Since 5pm, a group of approximately 20 youth from across the globe started a sit-in inside of the Bella Center outside of the Plenary and continue to stay put. They are reading the names of 12 million people who want a fair and just climate treaty as well as transparency in the process. Among them, my friend Lisa Curtis.
Sen. John Kerry passed by and greeted the youth sitting-in as well as other delegates.
Please help spread the word. Let the whole world know we want real long-term solutions!
UPDATE:
UN security told youth that if they do not leave now, then they will be arrested and civil society will not be allowed to come into the building Thursday or Friday. Group has agreed to walk out to allow the few civil society has been guaranteed for Thursday and Friday.
With access restricted to NGOs, no transparency in the UN negotiations, absurd emission target proposals that would rise emissions to 770ppm by the year 2100, and two decades of people organizing for environmental justice, the people took it to the streets…and to Bella Center!
Chanting “Reclaim Power,” hundreds of people from all over the world participated in this action to send the message to the UN and the World that real solutions are not discussed in the climate negotiations and the people are completely left out of the process.
Even though some NGOs were given the secondary badge to access the Bella Center today, Friends of the Earth were denied access to the center without any given reason. They sat in for two hours by registration and credentials desk until Yvo de Boer came by and said he wouldn’t listen to them until they act civilized and stop insulting him.
Quiet honestly, the ones that need to be civilized are the ones negotiating our future! There is nothing civilized about letting small island states submerge in water or allowing the continuation of emissions that not only harm the environment but also public health.
The people are fed up with the injustice and want long-term solutions not false solutions that continue to increase the gap between the rich and poor.
Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the UN negotiations because access was further restricted despite the fact that I have the proper accreditation and second badge. However, I did ride the train with Kat and Brenna and got off one stop down from Bella Center. We got a great view of the Reclaim the Power action and I got footage of it. We rode the train about four times…trying to figure out what to do next since we couldn’t enter Bella Center and the Reclaim the Power action was blocked by approximately 20 police vans/busses from all sides. During those four rides, we took pictures and video of the action.
Check it out: Reclaim Power! The People’s Assembly
(I will try posting a high quality version of this soon. Pardon the awful pixels for the meantime).
Video from the inside of Bella Center
by TreehuggerTV
Other videos of Reclaim Power action
by naturerights
With tension building up in all directions at COP15, access to the center is being reduced to NGOs Tuesday and Wednesday, 1000 civil society members on Thursday and only 90 on Friday. Additionally, the G77 walked out of negotiations at noon yesterday causing a suspension. With that being said, I was eager to ask Yvo de Boer and Connie Hedegaard what they thought about G77 suspending the negotiations. What are the next steps? I also wanted to take the opportunity to ask a question in regards to why there is no international talk and action taken in regards to Climate Change and public health?
Due to last week’s experience waiting in line to enter the room for a high-level meeting with Yvo de Boer, I was determined to arrive early outside the room to secure a good seat for filming and was lucky that I was the first in line since a big crowd down the hall was going CRAZY over Al Gore walking by. Thankfully, I did not have to deal with the claustrophobic feeling of being shoved into the room by people behind me since security organized entrance better than previous events. I had the perfect seat at the front and was ready with my video camera to record the meeting especially since Linh Do, a fellow UNEP TUNZA youth advisory council representative for Australia was chosen to moderate the meeting.
The plan was for a 30 minute meeting. 15 minutes passed by and many youth in the room started to get concerned. 5 minutes later a UN staff member told us that Yvo De Boer and Connie Hedegaard were running late and still in a meeting. Finally, the UN staff member received a call notifying her to cancel the event. I understand that an unexpected walk out by G77 countries occurred at the negotiations, but if they both had to meet, strategize, and resolve the dilemma in negotiations, they should have sent someone to notify UN staff to cancel the meeting before so many youth went out of their way to wait in line and attend this high level meeting.
I was not too upset about this yesterday. However, today I got an email from the UNFCCC secretariat stating that the high level meeting with Ban Ki-Moon was rescheduled to Thursday evening! First of all, who will even get to this meeting with further access restricted for NGOs that day. It is almost guaranteed that no one in our delegation will have access on Thursday, much less on Friday. Additionally, the majority of Youth will not be in attendance. How does UNFCCC plan to distribute the secondary badges aka “yellow badges” amongst NGOs? Why are they doing this in the first place? Perhaps, due to security reasons and heads of state arriving. However, having 90 civil society members on Friday is just unacceptable! That is not being transparent at all. It is being exclusive. This is not a conference for the people. It is more a conference about economic benefit than it is about paying an ecological debt, human rights. In short: Money>People. Throughout COP15, the admiration of youth organizing kept being highlighted with comments from high level figures such as “inspirational youth” or “It’s great to see a large number of youth involved here.” However, they fail to understand our message that we want a strong deal with 350ppm and human rights included in the text. We do not need to be complimented on how great youth organizers we are. What we need is for them to act with us.
Yesterday was the welcoming ceremony for the COP15. I did not get a chance to actually be in the room for the opening ceremony. Apparently it was by invitation only and entrance was only allowed for those with tickets but that did not stop me from viewing it on a projector screen in the Karen Blixen Room at Bella Center. The welcoming ceremony began with a short video about a little girl who has a nightmare where climate change takes toll and sea level rises to the point where she needs to climb a tree to save her from getting drowned. She wakes up scared and tells her dad what she dreamt. They both then go online and find out about the UNFCC and learn more about climate change. One of the web pages she comes across sends the message “Document what you see today so that our children and grandchildren can see how the world looked like” She then goes outside her home with a video camera and records herself saying “Please help save the world.” The video was a bit over dramatic. It reminded me of the 2012 movie everyone was freaking out on. Of course, climate change is scary but when you are in a COP15 opening ceremony you expect for more policy talk and climate justice action than to make a video that probably costed lots of money to begin with. Yes, we all know climate change is here. Otherwise, all these high-level officials wouldn’t be here. Let’s not waste time and move forward with the negotiations shall we?
One of the speakers at the welcoming ceremony included Connie Hedegaard, Danish Minister for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. The phrase “Let’s get it Done!” is what most resonated during her speech. She really meant “Let’s get our act together and sign a deal!”. However, with little time and not much action on behalf of the U.S., I think it may not be wise to sign on to a legally binding treaty at the moment. At least not at COP15. Such ideology matches with Ritt Bjerregaard, mayor of Copenhagen who clearly stated last night at a concert at the downtown square that we need a legally binding treaty within the next year and we need one well done.
So…this really cool band called Nephew performed at the concert. All the Danish folks went gaga crazy over them and with good reason because they really sound good! I’m already a fan. Check them out.
As the youth environmental movement gains momentum prior to COP15, The White House announced just the Wednesday before Thanksgiving that they would host a Youth and Clean Energy Forum with youth environmental leaders on Dec 2, 2009. The act in and of itself is a great victory for the youth environmental movement. Achieving such type of open dialogue was a heavier task during the Bush administration especially considering the fact that Bush did not acknowledge climate change until the last 2 years of his term. The fact that the Obama administration put this forum together is a great step forward.
100 youth leaders meet with White House Senior staff to discuss Climate Change
As a prominent youth environmental justice leader with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago, I was one of 100 youth leaders invited to participate in the forum. At first, I thought the forum was just going to be a speil session with little time to ask questions. Well, the forum exceeded my expectations even though President Obama did not attend the forum. Those present at the forum included Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy; Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor; Lisa Jackson, Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency; Nancy Sutley ,Chair of Council on Environmental Quality; Jon Carson, Chief of Staff for Council on Environmental Quality; Carol Browner, Director of White House Office of Energy and Climate Change. The forum was broken down into two parts: 1) panel with Q&A session. 2) Working groups with senior level staff. (more…)
We must work for justice at home and abroad, connecting our local struggle for democracy with the global one and live by the principle that as working and poor people globally, we have the right to control our lives and resources.
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