Sydney: Wednesday, February 24 2010, 9-11am

Did the huge volume of media coming out of Copenhagen this week overwhelm you and turn you off? Are you unsure what the final outcomes will ultimately mean? Are you wanting to plan your personal and organisational work for 2010 around the international negotiations but are unsure where the most effective pressure points lie?

To assist you and to build a stronger civil society response post-Copenhagen, the Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) is holding a follow-up public event on February 24 2010 that will feature presentations from CANA member organisations that are currently in Copenhagen.

Unpacking Copenhagen: What happened, what it means, and where we’re headed

• Wednesday, February 24 2010, 9-11am
• Mitchell Theatre, Level 1, Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
• Cost: $30 (incl. GST), including morning tea
• Book online by February 11

This public event features speakers who attended Copenhagen to give first hand analysis of the negotiations and subsequent outcome. Speakers will address the machinations of the two busy weeks in Copenhagen and will dissect the meaning of the agreement that occurred. The aspects of development, political agreements, climate science and scientific impacts will be explored. Then the conversation will broaden into a deeper discussion about the role of the diverse climate movement in influencing the UNFCCC, and the role of grassroots power bases to achieve a safe energy future.

Speakers include: Don Henry (Director, Australian Conservation Foundation), Rev Elenie Poulos (Director, UnitingJustice of the Uniting Church), Dr Georgina Woods (International Coordinator, Climate Action Network Australia), Maria Tiimon (Kiribati national, and officer, Edmund Rice Centre), Will McGoldrick (Economic Policy Advisor, the Climate Institute) and Trish Harrup (Senior climate campaigner, Greenpeace Australia Pacific).

Perhaps it’s because today I finally got more than a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, or perhaps it’s the sense of hope that was infused into the air at the vigil that civil society held tonight as we sat with candles and listened to strong young leaders from the climate movement around the world speak words more powerful and with more emotion than I could ever hope to represent in writing. Mostly it’s too hard to find the words to describe how I feel about climate change. This is even more so here in Copenhagen. Yesterday at a talk by George Monbiot he pointed out that climate change is too benign to describe what’s happening to the world… it’s like describing an invasion as “unexpected visitors”.

To be young and alive today is to witness our Earth breaking and see our “leaders” demonstrate a spectacular failure of leadership. As Alex Steffen wrote, “to be young and aware today is to see your elders as cannibals with golf clubs”. I’m not sure why, but the despair many of us felt of yesterday – when we were locked out of the Bella Centre, when police beat and tear-gassed peaceful protesters in the snow, when the talks were collapsing and world leaders like Obama were rumoured to not be coming any more – has lifted, from me at least.

Tonight I just have a quiet sense of clarity and purpose, sitting here with a thousand others in a warehouse working on planning tomorrow’s actions, writing blogs like this one, articles for our local newspapers, and co-ordinating with our wonderful team on the ground home in Australia, who are as we speak holding vigils and 24 hour fasts in solidarity with those around the world suffering from climate change. I have been fasting today, only for 24 hours, but in the company of thousands of others around the world who are doing the same thing including Vandana Shiva, Mary Robinson, Blue King Brown and Cate Blanchett. Fasting allows us a chance to reflect and is also a way of demonstrating our deep commitment to climate justice – telling the world that we will do whatever it takes to solve climate change.

Today’s global fast was inspired by the Climate Justice Fast – which began with several young Australians including Paul Connor and Anna Keenan. They are now on the 42nd day of their fast. The past 24 hours, despite the flurry of activity – making banners, doing a lot of media interviews, getting across today’s policy issues and helping delegates still inside with their lobbying efforts – I have had the chance to reflect on where we’ve come as a movement since I first got involved in the environmental movement when I was 14.

Back then, climate change was not on the agenda at all, and our struggles were local. My first campaign – to protect a place near where I lived from sand mining, and have it declared a protected area managed by the Traditional Owners – was typical of the campaigns back in 1990s. In around 2003, when I was at University, climate change finally became a big issue for the Australian environmental movement, thanks to the dedication of the first climate activists I knew, many of whom would later go on to form Rising Tide Newcastle. They had a hard time convincing the student movement – which at the time was focused firmly on saving forests and stopping uranium mining – that climate change was worth our time. But they were successful, and many of us haven’t stopped working on climate change since then.

At first the issue seemed too big, too intangible, and so we focused our efforts on education and reducing the greenhouse emissions of our own campuses. Hence, the campus clean energy movement was born, and would form the basis of the initial growth of the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN), which continues to do some of the most cutting-edge work on climate justice and fighting the coal industry in Australia today.

Finally, because of the hard work of these “early adopters”, climate change became an urgent and mainstream issue for society as a whole. Groups like the Australian Youth Climate Coalition had the perfect environment to flourish, with our message that climate change was not an “environmental” issue, but simply one of survival – for our generation and those to come. AYCC will turn three this February 5th, World Kyoto Day, and in the past 12 months alone our membership has grown 1000% – from 5,000 to 50,000 young people. In addition, all the major youth organisations in Australia have put their weight behind AYCC, leading to an unprecedented youth alliance and the strongest movement in Australia since our parents’ anti-Vietnam days.

Since 2005, since the climate has been rapidly destabilising, the climate movement has been slowly globalising. This has culminated in Copenhagen this year. 160 youth attended from the Global South, as well as many more civil society groups from Africa, South America, Asia, and all over the world. We are reaching understanding as our movement matures, that climate change is an issue of justice. There is a huge climate debt that industrialised nations like Australia owe the Global South. And yes, the issue of debt is scary, and people don’t like debt – but we have to face reality and be clear that climate change is deeply, deeply unfair. How can we even call this Conference of the Parties a “negotiation” when over 112 countries here have endorsed a global deal based on reducing then stabilising emissions at 350 ppm and limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, and the small remainder of nations who oppose this can decide on an outcome that will mean many of the most vulnerable nations here will literally cease to exist. It’s hard to find language strong enough to talk about this; to write about this. The President of the Maldives said, “We will not sign a global suicide pact”. Granada described the failure to reach a deal to cut emissions to safe levels as an act of “benign genocide” – because it would be a deliberate act that commits whole cultures, ethnic and national groups to extinction.

What does it mean when our Prime Minister, and our Leader of the Opposition, decide to push courses of action that condemn millions of people to death? What kind of humanity do we have left when our leaders can get away with this? At the moment we’re tossing up the three words we want to reflect our key message when this is all over. It’s just speculation at this point, because anything could happen in the next 72 hours (negotiations have been extended to Monday), especially now that people are feeling like the negotiations have turned around. But we’re thinking of things like “350: Not Done Yet” or “We’re Still Here”.

Because no matter what happens inside the Bella Centre in the next few days, we still have so much work to do. Some kind of deal will be reached; that’s almost certain. But it’s unlikely to be the deal that meets the needs of the climate, and of the world’s most vulnerable people.

There’s still a chance; and we can’t give up. Earlier this year, world leaders found the political will to mobilise trillions of dollars to bail out the banks and their bonuses. They have 72 hours left here and they must find the same kind of political will to reach a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal. There are 120 world leaders either here in Copenhagen now, or on their way – this is still our best chance to get the kind of global deal we need that will put us on the right path to solving climate collapse. Most of civil society has been locked out of the Bella Centre, and for a few hours there it meant we were lost about how we could continue being effective. But then we came together – in the place where we are now, in a giant warehouse hall called Oskenhallen, for a vigil that centred all of us.

My thoughts now? People will say it’s impossible for Copenhagen to succeed at this late hour; but as always my response is the same – we must do what seems impossible to avoid the unimaginable. Our survival is not negotiable, and it is unacceptable to fail to reach a strong deal here. Hopefully the major blocking nations at the moment – the US, Canada and Japan (and sometimes the EU) will have a change of heart soon, helped by the huge pressure being brought to bear by global civil society. Avaaz’s global climate treaty petition is up to over 12 million people now. More updates soon…

In terms of what happened in the negotiations here, here is a summary of the key points. The LCA (the negotiation track on long-term cooperative action) finished negotiating at 6am this morning after 2 years negotiating. Algeria summed it up when it said, “I’m not really sure what we are agreeing”. They didn’t get far because they didn’t get the political mandate to be able to negotiate from world leaders.

There are a few notable things in the text: the draft has gone in the right direction on finance but certainly isn’t there yet. They’re setting up new fund for finance and it won’t go through World Bank or GEF. The existing adaptation fund under the Kyoto Protocol will become the new funding mechanism.
Bunker fuel (aviation and shipping) levies got up, and there’s wording that ensures  the industries wont be self-regulating on this aspect. But all the big issues were put up to ministers – hundreds of issues went to Ministers so will be very difficult for them.

Today, the Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard resigned, and was replaced by the Danish Prime Minister as Chair of the Conference. This scared developing countries – they don’t trust the Danish Prime Minister due to the leaked “Danish Text” – the draft of Presidency Document that came out last week. Developing countries said they will not accept a text from the Danish President. This means the text will have to come from officials – which will be a bit of a mess.

More info to come – and in a few hours our entire team starts a 24 hour fast in solidarity with the climate justice fasters – including Anna and Paul from Australia – who have been fasting for 42 days on water alone.

Both are can be found here in ample supply: from the domination of the developing country bloc by China and India, to the elephant in the room that is the United States’ refusal to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol that has necessitated a whole track of negotiations to get them on board in some other way, these talks are also the expression of other rivalries and divisions that have very little to do with climate change.

That said, these talks have everything to do with climate change – they’re supposed to stop them!

So the power exercised here is pretty important. The government representatives clearly hold most of the power – this is hardly news – but power also arises in new and surprising ways, which is why it’s worthwhile for us youth delegates to be here.

First though, the governments. On last Wednesday morning we met with Louise Hand (Aussie Ambassador for Climate Change) for half an hour to let her know what we’re doing and hear her views on the talks so far.

It’s great that she is so keen to engage with young people – and she is a thoroughly professional and personable negotiator; I’ve grown to like her a great deal over the year – but she has been handed a set of policies that are difficult to justify.

When asked why Australia doesn’t aim for global pollution to be reduced to a level that might actually avoid dangerous climate change, she has to respond with an explanation of why a genuine solution to the problem is politically unlikely in Saudi Arabia and the United States.

When asked if Australia is willing to accept the refugees who will watch their Pacific island homes slowly drown in the event that the world doesn’t act fast enough – if the world acts along the lines Australia proposes, in fact – she can’t answer with a yes or a no.

It makes sense for a negotiator to hold some cards close – but the reality is, if you want to reference the science and economics of climate change, all of which points towards genuine action now, you can’t then propose the kind of policies being pushed by our negotiators here.

Hence the occasional non-answers in our conversations with Ambassador Hand. I really do like Louise – and as a genuinely decent person, her grasp of the soft power of likeability grants Australia more sway here than its economic or military situation might suggest to a classical political analyst.

It’s not just the Ambassadors that hold the influence here, though.

Their mandates stem entirely from the instructions sent daily from Canberra, Beijing, Washington, D.C. – so anything that changes the political debate changes them.

Hence our power here (such as it is).

Over the last week, one of the biggest media stories online in Australia has been the Westpac ad comparing interest rate rises to the price of banana smoothies in the wake of Cyclone Larry.

Five hours of intense editing and a quick voiceover change later, we released a video from right here in Copenhagen that called out Tony Abbott’s inaccurate statements on climate change.

A day later, it was across the entire Fairfax Online network, top story on The Age Video News site, and the highest-rated Twitter story from SBS of the day.

It’s been seen by thousands of voters, Minister Penny Wong, and – by now – the Liberal policymakers on climate issues.

A little push in the right direction has a big effect here, especially on the little details that make up a good agreement – the kind of thing that doesn’t capture the public consciousness without a good dose of humour, but would make a massive difference to the effectiveness of the Copenhagen agreement.

So here we are, a little soft power and a massive viral media story later.

The negotiating texts still include all the ingredients that are vital to a good deal here – but they also have all the parts of an ineffective and backward treaty. Either could result from these talks.

Keep an eye on our negotiating team, through the media and this little blog – because the soft power of the voter is the biggest power of all.

You can find the AYCC’s spoof of the Westpac banana smoothie video here.

It was the highest rating video on Fairfax online – bigger than Tiger Woods!

Under the last global agreement on climate change – the Kyoto Protocol – Australia was given a legally-binding target for how much greenhouse gas we could release into the atmosphere. Although it looked like we would meet this target, we have actually increased our emissions quite a lot in the last decade. This is because we didn’t properly account for all the emissions that were released from land-use – such as land clearing and logging forests, because we chose not to count these under the Kyoto Protocol.
At the moment the world is deciding how to include land-use emissions in the next agreement.
What we’re worried about is that Australia will fiddle the books. They’re currently pushing to include a clause in the agreement that means we can count emissions where we want (for example, where we sequester carbon through improved agricultural practices) but not count the emissions where we don’t want, such as when we release greenhouse gas into the atmosphere (such as from logging).
It’s a little bit like a business being able to count all of their income, but only some of their expenditure. It will look like we’ve met our emission reduction targets when we actually haven’t, because we will release a lot of emissions from land-use but not count them towards our targets.
This has huge implications, especially for rural and regional Australia.

This will be a big thing to watch this week, and we’ll keep you updated.
In the meantime, you can help us make this front-page news by writing a letter to the editor to the newspaper in your state, using the following points:
Write a letter to the editor and use the following points (just pick one or two points, then write the letter in your own words).

1. At the moment in Copenhagen, world leaders are deciding on what to do about emissions from the land-use and forestry sectors.

2. Countries like Australia need to accurately account for the full amount of emissions from the land-use and forestry sectors.

3. Australia is pushing to include a loophole which allows countries to increase emissions dramatically from the land-use and forestry sectors without this showing up on its carbon accounts.

4. This could mean Australia is allowed to log our native forests and release a whole lot of CO2, but not count it in our final target.

5. The loophole could result in up to one billion tones of CO2 annually being ignored by developed countries – that’s roughly equivalent to Japan’s annual emissions!

Today was a large and peaceful march for climate action. What I saw today was unprovoked police storm the main rally in what looked like a planned, premeditated manoeuver by police. Police vans moved into position ready to strike at a peaceful crowd, scattering families with young kids. The scale of today’s demonstration was extraordinary and today’s police actions distract from the reasons that all of us are here – because the world can wait no longer for action on climate change.

ABC is reporting that the protestors were throwing bricks – which is completely untrue from what I saw from my window on the 4th floor overlooking the whole scene. The police were not provoked in any way before they moved in on the rally. Most of the protestors right now are at a candlelight vigil calling for a treaty based on 350 parts per million in the atmosphere. This aligns with the AOSIS text released yesterday at the negotiations.

The police in Denmark have come under unprecedented criticism for their disproportionate policing of protest and the Danish government have been heavily criticized for their new ‘hoodlum law package’ aimed at extending police powers for arresting protesters during the Copenhagen Summit.

Today’s rallies are part of a global day of action. I woke up this morning and was greeted by the excellent news that over 90,000 Australians turned out for Walk Against Warming rallies across the country. And then to be part of today’s large and peaceful march here in the city where our future is being negotiated was moving and inspiring.

I’ve been struck down with tonsillitis – too much stress and too little sleep in the past 10 days I’ve been here – so after the rally I was planning on having a quiet afternoon before a meeting tonight. Guess that didn’t work out..

Today is young and future generations day at the negotiations. The thousands of youth here are busy organising media, actions, and co-ordinated lobbying on every aspect of the climate treaty. This morning I met with Minister Penny Wong, along with other Australian environment and social justice groups. She too had seen the T-shirts; and agreed to meet with our team of 30 Australian youth and 11 young Pacific islanders.

One the first day of the negotiations, 17 year old Christina Ora from the Solomon Islands stood up in the plenary on the first day here and reminded negotiators, “For my entire life, world leaders have been negotiating a climate agreement. They cannot tell me they need more time. There is no more time. I hope world leaders realise this week that my generation’s future is in the palm of their hands.” It’s warm inside the conference centre, compared to the city outside and our 1000-bed youth hostel, which we’ve been affectionately referring to as “Coldenhagen”, but it’s moments like these that gives me chills.

It’s a surreal experience being here; it’s the biggest global negotiation the world has ever seen, with over 45,000 accredited delegates. Our team is made up of 30 young Australians and 11 Pacific Islanders, who we’ve divided into teams: actions, media, video, online, lobbying, policy, logistics and welfare. We’re working with other youth climate coalitions from around the world – the Indian Youth Climate Network, Chinese youth, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, the African Youth Initiative on Climate, and many more.

A few hours ago, President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize. American youth have printed stickers saying “Obama: Win it in Oslo. Earn it at COP 15: Real Deal Now”. What happens here will certainly depend a lot on US domestic politics. Obama’s African links have given some civil society groups hope that he will be more sympathetic to the plight of the most vulnerable countries on climate change. Indeed, if he doesn’t show the leadership that these negotiations so desperately need from the US, how will he tell his daughters that their cousins weren’t worth saving?

Already, there have been several controversies – a leaked copy of some negotiating text, a walk-out by one of the small island states yesterday over a process issue – but the hope is that all nations can keep their eyes on the overall vision of getting a deal that is ambitious (strong targets based on science), fair (enough funding to assist developing countries) and legally binding.

There have been some positive signals so far – new targets and plans to reduce emissions have been placed on the table by Russia, Brazil, China and India. Pressure is now on European and other industrialised countries like Australia to commit to stronger targets, and make them public earlier on in the negotiations to build momentum and trust. Australia’s target is 5-15% carbon cuts by 2020, with the option of going to 25% in the context of a strong global agreement. So far the conditions for the 15% cut have been met at these negotiations – but science shows us that we still need to do much more.

We need more than a photo opportunity in Copenhagen. Four previous Nobel Prize Winners – Archibishop Desmond Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, and Al Gore – have all endorsed a global deal based on 350 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere. Many people will say that a strong deal like this is politically impossible – but the message today, on youth and future generations day, is clear: we must achieve what some call impossible, to avoid the unimaginable. It’s our future in the balance.

There will be differences of opinion and differences of approach but most share a common goal – to avoid catastrophic climate change. Action is urgently needed now to dramatically cut emissions and support the world’s poorest people who are already being hit hard by a changing climate.Tens of thousands of people are in Copenhagen to demand urgent action on climate change – backed by hundreds of millions more right across the world. The AYCC is part of the global youth movement for climate justice and we are supporting the Walk Against Warming rallies in Australia on December 12th. The Dec 12th global day of action is about millions of people standing united on this day to demand action on climate change.

We believe the international climate talks – which involve all the worlds’ nations – are currently our best chance of finding a global solution to the climate crisis. The ingredients of a fair, ambitious and binding agreement in Copenhagen are already on the table. The only thing lacking is the political will to negotiate final choices.

This was an exciting development in the negotiations as a small, unheard country was standing up to the power brokers of the negotiators and received huge public support in doing so.

Yesterday our delegation, alongside the Project  Survival Pacific Delegation were lucky enough to have a meeting with Louise Hand, one of the Australian Negotiators. Amongst the nerves of meeting an important negotiator and the fear of stumbling on words or saying something inappropriate, I put to her a question on what is holding Australia back from setting targets that are in the ball park of the recommendations of the IPCC (a 25%-40% emissions reduction target).

Australia currently has emissions reduction targets of 4%-24%. An exact figure commitment will depend on what the outcomes of these negotiations are. However, the conditions for a 15% emissions reduction target have already been met. Louise informed us that the negotiations still have a long way to go and that Australia will not make a decision on targets yet. She also conveyed that Australia has a different economic position to the rest of the world because we are so dependent on fossil fuels.

This fact intrigued me and I started to think about Australia’s picture globally. Setting lower targets because we are reliant on coal, oil and other commodities is the equivalent of taking the easy way out. Australia has HUGE potential to build industries around renewable energy and sustainable industries. I fail to understand the logic in continuing heavy reliance in fossil fuels when they are the major contributor to climate change.

Furthermore, we’re rich!!!  Although we’re in debt due to the GFC, we’re in a much better financial position than the rest of the world. Investing in sustainable infrastructure such as efficient public transportation systems, energy systems and buildings will set us up for the future and create jobs and prosperity. The cost of delaying a transition to sustainable economy will only hinder us in the future, when we’re finally forced to implement these systems (not to mention spending billions on assisting those who have been impacted by climate change!!!)

The problem is, our politicians are being blinded by fossil fuel lobbyists and climate change sceptics who wish to delay investment for the future and disband the creation of opportunities in sustainable industries. Our leaders need to recognise that sustainability HAS to be the way of the future and that Australia’s social, economic and environmental integrity is being put at risk by their hazy policies and their greedy, limited, short minded views. In response to Tony Abbott’s cruddy position on the ETS, we have created this video (using the highly publicised failed Westpac ad) to encourage him to be environmentally, economically and socially responsible on climate change:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G42Ev_vPVao

Australia’s position on climate change plays an influential role at these negotiations in Copenhagen. Despite claims that Australia is a minority when it comes to climate change, Australia’s position on the world stage means that we have the ability to influence the position of other nations. If Australia is ambitious and serious in their commitments, our close allies such as the US and China will feel pressured to follow suit and commit to an agreement that ensures the survival of all inhabitants of planet earth. Now is the time to convince the Australian government to change their policies, change the views and change the way we do business.

It’s up to members of the Australian public to let KRudd and Tony (“mad monkey”) Abott know their concerns and vision for a sustainable and low emitting Australia. The Walk Against Warming is happening this Saturday, providing a perfect opportunity for you to have your say through a simple action.

This is a crucial point in history that will determine the future of millions of human beings. Make sure that you have a part in shaping the world’s future this weekend!