It’s Getting Hot In Here

By Xixi Sun

Well, I am not yet 25 and definitely not yet leader of the world, but I am amongst the 700 international youth right here in London attending the inaugural One Young World summit. We were all born after 1984 and we represent youth from all 192 countries on this planet. Early this year I was lucky enough to be sponsored to attend. We are here to discuss the challenges faced by our generation and topics include climate change, interfaith dialogue, global business, media, global health and developing leadership for a positive future.

Here I want to tell you what Day 1 of this summit makes me think.

Having heard speeches made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Bob Geldof and Lord Mayor of London Boris Johnson yesterday at the opening ceremony, we started our day with the welcome session by hosts David Jones and Kate Robertson. The first plenary session is on Environment and its protection. Having attended COP15 last December with the China Youth COP15 team, I am glad to see that youth today have not lost hope. They have different views on why Copenhagen has failed, but they all agreed that actions need to be taken now and we cannot wait for the decision-makers to make decisions. In the video from Senator John Kerry he mentioned the youth campaign “How old will you be in 2050?” That T-shirt is still in my Beijing home and reminds me of the campaigning events we had in the Bella Centre. As many have said, it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning. And this OYW summit is not just a nice trip to London. There’s work, hard work to be done. This summit will be producing a youth resolution, where each part will be voted to pass by the 700 participants. Continue reading ‘One Young World – 25 today, leading the world tomorrow’

Written by Yiting Wang, a member of China Youth COP15 team

Yes things did not turn out to be as fair, ambitious and binding as we all hoped for upon the conclusion of COP 15. Yet in many lights, it was inspiring, constructive and everlasting. I want to share several little a few serendipitous moments when I was struck by what I said, what I heard, what I was part of and what I think it now.

In the wake of Wednesday 16th riot, the police had pushed back the crowd. I was walking toward Bella Center trying to get in, a guy with a little video camera stopped me and asked me to say a little something about what I think the solution [to our climate crisis] was. I replied, in gasps, that I think we need to put ourselves in each other’s shoes. We need to understand that we are one people in different forms;our lives connected. He asked me where I was from. I said China. He waved one of his hand whiling the other still holding the camera, “thanks for the Chinese wisdom.”

I don’t know if it is particularly Chinese. I just always remember a peacemaking guru who only sleeps for four hours everyday, once said that we are all one. I just cannot agree more. Continue reading ‘Drops during COP 15′

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’

COP15 happens inside here. It’s huge.

Here are the sculptures outside the Bella Centre. The picture itself is quite self-explanatory. You see skinny kids standing in water up to angle height. That is what is going to happen with climate change – the sea level rises, so their homeland will soon be under water. More frequent extreme weather affects their lives heavily, because they are living in LDCs and are most vulnerable to climate change and its consequences.

Due to the large number of total delegates and the limited capacity of the Bella Centre (15,000 capacity, 20,000 participants), the civil societies have only got a limited number of tickets of the Opening of COP15, which means that many observers cannot get inside Planetary 1 to see the actual opening ceremony. It was a bit disappointing for us, since most of us did not get in. Nevertheless we went to Planetary 2 to watch the live broadcast. It was very crowded and filled with people. Continue reading ‘COP15 Opening Ceremony’