10:10 launch attracts campaigners, celebs and a public eager for change

Director Mike Figgis, author Sarah Waters, and chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are among those there to sign up
Adam Vaughan
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 September 2009 16.48 BST
London's Tate Modern today saw the launch of the 10:10 campaign, which is supported by the Guardian and asks individuals and organisations to sign up to cutting their carbon footprint by 10% during 2010. Activists, film stars and artists at the event included Timecode director Mike Figgis, author Sarah Waters, chef and presenter Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.
Claire Haviland-Webster, a teacher from Brighton who had travelled after reading about the campaign in the Guardian, was first in the queue with her 10-year-old daughter Lauren. She said: "I'm 100% behind the campaign's cause. I think it's really good when something has a timeline, because it gives it a better chance of completion. At home we're already quite green: we've started growing veg, we only have one car as a family, we don't fly, we recycle and we compost. Rather than just achieving my 10% domestically I'll be looking to save it by influencing my school and my daughter's school - making sure we photocopy less, wear jumpers when it's cold and turn the lights off. We have to be as influential as we can."
Hundreds of people queued through the old power station's turbine hall waiting patiently for a chance to make their 10% pledge. Around them, scores of pink T-shirted volunteers explained the importance of the campaign, while video crews filmed roaming versions of the 10:10 logo and photographers captured celebrities on the turbine hall bridge.
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of civil rights group Liberty, said at the launch: "I was persuaded to sign up by my seven-year-old son. He was unstoppable and said I should be making an effort and that, if I did, maybe Liberty members would too. I don't know a lot about the climate change issue and don't hold myself up as a paragon of virtue, but I do hope to do the basics for 10:10: I'll be looking at changing my windows, lights and appliances to save energy."
Artist Bob Smith said this afternoon: "It's an important political movement and a good idea to find people who will reduce their emissions by 2010. I think a night in the cells would be good for people who drive a 4x4."
Attendees were given free "campaign wristband"-style tags made from the scrap metal of a retired Boeing 747, and the first 1,000 members of the public received a free glass of champagne to reward them for signing up. The audience also enjoyed free performances by folk outfit Stornoway and Sheffield's indie rock act Reverend and the Makers.
The 10:10 project, which hopes to replicate the grassroots success of the Make Poverty History campaign, is led by Franny Armstrong, director of this year's eco-documentary The Age of Stupid. Armstrong said: "After every screening of The Age of Stupid people came up to me and asked what they could do. I was saying very generic stuff and I thought we needed a better 'here's what you can do'. Hence 10:10."
Armstrong also hopes the campaign will put pressure on the UK government to pledge a 10% cut in the UK's emissions during 2010, and even influence critical climate change negotiations on a global treaty in Copenhagen in December. She said: "Once we've got a critical mass of support we will go to the government and say the people of Britain are ready to cut by 10%, now we need you to move. If Ed Miliband could go to Copenhagen and say Britain is going to step forward and start cutting as quickly as the science demands, that could potentially break the deadlock in the international negotiations." She argues that for most individuals, making a 10% cut will be relatively easy. A 10% cut in 2010 represents the level of reduction scientists say is needed to have a good chance of avoiding dangerous climate change.
The campaign has attracted a coalition of public figures and companies, from Tottenham Hotspur, energy company EDF, the Guardian and online supermarket Ocado to chef Delia Smith, DJ Sara Cox, film stars Colin Firth and Samantha Morton, author Ian McEwan, former London mayor Ken Livingstone and economist Nicholas Stern. Artists include Anish Kapoor, who has created an original artwork for the cover of today's G2 in the Guardian.
Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, said: "The Guardian is backing 10:10 because it offers us a way to take small actions that together add up to something meaningful and significant."
Although the campaign has been widely praised, it has also attracted some criticism. Environmentalist George Monbiot disagreed with 10:10's decision to allow companies to reduce their carbon intensity rather than their absolute emissions, while Brian Hoskins, who sits on the government's climate change committee, said it would be "problematic" for the UK as a whole to cut emissions by 10% in 2010.
There are a number of ways to get involved in the 10:10 campaign online:
• Sign up on 10:10's site
• Post a photo on our Flickr gallery
• Make a pledge – tell the world how you're going to save your 10%
• Find out how to cut your footprint by 10%
• Ask our green living experts for tips and advice
• Tweet about it with the hashtag #1010