It’s Getting Hot In Here

In true It’s Getting Hot In Here fashion, the international youth performed a flash dance during the first day of the UN climate treaty negotiations. We made our presence felt outside the the first open plenary session of the conference.

Over 100 youth gathered for the action and we were literally surrounded by press. The message was clear: these negotiations will determine whether we will inherit a world with clean, safe energy and we must not delay action.

The “it’s hot in here” chant used for this flash dance has become the un-official chant of this movement. And if I’m not mistaken, this blog takes it’s name from that chant.

(Cross posted from the Cascade Climate Network COP15 blog)
As a final assignment for a climate course that I am in, I had the opportunity to write a memo to President Obama outlining what his climate goal should be and what policies/strategies he would use to reach those goals.

Below is the full text. I think it does a good job of explaining where we are at with the current COP15 negotiations and where we are headed with a climate bill.
_____________________

To: President Barack Obama
From: Mr. Jeremy Blanchard
Date: 7 Dec 2009
Subject: Climate Change Policy Recommendations

As a young person in the United States, I feel an obligation to ensure a healthy, prosperous future for my children and for all future generations. Because of this, I have spent the last year organizing campuses and communities to take action on the largest challenge that our species has ever faced: global climate change. To avoid catastrophic climate change, the United States must take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously revitalizing our economy with clean, safe energy. To achieve this goal, the country must pass ambitious climate legislation and negotiate a strong international climate treaty. Mr. President, you must lead the way to ensure that these goals are met. The strategic recommendations outlined here are meant to be ambitious yet still politically realistic.

Continue reading ‘Memo to President Obama: Climate Change Policy Recommendations’

Ben and Rachel gettin’ down with animatronic penguins, and covering the Conference of Youth – where 700 youth leaders converged before COP15.

At 6:30 PM this past evening, the US State Department held a closed policy briefing with all US Environmental NGOs- including the US Youth Delegation. Heading the proceedings was the Chief Administrator of the EPA  (and youth climate movement supporter!) Lisa Jackson along with the US Deputy Special Envoy on Climate Change Jonathan Pershing. In light of the US’s transformed role as a constructive actor in the international negotiating process as well as the recent EPA announcement regarding the Obama Administration’s mandate to regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act, this briefing presented an extraordinary opportunity for civil society delegates to hear from the head honchos about the emerging political dynamics of COP15 and how the US plans to assert its position.

About an hour prior to the briefing, I huddled up with other members of the US Youth Delegation Policy Working Group and helped hash out tough questions about US roles and policy positions in context to COP15. Our plan was simple: strategically prioritize a few questions for both Administrator Jackson and Negotiator Pershing and distribute them to all US Youth in attendance to ensure that the most critical issues were addressed. Depending on the number of youth in the room, we figured we’d at best get one or two questions answered.

How wrong we were. As participants filed into their seats and the proceedings began, I quickly realized that youth constituted an overwhelming majority (the-numbers-that-let-you-block-filibusters-in-the-Senate-kind-of-majority) of NGO members present! As EPA Chief Jackson took her seat at the panel, a standing ovation marked the beginning of an amazing evening. Although I cannot disseminate exact details of the briefing, the atmosphere was positive and buzzing with energy. After an interesting brief on the US policy position by Pershing and a brief speech by Jackson, the floor was opened for questions. In the row in front of me, a US Youth Delegate donning a PowerShift t-shirt was called on. As she began her question, she announced that she was in attendance along with over 500 American Youth. She turned around, and about 80% of the room waved to our negotiators. Now that is an illustration of power. From there, 6 of the 9 questions during the session were posed by youth leaders. Although there are undoubtedly critical issues to be addressed by the US negotiating team and much work to be done by our movement to ensure that our leaders are behind a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty, the momentum is moving in a positive direction. At the end of the session, the moderator of the briefing- an administrator under Secretary of Energy Steven Chu- gave a wholesome shout out to the youth delegates in attendance. This is what we need- US Youth at COP15 will continue to show our leaders that we are paying attention- and that our future is in their hands.

This is a great update on the first day of COP15, brought to you by the folks who masterminded the Australia Powershift 09 Flashdance Video (also shown below):

This piece of art is perhaps one of the best videos of our movement:

I woke up this morning wondering what I was doing in DC. Since the summer of 2008 when it turned out I wasn’t going to be able to go to COP14 in Poznan as planned, I had been saying I was going to Copenhagen. Three years on the Home Team was enough! I was ready to hit the road.

So – waking up today in DC to Democracy Now talking about how this was the biggest climate mobilization in history didn’t feel amazing. I couldn’t help but wonder why so many of the friends with whom I’ve been building the youth climate movement in Canada and the US for the past few years were there, and I wasn’t. As someone who feels like the climate movement defines who I am, and is something that I am completely committed to for the long haul, shouldn’t I be in Copenhagen?

And if I should be in Copenhagen, why wasn’t I there?

Continue reading ‘Rock on, Home Team’

Cross posted from The Climateers

As 27 of my fellow SustainUSers are in Copenhagen are attending plenary sessions and planning actions with international youth from around the world, I’m holding down the fort in Washington, DC by bridging the news from Denmark to actions at home.

A friend of mine remarked today that he thought grassroots organizing for Copenhagen was a lost cause because the real negotiating at COP15 and legislative change in the U.S. Senate happens behind closed doors between high-level decisionmakers and powerful lobbyists; that actions, petitions, and rallies are tiny blips on the political radar. And I suppose he has a point – the COP15 outcome depends highly upon decisions of key leaders, and the deep pocketbooks of special interest groups and corporations shout at higher decibels than hand-painted banners and street actions.

But he’s wrong to conclude that it’s a waste of our time. After a brief afternoon existential crisis of the importance of our collective work, I stopped to look around at all the inspiring work coming from delegates in Copenhagen and my friends all over the country. It’s easy to become apathetic or discouraged, but it takes a lot more to keep fighting the fight. Continue reading ‘The Youth is Starting to Change’

Protest and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at Chevron, California’s worst climate polluter, on first day of United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen

San Ramon, CA – As Chevron employees arrived to work early this morning, they were met by nearly 100 people who gathered in protest of Chevron’s global destruction of communities, the environment and the global climate.
Protestors interrupted business as usual at Chevron, by blocking the main entrance to the corporation’s headquarters, as well as two additional entrances for several hours. 31 people were eventually arrested.  By noon, most of those arrested were cited and released.

The protest and non-violent civil disobedience was organized by the Mobilization for Climate Justice West – a coalition representing more than 30 local social justice, environmental, labor, and human rights groups – today to coincide with the first day of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Similar protests are taking place nationally and
globally.

As the largest and most polluting corporation in the state of California, Chevron was targeted locally for undermining efforts to combat global warming and expanding its operations into more environmentally destructive and polluting forms of crude oil like the Canadian tar sands. And, as the 3rd largest corporation in the U.S., Chevron is using its immense financial resources to influence federal environmental policy. In the first half of 2009, Chevron spent nearly $13 million lobbying the federal government, more than twice the amount it spent during the same period in 2008. Continue reading ‘Protest and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at Chevron; 31 Arrested’

Copenhagen is already starting to look like a transformational political moment. Today was the first day of the COP15 climate talks. In the plenaries vulnerable nations spoke out forcefully about the need for global cooperation toward rapid greenhouse gas reductions. International youth joined Avaaz in staging two powerful actions inside the Bella Center. As with previous UN climate conferences, civil society and the most impacted countries did their part to raise the stakes of the negotiations. What’s different this time, is that at the end of these climate talks at least 110 global heads of state will be at the table ready to broker a deal.

In the past several weeks dozens of countries have come out with new emission reduction targets. While its encouraging to see real commitments, it is terrifying to think about what could happen if global ambitions end here. Two points are important to keep in mind for the climate movement in Copenhagen:
1. The politics of climate change are not where they need to be.
2. The politics of climate change are about to change in a big way.

Presidents and Prime Ministers don’t put their reputations on the line for global issues all that often. Imagine the repercussions in future elections if leaders came away from Copenhagen without a deal. The stakes couldn’t be higher for coming up with something. The question is – what will that something look like on December 19th?

Continue reading ‘Seizing the Moment in Copenhagen’

This post was co-written with Tria Donaldson of the Canadian Youth Delegation to the UNFCCC in Copenhagen.

Today is the first day of the UN Climate Change Negotiations, and the Canadian Delegation starts it with the typical flair. No surprises coming from Canada, just the same ol’ COP-blocking. In today’s briefing meeting with the Canadian Delegation, the lead Canadian negotiator, Michael Martin, had some interesting things to say. After Martin said that Canada will not change its emission reduction targets of 20% below 2006 levels by 2020 (unacceptable), he said  “Fundamentally, we believe that what Canada is proposing to do is ambitious.”

I wonder what definition of ambitious he is familiar with?

Let’s recap what Canada is proposing:
- a 3 per cent reductions target below 1990 levels (Canada orginally committed to 6% below 1990 levels, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is asking for 25-40% reductions)
- No action plan to achieve this 3 per cent reduction
- We are one of the only countries opposing a 1990 base line level, and instead are insisting that we use a 2006 baseline – a year with huge economic activity and higher emissions than 1990
- Even developing countries have more ambitious targets than us (India: 20-25 per cent, Indonesia 26 per cent, Brazil 28 per cent)
-The US has climate legislation in the house, targets much more ambitious then ours, and invests 14 times more in renewable energy development
Does that sound ambituous to you?

If ambituous means expanding the Tar Sands as fast as possible–then Yes, that is “ambituos.”

If ambitious means pointing the finger at countries like China and India, who have not historically contributed to the planet’s greenhouse atmosphere to the same extent as industrialized countries like Canada–then Yes! That is ambituous.

Continue reading ‘Canada Is “Ambitious” Like Peanut Brittle Is Soft On The Teeth’