Global warming 'Live Aid' planned

By Cahal Milmo

Published: 09 February 2007

A day of concerts across the globe intended to exceed Live Aid in scale and ambition is to be held this summer to highlight the issue of climate change.

Organisers of the event, scheduled to take place on 7 July, hope to amass a worldwide television audience of two billion people in order to present the message about global warming.

The series of co-ordinated concerts in seven cities - London, Washington DC, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town and Kyoto - is expected to be announced today by the former American vice-president Al Gore, who is now a figurehead of the campaign against climate change.

Promoters of the event, which will be branded "SOS", yesterday promised that the line-up of artists - likely to include U2, Coldplay and the Scissor Sisters - will "dwarf" those amassed for Live Aid and its successor, Live8.

Venues for the London event are still being discussed but the shortlist includes Hyde Park and the new Wembley stadium.

Organisers hope that up to three million people will gather at the venues and other cities for the day of interlinked music performances and film and television events.

One promoter told the Financial Times that the event was to be modelled on Live Aid and Live8. However, the source said: "The talent involved is just exponentially bigger because the issue itself is bigger. Live Aid was about asking people to stump up money, this about effecting systemic change. The aim is not just to drive awareness but to get people to take action."