Tom Youngman

A Proposal: Let’s demand the ‘impossible’.

The science is clear. We need to take urgent, ambitious action on climate change. Even conservative sources, such as the International Energy Agency, estimate we have less than five years to take meaningful action on climate change, or seriously harmful effects will be irreversible.

Meanwhile, the politics is uncompromising. In Durban nations agreed to implement a new climate treaty in 2020. It doesn’t take genius to realise that this is too late. The Kyoto Protocol (the existing climate treaty) will continue until then - but it does not include Japan, Canada, USA or Russia - in fact it only covers around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is clear that the political solution on the table is highly inadequate.

This decision has already been made. By the usual rules, it is fixed. But why should we play by the usual rules? As young people in international climate negotiations, I see it as our role to demand what is necessary to safeguard the survival and wellbeing of all nations and peoples - and if that includes calling for action outside the current agenda, then so be it.

Some may call this naïvety. The truth is, this is not calling for the impossible. This is calling for what is distinctly possible - the new treaty will be agreed by 2015, it could be implemented earlier. What identifies it as impossible is political will - and that is something that constantly changes, and changes at the whim of the people. If we open the conversation, our governments will be forced to participate in it.

Therefore I call for what most negotiators would consider ‘impossible’, but what in reality is not only possible, but essential:

1. The outcome of the Durban Platform should enter into force as soon as possible - ideally 2016, soon after the outcome is agreed, but no later than 2018.
2. The outcome of the Durban Platform should be ambitious and equitable,  reaffirming commitments made by all nations when they signed the UNFCCC in 1992.
3. The second Kyoto Protocol commitment period should finish immediately before the new treaty begins - therefore lasting between three and five years.

Want to keep track of the ongoing climate negotiations in Bonn?

Although you may not have heard about it on the news, there are actually UN climate change negotiations ongoing in Bonn, Germany. These negotiations are not as big as the annual ‘COP’ summits (such as ‘COP17’ in Durban that I went to last year), but without the media attention often more achieved at these small meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - the UN process seeking to tackled climate change.

As always there is a team from the UK Youth Climate Coalition (the organisation I went to Durban with) at the negotiations. Follow their progress on their blog or on their twitter. You can also follow Camilla, Louisa or Danny from the delegation on Twitter.

Also worth following is the ‘Adopt a Negotiator’ project, who have a fantastic website giving updates of goings on in Bonn. You might want to follow some of Adopt a Negotiator’s writers on twitter, such as Seb, Priti or Mostafa.

There two big debates taking place in Bonn are:

Equity

There has been renewed focus on who takes more responsibility greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Nations such as India and China argue that as they have less historical responsibility for emissions, they should not have to reduce emissions as much (or even at all) and should be allowed to develop more. This is an established principle in the UN climate convention, but these developing countries want more emphasis placed on it in future negotiations.

In Durban, India’s proposed ‘equitable’ approach was not having any new legally binding treaty on climate change - clearly not a viable option. Young people in Bonn are trying to reframe the equity debate, emphasising how the only equitable solution to climate change is an ambitious and binding one, that actually solves the problem. 

For more information check out these three blogs, explaining the perspective of India, of China and of the EU (the EU negotiates as a bloc in the UNFCCC).

The Durban Platform

The Durban Platform is the new track of climate negotiations created at COP17, the climate summit in Durban, South Africa last year. It seeks to create a treaty ‘with legal force’ by 2015, that enters into force in 2020. The first negotiations sessions of this take place in Durban. Not much has happened yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye on. The Kyoto Protocol is the only legally-binding climate treaty to date, but it doesn’t come near to solving climate change. The outcome of the Durban Platform needs to be a fully-fledged international solution to climate change. 

The Durban Platform is nowhere near urgent enough, right from the beginning. The International Energy Agency - usually a conservative source - estimates we have less than 5 years to take action on climate change before the effects become irreversible. Clearly 2020, when the Durban Platform treaty would come into force, is after this 5 year window. This means that the treaty needs to be incredibly ambitious, so nations take pre-emptive action. 

So far in Bonn, negotiations on the Durban Platform have achieved…. nothing. Debates over the agenda have prevented progress, as has the aforementioned debate on ‘equity’. This is not inherently a bad thing - we want to make sure this treaty is equitable - but that progress has been stalled so much is pretty worrying.

Occupied Times: “A Diplomatic Occupation: Reclaiming the Debate at the UN Climate Talks”

The Occupied Times is the newspaper of and for Occupy London, an incredible, independent publication that perfectly demonstrates the creative and collaborative energy behind the Occupy movement. For their latest issue (see #10, PDF), I wrote an article about my experiences at the UN Climate Talks in Durban, South Africa and how we used the principles and methods of the Occupy movement to push for change in a diplomatic setting.

The following is the opening of the full article which you can read here.

On 9 December 2011 we came, we saw, and although we didn’t conquer the United Nations, for two hours it felt as if we had.

Towards the end of last year I travelled to the United Nations climate talks in South Africa. I had received funding from people in my local community and went to push the negotiations forward, not to obstruct them. I am 18, and I joined hundreds of young people of a similar age at these negotiations, all of us looking for a political solution to climate change to match the technical and social ones that already exist.

Young people attending the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) climate talks ran an open, inclusive, consensus-based process, meeting every morning and working to actively facilitate new participation. Teams of experienced activists spent hours one-on-one with those entering, unprepared into the perplexing world of international climate politics, building in them the confidence and skills needed to enable full participation.

…

Keep reading here for the exciting stuff!

Communicating the Challenge is the Challenge: Looking Back on the UN climate talks in Durban

Three weeks ago, I made this video. I was exhausted, husky and, if I’m honest, disheartened. I’d just spent two weeks at the United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa. They were the best weeks of my life, but that it’s taken me until now to write something about it says it all.

I applied to be on the UK Youth Climate Coalition’s delegation to the UN (pictured, right) in April. When I heard the news of my selection, that in seven months time I would be at the UN, attempting to make change on a truly daunting scale, I was staying with an exchange family in rural Spain. My immediate challenge was explaining what this meant in my second language to people with little knowledge or interest in climate change. Although they were sympathetic, I’m not sure my host family really understood what I meant - but they did let me use their computer for my first delegation Skype calls.

Returning from Durban, I’ve found myself clasping helplessly at words out of my reach when asked the question “how was South Africa?” to the extent I did when trying to explain my excitement in Spanish back in April. If I’m honest, I’ve found it hard to reconnect with my friends back home. It’s not about the people, it’s about the purpose. I’d spent two weeks with a clear aim, working with groups of peers with a shared goal and more than enough enthusiasm to make up for our lack of agency or resources. I planned my days at 8:30am and often didn’t finish work until 2:00am. It was ridiculous, but it was glorious.

I think the bizarre experiences are what convey the wonder of it best. I met the Bolivian Minister for the Environment at 3:00am, me wearing no socks and shoes, and chatted to him in Spanish. I played a rather fun game called ‘Ninja’ with a very senior British diplomat. I attempted to get on the 10 o’clock news by offering a man tinsel. I shouted the loudest I’ve ever shouted (video, rally inside conference centre pictured, left - can you spot me?) - and was echoed by hundreds of others - inside the conference centre.

But after all that, the conference did not deliver a solution. In the video I recorded three weeks ago today, I was downtrodden. That was justified. The way the decisions were made was fast, closed and undemocratic. Documents were released and agreed faster than we could get to the Documents Counter to collect them, let alone read them. This was not the open, consensus process the UNFCCC (the part of the UN that deals with climate change) likes to claim it is. This was old-fashioned, closed-door diplomacy. If that was an effective way of delivering a solution, I’d be happy, but it isn’t. It left decisions till the eleventh (if only it was that early….) hour and gave poorer nations no input whatsoever. Let’s be frank, what we have on the table now is shit. But it could be worse, we could have nothing. One day, some flowers could use this shit to grow.

I’ll take most not from the conference, but from the people I’ve met. I’ve met people of character far beyond the leaders attending the talks. Young people have spent months preparing off their own back, and most, like me, have funded themselves, running events and raffles and seeking support from their families, friends and communities. No politician did that to attend this conference. No politician can speak with the conviction of any of the young people that went to COP17.

So where am I now? I have emerged from what I can only define as a great struggle for me, and I’ve emerged stronger. It is now 2012. As I start a new year, it is not about finding a new challenge, but about finding away to continue the old one, and use the skills, connections and experience I have built. For me, this year is about action at home, using knowledge from outside in the context I know best. It’s about using that to inspire others to do the same in their communities.

So what do I think you should take from this? I don’t know. Open yourself up to all challenges. Discover what you’re passionate about and pursue it further than anyone ever imagined it could be pursued. Ultimately, don’t let me patronise you. This is my story, for now. I look forward to reading yours.

I went to Durban with the UK Youth Climate Change Coalition (UKYCC) - see our delegation’s blog here. I was kindly supported by many friends, family members, local businesses and by my local community - you can see a full list here. To see photos of the trip, visit my own Flickr page or the UKYCC flickr page.