Sitting in the final few sessions.

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.

Survival is Non-Negotiable

(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.

Survival for All.

Alrighty, time for an update from Poznan.

Things are going 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!

The youth movement here is absolutely inspirational. That’s the only way to describe it. We are working together, without regard to national boarders, for our common future. We are determined to remove the brackets placed around our planet.

We’ve decided to really push the position of AOSIS – the Alliance of Small Island States. At this point, they are calling for stronger targets than anybody (even the NGOs) and are rallying around the idea, along with youth, that we must leave nobody behind in a climate deal. Especially small islands which will literally disappear if we don’t take incredibly strong action.

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 – where the people of the world willingly condemn their brothers and sisters to the depths of the sea because they couldn’t kick the carbon habit.

We have lots to do… so lets do it! We need all of your help. Everybody is an ambassador for Small Islands at this point – we need to do everything we can to protect them. 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.