All posts by matt

Some of these ministerial statements are pretty impressive! I’m feeling a bit better. The worst of the Umbrella Group (Australia, Canada, Japan, US) had me worried and depressed for a bit, but so many other countries get it and are holding the developed countries accountable.

To see it all go down, check out: copportal1.man.poznan.pl/

They have live streams as well as archived footage. Pretty cool!

But that doesn’t mean everything is fine. Negotiators have always been good at talking the talk. It’s the walking part that seems to perplex countries.

The way I see it, we’re sitting in an oven that is slowly warming. We’re talking a lot about how we’re in an oven, but nobody has figured out how we can get out of the oven. 

And yes. We are all in the oven, not just the small islands and least developed countries. However, they will be the first to feel the full deadly consequences of the warming oven.

Again, the youth continue to give me hope. Our latest campaign – the Survival Campaign – has exceeded our wildest expectations.

Visit 350.org/survival to be a part of it.

Essentially we are asking countries to commit to the principle of safeguarding the survival of all countries and peoples. While not all countries have signed on (the US for example), we have received incredible support from other countries.

We printed out plackards for delegates to have with them at their tables during the ministerial high level segment. Unfortuneatly the UNFCCC doesn’t allow delegates to have unapproved things on their tables and security took some away. Despite this, Uganda and Sweden both placed the sign prominently in front of them during their speeches.

Now we need to make sure countries follow through with action.

I’ll give a larger update on the campaign soon!

UPDATE:

There are even more countries with them out than I first thought – totally incredible. Not bad for a campaign that started 48 hours ago! The power of youth is amazing. One the list of those with plackards visible: Iceland, Solomon Islands, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Venezuela, Djibouti, Madagascar, Maldives, Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, and more! (I haven’t been paying complete attention due to emails and blogging).

Well, I’m sitting here in the high level segments of the Poznan climate negotiations.

I have to say, I’m pretty disgusted with many of the developed countries speaking. They are more than happy to say one thing – to talk about how great they are and how much they care – and then block text necessary for the literal survival of entire countries.

Pretty fun process.

As one minister from a small island put it this morning, we are talking about mass murder here. Mass murder of both peoples and cultures.

Again, as another minister put it, we are asking small island states to sign onto a suicide pact 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 island behind in this process. Survival is non-negotiable.

All too literally, small islands are in brackets at these negotiations. Countries are essentially trying to decide if the islands are worth saving at this point. For some countries, such as Australia, Canada, Japan, and the US, Christmas bonuses for multi-millionaires seem to be more important.

(a piece I put together with some other youth for our daily publication in Poznan)

We must safeguard the survival of all countries and peoples.

There is no other way to put it. To do otherwise would be one of the greatest tragedies of all time. Negotiators must quickly raise the level of ambition if we are to meet this necessary goal. To wait any longer is unacceptable.

Young people have laid out a clear challenge: take immediate action to safeguard the survival of all countries and peoples. 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.

As negotiators hide behind technicalities and acronyms, youth are making their vision for an equitable climate treaty abundantly clear. 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.