The Impossible Hamster

Rewriting the rules of the global economics game is the way out of the converging ecological crisis of the 21st century. We don't pay the true cost for our stuff, ripping off the commons for resources and dumping waste is normal practice, emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere is an obvious example. The mantra of government around the world is that growth (GDP) must continue even if it's not good growth and even as we rapidly approach or even exceeding natures capacity to sustain us.

As we admire Leo Murray's work like "Wake Up Freak Out" so we couldn't resist this new animation about growth - The Impossible Hampster.



For more about this see: www.impossiblehamster.org and the New Economics Foundation report Growth Isn't Possible - why we need a new economic direction.

And for a great book on how a non growth economy might be fashioned see Tim Jackson's book Prosperity Without Growth.

UKYD Film - Tom's Story

Final UKYD film from Copenhagen - Tom's Story



See other films at: http://delegation.ukycc.org/film/

Inspired

Amid the depression and chaos of the last few weeks I’ve seen, and been able to be a part of so many beautiful, inspiring things.

I’ve walking with 100,000 people of every age and nationality to call for a safe and stable climate.

I’ve seen 3 young people prove, as they finish their 46 day hunger fast, that achieving the ‘impossible’ is just a matter of having the courage to try and the will to keep trying.

I’ve seen young people take to the stage in the main negotiations to tell the world what this means to us.

I’ve helped to fill the greyness and endless corridors of the UN with colour and life and music.

We’ve shared songs, games, stories, and experiences with the Kenyan Youth Delegation. After working with them all year, we can now put names to faces and stories.

I’ve had less sleep than I’ve ever had before and worked harder than I’ve ever done before. But I know so many people who’ve given even more than I have and have been doing this all year. Going back again and again to the UN, travelling overland for weeks, or having no money for months because they give all their time to this.

I’ve sat with a hall full of people as Obama announced the Copenhagen Accord. I’ve shared the disempowerment, the sadness and the anger of that moment. Twenty minutes later I was stood protesting with hundreds of other young people outside the Conference Centre as the delegates filed out. It was 1 in the morning, well bellow freezing and snowing heavily but no one even considered not going.

I’ve laughed so much. Cried too, but laughed more. I’ve made some of the best friends I’ve ever had. I’ve met so many amazing people from around the world who are working so hard and giving so much to this struggle.

I’ve sat and chatted with young people from Kenya, China, India, Lebanon, Canada, the USA, Ghana, Malaysia, Nepal, Australia, the Maldives, Belgium, Sweden, New Zealand, Serbia…I could go on. And I know that despite all our differences, what unites is far stronger than what divides us.

I know that there are hundreds of thousands of people who came to Copenhagen and that every one of us has a lifetime worth of passion and energy to give to this movement.

See the UKYCC snapshots of Copenhagen on Flickr

Courage

I will be honest. This took me a long time to write. I almost didn’t want to tell anyone how disastrous the outcomes of these talks have been.

There are 3 main components for a strong global deal; it must be fair, ambitious and legally binding. Copenhagen has delivered none of these things.

The Copenhagen Accord is a joke. But somehow I couldn’t laugh, only cry.

The biggest problem is that it has no targets at all. Nothing. Although the text talks about less than 2 degrees of global warming it contains none of the targets necessary to achieve that. Countries just enter their own voluntary emissions reductions into a table in the appendix. 120 world leaders gather, and all we get is a global google doc. It’s ridiculous.

$100 billion is committed in long-term finance, meaning yearly from 2020 onwards. This is half of the amount required. It’s a start, but it includes private finance as well as public, which is about the largest loophole imaginable. To top it off, developing nations are only entitled to any of the funds if they sign onto the Accord. That’s effectively bribery on a global scale.

Unsurprisingly the Accord has been condemned by many nations who know it is nowhere near what is needed to ensure their survival. It has only been signed by 25 countries, including India, China, the USA and South Africa. Unable to achieve consensus the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has “noted” the Copenhagen Accord and eventually agreed on Saturday to continue as before with negotiations working on the same tracks; Kyoto and Long-term Co-operative Action (which includes everything from deforestation to adaptation).

So basically we haven’t moved forward and we have probably gone backwards. Before Copenhagen we had the Bali Action Plan, which was a political agreement that set out a time frame to achieve a legally binding deal. Obviously Copenhagen was the deadline and it wasn’t met. Now we have no time frame or action plan. Just empty words about the importance of a legally binding deal at some point.

But the story of Copenhagen is not just a story of failure.

There are 112 countries that have now stood up in support of 350ppm and a safe and stable climate. They represent the poorest and most vulnerable nations. It is their lives on the line, yet they are under huge pressure from rich nations to stay quiet. Not to make a fuss. To just die quietly.

They have been able to make a stand at Copenhagen because we in the global movement have stood with them. I have had delegates from many developing nations stop me just to say thank you. Thank you simply for being here to support them.

Speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, the lead delegate from Cape Verde told us they need the global climate movement to be their voice. That without us they will die in silence.

Courage is what we need now. It is hard to watch Copenhagen fail after so having put so much into trying to make it succeed. Courage is what will allow us to go on from here.

Copenhagen was never going to be the end of the movement. The work doesn’t end once we have a legally binding global deal. The real work then is making sure we meet the targets set and that nations deliver what they promise. As young people this is our future. We will find the courage to carry on. Kumi Naidoo, director of Greenpeace, told all of us at the Conference of Youth, “it’s not giving your life that matters, it’s giving the rest of your life.” I know I will, and I know I will not be alone. Over the last 2 weeks I have met thousands of young people from around the world who are ready to do the same.

What I will carry with me most strongly from this is that we shouldn’t look elsewhere for hope. So many hopes rested on Copenhagen and these talks, but our hope should rest with each other and what we can achieve together. Our hope should rest with the beautiful global climate movement we are building.

Here’s to the future.

The Elephant Is Moving

An email from Avaaz today (one of the NGOs Issy and UKYD worked closely with in Copenhagen) and it says... After hearing the result of the talks, one member from Africa wrote "It takes a lot to get an elephant moving, but when you do it is hard to stop...the elephant is moving..."

So let us indeed hope so... at least the USA has some engagement now, that's one elephant on the move, China and India and Brazil are also engaged so maybe that's a small herd, and Europe was already moving but doesn't seem to want to get ahead of the rest.

Question is can the mice scare these elephants into moving faster and in the right direction.

Already the mice are organising... see: Avaaz - The World In Action, 350.org - Not Done Yet


Squeek - We are not done yet.

Good afternoon fellow human beings

Message from the youth to their "leaders" - delivered this afternoon just before the whole thing went into extra time... do we still dare to hope?

Thank you mister President for giving us the floor.

Good afternoon fellow human beings. 

My name is Juan Carlos, and in the year 2050 I will be 64 years old. I am proud to represent the International Youth Climate Movement.

Christina Ora, a 17 year old from the Solomon Islands, addressed the opening plenary two weeks ago. She said “I was born in 1992. You have been negotiating all my life. You cannot tell us that you need more time.” 

We have all worked for the past two years with the promise of a strong deal in Copenhagen to safeguard our future. Now it seems you will not get it done. 

This is unacceptable. We placed our trust in you. You should be ashamed. 

The United Nations was created to solve humanitarian and social crises, but instead of standing united, you are now the Divided Nations. Humanity can and must do better. Mother Nature will not negotiate with us. 

You must set targets to get us back below 350 parts per million. You must agree on fair, sufficient AND additional financing to pay back the ecological debt to those most vulnerable.

The Youth dream of a sustainable future shared by all humanity. There is wisdom in the people’s hearts, and people are ingenious. We CAN solve this crisis if we just choose so. But this requires going beyond selfish national interests.

We support those nations who have refused to sign a suicide pact. We call on all nations not to accept anything that does not guarantee survival and climate justice. 

The Youth believe that you care enough for the future of your children and grandchildren to sign a fair, ambitious and legally-binding agreement. 

There will be no decisions about us, without us.

Rest assured that we will keep on working, and we will keep on pushing you harder and harder, until the deal is sealed. 

Please do it now. 

Thank you.

Negotiating With Nature

As the 'Circle of Committment' negotiate behind closed doors to foist a phoney agreement on the world, most developing counties and civil society is locked out of the process. The process that's run for Issy's entire lifetime, that we've campaigned on for years, that the young people felt they had some engagement with and ability to influence is all betrayed.

This may be realpolitik - the triumph of the powerful - but it's also business as usual and it got us into the this mess and is unable to get us out.

Got a text from Issy this morning - she's not able to get into the conference any more so she's been involved in satirical street theatre on a Robin Hood theme, robbing the poor to give to the rich. Also a beautiful vigil for survival with 350.org founder Bill McKibben - see video below. Today she's at a meeting with Tim Jackson the author of a important new book Prosperity Without Growth - for if we are to find a way out of the multiple environmental crisis we face today we need to move rapidly to a new, non-consumption based, economic model.

It's the economic system that's driving climate change
nature wont negotiate so economics needs to mitigate.



For more news see the UKYD blog.
Last Day In The UN
66th Hour
And Adopt a Negotiator
Numb
Making a Statement