You can see more photos, video and news coverage of the Climate Elephant in the room here.

The mood in Oskenhallen was sombre. Small groups of climate advocates were conferring around tables, talking quietly and seriously about next steps post-UN Climate negotiations, and working hard to frame the debate back in their home countries. The sense of activity and purpose and expectations of the past few days had drifted away in a blur of confusion, disappointment, anger, outrage, disbelief, sadness and sleep deprivation. Most of our team had been up all night – either at the snap action held outside the conference centre as soon as news of Obama’s “accord” was released, or doing domestic media interviews and writing opinion editorials for Australia.

At 4pm the 21 members of our core team came together. Slowly, each person reflected on what the past 2 weeks had meant, and expressed their reactions to the outcome.

I looked at our team and smiled. What an amazing group – comprising an up-and-coming comedian from Adelaide, a scientist-turned-activist from Mildura, a young Labor party member (“I might have to re-think my membership of the ALP after this,” she said), two inspiring young Aboriginal leaders who played an influential role in getting Indigenous rights recognised in the draft negotiating text, a PhD student studying emissions trading, two film-makers, a high school student from rural Victoria who fought the Black Saturday bushfires, an economist, a musician and many more. Despite the fact that everyone in our team is under 27, together we have a wealth of experience in policy, advocacy, media, public speaking, online campaigning, logistics and project management.

It’s truly an amazing team – complemented by our “base team” back on the ground in Australia, who are just as wonderful and did an incredible job organising actions, vigils, and the domestic pressure we needed for us to be a credible and effective voice over here. To give you an example – over 2,000 of our members back home wrote letters of support to Pacific Island negotiators in under 12 hours. These were delivered along with home-baked brownies by our Project Survival Pacific team in the Conference Centre to exhausted AOSIS negotiators who’d been under immense pressure from Australia and other nations to back down from their strong stance supporting a deal based on 350 parts per million.

As we went around the circle in our team meeting, people cried, laughed, and shared stories that were truly special and moving. After spending just 2 weeks together, our group felt as close as family. I felt a sense of determination sweeping through us. Although Copenhagen did not achieve what we needed it to, we knew we wouldn’t give up. Our leaders aren’t done yet – so neither are we. We are all aware that the type of deep change we seek has always required great struggle and great sacrifice. Our movement has grown, in size and depth, and determination.

Sitting in on our meeting was Hannah Mia, a young Swedish climate activist with one of the most heart-warming smiles I’ve ever seen. After listening to us talk, she said that the Swedish youth delegation was back at her hostel, sad and depressed – but that our determination and energy had given her hope to keep going. In this movement, we inspire each other, we support each other, and we keep each other strong. I didn’t go into our meeting with a false sense of positivity, some kind of idea that I had to “stay positive for the team” like I have seen leaders do at times. I went in with an open heart and honesty.

Beyond exhaustion, beyond anger, beyond sadness and disbelief, beyond sleep deprivation and exhaustion and working so hard for so long, what is left? Hope – still hope, always hope, and the knowledge that in many respects, our movement has only just begun.

What’s left is the understanding that this was never going to be easy and that we will have to work harder to get the outcomes the planet needs, even though the urgency of the problem presses down on us every day. What’s left is a resolve that we can accept small steps, but not steps backwards.

This is why the fact that Obama’s weak “accord” was only “noted”, not “adopted” by the UNFCCC plenary, is important. It means the UN Climate negotiations will continue. What’s left is the fact that despite huge pressure, many countries stood up for their survival and refused to endorse through the UN process a non-legally binding document that “recognises” that science saying we should limit global warming to 2 degrees but which would probably ensure a 3 degree or even higher temperature rise.

It’s Monday morning, and Copenhagen’s over. Monday morning, to many people in the world, means we wake up and get back to work.

Many will need – and all deserve – a break to recover from the emotional and physical burnout that Copenhagen induced in our movement. I am in London, a city I’ve never been to before, but I won’t be doing any sight-seeing until I process what has happened the past 2 weeks, regroup, and clear some space in my head to prepare for the strategising that needs to be done as we plan for 2010.

In some respect, knowing what our next steps are domestically is easy. It’s an election year in Australia, and we need to make climate change the number one issue for Australians as they case their votes. We need to challenge all our politicians – local, state and federal – to commit to stronger climate change action. We need to counter the destructive force of Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce, Martin Ferguson and Co. in confusing the debate on climate change in Australia. We need to make these kinds of politicians political liabilities for their parties. We need to enrol more young people to vote! And we need to involve more people in our movement, be more strategic, more inclusive and continue to build alliances with non-traditional allies.

But first, we need to allow ourselves to feel. Without feeling, our movement can never win. Because we are up against forces bigger than ourselves – big coal, big oil, and their lobby groups with money to burn – but we are fighting from  our hearts as well as our heads. This means we have to be able to mourn about what happened in Copenhagen. It was the world’s best chance to solve climate change, if countries had looked to their long-term interests and agreed on a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to reduce emissions. They didn’t do it, and it’s ok to be full of sadness about it. As long as we don’t give up.

I have two mottos, as all my friends know. The first one is, “Those who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those already doing it” and the second is, “We have to do the impossible to avoid the unimaginable.” I say them over and over, in almost every speech I do and to all the young people I meet who are new to the movement. Both of these mottos are timely and today I think perhaps I should get one tattooed on my body, like my friend Anna Keenan who tattooed ‘Climate Justice’ on the back of her neck.

I’ve received a few passionate emails over the past week, full of emotion, from young climate advocates around the world. From my friends. This is what keeps me going when I feel it gets too hard. These people and their passion move me to tears, and allow me to re-connect with the core thing inside myself that makes me do the work I do – my sense of justice, and my determination that is motivated by love for this beautiful planet and the people who live here.

If you’re reading this – thank you! And I look forward to working with you this year for a safe climate future. What’s left after Copenhagen is us – a stronger movement, a new year about to begin, another chance for us to make the world a better place.

This is basically Australia’s national song – and here is AYCC’s spoof with new lyrics and images. We’re up to over 30,000 votes and counting!

We all know polling booths strike fear into the hearts of politicians. Imagine their faces when they see over 330 climate polling booths and tens of thousands of online votes, organised by young people, for young people, this week, in the world’s first youth climate vote.

Less than half a day in to Youth Decide voting week we’re already at over 3,000 votes.

In 2005, students at the University of Sydney and Monash University held student referendums on whether the Universities should take stronger action on climate change. Both were hugely successful: at Sydney Uni, it was the tipping point in a year-long campaign that resulted in the University committing $1 million to renewable energy research and development. At Monash, the referendum caused the University to commit to reduce energy by 20%, purchase 20% greenpower, and employ new staff to run sustainability programs within the University.

Now, four years later, we’re holding Australia’s first national youth climate referendum. In fact, it’s the world’s first national youth climate vote. Young people aged 12 – 29 can vote to choose one of three worlds they wish to inherit. The worlds are based on the Government’s own climate change modelling, as well as the work of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. You can see them here.

With over 330 local voting events registered across every State & Territory, this is more than double per capita than the Step It Up day of action and it’s set to become the largest per capita youth climate mobilisation in the world. And we’re holding a huge Youth Decide concert this Wednesday in Federation Square with some of Australia’s best bands.

It’s not easy building a movement to solve climate change. We’re up against the stereotype that our generation doesn’t care about these issues – that young people don’t have anything to say, and that if we do, we should wait our turn until we’re old enough to be taken seriously. Youth Decide smashes this perception and sends a very clear campaign message to every politician – your targets = our future.

This weekend saw a mass community protests at Hazelwood Power Station, in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley. You can read The Age’s report of the action here, an Indymedia report here and see photos on Flickr here.

In 2005 a group of students at RMIT, Melbourne and Monash Universities led a campaign against the State Government’s decision to extend the life of the Power Station. Almost every week we staged protests outside cabinet meetings, and went up to Morwell for several actions, and meeting with the local council. But we lost, and Australia’s most polluting power station continued to operate. But the movement to shut down Hazelwood did not die – and in fact, these protests were bigger now than they were in 2005.

The Hazelwood power station, located near Morwell in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, is Australia’s most polluting power station, pumping and average 17 million tons of greenhouse gases every year, equal to the total caused by all 1.4 million households in the state capital Melbourne.

Read on for some facts about Hazelwood…

Hazelwood power station has a 1600MW capacity, generated by eight 200 MW turbines and supplies up to 25 per cent of the state’s base load electricity. Hazelwood consumes 1.31 megalitres of water per megawatt hour.

Hazelwood is also the most greenhouse intensive power station in Australia, which means that it produces the most greenhouse pollution for every unit of energy sent into the power grid.

The power station and mine are majority owned by the UK-based company International Power. Hazelwood was scheduled to be decommissioned by 2009 due to its excessive carbon dioxide emissions, however the State Government in 2005 extended its life until 2031.

Brief history

Hazelwood Power Corporation Pty Ltd was formed in 1995 as a Victorian state-owned business. The corporation ran a brown coal mine and the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. When the government owned Hazelwood it planned to shut the power station in 2005. Instead, then Premier, Jeff Kennett sold Hazelwood power station to International Power, a UK-based company.

In August 1996 the Victorian Government sold the Hazelwood Power Corporation to the UK based company International Power, who renamed it Hazelwood Power. The new owners of the business were National Power from the UK (72%). PacifiCorp from the USA (19.9%), and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (8.1%). In January 2003 the consortium changed its name to International Power Hazelwood (IPRH), which today produces up to 25% of Victoria’s power.

The cupcakes are decorated with the words “The ice-ing is melting!” and are to remind all MPs of the need for urgent and strong action on climate change.

The youth statement calls for strong 2020 carbon reduction targets written by 25 high-profile youth award winners including Nicole Keuper (2008 Eureka Prize People’s Choice Award), Larissa Brown (2008 Cosmopolitan Woman of the Year), Ellen Sandell (2008 Pride of Australia Medal), and Aaron Wood (2007 Prime Minister’s Environmentalist of the Year) and Alex Rafalowicz (Charles A.F. Hawker Scholar).

The statement says: “Let’s create a clean energy economy. Let’s show the world that Australians have the courage and initiative to get on with the job of saving the climate. In the process, let’s create the million new green-collar jobs that lie in wait for us in our clean energy future.”
“The current financial crisis presents our generation with an opportunity to re-visit the fundamentals of our economy. We want a ‘Green New Deal’: a new economy based on clean technology and renewable energy. Investing in climate change solutions will sow the seeds of sustainable economic recovery and the next financial boom.”

We spent our weekend baking the cupcakes, but if our leaders bake the planet it will affect us our entire lives.

If Prime Minister Rudd adopts 2020 carbon pollution reduction targets within of between 25-40% that would be the icing on the cake!

The cupcakes carry a message to MPs that after 12 months in office, the world is running out of time to solve climate change and that they must adopt strong targets to reduce our carbon pollution – within the range of at least 25- 40% by 2020.

Having brought many of the Sydney crowd to tears, in her first public speech Sasha told the crowd that “We have the opportunity to create the changes that will sculpt the world in which we live.”

“Looming on the horizon is the destruction of my future,” Sasha said.

“It is by acting in unity that we will be able to divert our course from the horrors of climate change and avoid ever having to look into our children’s eyes and explain why we didn’t try harder.”

A Lismore High School student who finished her HSC just days ago, Sasha is a high schools organiser with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

She says that speaking at the climate change rally was one of the highlights of her life.

“It was an amazing experience speaking to that many people about climate change – an issue which I feel so passionately about.

“The fact that it’s now all across the papers and on the news has been overwhelming.”

Sasha volunteers from Lismore with the ‘Switched On Schools’ program is helping organise Power Shift 2009, a national youth climate summit for April next year.

Here’s the transcript of her speech:

I would first like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

Good morning to all you incredible people here today who braved the weather to show your support for action on climate change.

I’m 17 years old and just finished my HSC, I am now a high schools organizer for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

I’m going to begin by acknowledging the crisis we face. Looming on the horizon is the destruction of my future. Before us is the suggestion of hard times and hunger, of environmental degradation to the point we are unable to turn back.

Yes, with great sadness I acknowledge these risks, but that is all. Because as Gandhi says: “Be the change you which to see in the world”

When I remember this quote, I think of an alternative vision for the future. I know that we still have the ability to change the world for the better.

It is this philosophy of active optimism that forms the basis of my speech today, because we have not all gathered here to dwell on the catastrophes of climate change but to embrace the opportunities.

My school motto- “Spectamur Agendo”- means “let us be judged by our actions.”

In one of the random synchronicities of life- these two statements combined one morning on my school shirt. Gandhi’s quote had become the motto of my Climate Change Action Committee and we wore the words on green badges, while the school motto was of course in my school emblem. Together the two read, “be the change you wish to see in the world” and “let us be judged by our actions”.

It is within these statements combined that I see true guidance and inspiration for action on climate change. Firstly, Gandhi encourages us to act in accordance with our moral standards by listening to and following our hearts.

Climate change poses a horrific threat to my future. To not act now would be an ethical disaster and we will have utterly betrayed our children and ourselves.

By looking into our hearts we are able to see clearly the changes we wish for the world, and realize the necessity of immediate implementation of strong carbon pollution reduction targets.

The Lismore High motto then reminds us that without action, all the good intentions of our hearts will go unnoticed.

It reminds the politicians that they can make their election promises and hold their political discussions but in the end they will be judged only on what they actually do, it reinforces to us that our children and grandchildren will want an explanation for the kind of earth that they inherit.

It is us, here in this time that have the choice. We have the opportunity to create the changes that will sculpt the world in which we live.

It is by acting in unity that we will be able to divert our course from the horrors of climate change, and avoid ever having to look into our children’s eyes and explain why we didn’t try harder.

I know that I will never give up, and from seeing you all here today I believe the same of every one of you.

So I say lets grasp this climate opportunity with both hands, and may we be judged by our actions.

Thank you

A small group of young people from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition today confronted the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at an event at NSW Parliament House in Sydney today, urging him to support strong carbon pollution reduction targets. Some held a banner reading “Your Targets = Our Future” at the back entrance as he walked in, getting in prime position in front of the media pack, and two of us dressed in suits and snuck inside to make our point in person! Altogether, the PM at this one event got three personal questions from 3 different young people on his targets, as well as the huge banner on his way in.

“Your Targets = Our Future” is the message resonating across Australia from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s ‘Targets Tag Team’ as they ask for carbon reduction targets of at least 40% by 2020.

In the next five weeks, the Federal Government will decide upon Australia’s medium term, 2020 carbon pollution reduction target. Kevin’s carbon reduction targets will influence Australia’s domestic and international climate policy for many years to come. It is crucial that his target is strong enough to ensure a safe climate future for our generation.

As the Prime Minister considers the 2020 carbon pollution reduction targets, the ‘Targets Tag Team’ will be at many events he attends, asking the question: ‘Will your target be bold enough to protect our future?’

If there’s one thing that can change the Prime Minister’s mind at this crucial time, it’s a strong youth movement reminding him that he has an obligation to prioritise the next generation over the next election.

Targets Tag Team is a generation-wide call for a new, clean energy economy and the million new green-collar jobs that lie in wait for us if we take bold action now by setting carbon reduction targets of at least 40% by 2020.

AYCC is a coalition of 25 youth organisations across Australia building a generation-wide movement to solve climate change. Stay tuned for more targets tag team action across Australia in the next 5 weeks!