Al Gore Calls for 350 Target at UN Climate Talks
December 17, 2008
Al Gore endorsed the 350 parts per million target at a speech in Poznan, Poland at the UN climate talks this month. 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.
Meanwhile, thousands of 350.org members from around the world lent their voices in support of small island states and the poorest countries in the world to safeguard their survival. Check out 350.org for more information.
The Maldives Threatened By Global Climate Change
December 15, 2008
The Maldives is one of the lowest lying countries in the world and is threatened by sea level rise and other climate change impacts like increased sea temperatures. It was the first country to sign the Kyoto protocol in 1997 and is closely following the climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland.
Symptoms of Global Warming Cropping Up Across the Globe
December 12, 2008
Global warming is already impacting countries across the globe, from Brazil to Bangladesh, wreaking havoc on the environment and putting millions of people at risk of extreme poverty. It’s the poor countries that are seeing the most dramatic effects thus far, and they’re in desperate need of resources, technology and money to adapt their economies to climate change and preserve their ecosystems.
From The Guardian:
North-east Brazil has always known droughts, but they are becoming longer and more frequent, say scientists and farmers. “Climate change is biting. It is much hotter than it used to be and it stays hotter for longer. The rain has become more sporadic. It comes at different times of the year now and farmers cannot tell when to plant,” says Lindon Carlos, an agronomist with Brazilian group Acev.
On the other side of the world, the changing climate is wreaking havoc in a different way on low-lying and populous Bangladesh. There, government meteorologists this year reported a 10% increase in intensity and frequency in major cyclones hitting the country – two of the most powerful cyclones ever recorded have hit the country in the last three years.
The balmy Caribbean is also being churned up with increasing frequency and ferocity. This year, the region experienced eight hurricanes and five major hurricanes, the second highest ever, and the hurricane season lasted a record five months.
Across the Atlantic, in Africa, the theme unfolds further: climate change turning already bad situations in poor countries into potential catastrophe, and driving people to absolute poverty. Alexandre Tique, at Mozambique’s national meteorological institute, says: “Analysis of the temperature data gathered in our provincial capitals, where we have meteorological stations that have kept continuous data over the years, shows a clear increase in temperature. Extreme events are becoming more frequent. We now see many more tropical cyclones that bring flooding, destruction and loss of lives.”
Right now, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland – which we’ve been covering extensively here on EarthFirst – representatives of developing nations are arguing that rich countries should help them pay to adapt to climate change, especially since they are experiencing effects of something they didn’t even cause.
Because of the worldwide recession, analysts predict that rich countries will resist paying more than what they’ve already contributed to aid funds. But since the money to help poor countries with climate change adaptation is coming straight out of existing aid funds, that means every dollar used for climate change effects takes away from money those countries need for things like health and education.
What a mess. Total lack of foresight during the rapid development and industrialization of the 20th century is largely the cause of this problem, and it amazes me that some people still believe that we can continue doing the same things – burning dirty coal, driving in millions of dirty automobiles, destroying forests at alarming rates.
Link [The Guardian]
Photo credit: Greenpeace
Youth Demonstrate in Support of Survival of All Countries and Peoples
December 12, 2008
An update from SustainUS delegates at the UN climate talks in Poland:
I have to say, I’m pretty disgusted with many of the developed countries speaking. They are more than willing to talk about progress and how much they care – and then block text necessary for the survival of entire countries. Countries are essentially trying to decide if the most vulnerable countries are worth saving at this point. For some countries, such as Australia, Canada, Japan, and the US, Christmas bonuses for multi-millionaires and bailing large corporations out of debt seem to be more important.
As one minister from a small island put it this morning, we are talking about mass murder here. Mass murder of nations, peoples, and cultures. Again, as another minister put it, we are asking small island states to sign onto a suicide pact with the way negotiations are currently proceeding. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to put everything I have into reshaping the political landscape over the next year so that we leave no one behind in this process. Survival is non-negotiable.
Negotiations are moving slow here, which is bad. We have less than a year at this point to get an incredibly strong international climate agreement – that is not a very long time. Especially with the level of ambition many developed countries have. But there is hope!
As negotiators hide behind technicalities and acronyms, youth are uniting around a strong shared vision for an equitable climate treaty. We need to make sure Poznan and the year leading up to Copenhagen are both successful. We need leadership and a commitment by parties to the survival of all countries and peoples.
Yesterday, international youth launched a new campaign – the Survival Campaign. The international youth delegation is asking all countries to commit to ’safeguard the future of all countries and peoples’. Committing countries to negotiating based on this principle means they have to do more, faster. That would mean, for example, taking responsibility to prevent small island nations, sovereign under the UN process but weak politically and economically, from slipping beneath the waves.
This is especially important for developed countries who must reduce emissions at least 40% by 2020 compared to 1990, with an overall global goal of reducing CO2-e concentrations below 350ppm. Developed countries must also massively increase financial and technological support for both adaptation and mitigation to help achieve this global goal in an equitable manner. Young people have laid out a clear challenge to these countries: take immediate action to safeguard the survival of all countries and peoples.
To ensure the principle is formalized we are meeting with a number of countries and asking them to support our message. We are asking countries to support this text:
I, the undersigned, commit my delegation to a global climate treaty that: safeguards the survival of all countries and peoples.
Climate change threatens the very survival of island nations and other impacted communities.
Join international youth to ensure that a global climate treaty includes the principle of safeguarding the survival of all countries and peoples.
We need a successful outcome from Poznan. Reassure the world you are committed to a climate agreement that protects the most vulnerable among us.
Ninety countries (and counting!) have committed. We also printed out placards that read “Survival” on one side and “safeguards the future for all countries and peoples” on the other for delegates to have with them at their tables during the ministerial high level segment. Unfortunately the UNFCCC doesn’t allow delegates to have unapproved things on their tables, so security took some away. Despite this, Uganda, Sweden, and Iceland placed the sign prominently in front of them during their speeches. Solomon Islands, Venezuela, Djibouti, Madagascar, Maldives, Costa Rica, and Papa New Guinea also displayed their Solidarity placards next to their own, displaying solidarity in the commitment to the survival of all countries and peoples. While not all countries have signed on (countries like the US, for example), we have received incredible support from almost every delegation.
The youth movement here is absolutely inspirational. That’s the only way to describe it. We are transcending our national boarders and working together for our common future. We are determined to remove the brackets that have been placed around our planet. We are uniting to safeguard the survival of all countries and peoples. We need all of your help. That means telling everybody we know about the issue and doing everything we can in terms of lifestyle, as well as political action, to stop catastrophic climate change.
If we wait any longer, it will be too late. Join us: http://www.350.org/survival
[compiled from a number of blogs from the international youth movement and edited by Casie Reed]
International Youth Call Out to Merkel and Tusk in Warsaw
December 10, 2008
On the day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly announced that she would block needed reforms to the European Union’s climate package, a crowd of 200 people from more than 20 countries loudly called her and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to task outside the prime minister’s residence in Warsaw. The rally began less than two hours after Merkel entered the building to meet with Tusk about the EU package.
For their threats to halt EU-wide emission reductions of 20 percent by 2020 unless given the option to hand out extra emission allowances to big German and Polish polluters, Merkel and Tusk both received Fossil of the Day awards. Avaaz.org delivered 126,000 petition signatures to the two leaders from people around the globe, and activists from Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund gave powerful speeches demanding that Merkel and Tusk rescue the economy and the climate simultaneously through green jobs and strong climate protection targets.
But it was young people who made the event possible (a huge majority of those in attendance were in their 20s), and who gave the rally its considerable energy. Anna Keenan of Australia, Sandra Guzman of Mexico, and Hannah McKinnon of Canada, three passionate and inspiring young leaders, brought the rally to a fever pitch with their remarks.
“By the time I retire in 2050,” Anna said, “we will need to have reduced emissions by 95% if the planet is still going to be inhabitable.”
“How will we get there if Merkel isn’t willing to start reducing emissions today?”
The youth who rallied in Warsaw today came, by and large, from the conference in Poznań. The geographic composition of the group was about as lopsided as it has been throughout COP 14. But five young leaders from Nepal, Mexico, and Cameroon did rise to speak of the inequalities associated with the global north’s inaction on climate change.
“The struggle to end global poverty and the struggle for climate justice are two sides of the same coin,” said one. “We are here to say, ‘Enough with the nice words. Enough with the nice declarations. This is the time for action.’”
The five speakers had tough words for Merkel and Tusk.
“We ask the leadership of the European Union to look us in the eye and tell us, ‘If 50,000 people were dying every single day in Europe and North America, as they are in the developing world right now, would your response be as timid and lacking in courage as it is now?’”
One of the rally’s recurring themes was the interdependence of our political leadership, and the way in which actions like the ones Merkel and Tusk have taken in the past week give other world leaders places to hide. Yuliya, a young person from Ukraine, told me after the rally that Ukrainian leaders look to Europe for examples. As Ukraine sorts out its own climate protection targets and emissions baselines, which are complicated by the fact that emissions there have declined by 50% since 1990 as a result of economic stagnation, Merkel and Tusk’s cowardly actions could create dangerous political ripple effects.
Özlem, from Turkey, said this truth applies to her country as well, but at the level of the UNFCCC:
“Turkey has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. If this EU package is blocked, it will give Turkey another excuse to go on without ratifying it.”
Of course, cowardice often comes with a price. Marlon, from Germany, knew exactly what to say when I asked him what he would do if Merkel continued to obstruct climate progress:
“All I know is that I would never vote for her again.”
Changes to the EU climate package have not yet been agreed upon, and it is not too late for Angela Merkel and Donald Tusk to re-emerge as principled leaders. Today the international youth climate movement demanded this leadership from them in the clearest possible terms.
By Chris Detjen, SustainUS COP 14 Delegation
Young Climate Activists Take to the Streets in Poland
December 9, 2008
The quiet streets of downtown Poznan were flooded with people over the weekend for the International Day of Climate Action. With banners held high, hundreds of people marched through the city center to the site of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, demanding action on climate change through chants in multiple languages.
“What do we want? Climate Justice! When do we want it? NOW!”
The youth presence in the event was particularly strong. Dozens of young people, covered in face paint and bearing colorful costumes, dressed as clowns to represent world leaders who are “clowning around” while the planet warms. Others danced to the beats of a drumming contingent that joined the procession.
In contrast to the tone of the conference, the march was energetic, loud, and fueled by – in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – the “fierce urgency of now.” Rather than getting bogged down in the minutia of daily negotiations, young people remain above the fray, never losing sight of the grander vision of this conference – the establishment of a strong, ambitious, and equitable international climate change treaty. While listening to countries intensely bicker over the placement of brackets in a draft document when the larger question of financing adaptation in developing countries is on the table, I can’t help but worry that delegates to this convention have not internalized the urgency of the challenge in front of us.
The International Day of Climate Action presented a welcome opportunity to demonstrate just that.
By Jeff Gustafson, SustainUS Delegate and Director of the D.C. Youth Environmental Alliance in Washington, D.C.
Kuwait & Qatar Want Funds to Protect Their Oil Rigs
December 9, 2008
Daniel Nelson of OneWorld UK breaks the news that Kuwait and Qatar plan to apply for adaptation funds to allow for the affects of climate change. But get this, their argument for receiving the funds is that rising sea levels will damage their offshore oil rigs!
The video was created by OneClimate and Virtual Poznan:
Submit Your Photo for International Day of Climate Action
December 6, 2008
Out With the Old, In With the Youth
By John Doyle, SustainUS Delegation Grassroots Coordinator
More than just being the lame duck, the US State Department has become a dead duck at this year’s UN Climate Negotiations in Poland. Contrary to past years, this year the US delegation has become the de facto outcasts of the conference: pleas are not directed to them, their statements are not repudiated, and even the press is ignoring them and focusing instead on the EU.
After the deplorable statement made Wednesday by an American negotiator encouraging 20% emissions cuts by 2050, far below what scientists say are necessary, the US youth have decided that we can not sit aside any longer. The American people did not vote in record numbers to be the laughing stock at some of the most important negotiations in the history of the world. We Power Voted for a new government that will engage with the international community on finding real solutions. Since our leaders are falling short, US youth are happy to fill their shoes.
This Friday, delegates from SustainUS, 350.org, EJCC, RAN, and Greenpeace will be extending invitations to government delegations from dozens of countries, developing and developed, to meet with us. We want to assure them that ‘the real US’ is ready to seek a bold, binding, equitable, and science-based agreement next year in Copenhagen. We will be extending this global engagement invitation to Senators John Kerry, Ben Cardin, and Amy Klobuchar, who will all be arriving in Poland next week. We have a long year ahead of us and there is no time to delay.
But, we need your help! SustainUS is launching a massive photo petition in honor of the International Day of 
Climate Action, December 6th, that will let international delegations know that the U.S. youth will be pressuring President-elect Obama and Congress for climate action NOW! In the next 24 hours:
1) Grab a camera, your friends and family (or just yourself)
2) Make a sign that says “bold, equitable, binding, and science-based” to select the type of climate agreement you are ready for
3) Feel free to draw a globe (or hold one) or do something that will give your picture an international vibe.
4) Send your photo to climatephotopetition@gmail.com
5) Get ready for a huge year in the run-up to Copenhagen!
When everyone sends their pictures in, we’ll be able to show other countries and our own that there is plenty of support for climate action. Once all of your faces arrive in Poland, the U.S. will finally be properly represented!
UN Climate Talks Update: Why We’re Here: YOU!
December 5, 2008
Here’s another exciting update from SustainUS Delegate Eric Pollard at the The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland.
Tonight at COP-14 the International Youth Delegation will have its first official UNFCCC side event. The event will be used to highlight some actions international youth are taking at home. So in the spirit of that I’d like to talk about how where I’m from has much to do about why I’m in Poznan.
On my first conference call with SustainUS, I was pretty intimidated by the international experience and incredible work of my fellow Agents of Change in SustainUS, especially considering this is my first time out of the states. This is only to highlight how world-class my fellow organizers are and how global their reach.
I’m from Oklahoma. Which as of November 4th, is the reddest, most conservative state in the US (take that Utah!). It’s the home of Senator James Inhofe who has called climate change “the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people” and has likened a re energized environmental movement to the Third Reich. Like other areas in the US, organizing in Oklahoma at times feels like a very lonely island.
But it’s also home to one of the only (if not THE only, correct me if I’m wrong) successful US campaigns to stop a nuclear power plant (Blackfoot Nuclear Power Plant outside Inola, OK) and a recent successful campaign to stop a coal-fired power plant that resulted in a decision by OG&E to quadruple their wind development in the state. It boasts a food co-op that has become a national model and a sustainability network involving communities from over 10 of Oklahoma’s largest communities (founded by Emily McCauley former leader in the Sierra Student Coalition).
Building a youth movement and network in Oklahoma is underway. In November, over 40 high school students gathered for ReEnergize Oklahoma to start this process. In addition, planning is underway for major lobbying efforts during the legislative session. An energetic and inspiring base of students is leading the charge.
The hope, energy, positive actions and solidarity that can be found in Oklahoma and other incredible local, state, regional and national networks is with us here in Poznan. I realize how much of an opportunity it is to be here and I feel responsible to all of the amazing people I’ve met through organizing to represent a re-energized America at COP-14. SustianUS is working diligently to ensure that the REAL US domestic position on climate change and clean energy is felt by the world in Poland. The election in November showed the power of youth in America and our ability to create real change. Know that your US youth delegation is here in Poznan working proudly and tirelessly to represent your efforts to create a just, equitable, and sustainable world to this beautiful global community. Thanks for this opportunity!
Eric Pollard is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he received a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Environment. As an undergraduate he was a campus organizer and leader in various student organizations including the environmental student organization OurEarth. Since last fall Eric has been working for the Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative supporting Oklahoma school districts and communities in developing renewable energy projects. Eric is also a community organizer at both state and local levels working on issues of sustainability and prairie smart growth.
Dispatch from UN Climate Talks in Poland
December 2, 2008
This December, SustainUS sent a delegation of 23 young people ages 19-26 to the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznań, Poland. Over the next two weeks, delegates will be sending us updates about their experiences at this important global event.
To start us off, David Sievers has a dispatch about day one of the convention. David Sievers is Training Director for the United States Student Association. He graduated in 2007 from the College of William and Mary. Take it away David!
Day one of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has come and gone. Badged delegates have filled the halls of the largest Convention Center in Poznan, Poland, they have rejoiced in inaugural festivities and a smorgasbord of free junk, and they have partied down in a hanger-turned-ballroom on the dime of the wonderful citizens of Poland. But it has not taken long for the honeymoon period to fade and for the weight of the task incumbent upon these negotiators to bear upon them.
This conference marks the midway point in the two year window developed at last year’s COP in Bali, Indonesia, to come up with an international climate agreement to build on the Kyoto Protocol’s previsions sunset in 2012. Since a global solution is required of a global problem on this scale, this process is our only existing good shot at pulling in all players to reign in carbon emissions by measures demanded by the scientific community.
For the two days preceding the COP, two hundred youth from around the world met at the Conference of Youth (COY). As at COP-14, COY-4 was all about taking stock of our progress and laying plans on the road through Copenhagen. But contrary to the basement-dwelling expectations being propagated by the largest emitters leading up to COP, the tone of COY was confidently ambitious. Where government delegates are taking a step back by debating decisions they have already made in the Bali Roadmap (eg. contact groups on Long-term Cooperative Action), youth delegates are leaping forward with cooperative strategy to build an international movement strong enough to demand attention from our representatives.
I am attending my first COP along with twenty other youth delegates with SustainUS, a non-profit that connects young Americans to international environmental negotiations. Delegations like ours, comprising 500 young people, have converged from fifty countries to hold our leaders to a safe climate future.
And the gap between the US youth and delegates is particularly pronounced. The US government delegation got out in front in making clear its intention to advocate half-solutions and construct roadblocks to science-based targets less than four hours into the COP. In an opening press conference, Harlan Watson, lead negotiator for the US, essentially put forth nuclear energy and (heretofore non-existent) Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) as the items that the US has to offer to the negotiation.
This reckless position threatens to burst the Obama bubble around the world. In interviews with international press, I was prodded about my faith in the promises of the new administration to positively reengage with the global community and to address climate change with resolve matching the scale of the crisis. While I am excited about these prospects, my primary aim in Poznan is to insure that the outgoing administration doesn’t derail any chance that Obama might have to make good on these promises through the UNFCCC and Bali Roadmap. So stay tuned for the next two weeks of action-packed updates from the US flank of the international youth climate movement at Cop-14.
-David Sievers
You can follow the SustainUS group in Poland on Twitter @SustainUSAgents.
