It’s Getting Hot In Here

The bustling halls of the United Nations climate negotiations still ringing in my ears, it’s been an incredible few months since I and other youth delegates from SustainUS returned from Bali. So many friends and neighbors emailed or stopped by to say “Thanks for sending your email updates from Bali!” and “Welcome home!” I still feel the excitement of working with the best & brightest of the youth climate movement around the world.

Upon returning from Bali as a US youth delegate, I was filled with hope that humanity will create a global consciousness by rising to meet the climate emergency. In the last few months, worsening scientific predictions have only strengthened my belief that we are the leaders we seek. It’s up to us. We have the power to make the climate emergency, and the immense economic opportunities we will realize from solving it, our top priority. A bold, broad movement is needed on a scale larger than the mobilization for World War II. This mobilization will only be accomplished by unleashing a renewed civic engagement.

Continue reading ‘Post-Bali Dispatch: “Lighting Up” a movement in Upstate New York!’

You would expect the climate change talks to have taken off with a “Bang” here in the capital of Thailand. Yet the sense amongst most observer groups is that there are no negotiations really taking place. The biggest challenge is carrying forward the energy of the Bali Action Plan which came out of intense final hour negotiations back in December 2007. It is already nearing the last day and it is becoming obvious that the delegates are losing track of time. And there are very heavy issues on the table including: adaptation (how we will finance technology for adaptation, do we couple it with mitigation, how do we determine which nations are the most vulnerable), mitigation (what does measurable, reportable, verifiable emissions reduction targets mean?), Finance (which instruments will be utilized for mobilization and control of funds, and more importantly where will we get the massive amounts of funding required?), etc.

“You can fly, to any city in Thailand. I hope you get a chance to explore this beautiful country before you all leave,” stated the deputy Prime Minister of Thailand during his opening plenary address. I noticed more than a few people smirk in the room. One of the key issues being discussed here are the roping in of various industrial and cooperative sectors into the negotiating process–one of the most important being bunker fuels from aviation and shipping–emissions from the former having continued to rise at 3% each year while the latter’s emissions have doubled since 1990. A presentation today by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the primary organization held responsible for checking the growth of emissions from this industry/sector revealed some of the key challenges to addressing the problem.

Challenges include things like access to and quality of data, methodology, comparability and the problem of emissions from transboundary and multinational  flights and those crossing areas outside national jurisdiction were of key concern.  However the presentation (which was quite poorly put together with only 3 slides) left a lot to be desired regarding actual moves to check the growth of emissions coming from the sector–and the main culprits having not checked the growth of emissions are the ICAO and IMO (International Maritime Organization). The aviation sector is expanding rapidly in the emerging economies (and rightly so, considering the new found wealth in these nations). Those with vested interests in trade would have business as usual with regards to curbing emissions in this sector–Panama, Singapore, and China again, being some of them. Curiously, small island states as well, as their remoteness requires a heavy reliance on both shipping and aviation for survival.  New Zealand made a point to address this latter issue and stated the need to consider geographical remoteness and national circumstances when drafting final policy.

The debate on forests has been reopened as the issue of carbon stocks is taken up once more. This time it comes under LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry). While NGOs are wanting appropriate accounting of emissions from peat and degraded forests, governments are talking of carbon harvested products (timber products) serving as carbon sinks!

To speak a little about the US here at the talks. According to various NGOs, there has been more engagement with the US congress this time on the issue of climate change. It is expected that there will be a steady 4-5 negotiators monitoring all related international talks from now on. We’ve also heard that both Obama and McCain are pledging to be a part of this deal.

For the 1000 delegates convening here from 190 nations around the world, time is running out in this “City of Angles.” Where is the divine intervention that is needed to move this process along?

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change might have happened 4 months in the past but the video footage is still coming strong both in supply of footage and the messages from the youth that attended.

Here is a video featuring Jonathan Joanassie Edward Epoo who is an Inuit youth working to educate and engage other youth on the current changing conditions that climate change is causing to the region he lives in and to his culture.

The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report (HDR) is probably the most widely read document published by the UN every year. But the reports are not widely read by young people, which is why the UN is inviting young people to make a short, colourful summary of it.

The process is the same as before. If you did not take part last year, what we do is to create a task force of individual young people, school groups, etc. and get them to bring to life the key messages of the HDR with opinion pieces, reports, poems and stories, paintings, cartoons and photographs - so that everyone can understand these messages. The result is a beautiful, fascinating book entirely written and illustrated, designed and edited by young people. You can view the one we did last year here the design and editing is done by the young international interns here at the world-famous Peace Child International centre, near Cambridge, UK.

Contributors can watch the book come together, page by page, online. Also, you can suggest a different story, another photograph, painting or design element, just as if you were sitting at the Editorial Meeting table.

Continue reading ‘Help Create A United Nations Youth Climate Change Publication and Video Project’

A view from the Global South.

Editorial By Sunita Narain (Director, Center for Science & Environment, New Delhi)

Continue reading ‘Bali: The Mother of All No-Deals’

What Can the New President do from Day One on Global Warming?

This is a question that will probably get asked more and more, especially as the election season heats up and campaigns like 1Sky, Green for All, and a new entry: OnDayOne, launch. But the question has enormous ramifications, particularly in the wake of the Bali climate conference, where it was so obvious how the power of the presidency can shape foreign policy, even in the face of a hostile Congress. The question is wrapped up in questions of political capital, whether the winning candidate campaigned on global warming and has a ‘mandate’, or what the actual limits of legal authority the executive branch has on these issues.

However, as soon as you start thinking about what a new president can do, especially in light of the executive activism from the Bush Administration on the behalf of Big Coal, Big Oil, the Nuclear Industry, and the most reactive voices of industry …. a plethora of options become obvious. A new president could reverse the rule change that allowed coal companies to continue mountain top removal mining and to dump their waste in mountain streams and valleys. A new president could follow Speaker Pelosi’s lead and sign an executive order calling for the federal government to go carbon neutral and green the world’s largest building and vehicle stock in the world. Heck, the post office could raise rates on junk mail and reduce it dramatically overnight. A major issue would be granting California the waiver under the Clean Air act, that they requested and were denied under shady conditions to reduce greenhouse emissions from cars and trucks.

While all of these measures would be wonderful, the three major things the president can do are much more far reaching.

1. Under the Masschusetts vs. EPA Supreme Court Decision, under existing law - the president is required to come up with regulations on global warming pollutants. [Note: The best resource on the web for this is Warming Law, bar none.]
2. The President can direct his negotiators to engage in the UN climate process and stop blocking efforts by the EU and China from making progress in building a global agreement with teeth.
3. The President can finally use the power of the presidency and the Bully pulpit to finally end our oil addiction. [Note: see section of David Sandalow's book - "Freedom From Oil: How the Next President Can End the United States' Addiction to Oil"] Continue reading ‘What Can a New President do from Day One on Global Warming?’

In 2004, the Durban Group for Climate Justice convened in Durban, South Africa to question the central role of carbon trading and carbon offsets in governments’ responses to the climate crisis. Members of the Durban Group are traveling in various cities throughout the US and Canada in January, February, and March 2008 to share experiences of the failures of carbon trading in Europe, India, Brazil, Uganda and elsewhere, and to learn more about U.S. carbon trading plans and climate politics.

Five internationally recognized experts, fresh from the climate meetings in Bali, Indonesia, will be visiting campuses and communities throughout Canada and the US. With over fifty groups in over forty cities, they’ll speak on carbon trading, carbon offsets, the effects of climate change and current international campaigns to keep the fossil fuels in the ground and affect meaningful change.

Check out the complete list of tour dates.

UPDATED: There are still a handful of dates open if you want the speaking tour to come to your town. We’re still booking the east coast and the midwest for late February and early March! Contact falsesolutions AT risingtidenorthamerica DOT org to host a talk.

Continue reading ‘Members of Durban Group For Climate Justice on Carbon Trading Speaking Tour this Winter’

I enjoy taking the bus to work. For a 40 minute commute it costs me Rs. 7 (US$ 0.1 instead of Rs. 50 if I choose to take an auto-rickshaw. But today as the bus sat still for 40 minutes in the middle of the traffic choked road, I looked longingly at the High Capicty Bus Corridor that is still under construction. It is a project that has taken a long time to get the green light for a city which is now adding 1000 cars a day to its streets. The availability of credit has made it easier for the burgeoning middle class of India to buy more goods and one of the things that is on the top of many peoples’ list is the car. At this point in time it looks as if India is all set to embrace the car culture. With more money going into roads, parking spaces, construction of more flyovers and underpasses to decongest traffic, and the imminent arrival of India’s version of the Model-T, a $2,500 car built by India’s Tata Motors.

COP 13, Bali, Indonesia, December 2007:

“It is strange that India has been labeled as a major emitter, when we are not, we are simply a large country with a big population,” stated Minister of State of Environment & Forests, Meena at the side event hosted by the Indian delegation during the Bali conference. Yes, it’s true: India is a country of approximately 1.03 billion people (and rising) and still nearly 500 million of its citizens are living in the darkness. Nearly 700 million of its citizens depend on non-conventional fuels like biomass (dung and wood) for their energy needs. When the primary concern of the government is to electrify the entire nation by 2012, we know that the energy will be coming from coal-fed thermal power plants. In fact, India plans on building 150 of such plants within the next 5 years with China not far ahead at 200. When an audience member innocently asked what India could do to reduce emissions, he was replied with, “I am shocked that you would ask such a question after what you have heard here during our presentation.” Being an Indian citizen and at the same time a resident of the world’s largest emitter, the United States, I was having a hard time reconciling the need for India to grow and reduce emissions when the country is already on a pathway of development that the industrialized nations have laid. Continue reading ‘Incredible! India not Inclined to Tackle Climate Change?’

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.