COYnnecting and COYllecting

by admin | Nov 7, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO

After three amazing days, COY13 came to a close. The 13th Conference of Youth, which took place from 2-4 November, serves as the annual pre-COP conference. This year’s conference saw 1,300 participants from 123 countries descend onto the sleepy city of Bonn. Since MYD 2015, there has been a mandate for Malaysian Youth Delegates to attend COY before each COP. Over the course of the past three days, I definitely saw the benefit to attending COY before starting our COP journey.

COYllaorating

I must admit that the pun “COYnnecting” is not an original one. The organizers of the conference used it as one of their official hashtags; I’m merely borrowing it and adapting it for “COYllecting”. With the presence of over a thousand youths from all across the globe, the COY venue, for three days, was transformed into the ultimate playground for like-minded, passionate, hungry and determined young people to teach, learn, and share their ideas and opinions on the topic of climate change.

Across the three days, there were over 200 talks, workshops and discussion sessions. These sessions were hosted to not just prepare youths for the upcoming Conference of Parties (COP23), but also to serve as a platform for young people to connect with other like-minded youth to share case studies, their work and even collect ideas to bring back to their respective countries. Azam, Jasmin, Lhavanya, Syaqil, Xiandi and myself from MYD attended COY, and I’m sure we were able to both contribute and collect thoughts and ideas from the sessions.

Fijians had a big presence at this year’s COY, considering their presidency at COP23

The mandate for MYD members to attend COY, is a necessary and justified one. Yes, our goal here in Bonn is to track UNFCCC negotiations at COP, but we need to remember that we’re not alone in our objective for promoting climate action and climate policy. There are hundreds of other young people from around the world who want the same thing as us, and connecting with them over the three days definitely helped in a few different ways:

• Networking and connecting with like-minded people from different parts of the world
• Collecting stories, experiences, case studies, plans, ideas and solutions that may be useful to local initiatives
• Participating in an honest, inclusive and constructive dialogue with the goal of pushing forward the conversation of climate action

Some sessions at COY13 consisted of presentations and talks that prepared youths attending the COP, running through crash courses on the processes as well as working groups within the UNFCCC, such as the Training on International Climate Negotiations hosted by CliMates. Other sessions were more about sharing the different challenges faced by youths concerned about climate change and what they are doing about it to come to a solution, such as the How to Negotiate for Your Values in a Local Community? workshop.

Appropriately illustrating the spirit at COY13

While I use the team playground for like-minded youths metaphorically, it really did feel like one. As I walked the halls of the school that served as the venue for the conference, I definitely felt that the vibe was a youthful and collaborative one. In reference to the title of this article, COY truly shines when the attendees organically do what the conference was built for – connecting with one another, and collecting ideas and stories. I feel that for any youth attending COP, it is absolutely necessary to join COY. It gives an appropriate amount of preparation for COP, while in an amazing one-of-a-kind environment.

Before COY I understood the importance of youth involvement in the climate change conversation. It wasn’t until after COY did I see it in action. The passion, hunger, intelligence and capabilities shown by the youth of the world in just three days gave me hope and even more drive to push the youth voice along. Power is currently in the hands of a completely different group of people, who may not care for the climate as much as we do. So until we are old enough to become decision-makers, we need to speak up and ensure our voices are continued to be heard.

Written by Mike

Edited by Varun

The Neoliberal debate in Climate Change

by admin | Nov 5, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO

An important discussion in the climate change debate revolves around neoliberalism and how they are compatible with each other. There is a need for increased conversations around such bigger pictures because these essential philosophies make a world of difference on how the economy is structured.

During COY 13, the UKYCC (UK Youth Climate Coalition) organised a workshop titled “Do We Need to Take Down Neoliberalism to Address Climate Change?”. It was an extremely energetic workshop that got the youths to distinguish between capitalism and neoliberalism, with concurrently discussing on the impact of neoliberalism on climate change.

Neoliberalism is often conflated with capitalism but it is important to distinguish between the two. Capitalism, as defined by Karl Marx, is a mode of production based on private ownership of the means of production. Neoliberalism on the other hand emphasises the value of free market competition and the opening up of boundaries. However, the boundaries between liberalism and neoliberalism is a gray area. It was evident during the workshop that people found it difficult to discriminate between the two – understandably since this generally falls under the dominion of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations students.                                       

Another noteworthy element was the dominion of Global North Youth over Global South Youth. The socio-economic and geographic backgrounds came through in the discussion that the groups engaged in. Some sentiments that were aired included the idea that Developed Countries had progressed so far ahead because they practised Neoliberalism as compared to Developing countries. However, it is important to note that neoliberalism is practised very selectively even in developed countries and to their benefit (a realist argument).

When developing countries practice neoliberalism, it is at their own detriment because they tend to export only primary products with little value added and additionally, their infant industries are unable to compete effectively with corporations from developed nations. It’s like a ten and a twenty year old sitting for a high school math paper. Obviously one of them does not have the capacity and the resources to score well on the exam.

Some erroneous arguments made in favour of neoliberalism included putting a price value on nature to enable carbon trading and the purchase of carbon certificates. Some arguments made during the debate session, include how market pressure can influence states to ensure their products and trading practices are more climate friendly. Another argument was that the market and corporations knew the best.

At the academic level, there are copious amount of arguments on whether neoliberalism and also capitalism is detrimental to climate change. However, this does not seem to translate over to policy making as much as it should. Negotiators still argue in the same rhetoric – The World Trading Organisation, a neoliberal institution, is still very influential in determining international trade. Perhaps with President Trump coming in to enact so many protectionist policies and advocating for tightening rules, this paves the way for more anti-neoliberal rhetoric in the arena of climate change negotiations. Maybe more of us need to resort to the fundamentals of these economic developmental issues to solve the problem of climate change.

Written by Lhavanya

Edited by Varun and Kelly