by admin | Dec 7, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015, YOUNGO
Paris. A trip which many are looking forward to. To travel, to explore and… to fall in love. Fall in love with the city, people, culture, fashion, food… and? Well, I am looking forward to the upcoming COP21 at Paris that is to be held on 30th November 2015.
Before every COP, an annual youth conference will be held annually. This culture has been going on since 2009 where young attendees of the world get the opportunity to gather, to share, explore, experience and grow together towards a global smart climate community.
This year, the 11th Conference of Youth (COY11) is one of the largest ever held where the event was graced by 5000 other young attendees around the globe at Parc des Expositions de Villepinte. There are many workshops, conferences, debates, and forum occurred concurrently throughout the 3 days from 26th November 2015 to 28th November 2015. The message of the COY 11 is to show that young people are able to mobilize. They are important actors of change and leaders of tomorrow where, they are able to convey concrete solutions to combat climate change together. Majority of the people come with this objective in mind, “to imagine and create the society of tomorrow”.
One of the highlights in COY is their “Make It Real” program as it is an open innovation track where young people get the opportunity to explore, to convey their dreams and visions into practical solutions to make a better society. For me, words such as creativity, visions and dreams are keys to bring humanity one step forward. If you ask me, to be better or worse? I do not know. Perhaps, James Diamond study on “How Societies Collapse” has the answer for this.
Nonetheless, this year is also the first experience for Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD) team to explore COY11. In my opinion, the experience is enriching especially having one of our team member “Amalen” to co-organized a brief Asian meetup session with at least 30 enthusiastic Asian Youth at COY! These energetic young Asian leaders are here – to share and engage with one another, to express their environmental initiatives they have back home. For instance, we have Kai from China, who does global research on bees; Mia from Indonesia – who focuses on youth climate action at COP and Bhaskar Padigala from India, whom had done an amazing work on researching available renewable energy technologies that are applicable to his home country.
Although it is only a day at COY11, it is still an enriching global experience for me. Hopefully, if I am fortunate enough, to explore the next COY in full.
Written by: Jolene Journe T.
Edited by: Merryn C.
![Dialogue with Mr. Al Gore]()
by admin | Dec 6, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015
“As human beings, we are vulnerable to confusing the unprecedented with the improbable. In our everyday experience, if something has never happened before, we are generally safe in assuming it is not going to happen in the future, but the exceptions can kill you and climate change is one of those exceptions.” -Al Gore
Albert Arnold “Al” Gore, Jr. is an American politician and environmentalist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He is well known for his work on environmental issues. On December 10, 2007, Al Gore was awarded as a Nobel Prize winner, for his unwavering dedication in combating global warming.
I believe everyone who are involved in climate change or environment activism have heard of his name. Yesterday, I had the privilege to attend a dialogue with Mr. Al Gore, along with other observer organizations. It was a day filled with wisdom, hopes and possibilities.
During his opening speech, he was pleased that the role of civil society in COP21 is the strongest among all the conferences he attended. In fact, the civil society have grown to be more engaged and representative over the years. Al Gore emphasized that it is immoral to continue emitting carbon emission and let the rest of the world suffer due to one’s actions. Private sectors, states and governments (delegates) must take the lead in curbing climate change.
Al Gore also provided insights on how the United States of America takes up rapid progress in curbing climate change despite the differences in political power. Seventy-eight percent of electric utilities that was built in the U.S in 2015 were powered by solar and wind energy. By shifting conventional energy to renewable energy, it will eventually open up possibilities for electrification of transportation. This idea could be adopted by our home country, Malaysia in the near future too. During the dialogue, there was a question asked on how to create and facilitate a soft landing in stranded assets. Many are concerned that if the environment wins the game, fossil fuel will be a total game over. All assets that are regards to fossil fuel and other finite resources will be devalued or converted to liabilities. Al-Gore replied that in order to avoid hard landing, divestment should start now but not later. People should start to discontinue in investing “hard” assets. Furthermore, he believes that the top agenda item after COP21, will be on the accessibility of green money/fund.
Al Gore also expressed his hope that green credit or funds that is affordable to be established. His hope resonates with me. Renewable energy is an excellent investment because there is minimal, in fact, almost no marginal cost aside from capital cost. Traditional energy requires the burning of fossil fuel (margin cost) to generate energy, whereas renewable energy such as solar energy does not undergo any burning, or chemical process that emits undesired side product. it is no doubt that job opportunities need to be opened to all renewable energy sector!
One of the civil society representative expressed her concern on the hard life of Arctic-ian due to climate change, fossil fuel extraction and land intrusion. Al Gore understood the challenges faced by the natives. At the same time, he expressed his gratitude to civil society for their effort in stopping the progress of drilling fossil fuel in Arctic. For those who are not aware, the smoke emitted from various industries, whether transboundary or local, is dispersed into the atmosphere, leading to the formation of black snow. Dark objects have the tendency to absorb more heat. In other words, black snow accelerate the melting process of Arctic ice. This amplifies the impact of climate change. In regard to this issue, Al Gore hopes, wishes, pledges and wants the Arctic to become a fossil fuel free and intrusion free country. My first thought after his speech: There is hope for polar bears!
On top of these, there is also a question related to how civil society can play an active role in COP. Al Gore answer is relatively straightforward. He urged the civil society to lobby their own government and provide assistance if necessary. Furthermore, youth in the room were also actively involved in the dialogue. Their questions were similar, revolving around the concern of how youth can be taken as real stakeholders, to have their voice projected and heard. In response to this, Al Gore gave his assurance to the youth that young people have been the vanguard of reformation. He advises the youth on 3 different approaches. Firstly, YOU-th need to become an activist and at the same time, win the conversation in climate change. Determination and persistence is the key to it. Next, YOU-th should embark and embrace on becoming the shifter for green and sustainable technology. YOU-th possess high consumer power and the market depend on such demand as well. Thirdly, YOU-th should actively involved in political process. Despite the external changes, such as pressure from NGOs and private sectors, change within the system is crucial and indispensable.
“Political will itself is a renewable resources”. Mr. Al Gore ended his speech with this meaningful quote that struck a responsive chord with his audience. He believed that all problems can be overcome if climate crisis is resolved. We should all learn from leaders like Al Gore. I have so much respect for this man, who took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to a country’s economic growth and environmental protection, including the improvements in educational system. He worked to try to improve the quality of life, not just in the U.S, but in a world that we all share.
Written by: Thomas
Edited by: Merryn
![The Phase Out of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and the Paris Climate Deal]()
by admin | Dec 5, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015, UNFCCC
Start funding climate action and stop funding climate chaos!
While working hard on Paris agreement, there are massive struggles on resolving Fossil Fuel Subsidies. According to Shelagh Whitley, a research fellow of Overseas Development Institute (ODI) who works on private climate finance state that G20 countries current fossil fuel subsidies (USD 452 billion) are 4 times more than global subsidies for renewable energy (USD 121 billion).
Based on the recent report “Empty Promises – G20 Subsidies to Oil, Gas and Coal Production”, Russia, US and UK have contributed high national fossil fuel subsidies. While Japan, China and Korea have large contribution in Public Finance. Saudi, Russia and Brazil’s contribution via State-Owned Enterprise sum up to USD 135.9 million per year. In general, state-owned Fossil Fuels (FF) subsidy is the highest, USD 286 billion, where 70% of FF subsidies are government owned which may, or may not be listed on the stock exchange.
As quoted by Christiana Figueres ”Fossil Fuel subsidies is negative support of climate finance” Despite the pledges made by developed countries to scale up new and additional climate finance, many countries are failing to meet their commitment. As based on the OCI report, over USD 78 billion was spent by developed countries to support fossil fuel production in 2013 and 2014.
On the other hand, each year, G20 countries contributed FF subsidizes of USD 77 billion. Notably, these figures triumphs the current Green Climate Fund accumulation of USD 10.2 billion and developing countries receive just USD 4 billion to USD 5 billion to adapt to impacts of climate change. Many developed countries are failing to meet their commitment and much of the climate finance is not new and sadly, there is little clarity of how these money are mobilized for mitigation and adaptation.
But, this can change. There are some key recommendations for financing future climate action. For instance, more actions should be done at the national level. Government need to honour their pledges to phase out FF subsidies especially via public finance institutions. This includes the provision of grants, equity, loans, guarantees and insurance by majority government owned financial institutions for domestic and international fossil fuel production.Hence, there is the importance of finalizing the Paris agreement as well in achieving low emission and climate-resilient societies and economies development. In the latest Draft Agreement, Article 6, Paragraph 1 & 10 show clear language on reducing financial support for high emission investments.
In conclusion, “we need to ensure this commitment stays building on and strengthening previous commitments made through sustainable development goals (SDGs) and G20s commitments.” – Maeve McLynn, Climate and Development Policy Coordinator, CAN Europe
Written by: Jolene Journe T.
Edited by: Merryn
![Heart of Borneo Initiative- A solution for Climate Change and Low Carbon Development]()
by admin | Dec 5, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015
“Our lost has been too significant, and those that left have been too insignificant.” – Dr. Efransjah
Is palm oil and timber industry jeopardizing the orangutan’s survival and the forest coverage in Borneo? The answer is, it depends.
In the “A Solution for Climate Change and Low Carbon” COP parallel event, Dr. Efransjah, CEO of WWF-Indonesia, has addressed the idea on how Borneo states economy can develop without further exacerbating the deforestation issues.
“They can do it, but they have to do in the right way”, said Dr. Efransjah. Good management from the government in protecting natural resources and protected areas are vital in the effort to safeguard the lives of orangutans. In states like Borneo, where intact forests are border-crossing; trans-boundary collaboration on management is extremely challenging, yet significant. According to Dr. Efransjah, palm oil plantation is highly welcome for the growth of economy. The thing that most businesses often neglect or ignore, is to do it in the right and sustainable manner. The logging industry is one of the business sectors that faces this challenge due to the nature of their operations, yet it should not be an excuse for them to ignore the impact of their actions towards nature.
The high quality management and standards of the firm is crucial to promote a true green economy. Financial support too, is a mandatory and crucial element in sustainable development of the palm oil and timber industries in Borneo.
Payment of ecosystem and conservation levy is important to enhance the value of nature capital. “We have good projects, but we lack funds,” said Encik Haji Sapuan Bin Ahmad, the Director of the Forest Department Sarawak. Transforming the policy framework will hopefully encourage the development of good business behaviors and build the natural capital of Borneo. Therefore, national decision is still the utmost important factor in protecting the Heart of Borneo.
There is a saying from the Cree prophecy, when all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. Protecting the survival of orangutans and forest coverage is an effort that should be shouldered by all. When the day we lost these precious creations of God, it will be to late to discover that money cannot buy them back.
Written by: Elaine
Edited by: Merryn
![Emily’s Diary on 3rd December 2015]()
by admin | Dec 5, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015
Today I have decided to settle my personal stuffs and rest to recover from my sickness. Let’s just provide a personal space for myself to reflect. Good news, I have purchased a new phone …it was like FINALLY, after all sorts of up and down.
photo taken at metro station, place where i lost my phone.
Great to be back in the MYD team whatsapp group again and able to communicate properly with Malaysian Negotiator, Dr Gary. Honestly, I feels good to return in the virtual chats. Even though it was only two days without a phone, I felt like a bit behind. Guess everyone was just too caught up and did not managed to notice my struggle without a phone. At the end of the day, I decided to solve it by myself and make a great return!
I talked to myself (sounds weird but that’s how I reflect). I have been blindly following an unfamiliar negotiations for two days and learnt very little. Firstly, I am not familiar with the text. Secondly, I am totally new to this negotiation process. Thirdly, every spin-offs or closed meetings seems very exclusive but I was unable to keep track. I was literally just the note-taker and would not want to miss out important points from speaker. At the same time, owning a privilege to pink badge, which has access to close door meeting gave me a pressure to fulfil my task. The badge should be in good use and not wasted. These reasons have caused me unable to interpret well the meaning of the text within time limit. Besides, our team do not expect to receive a pink badge within short period of time and the initial plan was to attend parallel summits/events. This gave me insufficient time to think and make full use of the badges.
I am thinking about another approach for the coming 10 days in COP21. Daily tck and CAN meetings sound like a good platform to get daily updates and highlights. It would be very suitable for newbie like me.
Conversation with some other Asian youths during Asian Youth meet up dinner and Melissa from Singapore yesterday made me realised that following negotiations process is an uneasy task and it takes years to understand. Furthermore, Jolene mentioned visiting other NGO and countries pavilion opened up my mind. Thomas also shared his experience on attending side events such as forums sounds more informative than tracking negotiations. There are many things worthwhile to explore in COP21. Therefore, I decided not to stay in the meeting rooms anymore.
Great day spent! Hope it is not too late to restart my journey in COP21 🙂
Written by : Emily
Edited by : Ginger
