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Disappointment, inspiration; hope and fear
At 4AM this morning, as I stood in line bleary-eyed, waiting for a cancelled flight and reading a sobering but beautiful collection of tiny Vonnegut essays, one piece, Requiem, struck a chord with me. An excerpt:
"The crucified planet Earth,
should it find a voice
and a sense of irony,
might now well say
of our abuse of it,
'Forgive them Father,
They know not what they do.'
The irony would be
that we know what
we are doing."
Now, as I ride the train through the hushed and snow-covered Adirondacks, making my way home on the shortest day of the year, this is on my mind as I reflect on the past weeks in Poland:
Disappointment, inspiration; hope and fear.
These four emotions riffed off each other throughout the conference for me: disappointment blindsiding hope, inspiration fueled by fear.
Somehow, even when I knew that Minister Prentice would never make a dramatic about-face in the plenary and declare progressive emissions targets for Canada, when I understood that the environment was far from Minister Renner's top priority, when I had heard diplomat after diplomat explain that Poznan was just a checkpoint, a formality, on the way to Copenhagen, I still felt that collapsing feeling inside me every time I heard the disharmony between the words of these world "leaders" and the urgency of the situation at hand.
The disheartening lack of commitment and leadership shown by Annex I countries, with Canada playing lead laggard fiddle, has helped to set the tone for negotiations over the year ahead, and it sounds like a discordant one. As the CMP was closing during the wee hours of the morning Friday night, an Indian negotiator said bitterly, after echoing many countries' disappointment over adaptation funding developments at the conference, "I think this shows us what we can expect for Copenhagen."
I desperately hope that it doesn't.
It cannot!
It must not.
We must ensure that 2009 brings an international climate agreement that will not allow for the melting of the Arctic sea ice sheet, entire nations being submerged, the displacement of millions of people, or the acceptance and perpetuation of the injustices behind the disproportionate distribution of the disastrous effects of climate change! And the world will not stand idly by while it happens - the most inspiring part of the conference was seeing how people from all over the globe and from all walks of life are doing everything they can to fight against climate change and fight for political climate action. The amazing team of young people that I had the honour of working with over the past two weeks has been so inspiring, and this inspiration, combined with fear, fills me with energy (kind of like in the dreams where you're about to die) to make sure that inspiration, justice, and hope are the notes that ring true through what is sure to be another emotional cacophony next year in Copenhagen. We know what we should be doing. Let's make sure there are enough of us.
"How Dare They Condemn Us?"
The jet-lag is slowly wearing off, and life is gradually settling back to normal here at home, but I can't shake this sense of urgency. There is so much that needs to happen between now and Copenhagen in December 2009.
The outcome of the Poznan conference means we are far from the goals that had been set out for this point on the road to a new climate change agreement. There was very little progress from last year?s Bali conference. I cannot comprehend why the world?s wealthiest nations are so selfishly concerned about money and power that they are putting our planet and its citizens at such inordinate risk.
Thankfully we have 3 billion youth around the world to rally the troops. You, me, our friends and family, their children and grandchildren, will all be targeted by this year?s International Youth Delegation to help spread the message that survival is not negotiable, and we need to have a new agreement text in place by Copenhagen in order to ensure the safety and survival of the world?s peoples. Talk to your politicians, your mayors and councilors, your parents, your bosses, and your friends. Spread the message far and wide ? there is no second chance, and as it stands now, we don?t have a back-up planet to move to if we really screw up.
During the final days of the conference, 15 youth were selected to present a speech at a ministerial luncheon. The speech below conveys our request more clearly than I ever could:
Look at your youth.
We are half of the world's population - three billion strong.
We stand together to say to those true leaders that have been driving forward the global solution - we support you and we will help you, you will be those leaders that history will remember.
To those that are waiting to take action or are standing still - history will forget you.
And to those who are actively holding us back, history will denounce you.
We want to believe in this process - but your actions, or rather inactions, are making it nearly impossible. But know this, young people are organized, we are building movements that transcend the boundaries that you fail to overcome.
We stand united with small islands states, with less developed nations, with indigenous peoples - with every underrepresented group. They have a right to survival. We will not accept failure.
Look at your youth.
Are we not your own children?
Why will you not hear our voice, even when we stand in front of you?
Are you so blinded not to see the madness of inaction and delay?
How can you expect us to stand by when you create a world not worth living in?
How dare you condemn us to an economy in ruins, a climate in chaos, a broken future?
Look at your youth. Look them in the eye.
Will you be the first leaders to take climate change seriously, or the last not to?
International Youth Climate Movement COP 14 Video
International Youth Climate Movement COP 14 from CYD to Poznan on Vimeo
The International Youth Climate Movement at COP 14 Poznan, Poland. Young Citizens, leaders of tomorrow, take over the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, urging the leaders of the world to take action on Climate Change. Photos by Robert van Waarden, Shadia Fayne Wood and David Wargert. For more information please visit http://www.youthclimate.org
Ten Weeks Later, Part 1
When the last gavel came down in Poznan this December, around 2:30 in the morning, it marked the end of my tenth week at the UN climate talks. From Nairobi to Bonn to Bali and back to Bonn I have tried to digest and process the enormity of it all - to understand the klimapolitik that inevitably drives it. Now that I'm finally back in the office, tilting quixotically at the windmills of my inbox, I'll try to tie the experience together. I'll try here, probably over several posts, to put COP14 in a broader context as we enter the home stretch to Copenhagen. Poznan has made me both more afraid and more hopeful than ever that this process will deliver.
First Final Impressions
Ever since I began my involvement with the UNFCCC process I have never doubted that something inspiring would happen in the end, that I would be there at that historic moment when countries finally put aside their national and geopolitical interests and rallied together to protect the world's most vulnerable people and it's most vulnerable generation: us. That moment quickly became pegged as December 2009, when the world would untie at COP-15 in Copenhagen to deliver a broad, ambitious and fair deal to follow after Kyoto in 2012. Now that doubt is looming large.
My faith in this power never flinched in Bali when we stayed up all night, phoning politicians, standing outside closed doors, lobbying delegates to give us a Bali breakthrough. Even when the US and Canada tried to block parts of the deal in the risky showdown of the final plenary I was confident they would not prevail. I am not so confident now.
If anything, Poznan has taught us that greed is still king.
This close to the critical Copenhagen moment it is particularly troubling. There has been very little indication that industrialised countries are willing to do much of anything, particularly to help the developing world. The incessant citation of 'national circumstances' made the conference something like a sad puppy contest, rather than a show of Annex I leadership. Pity us! We can't afford it! Oh, look, I just pooed on the floor. But I'm so cute!!!!! Meanwhile, the nations that are already bearing the brunt of climate change today are being called on to do more and more, without any commitment of finance or support or even a stronger package to help them adapt to the high "costs" our emissions are visiting on them. It's pathetic.
Will this change in time for Copenhagen, as I had always assumed it would? I am absolutely certain it will not, of its own accord. But the strength and energy of the youth at this conference, our show of solidarity will small-island states and least-developed countries, our ability to reach the public in every corner of the world, has given me something new to believe in. "Yes someone can!" seems to be the mantra of uninterested countries. It is our job to tell every government, particularly the heads-in-bottoms wealthy ones like our own, that someone is them. Only then can this process deliver.
Can we "afford" any other outcome?
Yvo da Bear Speach At High Level Opening at COP 14
A tale of two meetings
I'll post again with reflexions on the whole COP, but I just had a few thoughts I wanted to get down. The last few days were a whirlwind of emotions as we met with a parade of Canadian politicians, including Jim Prentice, federal minister of the environment, and Rob Renner, Alberta's environment minister.
Although these two meetings were very different from each other in many ways, what struck me about both of them was that these two people, the only ones in their governments specifically charged with protecting the environment, simply did not appear to have that principle as their top priority. I guess I knew that ministers don't always have extensive backgrounds in whichever portfolio they end up with, but I had never really thought about what that reality looks like.
Thinking about the meetings afterward, what I think made them so potent was that, although I've discussed climate issues so many times in so many fora, for the first time, I was discussing them with somebody who had the power to do something about them. While all past discussions I've had were essentially theoretical, these two had infinitely higher stakes. Probably it was for this reason that it was so frightening to hear what they, were saying - claiming a large chunk of the remaining "CO2 space" post-global emissions reductions for Alberta, focusing on nuclear and large hydro projects (not even mentioning wind power) for federal emissions reductions, and generally denying the necessity of reducing emissions from Annex I countries by 25-40% by 2020 (accepted as the necessary target to keep global warming below 2°C, beyond which disastrous tipping points are passed).
It's pretty scary.
The End, and the Beginning
It has been an incredibly emotional and exhausting last few days here in Poznan. On Friday, the 14th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change concluded with very little progress.
Developing countries pleaded into the wee hours of the night for a more rigorous outcome on issues such as indigenous rights in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries, and the Adaptation Fund that raises money from climate-friendly development projects to fund adaptation measures in developing countries.
Unfortunately, the economic crisis prevailed the agendas of the wealthiest nations, and resulted in a terrible stubbornness in their position. They refused to make Adaptation Funding more accessible, transparent, and profitable for developing countries. Some bully countries, including Canada, also pushed for language that intently does not recognize rights of indigenous peoples, but rather protects individual person's rights - a sneaky loophole that means they can put caps on deforestation practices, even if they are livelihoods for some of the worlds poorest and most isolated communities.
The developed North also succeeded in ensuring that there was very little additional ambition in terms of mitigating climate change in the new text. In fact, the "new" text was hardly a word different from what was agreed upon in Bali last year. Translation: no progress. We are really in a bad situation now to achieve a global agreement next year in Copenhagen that will ensure we have a new "Kyoto Protocol" in place before the current one expires in 2012.
But I have hope. The youth were once again an incredible force at the conference. Everyone noticed our energy, expertise, and dedication to this soul-consuming challenge. In our debrief this weekend, despite our despair and deflation, we found the energy to start building the next movement for Copenhagen. We defined our victories, and laid out a roadmap to get us there. There are plans to mobilize thousands of youth around the world, make climate change a voting issue in the developed north, and plan our policy strategies and actions to drive our governments to take stronger action next year in Copenhagen. It's not a want, it's a must. A need. Survival is non-negotiable. Climate change really is a matter of life and death for some on this planet, and we must never lose sight of this fact.
"How could we have faced disaster and extinction in the eye, and looked away knowingly?"
It has been said so much that it might be losing its effect, but it is worth repeating nonetheless that climate change is the most critical problem facing humanity and the survival of it. It is a problem that is going to require what no other problem in the past has required: full scale global co-operation on the part of each and every country in the world, for an issue that supersedes national boundaries. It is a problem that is challenging the discourse of what it means to achieve "progress" in society (which seems to have been defined with increased emissions spewing) and causing massive reflection on the way our world is, and the way we live our lives.
Evidence has already projected how rising sea levels and sea temperatures will effect the world, and the disasters of climate change through intensified natural disasters is just "a taste" of the full out calamity of what climate change will bring. Scientists who have dedicated their lives to the issue have said that global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2015 and then start to come down to combat the worst effects of climate change. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and for a new effective global agreement to begin in 2013, negotiations need to conclude in 2009 in Copenhagen.
As Yvo de Boer, executive secretary the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said, the countdown to Copenhagen is on and the failure for the world to agree on climate agreement would be "disastrous". But Poznan barely just reaffirmed what was established in Bali last year save for a few tiny victories, and many countries are still either delaying putting forth positions, or have put forth positions that do not address the problem at all (Canada).
The road to Copenhagen begins today, but will countries get their act together, and solve the greatest problem ever facing humanity? Or will people in the future look back at this time and think, how could we have faced disaster and extinction in the eye, and looked away knowingly?
Canada: the worst country at the Poznan UN talks
On the final day of negotiations at the Poznan UN Climate Conference, Canada was named the most obstructive country, winning a total of 10 "Colossal Fossil" awards. The Fossil awards are presented and selected from the Climate Action Network, a group that includes more than 400 non-governmental organizations.
"Canada played a shameful role here in Poznan, as this 'prize' confirms," said Dave Martin of Greenpeace Canada.
"Canada needs to stop blocking progress and finally start showing some leadership."
It was definitely difficult standing there and watching Canada be named the country that has been the most obstructive towards a new global climate agreement, especially with revelations a couple of days ago that Canada had the second worst climate change plan in the world, ahead of only Saudi Arabia.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing that I have witnessed is the various ways in which Minister Prentice and chief ambassador Michael Martin in Poznan have dodged the accusations and have kept insisting that they are playing a "constructive" role in Poznan.
"People are quite concerned about this and they've made it clear that they want to see this as a priority, and so the government is addressing it as such," Prentice said in a press conference which I attended.
"Not everyone necessarily agrees with our positions, however, we have been quite clear that we wish to be a constructive force in concluding an effective international protocol."
Minister Prentice insists that he believes in the climate science put forth by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) which calls for reduction targets of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020, however the proposals and positions being put forth are either defiant or completely ignore the science.
Also worrisome coming out of this conference are actions by Canada that have implications for indigenous peoples.
"The actions of Canada in Poland are designed to undermine the rights of indigenous people here and elsewhere," said AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine. "It's completely unacceptable."
As part of the talks, negotiators were considering the extent of the rights that indigenous people have over the forests they live in. But Canada and a number of other countries argued successfully against making mention of these rights in a new international climate-change pact.
With the political discourse now focusing on the economy, will the Canadian public notice and urge that climate change become a top priority? In my question to him, Minister Prentice suggested that he couldn't tell me "how often" climate change would come up in parliament. But with the deadline for a new climate agreement due in 2009 and Canada's damaging proposals currently being put forth, it seems to me that climate change should become the core issues that politicians and all Canadians should care about, before its too late.
Canadian youth to UN: "I feel ashamed when countries like mine who have so much, do so little."
At the end of long line of country statements to the UN on their positions on climate change, intergovernmental organizations and civil society members were allowed to make a strictly 2 minute max speech. The international youth was also "given" space to make a statement as well.
Half the world's population. And two minutes to heard on an issue we would have to deal with the consequences with.
Taryn McKenzie-Mohr of Canada, Leah Wickham of the South Pacific Islands, Eline Crossland of Denmark, and Kartikeya Singh of India, addressed the UN plenary with a no-holds bar plea for countries to get their act together, and stop delaying.
The following is the entire speech in full:
Taryn (Canada)
?I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world.?
Those were the words of a young girl addressing the Rio Summit. At the time of that speech I was just a year old, 16 years later you are still unable to reach an agreement to secure my future.
I feel ashamed when countries like mine who have so much, do so little. I feel outraged when they trade basic human rights for their own self interest. Developed countries must show leadership and if they don?t it will be the most unconscionable act in the history of humanity.
Kartikeya (India)
In my ancestral village in, India, farmers have never been to a shopping mall, nor have they had the luxury of owning a car. NO, they do not know the words ?global warming,? but they do know that the seasons are changing.
Address this global challenge, overcome greed and fear. Greed is embedded in the ?growth? culture of wealthy nations. Our fear stops us from changing to the sustainable lifestyle, the sustainable economy we need.
We ask for leadership that overcomes these barriers.
Leah Wickham (South Pacific Islands)
For small island nations, negative climate impacts are happening today.
Our islands are drowning. We are going underwater.
We have a right to existence on this earth.
This right is no less than developed nations, but, if you do not take action, we face the loss of our islands, our culture and our identity.
Over 80 nations have signed the youth pledge calling for the survival of all countries and peoples.
This must form the basis of the next agreement and we will hold you to your word.
Eline (Denmark)
This week, my region has grieved us deeply this week by failing to take bold action.
We need your courage. Other countries are backing away from previous commitments. We need your ambition.
Change may be coming, but we need hope to translate into action.
Do not derail our journey to a sustainable future.
The train to Copenhagen is already moving, youth are on board, are you?
Survival is not negotiable.
