UN negotiators from Annex I (developed) countries have been working to push through text on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) by the end of the Bonn negotiations on Friday, June 11. The draft text, however, creates several loopholes that allow developed countries to effectively hide emissions from land use as if they do not exist. By forcing through the text without removing these loopholes, developed countries would be allowed to emit millions of tons of new carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions without accounting for them. This would lead to a major deviation from emissions reductions demanded by science and would have catastrophic consequences for developing countries and future generations. International youth observers at the UN conference responded to the threat of the text being finalized with these disastrous loopholes by launching a campaign to alert negotiators to the irresponsibility and unacceptability of such a decision for young and future generations.

To begin the campaign on Tuesday morning, we greeted negotiators arriving for the day with a hide-and-seek game between youth dressed up as greenhouse gas emissions and inept emissions accountants unable to find them for lack of trying. The 12 of us dressed up as tonnes of greenhouse gases and hid behind trees and camoflauged themselves with twigs outside the conference center as negotiators arrived. Meanwhile, two fumbling accountants attempted half-heartedly to find and enter the hidden emissions into the books while engaging delegates to explain their inability to find the emissions, often in plain sight, given the problematic rules in the current text that make accounting voluntary.

In the afternoon, we followed up with two more actions. First, we asked delegates to throw small balls, each labeled as a tonne of CO2, through a LULUCF loophole to “make them magically disappear”. Balls that made it through the loophole were met with boos. We, representing the youth and future generations, then had the burden of dealing with them, sometimes throwing them back with demands that every emission should be counted. Also in the afternoon, we hid small sheets of paper that said “Congratulations! You’ve just found one ton of hidden LULUCF emissions. Please bring it back to the 350.org/SustainUS booth so that it may be accounted for,” all around the conference center.

On Wednesday, several youth carried a giant cardboard cut-out of a chainsaw through the Maritim Hotel, where the conference is taking place. With “LULUCF Logging Loopholes” written on it, the chainsaw represented a tool for deforestation without accountability for the emissions generated by it. These logging loopholes in the negotiating text would allow developed countries to hide emissions so that they can pretend they are not there. But at the end of the day, these emissions from land use and forestry are still real greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, and they need to be counted and reduced to help ensure a safe climate for today’s youth and for our children and grandchildren.

Filed under: Intersessional, United Nations

But Canada’s jurassic climate policy is triumphant yet still in Bonn.  The Delegation’s stance this June is essentially the exact same as it was in April, and the Fossil Award given to Canada by the Climate Action Network is for essentially the exact same reason:

Canada earns a first place Fossil of the Day for reducing its mitigation commitment after Copenhagen to the same level pledged by the United States of America. This January, Canada scrapped a 2020 target equivalent to 3% below 1990 in favour of one equivalent to 3% above 1990, using the rationale of following the U.S. Canada is endangering progress on post-Copenhagen targets by acting like the 51st U.S. state.

There is much more good news happening back home.  In preparation to host the G8/G20 Summit in Huntsville, the Climate Action Network Canada and the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition are hard at work.  The outcome of the G8/G20 conference will have a strong impact on Canada’s position at the UNFCCC (although the Government seems committed to keeping climate change off the G20 agenda).  So in the name of a little Canadian pride, here are two groups to watch and link up with during this June’s G8/G20 Summit:

G8/G20 Action June 25th-27th

• The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition.  Read about the CYCC’s nation-wide engagement strategy here.  They have all sorts of creative and fun campaigns going on like At the Table (to help Canadians “take their place” alongside world leaders at the G8/G20), the G20 Pledge, or  the G20 Convergence.
• Climate Action Network Canada.  CAN-Canada is the premier source of information and mobilization around all things climate change.  Their website has lots of information about both the UNFCCC and the G20 from a broad range of Canadian NGOs.

Do you know of any other good events to watch back home?  Any ideas on how to make environmental justice and sustainability a priority for the Federal Government?  Any good websites or organizations to check out?  Please add any more info in the comments below!

With love from Lund.

Joanna

The polar bear one is the oldest one in the book…

Every day that passes at the UN it gets a little harder to write a blog. I mean there’s lots going on of course, in fact we have now started to talk about substance here in Bonn which is a good step. But this process definitely does not move quick enough for our 24/7 idea of news!

Having been doing this for a year now it’s starting to sometimes feel like we are on constant repeat. We visit the same venues, we hear the same speeches from parties, we got to the same meetings (I write the same blogs….)

The process moves so slowly that we are still facing the same issues. Maybe we could just do the same actions, it would be easier…drag out the same props, no need to paint new banners.

In fact since the negotiators here seem to be such fans of repetition I was thinking about conducting a survey to find out what their favourite action of the past few years has been, then to save the effort we could just put it on again.

I won’t of course! Because it is changing this process, it is shaking things up, it is getting creative that makes coming here ok for me.

Actions are what makes this process bearable, I’ve said before (of course!) that it is taking action, making my voice heard, feeling like I can change things, that feeds my soul.

But with the process going so slowly we’re really beginning to have to think way outside of the box to come up with new ideas to make these issues exciting (well vaguely more interesting…).

However the more effort it takes, the more energy it requires, the tireder I seem to get, and I find myself getting slightly jaded.

The length of the struggle definitely takes the enthusiastic shine off me sometimes.

This is why I always like to take a little time out at the UN to think about why I am doing all of this. So this morning I did this and went to take part in a discussion about the climate justice movement and youth.

Justice is the reason I return to the UN time and time again.

But while I was there we got discussing how social movements always talk about the struggle for justice as an old struggle, one that we have been fighting for many, many years.

Then my friend made a point that has stayed with me.

The struggle may be old, but for every person who joins the movement it is new.

I realised we should never forget that.

I wrote the other day about how many new people there were around the UN

This is a new struggle for them.

Every time I come here it is a new struggle.

As more and more people join the movement there are more and more new struggles.

And from new struggles we might find new solutions.

And while we wait I’m just going to have to get even more creative with my actions….

Which is fine with me, because as tired as I get creativity always feeds my soul.

Meanwhile, outside of the United Nations territory, climate change is wreaking havoc on communities and youth are struggling to understand why the United Nations feel the freedom to waste our time when climate change is happening now and will not delay no matter how many meetings do or do not happen.  Last week in West Virginia, 29 employees of Massey Energy died as a result of an explosion at a mining site, the worst coal mining tragedy since 1970.  On April 15^th, several activists attended a hearing on Capital Hill titled “The Role of Coal in a New Energy Age” and confronted dirty energy CEOs about the human and ecological implications of coal mining.  And all across the nation, youth climate activists are meeting with their elected officials and informing that they need to Show Me Democracy by taking leadership on climate change legislation.  Clearly, activists and climate change are not waiting for the United Nations.

I find this dichotomy to be extremely frustrating because time is of the essence when it comes to climate change and I think it’s about time that the United Nations realized that.  While campuses and communities are rallying around climate justice issues and people are dying as a result of dirty energy practices, the United Nations can’t even seem to set dates for climate negotiations, let alone take meaningful action on climate change to ensure a just, sustainable future for the world.  Shouldn’t the United Nations be focused on working towards a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty rather than spending three days wasting my time in negotiations that didn’t achieve anything?

One thing that was mentioned over and over again through all three meetings was that all the plenaries thus far have been open to all observer organizations and that the UNFCCC would like to continue this as much as possible as we move towards COP16.  Part of this is (I believe) to make up for the logistical and communication nightmare that COP15 was for civil society groups with badge limitations, etc.  However, I think it also ties very neatly into the negotiations on Friday where parties expressed commitment to the UNFCCC process and transparency in negotiations.  Whether or not these intentions come to fruition or not is another matter, but I think it is positive that dialogue is being started between civil society and the UNFCCC.

Another highlight from yesterday’s negotiations was an emphasis on national as well as international action from civil society.  It was stressed over and over again that civil society needs to be extremely powerful on the national front letting governments know that climate change is a top priority or the UNFCCC process is never going to be able to produce a legally binding treaty.  This advice was obviously very targeted toward the United States in particular and I think that it’s extremely important to remember that we need to tell our politicians to Show Me Democracy! and get a climate bill passed in Congress by the start of COP16.

Now, onto the more nitty gritty details of civil society at COP16.  Yvo de Boer was surprisingly candid in his discussions of how he hopes to better handle NGO access in Cancun.  So here are some quick highlights from that.  One, it was made explicitly clear that governments delegations will not be limited and therefore if a country wants to show up with an extremely large entourage it could mean decreased access for civil society.  Two, de Boer mentioned that at previous COPs, most notably COP14 in Poznan, Poland, civil society has the opportunity to present proposals to plenaries and he supported that happening again, even if it meant that the Secretariat would have to be a little more discriminating with accrediting NGOs.  Three, he mentioned that the UNFCCC is thinking about moving the high level plenary sessions to an earlier time in the negotiations to allow for more civil society participation and allowing adequate time for serious issues to be discussed and decisions to be reached.  Lastly, de Boer was very clear that there were several factors that led to the UNFCCC and civil society relationship being strained in Copenhagen but that he hopes to learn from the mistakes of COP15 (from both the Secretariat and civil society) and be more prepared and communicative at COP16.

So that’s all I’ve got for now.  The first plenary session of the day got canceled so nothing new has happened since yesterday.  More info tomorrow.

Here is Oxfam’s Jan Kowalzig summits the giant mess that is our hopes and expectations for last December’s Copenhagen meeting:

And here are a few pictures from the event earlier today:

In the mean time, we’re tweating from the AWG LCA Plenary happening now. You can get a sense of the room by searching these hashatags #postCOP15 and #Bonn.

UPDATE: Here’s a Statement from German Watch explaining today’s event –

The international network TckTckTck together with its members Oxfam, WWF and Germanwatch are sending a visual signal to the government negotiators that it is time to get back to work and pick up the pieces after Copenhagen.

The NGO’s arranged for four tons of broken glass to be dumped at a location where delegates pass by when entering the negotiation venue.

The pile of broken glass stands for the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks in December, 2009. The ‘4 tons’ represents the upper range of temperature increase the world will experience as a result of the Copenhagen outcome. With the current state of ambition pledged by countries after Copenhagen, scientists expect the planet to be heading towards between 3.2 to 4°C warming. In the Copenhagen Accord countries had agreed to stop global warming at below 2°C and to consider 1.5°C as a limit.

Dozens of climate campaigners from various countries will stand behind the glass pile holding a banner that reads “Time to pick up the pieces!”

A statement by Minister Prentice suggesting we will do our fair share.

The [Copenhagen] Accord’s attempt to build a sustainable bridge between developed and developing countries [is one reason] why Canada was so willing to agree to contribute our fair share to the $30-billion “quick-start” fund.  And this money will assist the poorest and most vulnerable countries with mitigation, adaptation, capacity building, and technology transfer. It is the first step towards establishing a new Green Climate Fund.

In his speech, Minister Prentice articulates the equity principles that underline these entire negotiations – it is the idea that wealthy countries have the capacity to finance climate solutions more than poor countries.  The equity principle is not just an ethical concern but is central to the negotiations and any tenable agreement.   The strong reference to climate change equity made by Minister Prentice gives us reason to hope that Canada has the will to do it’s fair share.

Keep Up the Pressure!

Instead of a convention center, the negotiations in Bonn are held in a hotel.  I am told there is nothing unusual or odd about a hotel UN conference (the intersessionals always convene here), but something is strange… almost as-if a wedding party can be found just around the corner.  But far from celebratory, the negotiators in the Hotel Maritim seem weary, and tired.  The Bonn atmosphere cannot be more different from Copenhagen.  There is a small presence of NGOs, and the number of Canadians totaled here in Bonn: 3.

I do not think that our smaller numbers indicate a lowered interest in the negotiations.  In fact, I think there is a heightened awareness around the UN process coming out of Copenhagen – and communities back home are more focused on solutions.  This fits well with the new 350.org motto “get to work.” Back home this motto is already a reality.  A lot of Canadian’s are collaborating, setting the political base for strong legislation, and creating solutions without even necessarily knowing it! I want to outline two affirming updates I recieve in my inbox today.

Our task will be humbling; our actions will be too many to count.

1.) Canada’s Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311). This Wednesday April 14th, Parliament Hill will take a final vote on Bill C-311 – our most ambitious climate legislation that, if passed, will set national greenhouse gas emission targets for Canada that align with scientific targets for avoiding dangerous climate change.  Learn more about the Bill and how to take action.

Canadian's Care – Climate Action Now.

2.) Renew Canada’s ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes Program. On March 31st, Natural Resources Canada cancelled it’s ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes Program.  Tangible actions like home retrofits are exactly the kind of results driven programs that Canada needs to reduce it’s greenhouse gas emissions. It shows the world that Canadians and the Government take seriously the new climate change motto of “Get to Work.”  You can help to bring the ecoENERGY program back by writing your Member of Parliament who you can find here or read a backgrounder on the program.

These talks are important.  Big decisions (deal breaker ones) are made at the UNFCCC because it is the only international framework we have. But right now the UNFCCC is not where the leadership is shown; it seems most evident in communities back home.  I want to take this moment to thank and recognize all of those people working hard for change, and staying positive.  It is evident that people care, and that everyday Canadians are getting to work.  The poet Wendell Berry describes the new ethos of Canada’s community-based leadership -

Our tasks “will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous.”

Working together we will refocus international efforts back on solutions.  No more loopholes, no more excuses.  Canada, let’s get to work!

[Special thanks to Andrew Cuddy with his help writing this blog]

But while people debate whether it is right or wrong, we must remember that, after all, the Science of Climate Change does not matter that much.

What really matters is:

Monsoons are failing, crops are failing,
droughts are prevailing, along with floods.
People are hungry, children are wailing,
“development” is sucking our Earth’s blood.

I cannot drink the water in the streams,
nor eat the snow that falls from the sky,
some would have be believe that nothing has changed,
but I know that the worst is yet to pass by.

I visit the city and can’t see the next block,
the smog is choking, people’s hearts are locked.
In the countryside too, the problems exist:
people struggling hard, just to subsist.

The river that flows past my friend’s house,
once over his head, he remembers,
Is now but a brook, the flow only seasonal,
Ten years of change have thus rendered.

The rice which once grew aligned with the season,
now withers and dries before harvest.
The rain comes without pattern or reason,
lays waste to the crop and farmers divest.

Bees, the very pillar of food production,
are gone from a whole district in China,
are disappearing fast, abandoning their function
poisoned by our toxins in the clima.

The Coral, the treasure-chest of beauty and life,
is bleaching and dying before our eyes.
Killing ecosystems – do we have the right?
We don’t! Yet we do it; ask yourself “Why?”

“Develop!” is the cry of the bygone age.
It’s farce and inequity now bare,
To increase in prosperity at the expense of the Earth,
Is not just, not right, not kind, not fair.

To Survive we must remember that which sustains us,
and give thanks to the many on who’s efforts we live
From Aardvarks to Zorillas, they all live in service,
Creating the global web that our Ecosystem is.

Why do we, as humans, break the sacred chain,
create waste for which no other life has use?
Our chemicals are found everywhere, even in the rain,
our behaviour has become inter-species abuse!

Our plastics are choking the ocean,
smothering out huge swaths of life.
Toxic, inedible are the fish that lie therein,
among so many life forms deformity is rife!

Our style of living has a visible cost,
hidden only by our willfull blindness.
Cancer and disease, to us are now tossed,
our body’s symptoms of environmental unkindness.

The way to redemption is clear, clean, and pure,
“Simple Living, High Thinking” – true development for sure,
The rights of all people to eat, drink, live, and think,
The same for all is our duty to ensure.

I pray that this poem will have an effect:
Remember that life is not just to get.
Now you are here, now do you live,
But when you lie dying, you will think:
“What did I give?”

Reposted with Permission from Tale of Grace.com

As heads of state, prime ministers and presidents filed into Copenhagen, the second week of the climate change conference took on a new face, for the worse. The security scene, once accommodating and friendly, took on a new aggressive restricted role. Tensions mounted as the cops prepared for climate justice actions such as Wednesday’s Reclaim Power, The People’s Assembly. Furthermore, the constant reductions in Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) pass allowances into the Bella Center became a frustration for the overbooked 22,000+ delegates admitted. Entry into the conference was restricted to 1000 passes on Wednesday to 300 on Thursday and finally a mere 90 on Friday. It was an outrage. Restricted public participation created a clash. Plenary sessions became impossible to get into. Closed door negotiations became the norm. NGO’s who had traveled far and wide were livid. Kicking out civil society from the UNFCCC process still remains the hotly contested criticism of the conference.

The SSC delegation, awarded only 5 passes early on in the week between the 18 of us by the Sierra Club, was forced to take a new direction on how to be most strategic and effective at COP15. While others worked out of Tck Tck Tck’s Fresh Air Center, I went down to climate ground zero. This is my story. As someone who got involved in climate activism through grassroots organizations like Mountain Justice, getting back on the ground felt like home. It was empowering. Realizing that entry into the Bella Center as a NGO delegate is a privilege that many were not equally offered, it was grounding to finally get involved in activities outside the Bella Center. For the thousands of activists that came to Copenhagen to organize demonstrations, Klima Forum and actions for the voice of the people; the rallies, marches and protests played a crucial, often times under looked aspect of building the oh-so-very-important grassroots movement. For if you didn’t have the angry citizens demanding action from the government, politicians would go about solving the climate crisis like “business as usual”. In a daily Sierra Club debrief, US Delegate Trigg Talley, the State Dept. official responsible for organizing the US Delegation at COP15, revealed that the grassroots pressure and public support for climate change action is in fact the missing piece to the puzzle. He even admitted the domestic grassroots energy, or mobilizing the American public to give a damn about climate change is exactly what is needed for Congress to enact climate-energy legislation. In essence, the “radical” progressives are needed to demand change. They are needed because you need all types of people in a movement. They are simply the ones to start the call for a clean energy revolution when it seems silly. They are sowing the seeds for change. The change that will come from the bottom-up and evolve into climate policies and law.

At the conclusion of the conference, despite the disappointment and shame felt by US NGO’s because of Obama’s lackluster speech, a number of good things are evolving. There still is hope we can all believe in. The weak three page “Copenhagen Accord” is not an end all. While nothing significant came from international agreement on CO2 emission reductions with politics, I believe a powerful wave of citizen action has grown.  In my personal opinion, one of the best things to happen in Copenhagen was the Saturday Global Day of Action, where an estimated 100,000 people participated in the People’s Climate March to the Bella Center.

Like the Hopenhagen campaign calls for, I am a true believer of when people lead, leaders follow. The march took this to heart. The international array of ordinary citizens demanding system change, not climate change left a powerful message as it transcended far and wide on every news channel. Even more amazing, the march wasn’t only a young person activist event, left and right I saw baby strollers and entire families. What does this mean? Climate change is a people’s issue. It is in the here and now. It’s not just something to tackle so that we don’t compromise the future of our kids, or future generations. For the vulnerable low-lying islands states it is a matter of survival today. A 2 degree rise in temperature is unacceptable. As a young person, one of the 500 that represented US Youth during COP15, we know what we’re up against and we’re up for the challenge. America is a remarkable country. I am optimistic about the future and especially the spring as climate-energy legislation takes center stage in U.S. politics.  The fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of U.S. Congressmen. The world knows this, and the US Senate must lead. Now.

My friend Laura recently wrote, “It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.”

Raise your hand if you agree. Fair enough — you’re being realistic. But if we were in a large room full of common people representing the population of the world, every hand would be raised. Which means two things:

1. Somehow common culture has developed a stereotype that only the dishonest are voteable.
2. Common culture prefers candidates with common sense, common honesty and common decency.

The question is, when the common people turn out to vote in the next election, will there be any sensible candidates to vote for?

We need thousands of candidates worldwide.

In each country of the democratic world there are thousands of local offices. And those local offices possess more aggregate power than the oh-so-coveted federal positions.

The United States, for example, will be truly carbon neutral only when each of its states and protectorships are carbon neutral. The states, only when the counties are. And the counties will be carbon neutral only when the cites are and the cities must begin by reforming the districts. So, the US will be carbon neutral when all its districts are.

While federal legislation wanders the halls of congress, each of the levels of local government can be instituting specific change.

And specific change will only occur if the administrators of local government act.

We, the pragmatic generation, need to take action.

1. We need to refocus the public on the effect local administrators have on the common good.
2. We need to take responsibility and run for those local offices, to be the administrators enacting positive change.

The common people will vote for the common people — the decent, honest and pragmatic people. People will vote for us.

Cross-posted at Voteable.

Posted in Act Locally, Political Participation, Politics ]]> http://youthclimate.org/who-else-will-we-vote-for-33499/feed/ 0