“Halo, halo” from Kuta Bali! The Australian Youth Climate Coalition has officially landed in beautiful Bali, Indonesia, on the verge of the steepest learning curves of our lives. We will attempt to navigate our way through 2 weeks of UN climate change negotiations at COP13, the conference where the Bali Mandate – that is, the future of our planet – will be decided upon. After months of phone-link-ups, the ‘AYCC Delegation to Bali’ finally came together for the first time 2 days ago. Still struggling to realign our perceptions of our phone-link-up friends with their actual physical selves, we are over the moon to finally be together. Now our adventure has officially begun – the team is together, we’ve traipsed through crowded market streets to find our little Kuta bungalows, and we’ve set up base camp on the roof top – equipped with lap tops, piles of documents and of course, insect repellent.
Today was our first taste of life as a youth delegate at the UNFCCC COP, as we, along with some of our new friends – the Canadian Youth Delegation, hosted the International Youth Conference at Harris Resort in Kuta. We met the 70 delegates brought together from Indonesia, the US (a huge contingent), Japan, the Philippines, Denmark, Germany, Canada (another huge contingent) and Singapore. The conference vibe was incredibly positive and energising.
Along with youth from many other countries, we have set up various ‘working groups’ to follow up different aspects of the conference, such as media, creative actions, policy, international networking, etc.
We are incredibly excited and hopeful about our first day at the UNFCCC meeting on Monday – we don’t know what’s in store but it will sure be interesting!
Follow our delegation at: www.baliblog.org
