All posts in COP12

Posted:
November 14, 2006
Author:
COA Students

Time is running out, youth organize in Nairobi

-by Juan

With only 4 days for the closing of the UNFCCC negotiations, the North America youth delegation has doubled efforts to press for outcomes from this meeting that will safeguard help us combat climate change. Over the next 24 hrs we will be organizing a press conference, a meeting with the minister of environment of the United Kingdom, while meetings with the European Union, United States, Japan, Canada, and Uganda are also on the agenda for today. Als,o We will be organizing demonstrations, and lobbying delegates from the G77 and China, as well as collaborating with the international network of organizations members of the Climate Action Network. The UN complex looks like a beehive right now. Ministers are arriving in the next 24hrs to close the deals negotiated over the past few days. Kofi Annan, Sir Nicholas Stern, and other high level commissionaires are expected to join the High Level Plenary tomorrow, and youth are organizing demonstrations to stress the urgency of this issue to the 6000 people gathered in Nairobi. Youth are currently writing their statement to be delivered on Friday, and will continue to do everything they can to make the ministers realize they it is our future they are negotiating.

Busy days ahead of us… back to work

Posted:
November 13, 2006
Author:
COA Students

More Demonstrations, More Security

-by Michael

Representatives of the youth of our planet once again demonstrated on the grounds of the Gigiri Complex at this year’s COP/MOP. The youth who demonstrated were no longer allowed to do so in the main lobby, but were instead regulated to the grass near the entrance. Nevertheless, all entering delegates had the opportunity to witness us holding five signs which listed numbers descending from 5 to 0 urging the delegates to intensify their actions due to the urgency of the situation. Unfortuneately, attending today’s COP/MOP session on the Russian proposal, none of this urgency was present. The session started half an hour late, only went on for a half hour, and consisted entirely of technical problems and two readings of a report by Ghana on recommendations for how to deal with the Russian Proposal. This proposal was put forth by Russia at last years COP/MOP, and it sought to create procedures for those states which wished to become part of Annex B, and thus take upon themselves voluntary commitments, to do so. At the meeting, delegates were graced with the information that many parties thought the Proposal should be pushed aside to some working group, and maybe also to a later date. The Conference President then ended the meeting with the declaration that further decisions would have to be made at the high level sessions beginning Wedensday.

Another note on this morning’s demonstration: For the nine youth present, there were as many as ten security guards around us. Some smiled, but most bristled when us demonstrators starting singing “Ooo, it’s getting hot in here / There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere! / Take action, take action, and get some satisfaction!” We are looking forward to more actions and more substantial progress at this conference/meeting.

Posted:
November 13, 2006
Author:
COA Students

A Danish and some Research

This is an incomplete post salvaged from the internet archive.

-by Sarah

Adaptation from the Arctic to the Tropics… what did Denmark have to say about this? I was hoping for a more progressive discussion, to be honest. The side event this afternoon focused almost entirely on climate models, and the research that institutions such as the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and the Danish Meteorological Institute are doing about climate change, globally and regionally. Interesting, to be sure, but lacking in depth- basically, the models were the same as other models I have been bombarded with- rising surface and land temperatures, retreating sea ice. Predictions were dire- more extreme weather events, even one model that predicted (on one day) that a tropical cyclone might appear in the Mediterranean. Indeed, much of the research was focused on Europe, and Poul Frich of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency gave an overview of specifically Danish policy around adaptation.

Posted:
November 13, 2006
Author:
COA Students

Post-2012: What’s the hype?

This is an incomplete post salvaged from the internet archive.

-by Virginie

(Written on Sunday, 11/12/06)

I am writing from the Nairobi Natural Museum. We are waiting for the CAN (Climate Action Network) strategy meeting to begin. It is Sunday, we haven’t set foot in the Gigiri United Nations complex and I am taking this opportunity to step back for a day in order to reflect on my focus and experience thus far. Unlike my previous posts, this will be a one-pager blog, I promise. (If you are looking for an analytical policy oriented update, you are probably better off taking a look at other blogs as I hope to infuse a more personal and experiential tone to the following report.)

Looking beyond Kyoto: the post-2012 issue
Some of our readers might be wondering why many of us are particularly interested in answering the following questions: What happens in 2012—when the first commitment period of the Kyoto protocol is over? What is next, and how do we prepare for it?

Personally, my attraction for the post-2012 issue stems from what I perceive as the potential for my generation to develop a sense of ownership towards a future climate change regime. After all, we are part of the first generation to have been raised with the notion, or rather the knowledge, that humans were allowing dangerous atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases in the name of limitless economic growth and prosperity.

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