It’s Getting Hot In Here

The World Bank wants your opinion. No, seriously.

On February 9th, I attended a civil society consultation with representatives of the Bank’s social development and environment divisions, hosted in the middle of the United Nations Commission for Social Development. The Bank is preparing only its 2nd ever Environment Strategy, and is accepting input from pretty much any organization that either fills out their online form or attends one of their consultation meetings held throughout the world.

The first phase of consultations ends February 15, but you can keep making submissions and comments through August 15, both on big picture stuff like funding fossil fuel projects and details like economic modeling and surveying methodology.

It’s Getting Hot In Here bloggers and commenters have had a few things to say about the Bank recently, so here’s your chance to tell them directly.

Learn more about the consultations: wwwr.worldbank.org/environmentconsultations

Or jump straight to the submission form.

Amtrak's Acela High Speed Train photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The U.S. youth climate movement has rightfully been dissecting Obama’s State of the Union speech and its aftermath – the good, the bad, the really? – and taking action of our own.

But this week, Obama did more than just talk, he acted, putting a big down payment on a high speed rail network that will cut pollution, save energy, and provide good jobs in the clean energy economy.

On Thursday, President Obama and U.S. Transportation Secretary (and former Illinois Republican congressman) Ray LaHood announced $8 billion in economic recovery money dedicated to building high speed rail and otherwise improving rail transportation across much of the country.

That’s good for cutting climate change and improving air quality, since rail transportation is more energy efficient and overall less polluting than cars or planes. That’s assuming people actually use it, though, and long travel times compared to flying have hurt Amtrak’s public acceptance, even as it’s fastest routes grew their ridership (page 6). Continue reading ‘High Speed Rail – Actions Speak Louder than State of the Union Words’

The title says it all – we’ve gone global. And it’s not just because of Saturday.

Photo courtesy of 350.org (and inspiring people in London, Sydney, and Copenhagen)

I won’t even try to sum up the awesomeness that was the October 24th International Day of Climate Action. Instead, I’m thinking about how this fits into the even bigger awesomeness that is the international youth climate movement:

International Day of Climate Action – Yesterday was the largest day of distributed political activism ever. It was temporarily the top news story globally. While people of all ages can celebrate in making this day happen, youth played a huge role in creating and participating in many of the actions, in spreading the popularity of the day of action, and working behind the scenes (or more likely in the middle of them) as members of the 350.org staff. Continue reading ‘We’re Building a Global Movement’

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, Yvo de Boer,  just issued its 18 page instruction letter to governments to help them prepare for the Copenhagen negotiations.

What was our buddy Yvo de Boer’s last message to governments before signing off on the letter?

Give youth a voice on your delegations.

Specifically, his letter says:

Finally, I would like to bring to the attention of Parties a recent resolution (47/1) which was
adopted at the United Nations Commission for Social Development [CSocD] at its session in February 2009, which urges Parties ‘to consider including youth representatives in their delegations as appropriate, bearing in mind the principles of gender balance and non-discrimination, and emphasizes that such youth representatives should be selected through a transparent process which ensures that they have a suitable mandate to represent young people in their countries.’

(emphasis is mine)

That’s due to efforts at the Comission on Social Development (CSocD) by some countries, particularly Mexico, and many years of youth activism at the United Nations, including SustainUS’s, to push for more youth representation at these important meetings.

It’s not a binding resolution, and youth representatives on government delegations are not a substitute for independent youth voices. It also raises the question of whether other constituencies should get government spots if youth do.

Still, it’s one more way for youth to gain representation (and sometimes influence) when their governments try to speak for them and for their future.  So far, only a few governments actually include a youth representative on their delegations to United Nations meeting. Spots for youth reps to the climate negotiations are particularly sparse.

Maybe Yvo’s letter will start to change that.

cross-posted on SustainUS’s Agents of Change blog

As reported by the BBC last week, the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, will have to skip the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen because, well, they just can’t afford it.

The low-lying island nation is at serious risk of disappearing under rising oceans caused by global warming, but can’t afford to fight for its own survival at the negotiations, citing the financial crisis. The Maldivian economy ranked 186th in 2008, and more than 20% of Maldivians are below the poverty line, with average income per person at $4,400.

It’s an extreme example of a common problem – those with the most to lose from global warming often have the least representation in the UN climate debate. All of those flights and hotels add up, and poorer countries can’t bear the costs. Many developing nations only have one or two government delegates, and the UN has a fund that only covers at most one delegate per country.

Continue reading ‘Most Threatened, Least Represented’