Johannesburg — GREENPEACE activists in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg on Saturday placed banners on statues of local leaders to urge President Jacob Zuma to provide leadership during the Climate Summit in Copenhagen this December.

Greenpeace's action was part of a global day of action, initiated by the 350.org campaign, which involved millions of people in more than 170 countries demanding a fair, ambitious and binding deal to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Greenpeace criticised SA's climate strategy as based on expensive, unproven and unsustainable technologies such as CO² dumping and nuclear energy, and which does not put any measures in place to stimulate a massive increase in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Greanpeace said a good deal in Copenhagen would include a commitment by industrialised countries for a minimum of 140bn a year to support mitigation activity, forest protection and adaptation to climate change effects in the developing world.