All posts by laurennut

By Lauren Nutter

The final day of Bangkok is now wrapping up.  It’s only morning here and now youth are sitting in the plenary for the Ad-hoc working group on the Kyoto Protocol.  It’s a bittersweet end to the talks… I want to be hopeful but I fail to muster much hope.  Really I guess my hope lies outside of these processes; it lies in knowing that youth all over the world, despite this pitiful display by our leaders, are taking leadership themselves.  We are not settling on the dimsal prospect– no we are rallying to continue our local work to fight climate change and support each other because it is afterall OUR future.  Below is the youth intervention for the KP session today, and more reflections to come later.

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My name is Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and I hope to be 64 In the year 2050.

Earlier this week, we declared “no confidence” on the road to Copenhagen.

The process has been hijacked by carbon cowboys looking to profit from this crisis; our future is being held hostage to the self-interested dirty delaying tactics of Annex 1 countries.

We have seen the arrogant betrayal of the Bali Action Plan, with the perverse idea that developing countries should or can somehow act first.

History will judge you.

We witness the US deliberately undermine the negotiations by introducing language to merge the Kyoto Protocol and convention processes, tearing out compliance and top-down target setting.

Other Annex 1 countries hide behind the US to avoid their responsibilities; setting disgracefully low targets; with deceptive offset measures that amount to no real emissions cuts at all.

We will not accept a dirty deal.

Our stand is clear. Let Norway’s commitment of 40% on 1990 levels by 2020 be the minimum benchmark for real emission cuts, but with no offsets, Indigenous rights based language secured before any discussion of REDD, recognition of climate debt, and targets of 350 ppm and 1.5 degrees Celsius.

History will judge you.

While governments are cautiously calculating their commitments based on what they believe is possible, the youth respectfully remind them that throughout history, political forces can shift rapidly when people rally together for change.

As one of the youngest people in this room, I will have to spend my life with the decisions you make today. We have an opportunity to make some of the most profound and positive changes in the history of mankind. Lets start acting like it.

Young people around the world are doing just that, organizing in our communities locally, nationally, and internationally, and we find our hope for the future in our movements.

We ask, will you join us? It is not too late to do your part.

The youth are leading..please follow.

History will judge this.

The following is cross posted from adoptanegotiator.org by their negotiator tracker for India Leela Raina

To date or not to date and why?

Among the 12 of us tracking the delegations here at Bangkok , I’m really tempted to go out in the evenings after a hard day’s work in the negotiations. I think after running after 60 year old negotiators from my country I require some youthful energy to enthuse the atmosphere!

From the perspective of a Non Annex 1 girl ,I feel that it would be literally impossible for me to find love among my team of 12( keep in mind, there are no non annex 1 guys) due to the following very very STRONG reasons:

1. He is not willing to COMMIT I am thinking Leela, I will think about it, I have loads of domestic responsibilities ( read: girls back home) to undertake said the American Tracker. Whereas all the others supported him ,obviously ,collectively coming to a decision as the European Union , but nevertheless made their individual statements. Instead they all say: Lets start all over again, lets try and get to know each other( read: shift baseline from 1990 to 2005) What is keeping you from committing? Is it the reason that you feel I’ll dominate the relationship in the long run? ( read: I’ll develop more than you over the years).

2. He takes more SPACE in the relationship  read:( has a massively higher proportion of pollution than us) and still demands he needs more space! This is so totally NOT FAIR!

3. He refuses to FINANCE dinners Although they have so much more money considering the dollar to baht exchange rate is amazing , they fail to fund my dinners. So I end up paying for myself, but considering that I don’t have the capacity to buy special desserts and exotic cakes, it becomes difficult to try and eat my share! ( read: we can fund local missions like solar but in case we need to scale up activities we require your help!)

4. Hates my mother ( READ: tries to kill the KYOTO PROTOCOL) Does not agree to any principles and conditions my Indian mother puts before him as far as getting back earlier than midnight etc etc and definitely hates my mother for them ! ( read: doesn’t like the conditions imposed and will not ratify them at any cost) .  My mother is the most special and essential part of my life, how can you neglect her like this? ( read: i have signed onto the KP and my commitment period is coming to an end not the protocol!

5. Doesn’t let me use the TV remote or the computer( read: no transfer of technology) I am deprived of using any sort of advanced technologies. Do you think that I don’t know how to use them? I come from India , we literally live with software and knwo the C to S of computers.

6. Wouldn’t save me If I fall off a cliff / Earthquakes hits us/flash floods take place READ: We are already losing lives and their inaction could push us over the cliff towards run away climate change….. He’s not going to come in a helicopter to save me like a Bollywood movie hero (read: countries are already feeling the effects and they are not reaching out enough with support for adaptation)

7.Doesn’t follow through and is indecisive READ:One second Obama is at the UN high level summit promising big things and yet here in Bangkok there is little to no action to meet those high remarks. Why do we hear different views all the time?

- Doesn’t share a blanket: Just don’t have any concept of sharing is it?? and then let you wrought outside in the cold at the middle of the night.

8.Possessive and wants daily reports READ : They want measurable , reportable and verifiable nationally appropriate mission reductions. Why do you keep tracking us , when you never has an answer to where you are ? 9. Have such a consumption oriented lifestyle Waste most of their money buying goods that they don’t use! We need to shift to a more sustainable lifestyle.

10. Would not make a good father Read: clearly doesn’t care about protecting the environment for future generations and has no concept of making a better world in general. So what say guys , are you willing to change or not?

By Lauren Nutter

Exhaustion is the first word that comes to mind personally.  But in all seriousness, now fully in the second week of negotiations, I find myself asking where are we at?  I find myself in a bizarre and somewhat conflicted state. On one hand the 200 page text we started with here in Bangkok has been consolidated, and countries are being quite frank about outlining their deal breakers and what they need domestically to make this happen… all seem to be good signals right?

And yet in my exhaustion I can not tell is that enough to allow myself to celebrate or grasp as a glimmer of hope? We are still moving painfully slowly, and although there are fewer pages there are still probably as many controversial topics. And even more frustratingly I find myself being pulled back once again to the US domestic scene where it feels the fate is hanging at the moment… will we get numbers and a law from Congress that will allow us to stop holding up progress in these negotiations?

I’m not sure on any of these points. The best I can say is stay tuned and in the mean time here are some more anecdotes and comments from Friday’s stocktaking session in the Long-term Cooperative Action track (aka where shit has to get done for a global climate deal in Copenhagen).

AOSIS- a political decision is not enough in Copenhagen; we need a legal implementation that will bring us to 2012 and beyond.

Mauritius- referring to the recent natural disasters “This is not a wake up call; this is a final call”

Switzerland on behalf of the Environmental Integrity Group- held up a sign “Yes we can” and expressed concern that we need to pick up the pace of the negotiations.

Saudi Arabia- followed by holding up a sign “Yes, if fair and equitable”.

By Lauren Nutter

(for Geena Berry and the rest of the awesome folks fighting for gender equity)

I’ve been a supporter of stakeholder participation for a long time now, and I am realizing, now more then ever, the value of incorporating more then just sovereign states into global solutions. Simply, we can better combat climate change if we are involving actors on all levels and recognize the potential of those most impacted. For example, women are some of the most strongly affected by climate change, yet their special knowledge to deal with the impacts is rarely considered.

Yesterday at the climate talks in Bangkok, more then 100 women from Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and other Asian countries, rallied in the streets to demand gender equity be included in the context of a just climate deal for Copenhagen.

image from gendercc.net

The ECO daily newsletter here in Bangkok included a few highlights of why gender equity is important in the context of climate change:

o Women are the key providers of food, water, and fuel in their communities. They provide up to 90% of food croups for the rural poor. They care for children, the sick, and elderly, and oversee the family’s assets. As a result, women have direct knowledge about effective and innovative solutions. They know how to address resources constraints and respond to erratic environmental changes.

o Women’s empowerment is crucial to sustainable development. Women lead some of the most progressive efforts in response to environmental degradation and climate change impacts, even as their voices are often marginalized. Wangari Maathai started the global Green Belt movement to plant trees in Kenya, and entered into an agreement with the World Bank to reforest regions of Kenya and secure significant emissions reductions—and that success is only one of many

o Women are disproportionally affected by climate change. Women make up an estimated 70% of those living below the poverty line; they have less access to resources; and they are more likely to die than men during natural disasters.

o Of all the legally binding agreements that resulted from the 1992 Earth Summit, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is the only one not to incorporate gender issues. In contrast, the Convention on Biological Diversity has incorporated a gender plan of action that recognizes women’s traditional knowledge and access to land assets.