It’s Getting Hot In Here

In particular, the speech delivered by Karmila Karapassi from Indonesia has struck me. Her words were delivered with such strength and compassion that there was not a competing noise in the room. When Karmila said to the plenary “youth around the world are rising to the challenge,” all of the youth stood from their chairs with their hand raised, filling the room with their presence. Young people of all ages from all over the world stood together in silence, our eyes fixed on the negotiators whose decisions we would inherent.

Seeing viscerally, for the first time, the size of our dynamic youth movement filled me with a hope and a faith.

I have hope because countries like Canada, who neglect the Kyoto Process and the international community, have also catalyzed the emergence of a strong, mobilized, and powerful international youth community.

I have faith because the scope of the issue is so enormous that it forces us to rethink the way we live, and this gives us an opportunity.

As one youth said to a room full of negotiators, the climate emergency is our best, and possibly last, opportunity to create a global consciousness.

The atmosphere in Bali is intense. Yvo de Boer, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, showed signs of distress moments ago and left the plenary upon accusations of manipulating the process by China, Ban Ki-Moon delivered an emphatic speech urging for the deadlocked countries to find consensus, and the normal degree of diplomacy that operates in this process has decreased along with the time left for reaching consensus. Plenary speeches make explicit accusations to the US for blocking consensus and American speeches are followed with jeers from the audience.

While the particulars of the mandate continue to be discussed, I hope that Canadians back home are engaged with what is happening in Bali and discussing the position of the Canadian government. I have been tremendously unimpressed not just with the political platform of the Canadian delegation but also with their manner of conduct. Minister Baird has been AWOL from high-level meetings, failed to show up at his own side event to explain the Canadian Turning the Corner Plan, refused to invite opposition ministers in his delegation (but include industry representatives), and refused to meet with any of the UN constituency groups that have requested meetings with the Minister for months in advance.

At the civil society meeting with UN Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, the extent to which the youth climate change movement can impact the UN process became truly apparent.Representing the international youth delegation, Akhmad Viko of Indonesia asked Mr. de Boer what he thought of the future role of youth in the international climate change negotiations. De Boer’s answer revealed not only an explicit interest in the further inclusion of youth (he answered that there is much more the UN can do to ensure that youth are incorporated in the process) but also an implicit interest in our message and current work.De Boer went on to discuss the speech delivered by Catherine Gauthier at the UN High-Level event on climate change in September as evidence of the kind of work that youth are doing well and need to continue doing. Others can look to YENGOs (the formal umbrella term for the youth international delegation) because of our ability to organize, strategize, and because of our fresh perspective in the negotiations that are lacking from the COP veterans.For me, this is one of many signs of the real and measurable impact of the youth movement on this process. That a speech delivered in September still resonates with the Executive Secretary of this conference, that youth groups are almost at the stage of achieving formal constituency status at the COP, and that our home delegations are finally starting to realize that they (at the very least) required to meet with us at the conference, show that we are being taken serious as a real, credible, and powerul stakeholder in the negotiations!