More than 3,000 participants from some 180 countries are gathering in Bonn, Germany, this week for climate talks aimed to lay the foundation for the upcoming U.N. ministerial-level climate talks in Durban, South Africa. The Bonn talks come as the International Energy Agency has released new figures showing the world’s energy-related carbon emissions broke record highs in 2010. Tove Ryding is heading the Greenpeace delegation at the talks.

Tove Ryding: “It’s easier for politicians to respond after a catastrophe has happened than to show and be proactive, to actually try to prevent the catastrophes before they happen. And that’s the essence of what we need in these negotiations. We need proactive politicians who actually take the opportunities to solve this problem before we end up in a climate disaster. After all, what we’re talking about here is actually millions of green jobs. It’s to transform our societies to energy systems that are safe, that are stable and that are based on renewable energy and energy efficiency.”