It’s Getting Hot In Here

I just walked past a television set in the middle of Copenhagen’s Bella Center, where the UN climate negotiations are taking place. There was a small crowd gathered around the television screen watching president Obama hold a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. The two were speaking, of course, to the two countries’ growing relationship and the steps they would be taking towards a more common future. I only caught a brief clip of the news conference, but it was the clip in which Obama was speaking to the threat of climate change and how we must move forward swiftly. I couldn’t help but think that Obama only had to look to the Norwegian prime minister to his left to see how to move forward.

There have been a lot of questions about whether Obama deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize right now. The Nobel committee seems confident that such an award can lend the global political will needed to transcend politics as usual. I can think of no other place more essential to validating this confidence than here in Copenhagen. By engaging in the global dialog happening in these halls and spending the political capital granted by the Nobel prize Obama needs to spur along a real deal, with real targets – 40% emission reductions by 2020, real money – $200 billion for developing countries by 2020, and real teeth – a legally-binding treaty.

Coming to Copenhagen with the intention of achieving a real deal, not just a real long speech will save 100,000’s of lives annually, create a potential springboard into a green jobs revolution, increase global and national security, and unite our world in a common vision for what is not only possible, but necessary.

This is not the first blog of China Youth COP15 team but it is the first one that we are sending to ItsGettingHotInHere to share with you. We are very excited to share with you a major event of ours today at the Bella Centre and we hope you will like it.

Before that, as the person in charge of blogging for our team (Hello everyone, my name is Xixi), I would like to do a brief introduction of our team, China Youth COP15. We are the first ever Chinese youth-led team to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen(COP15) from Dec 7 -18. We have 42 team members coming from diverse backgrounds (including students studying environmental science, policy, engineering etc in universities in China, US and UK, and young professionals aspiring to become China’s future enterpreneurs, chief executives, social pioneers and business leaders.) We want to be the bridge between the Chinese youths and COP15, to bring the voice of youth in China to Copenhagen and also bring the messages in Copenhagen back to China.

Today we had a major campaigning event in the Bella Centre, the traditional Chinese Medicine diagnoses on climate change. Our inspiration came from the philosophy behind Chinese medicine – the diagnosis of a whole body as a system, so that if there is a syptom arisen from one particular area, there must be underlying causes and problems of the whole system which have fundamentally caused it. We want to view the whole world as one system, and work together to combat climate change. If only one nation goes forward, it cannot achieve much without cooperation from others. Continue reading ‘Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis on climate change in Bella Centre’

Canada’s former image of being an amiable and lovable nation is being tarred at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), where Canadian negotiaters are constantly blocking progress towards an international climate deal. At the UNFCC today, Canadian youth converged in the plenary hall, holding a banner saying: Stop Tarring Our Image.  The Canadian Youth Delegation held the banner and held up copies of a report entitled Stop Tarnishing the Canadian Maple Leaf released today by Equiterre, Environmental Defence, Forest Ethics and Climate Action Network. The report and the banner were fuelled by the frustration with the Canadian government’s position on climate change and their preference to protect Canadian Tar Sands over people’s lives and the environment.

Canadian Youth Delegates hold up a report released by Climate Action Network. Photo credit: Yvonne Su

“Canada once had an international reputation as a clean, green country with progressive environmental policies. But when it comes to the positions and actions of the Government of Canada  on global warming  nothing could be further from the truth,” states the report. “The tar sands are the single largest contributor to growth in Canada’s emissions, and are preventing us from meeting our Kyoto commitments or making any meaningful progress on the climate front,” said Danial T’seleie, a member of the Canadian Youth Delegations from the K’asho Got’ine Dene First Nation located in the Northwest Territories. “Canada’s failing record on the climate and human rights, is not only hurting First Nations,  Metis, and Inuit, it is also damaging our reputation internationally.”

Canada has received a Fossil Of the Day award every day in Copenhagen–an award given to the countries which are blocking negotiations most. This is unacceptable and as a G8 country, we know we have the resources to stop our dependence on fossil fuels. As youth, we know that a better future is possible and we will not accept fossil fuels to be part of that future.

Continue reading ‘Stop Tarring Our Image, Our Future, Our Climate, and Our Communities’

Sprinting across the puddle laden lawn of the National Mall? Easier said than done, especially when one is carrying eight 5′ artificial bodies sporting a very important message: CO2 Kills.

The normally picturesque reflecting pool on the National Mall was witness to a grisly scene today, as we floated fake corpses face-down in the shallow water. A water-borne banner reading “Obama, Climate Change Kills / Earn Your Prize in Copenhagen” floated amongst the bodies, symbolic of the 300,000+ annual climate-related deaths estimated by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s think tank.

CO2 Kills-Obama Earn Your Prize

The mass of bodies was nothing short of what appeared to be a devastating climate change induced crime scene.

Continue reading ‘Climate Catastrophe on the National Mall’

“Eco Hypocrites Fly in Jets Across Atlantic to Attack AFP in Copenhagen”

http://americansforprosperity.org/120909-eco-hypocrites-fly-jets-across-atlantic-attack-afp-copenhagen

A NOTE TO AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY

(from the ‘eco-activists’)

1. We didn’t come to Copenhagen JUST to attack you, AFP.  Don’t be so full of yourselves.

2. Great job admitting carbon pollution is bad (i.e. ‘flying across the Atlantic’)… Seems like you’re beginning to see the light.

Fifty young Americans took over a climate denier conference hosted by a prominent conservative organization this evening in Copenhagen, rushing the stage and telling the live TV audience that a clean energy future is the real road to prosperity in America. The young people, merely a fraction of the more than 350 US youth in Denmark for the UN climate negotiations, entered a session of the Americans for Prosperity “Hot Air Tour” speakers series and were able to drop two banners and gain access to the conference’s stage. The live event was webcast to over forty climate denier rallies in cities across the United States.

The students entered the event in small groups, joining a paltry audience of five conference attendees, who had come to hear climate denier Lord Christopher Monckton speak about the Copenhagen climate negotiations. After the first five minutes of the event, student representatives from SustainUS, the Cascade Climate Network, and other American youth NGOs displayed banners reading “Climate Disaster Ahead” and “Clean Energy Now.” After security agents at the event took the banners, the young attendees began a chant of “Real Americans for Prosperity are Americans for Clean Energy.” The chant lasted five minutes, as the youth took the stage and displayed their message for the live video feed being sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, despite evasive action on the camera crew’s part. As they left the stage, Lord Monckton repeatedly called the activists “Hitler Youth” and “nazis.” Continue reading ‘US Youth Crash Climate Denier Live Webcast in Copenhagen’

Written by Jennifer Krill and Adrian Wilson.

Whispers in the hallways at the COP-15 Copenhagen climate negotiations emerged as a full blown controversy yesterday, when the UK Guardian published leaked text that was written by a secret group of negotiators, the so-called ‘Circle of Commitment’.  The U.S., UK, Denmark and other rich countries are apparently responsible for the text, which was written in secrecy in a dirty backroom deal. The Danish Text, as it’s being called here in Copenhagen, utterly excludes the U.N. process, especially cutting out the developing countries that are pushing for a strong, legally binding deal, with targets of 40-45% emissions reductions below 1990 levels in order to avert the risk of catastrophic climate change.

Photo Credit: Mat McDermott

By contrast, the leaked text effectively kills the Kyoto Protocol and its emphasis on compliance and binding targets, while gutting much of the negotiations that have been underway over the last two years. Here’s a short summary of a few of the problems with the leaked text:

• The Danish Text repeatedly refers to “the shared vision limiting global average temperature rise to a maximum of 2 degrees [Celsius] above pre-industrial levels.” This vision is certainly not shared - as the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance stated yesterday, “according to the IPCC a two degree increase in the global mean temperature will mean a three or more degree increase for temperatures in Africa, [causing] 50% reduction in crop yields in some areas.”
• The text also specifies that “developed country parties commit to deliver upfront public financing for 2010-201[2] corresponding on average to [10] billion USD annually for early action, capacity building, technology and strengthening adaptation and mitigation readiness in developing countries.” While this figure is still bracketed, the idea that the Global North is considering initially giving only $10 billion per year in mitigation funding to the Global South is viewed by many G-77 nations as a slap in the face – especially given that the governments of the Global North have spent over $4 trillion in the past two years on economic stimulus and bailouts of the banking and auto industries. (NOTE: In negotiating text, the brackets refer to sections that are still in negotiation.) Continue reading ‘COP-15: Climate Justice for the Poor, or Backroom Deals by the Rich?’

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

Moments ago in Copenhagen’s COP15 meetings, 100′s of people lined the entry way to the main plenary to stand with Tuvalu and all small island nations or AOSIS. Earlier today, Tuvalu showed true leadership at COP15, showing ambition by attempting to initiate an open conversation on how the world can achieve a legally binding treaty. However just mere suggestion of transparent communication, or “formal contact group”, was thumbed away by rich nations trying to continue back-room negotiations that are wrecking havoc on a real deal in Copenhagen. While entire countries like Tuvalu combat raising sea levels, the richest countries refuse to pony up fair financing and set targets ambitious enough to avoid complete climate catastrophe.

Rich nations bound determination to continue with a business as usual mentality, or “informal talks”, forced Tuvalu to appeal for temporary suspension of the Kyoto Track of the COP15 (one of the two major tracks hey re) realizing that transparent talks  are essential to their survival and to achieving a fair and binding treaty. Word of these developments spread fast through the conference center and as the plenary came back to their reinitialized  session 100′s were standing there to greet them.

video below.

Continue reading ‘“Listen to the Islands”’

In the last three hours, over 100 people at the Bella Center in Copenhagen and more than 3,600 around Europe joined Avaaz to phone calls to European leaders urging them to be a deal maker. Angela Merkel of Germany, Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark, and Gordon Brown of the UK are a few of the popular targets for today’s “Skype Call Center”.