Chinese (click image to download print-ready PDF):

The United Nations is preparing to select its next Human Rights Commissioner. Avaaz believes that there needs to be more transparency surrounding the appointment of high level international officials such as this.

To make the process more transparent, we've created this site where you can learn about the candidates, see our recruitment ad in The Economist, and generally be more engaged in the selection process for this important position.

Miliband called Avaaz "the best of the new diplomacy". So while there remains plenty of room for improvement in British foreign policy, this conversation is far from over. We will follow up these questions in our global community's future advocacy with the UK, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a powerful state in its own right. We expect to be giving particular attention to Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among other things.

If you want to continue the conversation here, email blog@avaaz.org and we will post responses which meet a standard of civility. Bloggers should feel free to link or repost. First, click on each of the questions below to see David Miliband's written answers, or click here to read the whole thing.

Question 1: Is it possible to have an ethical foreign policy?

Question 2: Guantanamo is enormously damaging to our international reputation for justice and upholding international law - it should never have been allowed and must be closed.

Question 3: When is the UK going to take a lead against dictatorships and end human suffering in Darfur (Sudan), Zimbabwe, Burma to mention a few? It is outrageous what the named regimes are able to do to their citizens. Please bring peace and individual safety to these people.

Question 4: Mr. Miliband, I am grateful for the opportunity to ask you a question today. As an environmentalist who has been involved in international policy for thirty years, I welcome in principle the development of a "new diplomacy", because "old diplomacy" clearly has not worked for the majority of people on Earth, nor for the environment. As a key partner of the US, Canada and Australia, what is your game plan to convince them to accept a Kyoto 2 climate change regime for 2012 which includes what experts say is the only environmentally realistic emission reduction target of greenhouse gases: 50% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels?

Question 5: Please can you tell me the three things you learned from the resolution in Northern Ireland that you will apply in your role as Foreign Secretary?

Question 6: How will your foreign policy get involved in the necessary "dialogue between civilizations" that is the only long-term solution to the current conflicts between the West and the rest?

Question 7: Is ending world wide poverty a priority for your government and if so will you commit to at least 0.7% of your GDP to help? How will you encourage other Western countries like Canada to contribute more international development aid?

Question 8: The longstanding injustice suffered by the Palestinian people is at the root of much conflict in Palestine and beyond. Injustice breeds immense anger and distrust and acts of violence between those who experience the injustice and those who deliver it. What are you as Foreign Secretary, going to do to (1) help re-establish trust, (2) work for a lasting justice for both Palestinian and Israeli peoples, and (3) begin to break the cycles of blame and counterblame, wherever they might be?

Question 9: Will the UK henceforth take a major role in forming a united foreign policy for the European Union which will have real influence on US policy as 'the West' strives to recover, through enlightened multilateralism from grave damage world wide caused by the present Bush Administration?

Question 10: Will the British government respect any governments that are democratically elected, regardless of their political affiliation? Will England respect the right of the people to be governed by the political parties of their choice?

Question 11: How do you propose to deal with democratically elected governments in the Middle East that hold unpopular views in the West. I am thinking about the Hamas government in the Occupied Territories and the government of Lebanon that includes Hizbollah members?

Question 12: People in so-called third world countries are wondering when rich countries are going to stop subsidising their goods, so that our products can enter their markets the way theirs enter ours? The current situation is unfair and it will destroy our economies.

Question 13: While supporting and advancing the UK's interests abroad, how important will the voices and needs of the people impacted by policies be in your priorities and decisions? How will you work to hear and respond to the needs and concerns of the voiceless?

Question 14: I think the world's biggest worry for the near future will be if the USA decides to bomb nuclear facilities in Iran, or if it allows Israel to do it for them. My question is then what is your attitude about this issue and how would you respond if the Americans decided to go ahead with an attack on Iran?

Question 15: What positive future British foreign policy will be developed that will allow ordinary Iraqis to rebuild their country without the physical presence of British military forces? Can you envisage an inclusive coalition for commonsense with other countries?

Question 16: How do you see our future role within the UN?

Question 17: What positive steps will the new British government be taking to reduce, and eventually outlaw, nuclear weapons - not only in so-called 'rogue' states like North Korea - but in all countries, including Britain and the USA?

Question 18: Would you, Mr Miliband, consider closing DESO, the government organisation that supports and promotes the business of British arms manufacturers abroad, and replacing it with an organisation that supports and promotes the development of green technologies that could help to reduce potential future conflicts over sources of energy and other natural resources, and those arising out of the effects of global warming?

Question 19: If you refuse to extradite former Russian citizens whom the Russian government wants to prosecute - why do you expect Russia to extradite to the UK people whom you want to prosecute?

Question 20: When & why would you decide to go to war?

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