It was out of a dusty, barren land that a global climate deal began to sprout. It began pushing its head out of the soil in Kyoto, and over the last few years grew strong and tree - like.   As the months of 2009 passed several world leaders, hundreds of NGO's and millions of activists pinned their hopes upon it. Leaves began unfurling as the prospect gained more life; "binding", "ambitious", "fair" seemed to be scratched into its robust trunk. 

On the first day of the UN negotiations in Copenhagen, to no-ones surprise but everyone's dissapointment, the tree began to wither. Despite a bucket of the world's best fertiliser dumped at its base on the last day, by Friday 18th of December its roots had dried up completely, the leaves had blown away and every branch was splintered.

Yet on this withered tree some fruit remained and it is the most colourful and richest fruit ever seen. It is like the plumpest plum but better. This fruit represents global civil society at its very best. For just as world leaders negotiated around a global climate deal, so did activists, celebrities, charities and people feeling the impact of changes in weather. The hope and prospect of Copenhagen drew together all who had a vision for a climate chaos free future. It is a future filled with millions of acres of lush forest and maintained sea levels, where families can stay on the land that belongs to them, farm the crops they have farmed for centuries or, where damage has already been done, poor communities get help adapting to changes. It is a future where our grandchildren have the chance of spying a polar bear in the wild, exploring precious coral reef and filling their lungs with clean air.  

In the run up to Copenhagen dreams of this future led anarchists to talk strategy with NGO's, campaigners to march alongside flood victims on the streets, Rastafarians and salt of the earth Londoners to speak with one voice. As UN negotiations descended into the bare bones of spin and hollow pledges, this social movement ascended into a celebration of activist creativity, global solidarity and passion for justice. The fruit oozes diversity and inclusiveness, making it sticky and messy but explosively tasty. 

It is the end of December now and we have a dead tree and a scrumptious piece of fruit. The dead tree is an epic failure of world leaders that hasn't even made it to most summaries of 2009  but the fruit is a beautiful success that has the potential to make history.  As global civil society, we have the power to carve something lasting out of Copenhagen. We will build on the crossed divides, dismissed agendas and shared cause. We will continue meeting together, collaborating and setting aside our singular interests for the sake of our common vision of climate justice. Copenhagen was the Bar Mitzvah of an international "movement of movements" and we are powerful and committed.

Just as most fruit, this one is jam packed with seeds; every tiny seed yearning to become a sky scraping tree of hope. This single fruit has the power to birth a forest of hope.  And this fruit lies in our hands now. We can give Copenhagen the legacy world leaders failed to.