Reflections of Wongderful Adventures in Brokenhagen

Chaos at COP15! (Photo courtesy of Farhad Pocha)


Ah, that's better. The 2009 Climate Change Science and Policy Field School Class at COP15. (Courtesy of Farhad)

Friday 29 January 2010

It's been over a month since the end of COP15 and our ANU course. I'm in New York City, staying with my host family from my high school exchange. It's been almost five years since that experience and I'm still reflecting on how that experience has affected me and shaped my subsequent experiences. Similarly, I am sure that my experiences at COP15 will continue to be a part of me and impact me in unforseen ways. I experienced so much during those brief two weeks.

ANU Course

I would not have been in Copenhagen at COP15 without ANU, Janette, Kiri, Shannon and the Climate Change Science and Policy Field School. It was the best ANU course I have ever taken. I feel like I can say that definitively because of all that I learnt in such a brief period of time. I only wish that more university courses were "hands on". Laura said on the day of our presentations, "I've learnt more in this two week course than I have in the past four years of my degree." If you substitute "two years" into the "four years" part, I would agree! I also really enjoyed my classmates' company. I loved the conversations we had about climate change and not climate change.

As an Asian Studies/Law student, most of my courses are very specific and examine aspects of the law and Asia. It was refreshing to take a science and policy course on climate change, an issue we have not covered in any of my other courses in my degree. As I'm in the United States at the moment, I have been catching up with old friends from my school I went to on exchange and meeting other young Americans. Many of them are at university taking general undergraduate degrees. Prior to taking ENVS3001, I thought their degrees very broad and somewhat of a waste of time. What is the point of doing general courses if you know what you want to study? After experiencing ENVS3001, I really understand the value of a general, undergraduate degree where you have the opportunity to take a variety of courses. It is good for the brain to be stretched in different directions through different areas of study. It is good for the student not to be locked into studying one, specific area, generally at the age of 18 or 19. It has been good for me to learn as much as I can about a variety of different issues surrounding climate change. It engages me with the world and allows me to approach my speciality, Asian Studies and Law, from other angles. For example, now I am interested in studying International Environmental Law. When I go on exchange to China, I would be interested in getting involved with the Chinese Youth Climate Coalition.

Taking the pre-requisite course, Climate Change Science and Policy was a solid introduction to some of the issues of climate change. It covered the science of climate change which I believe is an important foundation for people interested in climate change (which should be everyone!). It also gave us an introduction to some aspects of climate change policy. I know I will spend my whole life learning about climate change because it is such an enormous issue. (As an aside, I met a girl at COP15 who is taking a minor in climate change at her American university. I am surprised I have not heard of an undergraduate climate change major at any Australian university.) But taking this follow up course provided me with the opportunity to really get a crash course in climate change science and policy.

What I learnt

In the two weeks, I learnt about technology transfer from a student from ETH Zurich whom I met at the IARU day; I learnt about the Clean Development Mechanism from a girl from India who is involved with the implementation of CDM in her region; I learnt about the UNFCCC process from a French law student who specialises in international environmental law; I learnt about Australia's ETS, its strategy to divide the Liberal Party and its flaws from an Australian guy who is writing his thesis on it; I learnt about the Yasuni Initiative from a Dutch girl who is in Ecuador working on the project; I learnt about REDD and LULUCF from The Wilderness Society, Masters and PhD students, Indigenous people who have directly been affected by the programs. Getting involved in the International Youth Forest Working Group was the best thing I did at COP15. Not only did I learn so much about forests, Indigenous rights, REDD and LULUCF, I was also able to closely track the REDD negotiations at COP15. It provided me with an opportunity to see how NGOs lobby negotiators; I saw how a text can evolve; I saw how NGOs can get their text into the official text; I learnt that lobbying involves not only talking to delegates but also doing actions, dressing up in silly costumes, singing songs, standing in silence, using the media and encouraging as many people as possible to learn about the issue and lobby people they know.

I learnt about different countries' attitudes towards tackling climate change. I learnt about great Dutch recycling programs for all households. I learnt about the terrible Canadian tarsands. I learnt about how my friend from Zimbabwe does not know when the rain will come which affects his family's ability to grow crops. These are just a snapshot of the conversations I had about climate change policy with other young people at COP15.

I also learnt so much from the side events and workshops I attended at COP15. There were so many to choose from every single day. I also learnt from speeches I heard from university lecturers, UNICEF, UNITAR, international lawyers, scientists, activists, young people and some of the global leaders of climate change including Al Gore, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (Chair of the IPCC), Ban Ki-Moon (UN Secretary General), Yvo De Boer (Executive Secretariat of the UNFCCC), Laurence Pollier (UNFCCC Secretariat for Youth at COP15) and other scientists, academics and policy makers from universities around the world.

I learnt about inspiring initiatives from every corner of the world ranging from: 350ppm campaigns, roadtrips through different countries with the aim of learning and engaging about climate change, the use of technology and the internet to link up broader civil society to COP15 and climate change movements, Global North fundraising for the Global South to come to COP15, the list goes on and on.

I learnt you can learn things from everyone and I learnt that the more people and experiences you engage with, the more you learn. For example, it was only through making friends with other young people at COP15 that I heard about the Penny Wong briefing five minutes prior to it beginning.

Perhaps most importantly I learnt that climate change is something that doesn't end at COP15. Climate change is something me, my friends, my generation and future generations will be dealing with for our lifetimes. The earlier more people start to learn about and engage with it, the better. Because the reality is that we will all have to learn about and engage with it throughout our lifetimes.

Official Negotiations and Outcome

The official negotiations were a joke. I was so embarrassed to be at a conference which wasted so many peoples' time and resources. Don't get me wrong, I got a lot out of COP15 and I'm sure many of the participants did. In fact, I would argue that one of the best things to come out of COP15 was the global climate change movement of civil society and the momentum COP15 gave it.

But in terms of the official negotiations, I was shocked at the way they worked. I was shocked at the stalling techniques that different countries (developed and developing) used. If you read a couple of the blog entries I wrote during the conference, you'll be able to see the particular examples I am talking about. I was shocked at Australia's negotiators and I was embarrassed to be an Australian at the conference. Going to COP15 has made me very interested in climate change and the global movement. Going to COP15 has also made me very disinterested in ever working for the Department of Climate Change.

I went into COP15 hearing that a legally binding deal would not come out of the conference. I spent the whole conference hoping that would not be the case. But indeed, a very, very weak deal came out of COP15. It is "politically binding" which means countries can commit to voluntary targets. They are supposed to announce their commitments by February 1 so I will be interested to see what happens with that. I was unimpressed at China and the US. Both of them knew they would be instrumental in getting a strong deal at COP15 and used it to their advantage to manipulate the situation in favour of themselves. The commentaries say REDD was the "feel good" story of COP15 because there was an improvement in the REDD text. I don't think it is acceptable for negotiators and heads of state to hide behind something like REDD which is really just one, small aspect of tackling climate change. All in all, the official negotiations and outcome were very disappointing.

Blog

I was secretly delighted when I saw the assessment for this course. I have kept a diary since we had to keep a "Year 1 holiday journal" in 1995 for school. I would have kept a diary regardless of whether or not I was being assessed on it. I like writing during something intense like COP15 so I can gather my thoughts throughout the conference. I like writing so that after the fact I can go back and read about how I was feeling and what I experience from my perspective. I also like the idea that one day, in twenty or thirty years, I will be able to look back on an experience with a biased clarity! Even re-reading my blog has been revealing. For example, you can see the emotional rollercoaster of COP15 and how tired, jubilant, disheartened, enthusiastic, excited, shocked, overwhelmed I was during COP15, reflected in my blog entries.

Since I have never kept a blog before, I was apprehensive but decided the blog format would be the best format for my digital diary and would provide me with the opportunity to learn a new set of skills. And learn a new set of skills I did! I learnt how to upload videos onto Youtube, use Google's Picasa, use blogger.com and use Google search to teach it all to me! I'm really happy I decided to use a blog rather than just a Word document which is something I can already do. Who knows, maybe I'll keep this blog for future Wongderful adventures!

Report

This reflection sounds really corny but I have never enjoyed writing a paper as much as the paper I am currently writing. It was been really difficult as I am still travelling and have been lugging around a backpack worth of materials from COP15 for my report. It has also been difficult to find time to write the report as I've been staying with different friends and family and there's always something to distract me. But once I sit down to write, I enjoy being able to write about first hand experiences. I enjoy not having to constantly refer to academic literature. I enjoy being able to tie in different aspects of COP15 into my report – side events, workshops, activities, negotiation sessions, etc.

The most enjoyable aspect of the report has been the opportunity for me to interview people for it. I started doing interviews informally at the Conference of the Youth (COY) before COP15 even started. I continued chatting to people about my topic, Youth Participation, throughout COP15. I made some contacts including the UNFCCC Secretariat for Youth at COP15, Seb who was the primary driver of YOUNGO receiving youth constituency for the first time at COP15 and Aiden who was the one paid employee of YOUNGO, YOUNGO's community catalyst. Post COP15, I have been in frequent contact with these three people and I have also emailed and skyped with several other people who are heavily involved in the international youth climate movement (IYCM). I have been so touched at how much time people have given me. Some people have literally given me hours and hours of their time.

I've been learning a lot for my report but I have also been learning about the history and nature of the IYCM. The more I learn, the more I realise how enormous it is. The more I learn, the more I realise how many different ways you can get involved. One aspect of my report is about capacity building, particularly for the Global South. One element of this is collecting documents from different youth networks about the basics of climate change, the history of the IYCM, the structure of YOUNGO, etc. Aiden was telling me how much difficulty he has been having collecting the documents to put into a quasi database. Something I am quite interested in doing after this report is uploading the data I have collected for this report onto the IYCM website or google group or wikiportal.

Overall, I feel overwhelmed by my report. The topic is so much bigger than I initially thought. It is ironic I was concerned that focussing on "youth" would be too limiting! There is a lot of information out there, just so long as you know where to look! It isn't the places we are taught to research in - it isn't in the usual places like online databases, academic journals and libraries. Rather, it is through word of mouth, emailing, following up the emails, skyping and connecting people who have been involved in the movement for much longer than I have! I feel like I could write a thesis on the topic I have chosen. I actually would be interested in doing further research on the topic if the opportunity presented itself.

Conclusion

As I said at the beginning of this post, I experienced so much that I am still processing it all and know I will process it for many months to come. I should probably write another reflection post in six months or so.

What now? I want to get involved at a local level, maybe through the ANU Environmental Collective. I am interested in doing an ANUGreen Internship. Things are constantly changing and developing in climate change and I would like to keep learning about it all. I'm excited!

 

COP15 By Numbers

This was taken from Scanorama – the Scandinavian Airlines Magazine 12/01: Editor in Chief Per Olsson. Special Advertising Supplement COP15: Editor Jorgen Hog. I read it on the plane from Copenhagen to Paris. I think it provides a good overview of COP15.

• Bella Center – 76 000 square metres (including four newly-built pavilions providing an extra 10 000 square metres)
  
• IT – 2400 PCs and 700km of cables
  
• Security – Approximately 6000 of Denmark's 11 000 police will be involved with the COP
  
• Food and Drink – 100 000 meals, 11 restaurants, 65% of all food served is organic
  
• Accommodation – 'Stay for Free' Programme run by the New Life Copenhagen Organisation (www.houseing.cop15.dk and www.newlifecopenhagen.com)
  
• Transport – 150 limousines for official VIP transport, 150 minivans to escort VIP convos; free public transport for other delegates
  
• No gift policy – even minister to minster gifts have been banned – 11 Climate Scholarships for fully financed two year Master's degree in various climate and energy sciences at Danish universities
  

YOUNGO at COP15 Wraps Up

Sunday 20 December 2009

We had the YOUNGO Wrap-Up event today. It was a half-day event held where the Conference of the Youth was held. We reflected on the youth movement from Poznan until now; the past two weeks; the role of YOUNGO; YOUNGO's shared vision; the influence of YOUNGO in decision making and negotiations; improvements and suggestions for COP16; what we are going to do riding on the momentum of COP15; what we are going to do back at home.


YOUNGO group debrief session at the place where it all began with COY!

Some really interesting things came out of the small group discussions. The Youth Forest WG seemed to get really positive responses from all who were members – Maya said it was the best thing she did and Swati said for the first three days of COP15 she was feeling really lost until she found YFWG. Bruno said all policy groups should aim to be like YFWG but lamented that that would require multiple "Gemmas" who knew the policy, were creative, could mobilise youth and were passionate about what we were doing.

We spoke about developing mentoring roles for the next COP because one of the problems of youth movements is that they are very mobile. We spoke about building up more partnerships between the Global North and Global South – like Britain/Kenya; Australia/Pacific Islands. There was mention of India/Maldives; US/Caribbean. There were ideas about going home and having a film screening and Q&A about our experiences at COP15; using all sorts of festivals to spread the message of climate change like "Love the climate" on Valentine's Day.

After the small group discussions, we came together to hear from Lina about the focal points, we sang about world peace (sometimes YOUNGO sounds corny on paper but it always seems to work at the time) and then had a free vegetarian buffet which was delicious. During the buffet I looked around the room and saw about 50 people sitting around, sharing lunch. I had met several of the group at Conference of the Youth and others throughout the two weeks inside the Bella Centre. There were others that I hadn't yet met. But I couldn't believe how empowered everyone was to be at the wrap-up event after everything we had experienced and the sleepless nights many had had working on youth policy, actions, logistics, events and other unexpected things that popped up from the COP.


And we're all still here, alive and eating!

We had a great conversation at our table with Paul Ferris, Ron from Malaysia, Bruno, Anna from Sweden and me about the youth movement and such things. I've written notes which I think I'll use in my final report. Paul mentioned I should post my final report on the unfccc_youth google group but I said I intimidated. He said I should just put a disclaimer on it and even if it is rubbish, it'll be more of a reflection than most other people.

Kirk from New Zealand and I walked home together and I went to meet Shaun and Meg who were at a Christmas service at Marie Kirche near Central Station.


My second church service in two weeks - and I'm not even religious. Sitting through a service conducted entirely in another language is particularly conducive to naval gazing!

 

Quotes:

Meg:

"So you get an Australian Military Medal after four years. La-aa-me"

"Bloody random .... goddamn random"

"Since getting married, you learn to not care what people think. I don't really give a shit anymore."

"Then the bitch chief said to pretty officer ..."

Shaun: "Maybe you should write a blog for yourself ... I don't know if Janette needs to know about the scary guy, us not knowing how to use the washing machines, almost running off without paying ..."

 

Possible research topics for next time:

• Nuclear (is it being talked about?; anti campaigns; etc.)
  
• Fossil of the Day plus reactions
  
• Supreme Master Vegan and other outside campaigns, impacting on the inside
  
• Following the media back home and what they choose to focus on
  
• Women and gender
  
• Children and babies
  
• Girl Guides/Scot movement – linked into something bigger
  
• Blockage and strategies used in negotiations (eg. Saudi Arabia)
  
• Unexpected issues that arise during the conference eg. Lockout in Week 2 – impact it has on NGOs, civil society – stifling of voices and debate
  

 

Protect Indigenous Rights. Watch Avatar.

Saturday 19 December 2009

I think I ran myself into the ground over the past two weeks. I woke up feeling not so good and spent the day sleeping a cold off. We went to see Avatar this evening. Avatar was surprising pertinent to COP15. Meg came along which facilitated particularly interesting discussion since Meg's topic was about Indigenous people.


Avatar the movie provides insightful commentary on the struggle of Indigenous people to have their rights to the forests recognised. Sounds like something else I've been learning about!

Avatar is about a planet which humans want to mine however there are Indigenous people who live in the forests. Some of the issues raised in the film related to issues raised during the COP15 about Indigenous peoples' rights, whether there should be a Declaration of the Mother Earth (like Bolivia suggested), reasons to protect the world's forests, how greed seems to corrupt developed societies. It made me think about how Indigenous people have lived off the land and the forests for hundreds of thousands of years and now we want to pay them to do so because they need to sell their forests for monetary gain. It made me think about how agriculture requires non-forest land. It made me think about how most developed countries have cut down almost all their forests and now expect developing countries to save their forests in order to sequester carbon and help curb global emissions. Oh the inequality!

Reflections at the Laundromat Cafe

Friday 18 December 2009

We all slowly tumbled out of bed this morning feeling the effects of last night! Our bombshell of a room slowly improved as we began to pack up. We said our goodbyes and Shaun and I headed to the Laundromat Cafe to do some much needed laundry.

It became an all day ordeal when we got there – the place was mainly cafe with four washing machines and two dryers. I think it was much more expensive to do the laundry here than it would have been down the street but the vibe was great and we had lunch and hot chocolates while waiting. It's quite a creative business venture and if the youth hostels in Canberra didn't have laundries attached to them, I'd be tempted to set up a Laundromat Cafe back home!

We lugged our luggage back to the bus stop. While we waited for the bus, a scary guy started talking to us. I never know how to handle it when people who are intimidating start harassing you. On the one hand, they clearly want you to engage and we couldn't really walk away, but at the same time, once we started engaging, he got right up into our faces and told us that climate change was up to God, Allah or whoever we believe in and we were wasting our time in Copenhagen. This really has been two weeks of a plethora of opinions on how to (or not) take action on climate change!

We got on our bus and finally got to our hotel where we dumped our stuff and went to have dinner with Phoebe, Bella, Meg, Jasmin, her boyfriend Mark, Simon and Marcus. A week previous, we had trekked halfway around Kongens Nortov to try to find "Cantina Workshop" only for it to be completely packed when we got there. We had been meaning to go back since but hadn't gotten around to it. The meal was pretty great – very authentic Asian fusion.

Phoebe, Shaun, Jasmine and I were reflecting on life changing experiences and whether this had been one. I agreed with Phoebe when she said it was too early to tell and she would have to reflect in 6 months on it. We spoke about how some life changing experiences come from the most unexpected places like random, part time jobs or meeting a particular person. But without a doubt, I have learnt so much over the past 10 days.

In her thank you speech on behalf of all of us to Janette, Laura said she learnt more in this 10 day course than all her other 20 courses at university combined. I'd have to somewhat echo this sentiment. I have never met so many young people from so many different countries. But not only were they from so many different countries, they were from such diverse backgrounds within their own countries.

I've learnt more about forests and LULUCF and REDD than I ever thought I would know. I've learnt about CDM and some of the challenges faced by low lying islands. I've learnt that I never want to be an Australian negotiator. I've learnt that there are many ways you can go out into the world and do good. I've learnt that we can each make a little difference, even if it is just dressing up as an elf and singing Christmas carols. I've learnt about the power of a mass movement like the youth movement. I've learnt I have so much to learn. I've learnt about the complexities of climate change and how much more I have got to learn!

 

Class Presentations

Thursday 17 December 2009

This morning we set off to the University of Copenhagen to do our class presentations. It took a while to get there as the Metro was snowed in so we had to change metros a couple of times. Tom and a couple of others got really into the snowball fights! Poor Bella seemed miserable because she had a cold and we were out amongst the elements for a while!


You can take the protestors out of the Bella Centre but you can't take the protestors away from the Bella Centre!


Freezing on the metro platform!

We made it to the University of Copenhagen campus in Freidrisberg. There were a couple of students and a professor from the University of Copenhagen who sat in and listened to a couple of the presentations.

I was really excited to hear about everyone's different projects. I'd heard about what a couple of people were doing when speaking to them over the past week or so (and Bella, Jasmin, Meg and me had spoken at the end of most days about what we saw and experienced) but I hadn't heard about everyone's projects.

Climate change is such an enormous issue and you could study it for your whole life and still not know everything. As a result, everyone had very different topics which were all fascinating in their own way. I was surprised that there were three themes which quite a number of people focussed on: climate justice; NGOs; Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). Although, upon reflection, these were three areas that were very prominent through the COP. The most vulnerable countries had quite a presence at the COP, there were so many NGOs that they got locked out of the COP in the second week and REDD was the "feel good" story of the COP.

I liked that the presentations were somewhat grouped together based on categories. As a result, we were able to hear about the complexity of each issue. For example, Laura, Luke and Shaun were all exploring different aspects of climate justice. Meg is looking at Indigenous rights (but not really REDD) whereas Rob is looking at Indigenous perspectives and REDD. Fern and Karen are both examining REDD while Phoebe and Alexei are looking at Environmental NGOs whose focus seemed to be REDD at this conference.

I really enjoyed hearing about topics I had no idea about. I had never heard of geoengineering prior to Anita's presentation. Likewise, I found Erik's topic on renewables and Farhad's topic on international aviation completely new. There were a couple of topics I wish I could have done! For example, Michael's topic on 350 – he looked at the 350 movement, the science behind 350, the effect of 350 (or lack thereof) on oceans, etc. I though Marcus gave an great speech and his topic had quite a bit of overlap with what I had originally set out to explore so it was interesting to hear about what might have been my project!

Nevertheless, after hearing all the presentations, I was still happy with my choice of topic. Everyone approached the course with very different goals – some really wanted to learn about the science, others wanted to connect with NGOs, others still wanted to learn about the negotiating process. I really wanted to connect with other youth from around the world. My topic was very conducive to achieving this goal.

Overall, I thought listening to the presentations was one of the most engaging aspects of the two weeks. It may sound odd because we have experienced so many amazing things. But reflection is really important and both listening to the other presentations and giving my presentation were very conducive to reflecting on the crazy two weeks. The sandwiches we had from the student run "Greenhouse Cafe" were also the best sandwiches I had ever had in my life.


Lunch break during the presentations. The University of Copenhagen generously hosted us.


Crazy Will goes stir crazy! I've enjoyed chatting to Will. He's become much more than just an adversary who always asks the hard questions to our guest lecturers in class. He was explaining to me the Greens policy of no compromise the other day. I've always been perplexed at why the Greens don't work with Labor for a stronger ETS but Will said that's not the point of the Greens. If they compromised, they wouldn't be the Greens anymore. They would become the Labor Party.

After the presentations, a group of us headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks. I had a lovely chat with Laura and Anita, two people I hadn't really gotten to know previously. Erik was telling me about his Masters and his work. One thing I've really enjoyed about this course are the variety of people I've had the opportunity to engage with. I've never taken a course with such a diverse group of people from different backgrounds.

After the presentations, Karen gave us a great piece of advice to those of us who have never had a full time job. She said to do what we enjoy because you never know where that will lead you. It's something you hear quite frequently but hearing it from someone who has experienced it and someone I respect is much more meaningful.

But I digress – we went to some amazing steak house for the last supper before everyone dispersed around the globe. Anita and Kiri made a "Most likely list" (some of the ones I remember were):

Luke: Mr Tough guy

Shaun: Most likely to go to bed wearing his registration tag

Isabela: Most Bogan

Michael: Most unexpected hippie

Meg: Most likely to marry Desmond Tutu

Sarah: Most likely to find Nemo

Tom: Most Koala

Steph, Jo, Molly: Most under the radar

Jahla: Most awake

Michelle: Most asleep

Most likely to make Erik to sleep on the floor: Shannon, Grant, Farhad

Alexei: Man of the people

Sue-Lin/Phoebe: Most likely to get arrested

Joel: Mr Photographer

We headed out to karaoke after dinner and danced and sang into the night. I fell asleep on the metro home after two hectic weeks!

A Day on the Outside

Wednesday 17 December 2009

I slept in this morning knowing that I wouldn't have a pass to get in! Jasmine and I woke up to the police outside our window, engaged in a crazy chase of protesters. The police were kicking people and running after them. There were helicopters and bus-like police vehicles speeding around. There were sirens galore. At breakfast, all the television screens were covering footage of our hotel – unfortunately it was in Danish so I couldn't understand. One man generously translated for us although it was very generic because I don't think even the news stations knew what was going on!

Today was the big day for protestors, particularly as many of the NGOs were locked out and thus perhaps had more time on their hands.

We heard Brendan Mackey and Jennie Gould from the ANU speak. We are very fortunate to hear from leading experts in their fields! Jennie Gould told me not to have four kids – "any more than two is irresponsible". After the session, I asked Brendan about the role of youth and he was insightful – he said young people can get away with more – they can be more radical and out there and still be part of the dialogue because that is what young people do. I thought that was a really valid point.

I went back upstairs, fussed around and went over to Fields to buy a phone and eat lunch. Back at the hotel lobby, Alexei and I tried unsuccessfully to do some preparation for our presentations tomorrow. Instead, we were tracking the bloggers inside the conference who were reporting that Friends of the Earth had been barred from COP15 and as a result, all NGOs had been barred from COP15. The other NGOs were angry at Friends of the Earth (or at least there was cyber anger!). We listened to Hugo Chavaz's speech/rant on the live stream and heard that my favourite person Connie Hedegaard was resigning. We had previously heard whispers so it was not that surprising. It was also enlightening comparing what the Australian news was reporting on back home and what we perceived was going on here.


One of the posters on the wall at Klimaforum. Klimaforum is the People's Forum during COP15. By the time I went, it had turned into an ad hoc NGO nesting ground since the NGOs had now been officially kicked out of COP15. I could feel the roots of the environmental movement around me. It was less sheek and more gritty than the Bella Centre!

I went into town to the Klimaforum to hear an event about the youth movement in the US Midwest. I interviewed Jesse Tolkan who is one of the leaders of the US youth climate change movement. The side event was run by the Will Steger Foundation which is an organisation which promotes climate change action. A group of young people from the US Midwest form a delegation which goes to COPs. The young people explained why the Midwest is the "purple" region of the US and therefore how crucial it is to be an effective at lobbying Midwestern politicians. Similar to Australia, they are a coal reliant area so it was interesting to hear and compare their opinions on coal mining.

I met up with Phoebe, Alexei, Fern, Will and a new friend from Venezuela and we went to Kebabish for dinner. We went back to the hotel and celebrated Earth Hour in the lobby. I had the opportunity to speak to Rob and Erik for the first time. Everyone has so much knowledge and stories about COP (amongst other things!) to share! We finally decided we had better do some work and turned out attention to writing our presentation slides!

Sue-Lin’s successful secondary-pass sojourn

Tuesday 15 December 2009

This morning I sprung out of bed at 7.45 when Jasmine informed me I was on the 8-12 shift for the rotating passes. I assumed I hadn't been allocated one because I wasn't listed on the original email. However, not one to miss an opportunity to get into the Bella Centre, I raced downstairs, grabbed roll and a pass, vaguely arranged that I would hand my pass to Marcus and got to the Bella Centre.

It was madness trying to get in. I saw Siri and a couple of my other Swedish friends and I stood in line next to a journalist turned NGO who told me not to get into journalism because "journalism doesn't know where it is going". He said newspapers are a dying industry, particularly in smaller towns and internet is the way it is going. However, he went onto say that even sites like the Huffington Post only have 8 full time employers and everyone else is either voluntary or freelance. It took us about an hour to get into the centre – although the registration line for passes went for literally miles.

The NGOs, etc. seemed to have realised the potential for advertising their products and walked up and down the lines advertising side events, projects, handing out brochures, etc. Although I didn't see it, I heard they were handing out museli bars, etc. after learning from the experience of Monday.

I was cold but time passes much more quickly when you have someone to speak to.

I got inside, popped into an event on children and the role they play in negotiations called "Child-centred climate change adaptation" run by Plan International. I didn't stay for very long as I wanted to do the action of the day but got a couple of pamphlets that look helpful for my assignment.

We did the REDD-it REDD-it protest although Prince Charles didn't appear, as we had hoped. Prince Charles works closely with rainforests and he was arriving today so we thought if we did an action targeted at him, we would at least receive some press. That was an understatement. We sang our little hearts out from 10-11am and I have never seen so much press cover us. I think it was a combination of more press arriving for the second week , us being in a prime location (the walkway between the documents centre and main eating section) and the first day of passes meaning there were less NGOs and thus less for the press to cover.


Prince Charles, this one is for you. The frogs go "REDD-it, REDD-it" and you'll save the forests.

It was exciting because I got interviewed by a Canadian interviewer – I now wish I had gotten her card so I could look up the documentary. It was the first interview I had done as part of the Youth Forest Working Group – she told me I sung the "loudest" so they picked me. It definitely wasn't because I sung the most in tune! The interview definitely tested my knowledge on REDD but it was really satisfying speaking, albeit briefly on the topic, because it proved (at least to myself!) that I had learnt even a little! I spoke about the need for us to protect forests because sequestration is just as important as emissions reductions; protecting forest by having strong safeguards; the problematic definition of forests including plantations; protecting indigenous rights.

It was very overwhelming when we finished the protest because Luke, Alexei, Shaun and I thought we only had one more hour in the Bella Centre – forever! So we didn't really know how to make the most of it – we ended up going to a contact group which never started. We headed to Hans Christen Andersen for the AWG-KP which took ages to begin.


I come from the land down under! And I also very embarassingly come from the land of Steve Fielding.


Phoebe looks on with delight as we prepare to ambush Steve Fielding. Shaun and Luke are in the background listening to our Senator with horror.

I tried to contact Marcus to figure out where to meet him. He very generously wrote back saying the lines were really long and I might as well stay in and make the most of it. I will always be grateful to him for that because I got to see some incredible things following this news!

We looked through the side-program only to see some incredibly high calibre events on with US Governors, Canadian Premiers, other subnational leaders. We decided we would try to see Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Gore, Ban Ki Moon and Wangari Maathai and try to get into the Opening Ceremony.

Tickets were needed for Al Gore and Arnie and since we hadn't thought we would be inside for their events, we hadn't lined up in the morning. (Also, I hadn't properly read the Daily Program – rookie error. ) Luckily, we got into the Arnie event – the tickets were pink and I had a pink cloak room ticket which I just waved at security who seemed fine with it. Shaun came in in the mad rush – I must admit security has been a bit of a joke in this sense! Very lucky for us though!

We sat next to a journalist who started her own website "The Lone Reporter" who gave us a run down of what it is like being Media at the conference. Check out http://lonereporter.com. She said we should have just walked into the Press Conference room in the first week because they were being much stricter in the second week. I would love to come to the COP as media!


Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would be back!

Arnie spoke a lot about doing things at a sub-national level. He said he would never have just waited for the national government to act. He spoke about the power of the scientists, the local government, the individuals and the activists. He said no matter what, this COP was not a failure because it has brought the focus onto climate change. I thought it was saccharine sweet. Also, I think it is soft when you talk about the success of "bringing the focus onto climate change". I mean, countries are going under water, people are dying and yet no meaningful agreement still makes for a successful conference. Please. He even ended with his trademark "I'll be back".


Wangari Maathai Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Ban Ki Moon UN Secretary General, Achim Steiner UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program on stage for the UN Messenger of Peace Ceremony.

We stayed in the vicinity to see Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai become a UN Messenger of Peace. There were brief speeches from Ban Ki Moon, Wangari and the other (famous) guy. There were some q&a although the moderator was very firm to say that the questions could only pertain to Wangari Maathia becoming a Messenger of Peace. It quickly became about the COP and whether a meaningful agreement could be met. Some guy from Brazil did a massive plug for his NGO which related to forests which I guess has a strong link to Wangari. He even was bold enough to offer the UN SG a pamphlet which one of his assistants took. I was appalled by his audacity and his lack of respect for everyone else's time.

There was a question to Wangari about what message you would give to the world's youth. My pen was poised. I was ready. And then she didn't really answer the question. I wanted to ask Ban Ki-Moon a similar question but I didn't have the guts to. Instead, some guy in front of me asked an obscure question about how Korean youth can become world leaders. I was so angry because it seemed like a wasted opportunity, particularly when Ban Ki-Moon replied about the world's youth becoming world leaders which led to a very generic, open answer.


UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon presents Wangari Maathai with her UN Messenger of Peace Certificate.

We made our way to the Al Gore event which had an enormous queue. We almost gave up – I even went to check my email – only to hear that one of the lines was for people without tickets.


Whenever we had a minute or so to kill, we'd head to one of the enormous computer sections of COP15. You could always find a computer.

We patiently stood in line and our perseverance paid off. We got in and even got reasonably good seats. I was pretty inspired. I would say he was one of the most memorable speakers from the COP – and I had the opportunity to hear some unforgettable stories from inspirational speakers (as clichéd as that sounds!) He spoke about the importance of the next three days and the need for a meaningful outcome. He announced that we cannot allow COP15 to be Doha. He compared climate change to tackling the problem of the ozone layer (although I would have to disagree with his analogy. I think climate change is far more complicated.) There was less candyfloss in his speech than in Arnie's speech.


Al Gore tells us more inconvenient truths.

We were getting pretty cocky and thought we'd be able to push our way into the Welcome session which was the event of the ceremony. The Danish PM, Prince Charles, Connie Hedergaard, Yvo de Boer, Ban Ki-Moon and Wangari Mathai all spoke. I was really surprised that every single one of them spoke well and added something new to the ceremony. I LOVE Connie Hedergaard – I think she has been doing such a brilliant job. The only person I didn't really enjoy was Prince Charles – not only did he speak for a really long time, I thought he was the least legitimate (although that may just be because he was the least prominent at the COP).

We watched the whole ceremony on screen and made friends with the security guard who wouldn't let us in in the first place. He spoke about how his son had gone on exchange to Perth. Shaun and Luke and I grabbed dinner. Luke was someone Shaun had met at the Al Gore event the day before. He came with a US college although he goes to UTS. He said he managed to get accredited by them but was doing his own thing. I was pretty impressed at his tenacity.

After dinner we went into the Plenary session in Tycho Brahe. It was my first time in there. I was a little disappointed it was the first time I had gone in, particularly as it was so cool and surreal to be in there, listening to the negotiations with the multiple translations on the headphones. There were so many countries and observers – you could feel the buzz of the place. The session ended with the President saying it would move to another room – he was very funny because he said he didn't exactly know where the room was, except that it would be on the screens outside.


Shaun and me inside Tycho Brahe which is the enormous plenary. Oh to one day work here!

We went to Karen Blixen to watch the other negotiations but they were delayed for such a long time that we ended up going home. It was unexpectedly one of the coolest days I had inside the COP. There wasn't much that had related specifically to my topic but I saw enough high-level speakers to last me a decade and I heard some inspirational stuff.

Capacity Building and the ultimate question: What is youth?

Monday 14 December 2009


This EU Pavillion poster is one of my favourite quotes from COP15. .

The line to get into the conference this morning clearly marked the start of the second week! There were lines stretching pass the end of the Metro station because many of the conference participants came just for the second week of negotiations. Later in the day I bumped into one of the girls from Yale who had had her backpack stolen from her which had had pass in it. She said she queued for 7 hours in the snow to re-register. She said there were pregnant women who had to stand for that length as well. I heard that some people queued for 11 hours – there were no toilets, food or drink. This approach does not sound very Danish and is appalling!

I went to the YOUNGO Spokescouncil meeting from 8-9am which was jammed pack full of young people (and not so young people). One of the girl guides stopped the meeting and said to an older man standing at the edge of the room "Sorry, but are you youth?" to which the facilitator responded "No no, youth is self-defined in YOUNGO."


All the youth, young and old, at YOUNGO Spokescouncil this morning.

Anyway, the way Spokescouncil works is that each working group and affinity group sends one representative to the daily Spokescouncil meeting which is the decision making body of YOUNGO. Everyone else can attend but cannot speak nor vote.


Paul Ferris moderates YOUNGO Spokescouncil, making announcements about meetings throughout the day.

There has been some controversy over the governance structure of Spokescouncil – some people I spoke to think it isn't representative enough and there should be consensus based decisions rather than votes. However, I think I'm at the more moderate end of the "youth" spectrum and I believe Spokescouncil is the better model of the two, particularly considering the size of YOUNGO.

Paul, one of the main facilitators, said he felt that Spokescouncil was merely there to ram decisions through, since we only have the room for one hour each morning and there is usually a substantial list of decisions required to be discussed and made.


Caroline Howe speaks about the ways the YOUNGO bottomlining team remain accountable.

Another handy thing about going to Spokescouncil is that the daily youth calendar is distributed. It is an in-depth timetable published at 7.30am each morning which lists all the youth events and actions, as well as relevant side events, etc. One of the best side events I've been to was one which I found out about from the Youth Calendar – Capacity Building for NGOs and Civil Society.

Many of the working groups meet after Spokescouncil – the communications WG met briefly because there was a press conference being held that evening. The Policy WG also met – I guess it's easiest since everyone is in the same place so early in the day.


This was one of the actions of today. Laura and I stood in a long line of youth stretching across the Bella Centre. We stood in silence for half an hour indicating that we stood with the Least Developed Countries on climate change.


Molly, Bella, Michael, Steph, Jo and other young people stand in solidarity with developing countries.


One of the other protests today which we ran across. Something of note is that it is not permitted to cover your face in a protest action so lucky these bears had not been caught out yet! When we did protests with the koala suit, "koala" would usually walk around with his face ajar lest a security guard stumbled across us!


Another action of today. A group of musically inclined protestors gathered in one of the main walk ways to sing about the spirit of Christmas and climate change.

I headed off to the EU Pavilion which had an event about capacity building. One of the panellists from the UNFCCC Secretariat pulled out at the last minute – I think there were some plenaries which were going on. Lucky for me and my project, Laurence Pollier, Secretariat for Youth, was the replacement. She spoke about the youth constituency gaining status for the first time and discussed Article 6 of the UNFCCCC Convention which refers to promoting public participation. Another of the panellists, Jeremy Wates, Secretary to the Aarhus Convention, was speaking about the Aarhus Convention which is a treaty on procedural environmental rights. It is founded on three pillars: access to information, public participation and access to justice. We also heard from Mr. Achim Halpaap, Associate Director of the Environment – UNITAR who spoke on training and capacity development. It was interesting that he noted civil society is probably more important than any other topic when it comes to capacity building.

I left half-way through the side event (much to my despair – I was like a kid in a lolly store again – too much to see and do!) because there was a High Level Youth Briefing with Dr. Rajendra which was alright – he spoke about the power of youth stating "I believe firmly if there is any section of society who can bring about change it is the youth" but I keep hearing high level speakers talk about the "power" of youth so I am a little cynical – it's more refreshing when someone says something slightly more insightful about youth. I guess it's difficult because everyone wants to be supportive of the youth movement – if we, as young, naive idealists give up, there isn't much hope for anyone else!


Dr. Rajendra imparts wisdom onto the youth at a High-level Youth Briefing organised by the UNFCCC.

I agreed when he said that COP15 isn't the be all and end all. The role of youth extends beyond the end of COP15 and youth can influence post COP in a number of ways: nation state level; proliferating knowledge to the rest of the world, particularly the sceptics and ignorant; after COP15, there will still be much to do, particularly if there is no legally binding conclusion.

I raced back to the capacity building side event because I had heard such quality level speakers prior to me leaving however, by the time I got there, they had moved to the second part of the event which was country specific regarding implementation and capacity development.

I left before the end - you have to be very strategic about your comings and goings in order to maximise on the amount of free food. The EU Pavilion is particularly strong in providing sandwiches, cakes, nibbles, drinks, fruit. I heard that there is someone who tweets about all the free food at any one time – he prides himself on covering the whole COP and ensures "reliable tip offs". You get all sorts at COP!


The Canadian Youth Delegation take time out of their lunch to do an action. And sometimes actions do speak louder than words!

I bumped into Paul and Anna who were also all about the free food. We had "lunch" together and spoke about what we had been up to, specifically pertaining to YOUNGO. Anna spoke about the difficulties of being a non-native English speaker involved in YOUNGO, as the conversation moves very quickly and it is sometimes difficult to keep up. Paul questioned whether spending days developing policy is really the best use of YOUNGO's time. Rather, he argued, the strongest element of YOUNGO is our ability to stage mass actions and therefore deliver strong, simple, clear messages. That having been said, some youth come to COP to get involved with policy and should not be prevented from doing this. I also mentioned the joy I have working with the Youth Forest Working Group, lobbying negotiators on specific policy.

Janette had organised a meeting for us with an Australian negotiator, Kristin Tilley. The opportunities for us to speak with the movers and shakers in Australian climate change policy has been outstanding. She had the gift of the gab and managed to speak around all our questions! Laura asked a very pertinent question about why Australia stalled the talks this morning firstly by suggesting a room swap and secondly by suspending the negotiations until the G77 + China figure themselves out. She responded by saying that stalling is very different to procedure and sometimes procedure is very important. How ironic. I read the newspapers and Penny Wong was quoted as saying "This is not the time to play procedural games" in regards to the G77 walk out (see http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/developing-nations-walk-out-of-climate-talks/story-e6frfku0-1225810384368)

Michael asked a question about why Australia isn't talking about ppm, let alone 350 ppm. Kristin responded by saying talking about ppm is too technical and emissions reductions and temperature decrease are easier to understand. To that I would respond: firstly, the 350 campaign has been one of the most effective climate change campaigns of all time proving people are smart enough to understand it and secondly, you can still achieve the effects of 350ppm through emissions reductions and temperature decreases. The only problem is, Australia isn't!

Hearing Kristin speak really turned me off ever becoming an Australian negotiator. From what she was saying to us, it seemed as if she had to convince herself that she really believed in what she was saying even though she didn't answer any of our questions. I personally would be so embarrassed if I ended up in a job like that. I should probably be more tolerant and remember that everyone has different definitions of how to go out into the world and do good. And I guess some people don't worry about that at all.


The Australian negotiator, Kristin Tilley, fields our questions.


A baby-sized protest as we waited for everyone to gather for our daily Youth Forest Working Group meeting. Negotiators were walking into closed plenaries as we stood there. Our action wasn't the funniest though. One of the other youth had stuffed a balloon under her top giving her the appearance that she was pregnant. She approached delegates voicing her concerns for her children. It was gold!

We had a great forests youth meeting in the NGO cafe space. I'm so happy I've gotten involved in the Youth Forest Working Group – it's been really rewarding and I've learnt so much about REDD and the way the negotiation process works.


The Youth Forest Working Group has its daily meeting.

I attended the Youth Press Conference at Astrid at 2030. There were a range of speakers but I wasn't very inspired. I am really getting frustrated at everyone being nice and fluffy about the role of youth. Although the Swedish girl, Hanna Mia Brekken said something very insightful. She had been speaking to a journalist in the Media Centre who looked at her and said "They are negotiating about your future, they are negotiating about you, without you. You must be devastated."

The speakers at the YOUNGO Press Conference.

Severn Suzuki, who spoke in 1992, had a video message for us which was very special. I cried a little watching her speech from 1992. She told us it was an "intergenerational crime" and the one thing that is inspiring in representing the youth.


All the way back in 1992, the youth movement was growing and strong. (Courtesy of Speedyboh)

After the Press Conference there was a brief YOUNGO Evaluation. It was very intense. I could feel the tension in the air. The idea was to have a debrief session of the first week about what went right, what went wrong, and how to improve for Week 2. I think it's a really good idea. I'm very impressed at the progressive nature of the youth movement. I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering it is the youth who are sometimes the most progressive group in society.

Seb led the debrief and was very firm that the bottom liners and other YOUNGOs couldn't defend the criticism that came up during the debrief. Rather, it was a time to reflect and get things off your chest without being attacked for doing so.

Seb started out facilitating discussion but it soon became clear that nobody was really willing to just start talking. Instead, we used the space as a "thermometer" so to speak. If you felt strongly positive about something, you went to the far right of the room. If you felt strongly negative about something, you went to the far left of the room. Everyone else stood in between. A couple of people spoke on each of the four issues:

1. Inclusiveness (Global south/global north): I was surprised that people felt very strongly that YOUNGO was not inclusive and was dominated by the Global North. From my experience in the Youth Forest WG, that was not the case – we had an almost equal spread and activity from the Global North and South. I spoke on this. I also shared my experience of knowing absolutely nobody (except Lauren, Beth and Emily) and rocking up by myself to the Conference of the Youth. I spoke about what a positive experience I had had and how friendly everyone was – I learn more and more with every experience that only if you put yourself out there can you experience some truly special things. (In fact, on my walking tour today in Paris I met this American girl who said her friend had been delayed in Ireland. I said it's great travelling by yourself sometimes. She said she liked having a "security blanket" of friends. I hope she was referring to it being somewhat safer travelling with friends and not it being "easier" travelling with friends!) One youth from the Global South spoke about the lack of global south even in the room, as an indication of the lack of participation.
   
2. Linguistics – the second issue was the use of English to conduct all YOUNGO activities. People were (again, surprisingly – although I think this is because I am particularly ignorant on this issue) very outspoken that meetings should be conducted in more languages, emails should be multi-lingual and the google group should be translated. As a native English speaker, I take it foregranted but I do think it is difficult to translate every, single post online – there are 10s each day. Furthermore, what language would you choose to translate it into. Also, Seb did point out that there was google translate on each page. Another issue which arose was nobody was using the "C sign" (explain more) for clarification during Spokescouncil, etc. Caroline spoke about how she sometimes couldn't understand what was going on, even as a native speaker. She said she knew people got lost because they would come up afterwards to ask. We spoke about developing more of a culture where clarification through hand signals was common.
   
3. Gender – this wasn't really an issue as girls and boys were mostly equal. A point was even made that sometimes there were more girls.
   
4. Strategy – this was a big one. It was about governance structure, policy v. Action. It could have gone on all night but we wrapped it up.
   

I had a great chat with Job van den Assem, who was a founder of Young Friends of the Earth Europe. This has been one of the best things about researching youth participation in the UNFCCC process. I have met and spoken to some young people who are so engaged and involved in the movement. It has made me want to get more involved. He argued YOUNGO's weakness lies in defining ourselves and our identity purely as youth because what is youth? It is so many different things. He also argued we should work outside the system more than inside the system and focus on capacity building.

I slowly meandered to the cloak room and on my way out, bumped into Luke and Michelle who were waiting for Alexei and others. I hung out with them and we spoke about our days.

Dean from the Youth Forests Working Group came out and hung out with us for ages. It was awesome talking to him – he's a Canadian who is originally from Portugal (or some small islands there) and thus speaks Portuguese. He is 28 – I was surprised and has spent some time working in Brazil. I think he wants to be a diplomat/Prime Minister of Canada. He was talking about one day, when I am Prime Minister of Australia and he is Prime Minister of Canada, there will be a meaningful agreement reached on climate change, and none of this rubbish which is currently produced from our two countries.

He finally left and Luke and I went searching for Michelle who had disappeared about an hour earlier, in search of Alexei. We spied them in the main cafeteria section cutting out REDD-it, REDD-it signs for the action for tomorrow. Fern and Phoebe left, while Alexei stayed on to do a second shift and Michelle, Luke, Shaun and I helped out Gemma.

It was super late and I was getting tired but I felt like I should stay. It was eerily exciting being at the Bella Centre so late, knowing it was the beginning of a big week (big at least in the sense of the number of heads of state getting there!)

We finally got back to the hotel and I promptly fell asleep. I haven't seen my roomies in what feels like days!

Bright Green Desmond Tutu

Sunday 13 December 2009

After a big night, I woke up just in time to hear Ian Fry speak. He is both Tuvalu's lead negotiatior and an ANU professor. It was really interesting, hearing his perspective as an international negotiator. He was very generous with his time. He spoke about a wide range of things including an update of where things are at, G77 and China (he told a funny story about Tuvalu not being a part of the G77 although he was spokesperson for LULUCF!), believing in the process and being able to sway the course of negotiations a little. He was very funny, cracking jokes about how Tuvalu will bid for COP when it comes to the Asia-Pacific as Tuvalu has one hotel to host everyone! I would be so happy if I found a job as noble and purposeful as Ian's when I grow up.


The beautiful Church of Our Lady where the Sunday service was held and where Princess Mary and Prince Frederic got married!

We headed into town to see the chapel service at The Church of Our Lady, the Copenhagen Lutheran Cathedral. Meg was very funny – I thought she was going to kill me and Shaun for "making her late". She has a massive crush on Archbishop Desmond Tutu. While we were making her run late, she had a rant to us. "You two, you both don't appreciate Desmond Tutu! You were tiny cells when I owned his books." It was very funny.


Outside the church, there was this ice sculpture of a melting polar bear. There were similar sculptures around the city. I saw the iconic little mermaid as an ice sculpture outside COP15. It is a very powerful image, seeing the water dripping down and the pool of water at the bottom of the sculpture.
Shaun and I were interviewed by a film crew as we queued to get into the church. I don't think they got the response they wanted - when they asked us why we believe religion is needed to find a climate change solution – Shaun and I said we were interfaith!

The cathedral was full so we sat behind a column at the top. There were three symbols of climate change which were carried in the procession: glacier stones from Greenland, dried up maize from Africa, bleached chorals from the Pacific Ocean. We heard some amazing singers and there were hymns and prayers as well.


So we didn't have the best seats but we still really enjoyed it. It was more radio show, less tv experience! This is an unconventional photo of the Church on the Rock Choir who sang "By God's Grace" in Zulu.

At 3pm, church bells throughout Scandinavia and Central Europe rang out 350 times, referring to 350ppm which is the maximum acceptable level of CO2 emissions, according to the UN.

We sat near a couple from England who had cycled all the way to Copenhagen to show their commitment to seeing a meaningful outcome in Copenhagen.

The friendly English couple who really displayed commitment to the climate change cause!

I left the service early to go to Bright Green which is an expo displaying world solutions (see below for an Obama style description!)

 

Bright Green (From Scanorama advertisement)

"Dear Barack Obama,

If you can dream it, we can make it.

Bright Green is the largest parallel-event under UN's Climate Change Conference (COP15). 160 international companies have come together in Copenhagen to show the world solutions to the climate change challenge. If you are engaged in the challenge, we can show you the innovative solutions to a carbon neutral economy."

Outlandish, a Danish hip hop band, performed before Stephen Chu and Dr. Rajendra spoke at Bright Green.

 

I heard Stephen Chu, the Energy Secretary for the Obama Administration and Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, speak at Bright Green. Stephen Chu was very knowledgeable but not the most inspiring speaker, starting his presentation out with "So I guess I'll start my presentation now". America seems to be doing a lot of things in renewable energies. Pity they aren't doing more about setting a price on carbon or leading a global agreement.


Stephen Chu with a slide about how to achieve our energy goals.

Dr. Raj was pretty great and spoke about the role of the people to compel change in this historic time.

I met two American youth delegates who are in Germany learning about renewables. On the Metro home, Jasmine and I bumped into a couple of Americans who are here from Florida promoting green jobs. We were comparing and contrasting Australia and US' stance on the creation of green jobs and the debate that is opened up by it.

I came back, cleaned my room and came downstairs to write in my journal.


Messy room!

I'm feeling a bit frazzled about how I'm going to approach this next week.

I think my plan is to go to the Spokescouncil tomorrow morning, interview Aiden, lina, Wilson, Sadhie, Seb, go check out the youth talk and then go to the IARU thing.

I'll just take it day by day – I feel like I've met lots of people and done some cool things – I'm just not exactly sure how I'm going to combine it all into a report. I think the main thing is to interview people and get more of a feel of the structure of YOUNGO.

Penguins + Polar bears + Deniers + Activists + Much, much more = 100 000 people protest!

Saturday 12 December 2009

Saturday started out really early with Phoebe, Fern and me heading over the Bella Centre at 8am to protest in the NGO Protesting Area 1. Gemma, being the amazing person she is, organised for the youth to do a forest choir for all the negotiators who were walking in. We dressed up as elves and as we were getting ready, Penny Wong and her advisers (I assume) walked by and it looked like they were laughing at us!


Belting out a Christmas tune on a Saturday morning never felt so good!

Bruno, one of the English boys in the group, dressed up as our koala and we sang from 8-9am. We got a lot of people stopping by for photos and a couple of delegates who took our youth declarations which was good!

At 9, we decided to be an (unauthorised!) wandering choir and headed over the main hall to sing again. We got great photos in front of the globe with us pointing at Australia and Bruno practically passed out from heat exhaustion.

The AP came, as did the Algeria news which was great in terms of media.


Gemma and Fern say hi! We used the Global Witness Stall as our base where we kept our clothes, bags, koala heads, etc.

I had a bit of a feed from free side event food and then Fern and I headed into town for the big protest.


Santa's elves off for some spirited protesting!


Oh what a beautiful (and polluted) morning, oh what a beautiful (and polluted) day, I have a wonderful feeling, everyone's going to a protest

We met up with a Danish Rainforest Group and it was lovely having some Danes show us around town as we walked down Stroget to get to the protests.


Ready to march!

The rally was enormous! There were people from everywhere it seemed. There was climate change deniers; Greenpeace handing out free, enormous placards, media, dancers, Aussies singing "Come on Aussie come on, come on". We were a group of elves and a parrot.


Dancing in the protest streets! There was a wonderful vibe amongst all the protestors. Everyone was in a friendly mood! This was particularly cool because the music was being run through solar panelled power, on a bicycle!


One group which was very prominent throughout the whole conference was the "Save the world, become a vegetarian" group. In theory, it is a really great campaign but their constant, unchanging presence and harassment at the metro station led to people switching off in the end.


Come on Rudd, come on, come on! Aussies in Copenhagen protest against Australia's weak stance on climate change.


There were many Indigenous groups marching together at the protest as well as non-Indigenous people who were carrying Indigenous peoples' flags.


Media much? There was media everywhere! From global newspapers to lone reporters and bloggers, the media presence at the protest was very strong.


The deniers strike again! It's not global warming guys. It's climate change.


Face off! Believer v. denier. I wonder who will win?


It seemed that everyone was trying to outdo each other in magnitude. I must admit though, that is the biggest snowman I've ever seen!

I was so exhausted so I headed home before the protest started walking to the Bella centre and I had a nap. Woke up and went to meet Linh and Linh. Had a great night, aside from the fact my wallet and phone were stolen!

With Linh and Linh, my two Danish friends I met in my gap year to China. We went to Hopenhagen to check out the bicycle powered Christmas tree!


And the night continues! It was Danish through and through with Danish drinking games and Danish pear cider - yum!