Last year, in Bali Indonesia, the nations of the world agreed to reach an agreement by 2009 to tackle climate change. By December 15th 2009, in Copenhagen Denmark, governments are expected to reach an agreement that  will holistically tackle not only the issues of emissions, but also the impacts to those most vulnerable. This coming Monday, in Poznan, Poland, the UN will meet again to advance the Bali Action Plan.

The Bali roadmap, which has become more like a treasure-hunt, brings many daunting challenges to Poznan. From tackling issues of deforestation in tropical forest, to insurance schemes to help countries recover from extreme climate change-related losses, Poznan is happening in the midst of global financial crisis that many countries are already using as a scape-goat for dumping climate goals and continuing the decades of inaction and unsustainable economic policies. The stakes are high, yet ideas are not flowing. The developed countries’ proposals on technology transfer and   finance for mitigation and adaptation are a carbon copy of the failed regulation mechanisms of modern history, yet somehow they are asking developing nations to take bold steps in order to achieve an agreement.

For something meaningful to come out of the agreement next year, Poznan must set a new path.

Rather that trying fixing our future on new-yet-dirty of the same fuels that have gotten us in trouble, we need a vision of a world where well-being is not coupled with greenhouse gases. There will be over 500 young people in Poznan, and they have been organizing for months. Over this weekend they will come together at Conference of Youth to finish their strategy, and over the next two weeks youth from across the planet will be contributing to itsgettinghotinhere.org, giving their perspective on the process and their suggestions for fixing the planet we will inherit. You can also contribute with your message by sharing your views with COP14 youth messaging team

Barbados, speaking for small islands, proposed a new Adaptation fund for small islands which emphasis on insurance and technology fund.
Mexico proposed a world climate change fund on mitigation, adaptation and technology transfer, to which all countries would contribute according to greenhouse gas emissions, population and national income.
China proposed an approach for funding from developed countries as a percentage of their national income to be channeled by the UNFCCC.

Norway proposed auctioning emission allowances to finance adaptation.

Korea proposed awarding credits from something the called “nationally appropriate mitigation action” in developing countries to enable deeper cuts by developed countries parties.

Switzerland suggested a global carbon dioxide levy of US$2 per tonne on all fossil fuel emissions, with an exception for less developed countries.

Bangladesh, speaking for the least developed countries, identified possible sources of funding such as a Convention fund, a levy on international air travel, and an international fuel levy to finance the global response to climate change.

To these ideas, The Philippines, speaking for developing counties, identified basic principles, including equity and direct access to funding by recipients. The European Union said the challenge to ensure sufficient financing for climate change is significant but affordable.

Lots of ideas, but no consensus yet. With less than two years until Copenhagen, its unclear how we are going to get from vague proposals to actual action. What would you propose to pay for the response needed to address climate change?
For more detailed record of the negotiations, click here

For the next two weeks, the UNFCCC will try to make progress on the many items listed and agreed in the Bali Action Plan –the outcome of the negotiations in Bali—, and the issues will get heated. The deadline for this new “action” is 2009, at the meeting in Copenhagen. This session in Bonn will be a forum for most substantive dialogue, ideas, proposals, and an overall (desperate) effort to go beyond programming and workshop planning into discussing the critical issues in regards to technology transfer and adaptation. enhanced conditions for a stable climate.
Members of SustainUS and CYCC are present at the meeting, and we hope to share with you occasional updates.

In the midst of record-breaking statistics, one reality became evident to me. While much has improved in curbing the economic losses of disaster and the damage to national infrastructure, the vulnerable and most affected groups in every storm continue to be the poor and the marginalized. Issues of environmental justice continue to shock me in South East Asia, and sometimes I feel lost and discouraged. While I know this reality is not unique to South East Asia, the projections for the region are particularly worrisome. Asia, the most populated continent in the world, is already experiencing increased intensity of severe weather events with greater risk of flooding, particularly in megadeltas and coastal areas. This increased intensity is a deadly mix considering the growing pressure over natural resources, particularly freshwater supplies, and the unsustainable development patterns, especially land use.

I could spend hours rambling over whom to blame for the environmental threats in Asia, but I would rather not. I believe attention needs to be given immediately to how disaster risk and vulnerability reduction are approached in the region. The main focus continues to be on reducing economic losses from disaster, but that leaves millions behind. While dikes diverting floods effectively guard industrial areas and cities from big floods, poor communities often end up living behind the dikes.

There are a few reasons I believe marginalized groups continue to suffer the most from poor disaster risk reduction schemes, and some of these are:

• Inequitable land distribution;
• Access to critical weather information;
• Limited social relief networks and means for livelihood recovery;
• Centralized disaster response;
• Top down approach to disaster risk reduction; and
• Limited options for environmental services recovery.

But the list could continue, like it currently does in the dozens of development reports and many papers in academia. I applaud the fantastic ground work done by development organizations in Asia to reduce disaster risk and improve livelihoods affected by disaster, particularly Oxfam, Care, and World Vision. I decided to share my views here hoping to hear perspectives on how to bring environmental justice out of mere rhetoric and into practice. In Vietnam, the typhoon season is over, but in only a few months the storms and floods will come back and, once again, ethnic minorities, children, and women will continue to suffer the most. The estimates of mortality due to preventable diseases associated with floods are daunting. If we know who is at risk, how to reduce it, and have the resources to do it, losing lives is unacceptable. Environmental justice must bring those behind the dikes to the front of disaster risk reduction efforts.

I write from central Vietnam. The provinces of Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh were hit by a powerful typhoon two weeks ago, typhoon Lekima, and reconstruction is underway. People here are afraid. Lekima was the fifth typhoon to hit Vietnam this year. Farmers and villagers know that ‘more frequent and severe” weather events is not something on the IPCC reports, it is the reality killing their children. Lekima hit at the end of the harvesting season, and most crops are lost. We don’t really know what is going to happen after the food stocks run out in two months. For those communities that lost everything, the government and some NGOs have provided rice and instant noodles to fight hunger for the moment. But nobody knows how long it will take for thousands of people to recover their livelihoods. We have finished cleaning up the schools, so children can hopefully go back to school by next week- but most of the schools’ materials have been destroyed, and it will take weeks until new materials arrive. Meanwhile, the government is trying to assess how to deal with the damages to infrastructure and avoid having to request a loan from a global financial institution. While those polluting engage in rhetorical discussions over how to reduce their emissions, many countries in the developing world are paying for the consequences – ironically, many are having to get to loans from rich countries to pay for the cost of climate change. People here wonder when the next typhoon will hit, and wonder if there is any point in reconstruction.

Meanwhile, my family emails me from Costa Rica. New storms have hit Central America, leaving most of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras under water. After Central America and the Caribbean were hit by two category five hurricanes this year, these new floods are impacting areas that were just recovering from other floods. The cost of the new floods has not been calculated yet, but it is already clear that the toll of the 2007 storms will undermine any national progress for economic development. Thousands of people have been left without access to basic services. My mother emailed me from the south pacific of Costa Rica saying: “we lost access to the capital because of the landslides. They stopped selling gas last night because suppliers cannot travel here, and food supply is also running out. We still have enough, but we worry for people in the north of country because we know their situation is much worse”. But this is only the story of Costa Rica; Nicaragua and Honduras are much worst.

Sometimes I wonder what needs to happen for real action to fight climate change. The cost of inaction is so real for many parts of the world, but sometimes it seems like it doesn’t matter; it seems like it is fine to spare the lives of people in the developing world in order to maintain the unsustainable lifestyle of the developed world. I do not have an answer, and sometimes I loose hope. While people here in Vietnam wonder “why is nature punishing us,” I just know we need to keep fighting.

But to make things even worse, the little action on fighting climate change that Mr. Bush has available to is flawed. Last week, a report was published stressing the weaknesses and limited impact of the US Climate Change Science Program, particularly on informing decision-making (really? uninformed decision-making in the US?…nahhh). So, an uninformed president will try to show the 16 nations attending the private meeting how to solve the climate crisis. Perhaps it’s best to just let Mr. Bush play leader alone, and try to get the rest of the US to set the stage for real leadership in 2009. Hopefully, this ‘global leadership’ will not get on the way of the good spirit and willingness to speak of future action for stable climate uniting Heads of State in New York. The Heads of State gathered in New York should know that, regardless of what the Administration says, the emperor has no clothes.

The SustainUS Agents of Change program is now accepting applications for its delegation to the UN Climate Negotiations, COP13, happening in Bali this December. COP13 will determine the future of international policy on climate change, and youth must make their voices heard. The SustainUS delegation, comprised of key leaders in the youth climate movement, will have the unique opportunity to represent American (and US-based) youth at the COP. Delegates will work with each other and with international youth in advance of the conference to educate themselves, develop policy priorities, acquire skills in effective lobbying, and engage the broader youth population in a conversation about international climate policy.

Please download the application to learn more about this amazing opportunity or visit the SustainUS website for more information about our organization. The application deadline is June 17th!

The euphoria following the recent IPCC reports and the end of the current Convention Dialogue process point to Bali. Without continuous public pressure between now and December, politicians might forget that the purpose of the UNFCCC is the “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”, and not to develop a profitable, but useless, carbon market.

Failure in Bali could take us in the direction of other other ‘voluntary’ initiatives, such as the Asia-Pacific Partnership or a ninformal Emissions Trading Scheme linking carbon brokers outside of a multilateral deal. In addition, unless the world agrees on the pressing issues of adaptation, capacity building and technology transfer at Bali, vulnerable groups and communities will continue to suffer the impacts of the climate change without any source of support or form of redress.

The road to Bali is filled with challenges, meetings, hopes, and rhetorical diplomacy.With over 5 high level ministerial meetings on climate change between now and December, another session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on post-2012, and other informational consultations, it is imperative for global youth to prepare for long fight in Bali. More information will be shared on global youth efforts towards Bali.

Science Magazine

Because of feed-back mechanisms, the decline of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean carbon sink means that atmospheric CO2 levels may be higher in future than predicted.

Oceans are vital as they absorpt excess CO2 from the atmosphere, slowing down climate change. But they cannot keep up the pace of our greenhouse emissions. The rate of absorption has stayed the same for the past 24 years, while global emissions have increased in 40% during that time.

The oceans have had it – maybe we should stop thinking of stuffing our biosphere and oceans with carbon sinks and actually start reducing emissions

In preparation, Youth climate leaders from around the world will converge on the Youth Energy Blast in New York on April 29, 2007 at Columbia University with the mission of sharing their skills and preparing for the 15th Session UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD-15).

The purpose of the Youth Energy Blast is to empower our generation-
wide movement to confront the energy crisis. The goals of the Blast
are to provide information and training for leaders around the CSD and
provide a space for youth to share experience and knowledge
implementing climate solutions and participate in decision-making at
the international level.Visit www.SustainUS.org or www.youthcaucus.net for details