The stakes in the climate change fight could not be higher. It's an unprecedented challenge to humanity to overcome our greed and our division to stop catastrophic global warming. Avaaz members the world over have taken up this challenge with gusto.

Everything we did this year on climate led up to the Bali summit, here are the highlights of 2007:

January - 'wake up call'- we run an ad campaign targeting world leaders in countries including India, France, Germany, and the US, covered in major world media, that calls on the G8 countries to make climate their top priority.

February - Environment Ministers's summit - we deliver a 100,000 signature petition to a G8 environment ministers meeting -- the German minister chairing the meeting waves our petition at the others, exhorting them to act, and they do, making climate their top summit priority.

June - The G8 summit is held in Germany, and Avaaz organizes lobbying and marches, and delivers a 400,000 petition calling for action to the chair of the G8 negotiators. The summit makes unprecedented progress on climate change.

July - Live Earth - Avaaz is chosen as the official global campaign partners of Al Gore and the Live Earth concerts. Avaaz members organize thousands of house parties in over 100 countries on the evening of the concert, and tens of thousands sign a pledge to take personal action.

September - APEC Summit - President Bush organizes a new coalition to oppose climate action at the APEC summit in Sydney, Australia. Avaaz lobbies the summit and engages the media in a press conference which features a massive 1000 sq ft banner floated out over the barrier reef. The media declare the summit a failure.

All these efforts led up to the UN Summit on Climate Change in Bali. Why was this moment so critical? This summit happens only once per year - if we wasted this chance, we would lose a year that scientists tell us we do not have. Bali had to decisively start work on a new global treaty to stop catastrophic climate change.

Our mission was simple: Bring the voice of the world's people directly into the summit. This was no easy task, as high level summits like this one are almost designed to be insulated from public opinion. But by the end, few governments if any had not heard our voice.

• On December 8th we organized a global day of action. Avaaz members in 100 countries organized or participated in local rallies to pressure their national leaders for bold action in Bali.
  
  
• At the same time, we brought 550,000 members' voices inside the conference center with a high-profile "virtual march" of young people bearing world flags representing the nations of Avaaz members that signed our global petition. Not only did the delegates feel the impact directly, but footage and images from the virtual march were broadcast by major television and print media in markets across the globe -- bringing our message back home in capital cities worldwide.
  
  
• At the conference, the Avaaz team helped lead the "Fossil of the Day" awards. These mock awards cast a bright spotlight each day on the delegations that were foot dragging and derailing progress. These awards earned major media attention -- and major embarrassment for the offending nations. Avaaz members then followed up by contacting their governments back home and demanding a better performance. Suddenly, the people were in the game.

For 10 days, the Bali conference proceeded slowly towards consensus. Then, with just a few days left, three countries -- the US, Canada, and Japan -- moved to block the consensus, objecting in particular to any targets for rich countries to reduce their emissions. The US blocked the overall conference, and Canada, which had signed the Kyoto protocol, used that position to block other Kyoto countries from moving ahead without the US. Bali was in danger of deadlock.

This crisis was what the Avaaz network was made for – and Avaaz members immediately sprang into action in the countries where rapid pressure was needed the most.

• In Japan, thousands of Avaaz members were alerted to email Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda overnight, demanding responsible leadership.
  
  
• In the United States, tens of thousands of American Avaaz members co-signed an urgent message to the conference delegates: Please ignore President Bush's team -- they do not represent the American people.
  
  
• In Canada, (and wow did Canadians step up on this!) more than 110,000 citizens demanded that their country stop blocking the talks, supported an ad campaign in Canadian newspapers (shown at left), and called the Prime Minister's office and their members of parliament. A Canadian youth delegation in Bali constantly dogged their environment minister with the Avaaz petition.
  
  
• All over the world, more than 180,000 Avaaz members added their name to a global emergency petition calling on Bush, Harper, and Fukuda to get on the right side of history and support emissions cuts. We delivered these signatures in a full page ad (shown at left) in the special conference section of the Jakarta Post which was distributed to every delegate in Bali. The ad caused a stir at the conference and was widely reported in the media - it told the rest of the world to stand firm against the climate wreckers.
  
  
• Finally, Avaaz coordinated the largest joint climate petition delivery in history, combining petition efforts from nearly a dozen major environmental and progressive organizations totaling over 2,600,000 voices for climate action.

This campaign was made possible by small contributions from Avaaz members all over the world. Please give what you can to keep the climate change efforts going strong in 2008:

In the final hours of the conference, all the pressure showed its impact. Heated negotiations had ended in repeated deadlock. The deadline for the conference was extended another 24 hours, and diplomats worked through the night. Japan gave in quickly to the consensus, but the US and Canada held out. The biggest and clearest victory achieved was on the Canadian government's position. Under pressure from all sides and massive domestic anger, the Canadian government finally did a complete U-turn, and allowed the smaller group of Kyoto countries to agree to reduce carbon emissions by 25-40% by 2020. This significant step means that the richest countries - all except the US - have now set ambitious new targets for emissions reductions.

The US - now completely isolated - still held out. In the final general session, a compromise proposal was suggested that was accepted by every delegation. The United States took the floor -- and rejected it.

The world is used to letting the US have its way, but not this time. The assembled delegations let loose a chorus of boos. Nation after nation took the floor and sounded the chords of outrage. Just like hundreds of thousands of Avaaz members told them to do, our leaders stood firm.

Faced with this united front, the American representative asked to take the floor once more, and said simply, "The United States will join the consensus." Victory.

It was not at all a complete victory - we are still far from the treaty with binding global targets that will stop catastrophic climate change. But the massive grass roots response to save the Bali Summit shows that a great people-powered movement to save our environment is stirring - and this is just the beginning.