This morning, before the start of the first plenary session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation at COP15, I decided to leave the roped-off seating area for observing parties of the negotiations and stroll down the rows of labeled seats for negotiating parties. After a few minutes of searching, I meandered past ‘Uruguay’ and over to the ‘United States’, and struck up a conversation with the US negotiators, among whom was US Trade Representative Barbara Weisel. I introduced myself on behalf of the US Youth Delegation to Copenhagen, and let the negotiators know that, as youth, we will be paying close attention to the role of the US over the next few weeks and are looking forward to see bold, positive action towards a strong climate treaty.
After chatting for a few minutes about the outstanding EPA announcement yesterday evening- one that now officially gives the EPA jurisdiction to regulate Carbon emissions as a pollutant detrimental to public health- I again stressed the role of US youth at COP15. The negotiators were quite surprised to hear that the US Youth Delegation is 500-strong! In fact- I have received similar reactions regarding the strong and loud participation of US Youth from other governmental delegates I’ve met, from Chile to Zambia. The world is beginning to realize the scale, passion, knowledge, and commitment of the US Youth Climate Movement. Over the next few weeks and beyond- both in Copenhagen and back home in the States- we will show our leaders that, to quote the President of the Maldives in his speech during the Opening Ceremonies yesterday,
We will not die quietly!
Our generation is empowered, passionate, and will not back off on our demands for a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty. World leadership is finally beginning to see this; let’s just not forget to see it within ourselves.
I am a part of a delegation of 18 US Youth from the Sierra Student Coalition. Please follow along on www.sscinternational.org
