Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement
2 minutes in English. Quick explanation summary of how the G8/G20 can address climate change at the upcoming Toronto G8 & G20 summits.
2 minutes en francais. J’explique comment les dirigeants peuvent aborder le suject des changements climatiques pendant les sommets de G8 & G20 a Toronto.
(English) (Francais)
With 20 days to go to the G8 and G20 summits in Toronto, here are 20 reasons that the youth climate movement needs to get mobilized. Every day you can become increasingly motivated to get organize, get mobilized, and know just why we need to have our voices heard.
20 days…let’s get organized!
(An ode to Minister Beverley Oda on the issue of Official Development Assistance)
The G8 International Development Ministers’ meeting in Halifax, Canada happened this week with little talk of climate change. The issue of climate change is set to be on the G8 agenda, yet no ministers’ meetings to date have raised the issue. This ministerial was the last of a series of meetings leading up to the G8 Summit in Muskoka this June.
Germany’s representative Dirk Niebel, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, was the first to bring up climate change in a general context, as he noted that Development Ministers had a responsibility to include climate change in their planning and projects.
WWF (World Wildlife Fund) put out a statement with clear criteria expectations: “G8 International Development Ministers play a key role in ensuring climate financing are in fact new and additional to Official Development Assistance, and that they are not just robbing Peter to pay Paul. They should establish clear criteria and standards for ensuring that funds are additional,” said Mark Lutes, Finance Policy Coordinator at WWF International. Continue reading ‘An Ode to Oda on ODA’
Cross-posted from WWF-Canada’s Blog
The House of Commons in Canada yesterday pushed through the Climate Change Accountability Act, Bill C-311 into its third reading because of a major shift made from within the Liberal Party of Canada.
The position of the Liberal caucus was not unanimous or certain before a motion was put forward yesterday. The Opposition Motion put forward by Member of Parliament David McGuinty yesterday was not only well-written, issue inclusive, and forward-thinking, it also included crucial goals, time-lines and events that Canada must focus on in order to engage with other world leaders on cutting emissions. Continue reading ‘Canada’s Climate Bill Makes it to 3rd Base’
Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act is the closest thing to effective climate legislation in Canada, and it needs to move to the third reading before it can be law (i.e. legally binding emission reduction targets). A surprise motion in the House of Commons has made April 14th a crucial date for the bill, and on Wednesday there will be a vote as to whether or not it should move to the Third and final reading.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Canadian politics, here are some of the basics:
So what are we gonna do? Target those swinging Liberals!
Folks are calling their Liberal MPs (and Liberal MPs who are not their MPs) and telling them that they need to go to parliament on the 14th and vote to move Bill C-311 to its third reading. The bill would commit Canada to legally-binding emission reduction targets: 25% below 1990 levels by the year 2020 (which is the lower end of the range that the IPCC is asking for), and long term targets of 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Continue reading ‘Don’t Kill Bill – Save the Climate Change Accountability Act!’
Japan Foreign Affairs Press Secretary, Kazuo Kodama tonight re-affirmed Japan’s concerns around climate change. “As we all know, the global community must address the issue of rising sea levels and rising temperatures. In order to address [climate change] there seems to be a consensus today …that we have to transform our society from carbon intensive one to a low carbon society.”
Maritime shipping regulations, oil-spill cleanup capabilities and search and rescue capabilities topped the agenda at today’s Arctic Ocean’s Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Chelsea, Canada, held immediately before the opening of the G8 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Gatineau, Canada.
While these top-line issues make headlines, at the core of all these emerging Arctic issues, is climate change. These meetings were based on the Ilulissat Declaration of 2008, which recognizes – and is largely based on – the quickly changing Arctic due to climate change. Today’s meetings showed us which international players are thinking and acting on issues of climate.
Continue reading ‘U.S.A. and Norway Lead on Climate at Arctic Meeting’
Last Tuesday DC was lucky enough to host an all-star panel of global justice activists in a panel discussion called “Evaluating Copenhagen: What it Means for Ecology, Economy, and Equity“, convened by leading movement organizations and moderated by Ray Suarez of PBS.
Among the panelists were leaders and experts of the global justice movement like Martin Khor from the South Centre, Maude Barlow from the Council of Canadians, Victor Menotti of the International Forum on Globalization, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, and Gopal Dayaneni from Movement Generation. You can view the full event online here, or by clicking the image below. I’ll discuss some highlights and possible movement-building lessons.
Movement-Melding in Copenhagen
The experts left very little doubt that the fight to avert climate catastrophe is the fight for the direction of the global economy.
Climate justice + development justice + trade justice = true global justice. Continue reading ‘Justice Beyond Copenhagen’
Yesterday the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen passed a hotly disputed “anti-riot law”, less than two weeks before what is shaping up to be the largest single convergence around climate change ever. The law, passed to stymie public protest around the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, strips people of civil liberties, freedoms, and sanctions (if not encourages) preemptive arrests for any of the 10,000’s of people expected to arrive in Copenhagen to voice concern, march, take direct action, and participate in the UN climate talks.
The new laws layout is fairly straightforward, and inevitably draws a comparison to unlawful US and UK preemptive arrest actions from the last year.
Additionally (yes there’s more), Danish police said “open-air meetings may be prohibited when it is feared that they may constitute a danger to the public order”.
Continue reading ‘Denmark Passes “Anti-Riot” Law 12 days before UN Climate Negotiations.’
The following was part of a press briefing at the US Climate Action Network Organized press conference in Pittsburgh, USA coinciding with the G-20 Summit. International youth gathered together to voice concerns over the need to “green” the economic recovery of the planet–high on the agenda of the world leaders gathered there. Youth Press Advisory
Two years ago at the UN Climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, I happened to have the opportunity to attend as a member of the US youth delegation (because I was studying in the US). Upon arriving at the negotiations and after countless hours spent submitting our policy proposals to the UN Convention I realized that there is a growing and vibrant youth movement dedicated to the cause. These youth are actively trying to influence the negotiations. I became conscious of the fact that there were not any Indian youth in this growing international youth caucus present on the sidelines of the conference. I decided to introduce myself to the Indian Government negotiators as a “youth representative.” I was met with a cold and blank stare and then asked, “youth? Shouldn’t they have the same view as their elders?” I knew then that my life would never be the same again.
To be fair, I respect my elders and I know that there are many out there who are on the “far side of fifty” (age 50 that is) who have worked hard to make the world a better place. Generations have come and gone and nearly all of them have had a defining issue to tackle. My generation, labeled the “silent generation” by Thomas Friedman, is caught behind our computers and on facebook, having struggled to come to terms with the seemingly perfect world with an uncertain future of which we are not in control.Many in the climate movement are aware of the political deadlock between developed and developing nations over the issue of climate equity and historical emissions and responsibilities. Though we claim to be talking climate for the sake of future generations, nothing that we are doing is actually putting future generations in a better environment than that enjoyed by generations passed. So let’s get serious about generational equity because those in control sure aren’t.
While the climate crisis looms, we are currently consumed by a financial crisis that has gripped the planet.Just as financial institutions played with the public’s money, we are playing with the global commons that is our climate. We already know the impacts of unabated borrowing of money that does not exist. Can we play the same game with the lives of future generations as we borrow for our unsustainable growth today?
Global leaders are meeting at the summit in Pittsburgh and on the agenda is rebuilding the planet’s economy and hopefully, cooling down the planet. Let us turn this economic crisis into an opportunity of global proportions and usher a new era of genuine, sustainable development. I come from a young country—75% youth–that is facing many challenges. My own ancestral home in the desert sands of western Rajasthan only received electricity a year ago—electricity promised to my grandfather 25 years ago. Yet it is a land bursting with opportunity. Sure enough there is an army of youth in India that are ready to take that stand and that are dreaming of a clean, green country – one which will take this opportunity to build a green economy and support the growth of a green jobs movement. With 500 million people still in the dark, there are millions to be trained in sustainable energy enterprises alone. Let us not forget that this is a country that has half a million engineers graduating annually—a potentially potent force to engineer the country into the paragon of sustainable development.
While youth are 48% of the global population they are not an official part of the negotiation process at the international level. Though many of us are silent, many more are launching revolutions to transform our local communities. I was transformed by my experience in Bali and knew that in the labyrinth process of the negotiations all sense of urgency—of our future—is lost. This hopelessness was transcended through the creation of the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) which has grown in waves and caught the attention of young people, civil society, companies and the same government that questioned the role of youth on the topic two years ago. Similarly youth movements for the cause are rising across the planet—daring governments to break the deadlock. We envision a future which ensures the survival of all peoples and all nations. The debate is old and it is time for some fresh air. A bail-out for the planet is a bailout we will not regret.
