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The new website will be maintained throughout the year and will feature updates from international negotiations straight from the COA students on the ground.

By Oliver Bruce

I have to admit that I didn’t have high hopes for Copenhagen. I’d read the updates of the negotiations from Bonn, Bangkok and Barcelona. I knew they hadn’t made enough progress to pull together something substantive. So when I entered the Bella Center I was under no illusions as to any impact I could have and spent my first week twittering on where the free food was and meeting interesting people.

But as time went on, I could see the desperation increase among the tired negotiators I saw running from meeting to meeting. Each night, I’d get increasingly dire reports from Neil, a fellow COA student and party delegate for St Lucia, who was staying in my room. He despaired about the lack of transparency and power politics being played by the Danes. Somewhere along the line, it hit me that while I didn’t have high hopes for an outcome, I cared immensely about what was happening. Only over this last weekend, with the dust settling from the collapsed talks, and with a bit more information of what went on in the closing hours of the meetings has it all begun to truly sink in.

We failed.

Regardless of whether you were following the events in Copenhagen because you care about the planet, were interested in where carbon constrained business was headed, or because you somewhat sadistically enjoy subjecting yourself to UN bureaucracies, its obvious that what happened over the last two weeks was nothing short of a disaster. We’re now likely to have a set of short-term solutions, piecemeal agreements, and after the breaches of process and trust by the Secretariat and the Danes, a long period of tension and conflict in the international climate change arena. There is no common vision, no long term strategy – just a bunch of weak agreements that at this stage, don’t add up to much.

But the political and legal outcome is not really what this post is about. This post is more an expression of the grief and sadness that overcame me as I listened to leader after leader get up and deliver their “climate friendly” speeches and promise to do their part for climate. The frustration that came when it became obvious that my own country of New Zealand had appointed a minister who viewed the entire process as nothing more than a trade negotiation. The injustice of having all but less than 1% of civil society eventually restricted access to the talks.

I stopped caring that we’d not made enough progress in the negotiations prior to Copenhagen and began to ask why – why that even when faced with a potential catastrophe that affects the life-systems upon which we depend, we were unable to seize the opportunity to grow beyond the narrow-minded, sovereignty-obsessed politics that have constrained us until now? Why the common humanity that we share is not sufficient to overcome the constructed identities and barriers we place between each other?

I went to a United World College and then College of the Atlantic precisely to explore ways of being a better, more compassionate, more effective human being. I consider myself a strongly process-oriented person, who strives for inclusiveness and accountability. Despite my frustration with the UN, I consider international diplomacy a fundamental and necessary part of recognizing our fundamentally common nature as humans, and key to solving our collectively global problems. Yet my experience of last week, with its breaches of process, principles of transparency and simple lack of constructive cooperation, have given that faith a run for its money.

I, like many of my peers, sat in an old meatpacking factory on Friday of the last week to watch COA student Juan Soriano via video link deliver the youth address to the plenary. I could hear the anger and hurt in Juan’s voice when he declared that the negotiators “should be ashamed.” That after sixteen years of negotiations, we still can’t even come up with a common approach of how to deal with a problem that will affect all of us. The hurt that ebbed through his voice, as he quivered with frustration at the indignity of the situation, is the same sadness and grief I feel after seeing the circus that the international community put on when trying address a fundamentally common future.

Come on guys. We can do better. We need to do better.

Juan Soriano offers youth statement to plenary

By Donna Gold (from a press release)

Sporting an orange t-shirt with the question, “How old will you be in 2050?”—referring to the fact that in 40 years the youth of today will be experiencing the effects of climate change while many of the leaders negotiating the treaty will be gone—Juan Carlos Soriano presented the youth statement to the plenary today.

In 2050 he will be 64 years old.

Representing the thousands of youth of Copenhagen, Juan accused the UNFCC of becoming the “divided nations” and called on the delegates to sign a “fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement.” He concluded his powerful, short speech by declaring that the youth, “will keep on working and keep on pushing you harder until this deal is sealed.”

Lauren Nutter and Juan Soriano working in Copenhagen. Both are SustainUs leaders

When asked, months before, why he cared so much about climate change, Juan recalled his summers spent visiting his grandmother in the highlands of the Huaylas Valley. “The Andes have some of the most beautiful snowcapped mountains in South America. But every time I visit, I witness the consequences of environmental degradation. Not only are the glaciers melting but also the fruits from my grandma’s orchard are not the same because an abnormal proliferation of mosquitoes is damaging crops and forcing farmers to use pesticides. The frogs that once fed on the mosquitoes disappeared a few years ago; their extinction has been attributed to the shortening of hibernation periods as a result of a rise in temperature.”

Though the youths are disappointed with the outcome of the talks, they are finding some hope in their unity. In an interview after his speech Soriano spoke about how well organized the youth have become through the process. “We have managed to create a Latin American youth network. Integration among youth regionally and worldwide is something meaningful that has come out of this conference.”

Thoughts while sitting in a very empty chamber

By Ken Cline

Walking the halls of the Bella Center this morning it was eerily quiet. There were no bright-colored shirts, chanting youth, polar bears or walking trees. The energetic, chaotic, raw emotion of democracy was gone. Everything was neat and orderly and very, very surreal.  Several of the NGO booths at the expo area had stark black and white signs that said, “Civil Society has been removed from the negotiations. How can you decide about us without us?” Very sobering. I don’t really understand what the UNFCCC Secretariat is thinking. Aside from the legal obligations for public participation, the whole UNFCCC’s existence owes itself to the efforts of Civil Society. It is the scientists, research institutes, advocacy groups and activists that have gotten the world to even think about climate change. Funny way to acknowledge that debt. But acknowledging debts isn’t one of the strengths of the official bodies when it comes to climate change.

After running the gauntlet of five security checks with two detours to constituency meetings and to abandon my backpack, I finally made it into the High Level Segment – Heads of State statements. I listen as presidents, prime ministers and even princes exhorted each other to reach an agreement and protect the earth. Some used their soap box to rail against US capitalism, Russian imperialism, or other political hobgoblins, but most genuinely seemed to feel the eyes of the world on them as they tried to “seal the deal” (in the less than 24 hours we have left.) One of my favorites was Brazil, though I am not sure that the American government was so thrilled. But at least Lula de Silva didn’t rail about US aggression and the evils of capitalism for 21 minutes like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did. Iran also put a strong plug in for developing nuclear power. Nice touch Mahmoud. Many of the speakers echoed the arguments that we have heard all week (or perhaps for years) from their various negotiating blocks. Still, the stories of the prime ministers of the small island developing states and African nations were heart-wrenching.  There were memorable quotes, Zapetero of Spain finished his statement by saying that “our planet does not belong to anyone but the wind.” Gonzi of Malta noted that “Climate change will define us … what we do here is our legacy.”  And my favorite, “My children will be asking me in 20 years, ‘Dad, what were you thinking?’” from Gordon Bajmai of Hungary.

Where civil society once was.

Many of the leaders repeated their country’s already public green house gas commitments. Europeans were rather smug and superior; Australia and others of the umbrella group were defiant and dismissive. But I was also struck by how many said that “the negotiations could not fail,” that there was “too much at stake.” Several made direct reference to the demonstrations over the past week as a reflection of the frustration that the people of the world are feeling as the negotiators stall and bicker. They might want to give that message to their negotiators.

My overall favorite was Nicholas Sarkozy of France. He repeatedly challenged the other heads of state by asking “Who would dare say…” that Africa and the least developed countries don’t need money to adapt to climate change? That we don’t need innovative financing? That we don’t need a body to check compliance. … It was great. He scolded the US and China both for not finding a compromise and proposed that the leaders themselves sit down after dinner and hammer out a political agreement. Grandstanding, yes.  But in a refreshing and inspiring way.

As I looked around in the public gallery while the Prime Minister of New Zealand finished up, I noticed a total of 12 people sitting in the chairs. All of the people who want to be there, who wanted to witness this moment, and there are only 12 of us. The rest are locked out, perhaps watching it on-line somewhere. Perhaps they have given up and are out enjoying the snow-blanketed city. Maybe the press will convey the inspiring words to the world (well actually the Prime Minister of New Zealand wasn’t that inspiring) but then again, all of these speeches may have just contributed a little more hot air to the atmosphere. And unfortunately that is something the world can do without.

The Importance of Civil Society’s Presence at COP

By Noah Hodgetts

For added context to my previous blog post.

It is vital that non-governmental organizations representing civil society ranging from College of the Atlantic and the  Climate Action Network (CAN) to the Indigenous Peoples  are involved in the process for several reasons. The most important reason is to hold countries accountable and to push them to make bolder pledges. Civil society is a recognized constituency of the UNFCCC. Its presence in official proceedings  is necessary to make sure all parties are playing by the rules and not shutting out those with less power. Civil Society participation is also neccesary to give a voice to the millions of people who do not have a voice at COP and whose governments don’t speak on their behalf. Finally, civil society presence is needed in the proceedings to push for a fair, ambitious, and binding deal in Copenhagen for the world can’t afford to wait until COP16 in Mexico City for a deal! We need action now!

The Frustration Grows!

By Noah Hodgetts

Inside the Bella Center.

I’m going on three days straight sitting here in the hostel largely because I have been sick, but also because I have no place better to be considering that almost all NGOs have been shut out of the Bella  Center since Tuesday. NGOs have been forced to follow conference proceedings from satellite locations unable to show their presence and voice their opinions in official COP proceedings as mandated by the The Aarhus Convention, which was ironically negotiated in Denmark and which the Danish government has ratified. Excluding civil society is not only a disgrace,  but a violation of international law.

Although it is probably not my place to judge the Danish government as I cannot imagine the work they have put in to prepare for one of the biggest UN conferences ever, as  a planner at heart I would like to point out a couple of issues:

1. Know how many people your conference center can hold! Although everyone including myself wanted to be at this conference, it does no one any good to accredit three times (45,000) the amount of people the center can legally hold (15,000). That the Danes didn’t know this or see this coming is inconceivable to me.

2. Adjust to circumstances accordingly. With mobs of accredited people with badges  trying to get into the Bella Center, someone should be smart enough to separate the accredited and those seeking accreditation. That they had the same problem day after day and didn’t seek to remedy it is unacceptable. Even people with secondary badges had to wait in line with everyone else. And I was one of the lucky ones that only had to wait in line for an hour – some, even party members, were forced to wait in the cold for up to 8 hours on Monday.

3. Don’t hold an international conference, accredit thousands of NGOs and then shut them out of plenary sessions. Letting thousands of NGOs into the Bella Center only to let them roam the halls and attend side events is not why any of us spent countless hours fundraising the thousand-plus dollars we each needed to travel to Copenhagen!

I wish Mexico City best of luck in not repeating the mistakes of Copenhagen!

A Day to Remember

By Taj Schottland

It was a day to be on the streets. NGO access to the Bella Center had become extremely restricted. I managed to get in during the morning using one of the coveted “secondary badges.” But once inside I was dismayed to find nearly all meetings closed to observers (and as I write this I’ve heard they have now completely banned all observers from even entering the building). I decided to say goodbye to the Bella Center and take to the streets.

Upon exiting I was immediately face-to-face with hundreds of police, many suited up in riot gear. I knew there was a rally progressing from downtown towards the Bella Center, and I intended to join it. There was certain risk. The aim of the rally, titled Reclaim Power, was to enter the heavily fortified perimeter of the Bella Center. The marchers were going to attempt to force their way past concrete barricades, 15-foot-tall metal fences, and lines of riot police in order to hold a “people’s assembly.”

I joined the march as it approached the Bella Center. The march itself was peaceful, but soon we halted beside the entrance to the center. The air grew heavy with tension. Endless numbers of riot police poured out of transport vehicles. Protestors beat their drums louder and shouted chants of “reclaim power” and “climate justice.” A young man managed to climb on top of a police van. A police officer in riot gear quickly followed suit and jumped onto the roof of the van where he began to beat the man with a baton until finally shoving the protestor off the vehicle. (This image has already been replayed dozens of time on the BBC and other news channels, though seeing it in person is immensely more disturbing than seeing it on TV).

The tension had been unbearable. But after the protestor was beaten by the riot officer in plain view, the tide broke. The angry crowd pushed toward the police, and the police pushed back. Hundreds of riot officers attempted to penetrate the crowd. And as a witness with my own eyes, each time the police encountered resistance they swung their batons at the defiant protestor beating him or her over and over. The protestors held strong. Next the police began driving their armored vehicles into the crowd. Still the protestors held strong. Tear gas exploded in the heart of the crowd, only temporarily subduing the protest. The protestors still held strong. Finally after about half an hour, enough police reinforcements arrived. The riot police, with the help of armored vans, drove the crowd back, arresting numerous individuals, handcuffing young men and women and dragging them away.

I was both witness and participant to the anger and turmoil of the day. It was astonishing, painful, and unreal to see the batons coming down on protestors. The red haze of the teargas only contributed to this nightmarish scene. When I ran from the teargas I literally felt as though it were all a bad dream. If only it had been a dream.

Well the sun has now set, and I just hope and pray that something good comes out of this crazy, crazy day.

Leadership can reverse climate change

Brooke Welty at the Saturday climate change demonstration

by Brooke Welty ’11 and Doreen Stabinsky, COA faculty member
originally published in the Bangor Daily News

Negotiators and ministers from every country in the world are here in Copenhagen trying to form a global agreement to solve the climate crisis. Each of them is asking one question: What will President Barack Obama say when he arrives on Thursday?

We are here too, as part of a 13-student delegation from the College of the Atlantic on Mount Desert Island, and, since it is our president in the spotlight, we’re asking that same question.

The climate crisis is more urgent today than ever before. We have seen delegates here from island states like Tuvalu and the Maldives, and from African nations like Kenya, desperately plead for a treaty that will save their countries from the human suffering that is already taking place due to sea level rise, droughts, floods and crop failure.

For those of you back in Maine who think these problems won’t affect you, think again. Sea level rise due to melting Arctic ice is a grave risk to the northeastern United States. All of coastal Maine is on the front lines for serious flooding if the world fails to contain the climate crisis.

In order to prevent these catastrophes, leaders must leave Copenhagen at the end of the week having crafted a treaty that is fair, ambitious and legally binding. It should ensure that emissions peak in 2015 and decrease as rapidly as possible toward zero after that.

To achieve this, developed nations must commit to cutting their emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020, using 1990 as a baseline. They should create a special funding mechanism to protect tropical forests. And the U.S. and other developed nations should create a fund of at least $140 billion annually to help poorer countries develop renewable energy, end deforestation and adapt to the impacts of climate changes that are already inevitable.

None of this will happen without U.S. leadership. We have contributed more global warming pollution than any other country historically. We drive the world’s economy. Most importantly, we have the capital and human resources to create and export the energy revolution that will repower the world with clean electricity.

Sadly, President Obama has not yet met that call to leadership. He has acted more like a standard politician than as a leader worthy of the Nobel Prize he just won.

The Obama administration has called the carbon reduction targets and financial commitments that the U.S. must make “politically impossible.” Instead, Mr. Obama has offered minuscule pollution reduction targets, meager funds and a push for a mere “political agreement” in Copenhagen that kicks the can further down the road as the planet burns, instead of a legally binding treaty.

To be fair, the president has had to contend with an intransigent Congress, a well-financed fossil fuel industry opposed to action of any kind and a legacy of denial and foot-dragging from the previous administration.

The president’s negotiating team in Copenhagen has tried to remind the media of these obstacles. U.S. lead negotiator Todd Stern has consistently laid the blame for U.S. foot-dragging at the door of the administration’s favorite scapegoat — the U.S. Senate — claiming an inability to act without congressional approval.

It’s disingenuous to present the president of the United States as powerless to act. The recent Environmental Protection Agency finding that greenhouse gases are pollutants that endanger human health gives Mr. Obama the ability to regulate carbon emissions, and that is just one example of how he can act without waiting for the Senate.

This type of true leadership may not be politically easy for the president. But they don’t give away Nobel Prizes for easy tasks.

In his inaugural speech, Mr. Obama called for “a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.”

So far, the president has not “seized gladly” our duties to the world. He has not even grudgingly accepted them.

As Americans, we hope that changes when Mr. Obama arrives in Copenhagen. We do not want to have to look the delegates from Tuvalu in the eye and tell them that inaction by our country sealed the fate of catastrophe in theirs.

Monday mornings

by Geena Berry

Happy Moments…eventually

On Mondays it’s often a little harder to get out of bed, and today was definitely one of those mornings.  I started out in a bad mood, got confused by our room situation and then changed three different times before actually figuring out what to wear.  All this on top of like five hours of sleep … which is a lame way to start the day.  I get to breakfast, eat by myself and head for the bus.  Not-so-good mood continues when I realize that the entrance to the conference center is a GIANT line … by line I mean giant blob with everyone waiting in it.  Which was okay at first, but actually got a little better.  Mostly the giant line and blob of people were just confused, but it is funny that in all that madness there is this joint hatred that:
1) the Bella Center is not correctly designed for mass entrance in the morning
2) observers cannot get into the conference center until 8 anyway
3) 20,000 more people have been accredited than the building can hold and
4) there is no good coffee anywhere!
I love it.  I love that the mass blob of people in the morning make me happier than anything else.  It’s amazing.  Hopefully any of the mad Monday vibes will not infest the delegates that have a lot of work to do. (NEIL that is directed at you!)

Reflections from the weekend
Actions are amazing.  Protests/marches with thousands of other people, even better.  I hope all of you have been following what has been going on in the sad amount of media coverage that is around.  (Just to clarify, the march on Saturday was peaceful except for a small number of people who were probably not in the march to bring attention to the climate change issue.)  It was amazing to walk though the streets of Copenhagen with all those people; so energized, so much energy! Although. Saturday really made me wonder if we should be doing much more in the way of real actions … existential question for the weekend … should we be working in the system, or just really draw lots of attention outside, where all of this talk needs to make a difference?

A few of the COA students and alumni working toward a strong climate change treaty in Copenhagen. Back row (standing): Nina Therkildsen '05, Michael Keller 09, Cory Whitney '03, Juan Hoffmaister '07; sitting: Andrew Louw '11, (on edge of couch) Taj Schottland '10 (directly in front of him), Richard van Kampen '12, Oliver Bruce '10, Mers, Noah Hodgetts '10, Matt McInnis '09; front row: Barry (a New Zealand friend), faculty member Doreen Stabinsky, Sarah Neilson '09, Emily Postman '12, Geena Berry '10, Lindsay Britton '11.

On a different note: College of the Atlantic is great!  Having multiple large dinners with our delegation, friends and alums was amazing this past weekend. I thought COA was pretty cool before – but actually seeing how we are involved, what alums are doing and how open and welcoming our community is, is such a nice feeling.

The week ahead
This week is really what matters. Yes, there have been painful and intense moments in the past week, but that is not where much of the work is done. Delegates will be joined by heads of state and other important people. The text will be torn apart, reformed and then changed according to what is happening in side discussions. Now is the time to draw attention to what we need in order to craft some sort of agreement, and what it will look like to individual countries.  In the end, we hopefully won’t let too many people drown, be displaced, or die of famine and/or disease.

RECAP
If you have a bad Monday mood, go stand in a long line with a bunch of people.
COA is totally cool.
Week two of COP15 will be a much scarier place.

International Youth Climate Movement (IYCM) Slogans

By J. Taj Schottland

The youth have been broadcasting a couple core messages here in Copenhagen. I’d like to catch you up on what those messages have been and what they mean.

My favorite youth message comes in the form of a question. “How old will you be in 2050?” The youth have posed this question repeatedly to anyone who will listen, especially the media and high-level negotiating officials. The question has even permeated the depths of the UNFCCC bureaucratic process, as was evident when Michael Zammit Cutajar, who chairs talks on long-term action, walked into our youth briefing wearing a bright blue t-shirt with this slogan printed on it. But what is this question meant to accomplish? It is meant raise awareness that COP 15 negotiators, and the politicians they represent, won’t be around in 2050 to witness the climate disaster they helped sow. But the youth of today will be there. We will pay a dear price for the current inactions of world governments. For this reason we need significant emission reduction targets for the near future, not just distant 2050 targets.

Richard van Kampen (left), Noah Hodgetts (center) and Taj Schottland (right) at December 12 demonstration in Copenhagen.

I’d also like to interpret this question in another way. Yes it is true, the negotiators can’t be held accountable in 2050, but there will be people who can and will be held accountable. That’s us. Yep, the youth at COP 15 will be held responsible for what happens. The future generations will look back and judge us. They will know there were thousands of us here. They will know we had the capability of making real change. But will they look back and see that we stepped up and flexed our muscles? Or will they see we did a half-hearted job? We have to pull out all the stops and do whatever is necessary to make our voice heard. The stakes are too high for failure, and the youth are the best chance—perhaps the only chance—for bringing about a good outcome in Copenhagen.

Our second slogan is “survival is not negotiable.” People often loose sight that we are negotiating our survival. When countries negotiate finance, technology transfer and other policy “wonky” subjects, what they are actually negotiating is our survival. Is that really something we are willing compromise on? It’s as simple as that. Countries have lost sight of the big picture. Everyone has the right to life, as recognized by simple moral imperatives and by countless international human rights declarations and treaties. We understand that climate change, if left unchecked, will cause innumerable human deaths. We must stop bickering, stop negotiating our survival, and address the issue as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.