Youths of COP: Joanna Read

by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO

Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.

Q: Please tell me about yourself.

A: I studied Geography at university, and absolutely loved it, and there learned about the scientific facts of climate change and how humans are causing this sudden spike (as well as looking at climate trends over hundreds of thousands of years). In my final year, I started to want to do something about it, but I’d never been an ‘activist’ before, got the opportunity to go to Bonn May Intersessionals in 2014, and haven’t looked back since. I have been to 7 UNFCCC conferences now (including COP21 in Paris and two other COPs), always as part of the youth constituency of NGOs, and worked on other campaigns with the international team of UKYCC (the UK Youth Climate Coalition) in between conferences.

Joanna was the YOUNGO global north focal point from 2016 to 2017.

Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?

A: I knew I wanted to help make the world a better place than I found it, but there were so many issues I cared about, and climate change seemed to be either causing it, or making it worse, or bound up in all the injustices I saw in the world. And it was something that had solutions, we just need the political will to take them on, and the investment to strengthen them further, and movements working intersectionally to create social change for good as well.

Q: What is the topic you are following closely for COP23 and why?

A: I followed oceans during COP23 because well I love sea turtles, and the marine world fascinates me, but also the oceans are such a major carbon sink as well as being seriously affected by climate change (rising temperatures, sea level rise, ocean acidification etc.) that it seemed not enough emphasis was being placed on the ocean’s role within the climate negotiations, but was starting to be recognised this year.

Q: What is your typical day at COP like?

A: Up and ready for a YOUNGO meeting first thing, where I find out what I’m doing during the day when we run through the daily schedule. Then it’s usually a working group meeting. Followed by maybe an action (mini demonstration inside the conference center) or sit in on a negotiation and try to follow it! Lunch is usually squeezed in when running from one place to another, or meeting up with other youth organizations to discuss and share tactics and interests. The afternoon could be taken up by preparing for interventions (2-minute speeches that YOUNGO can give during the negotiations), or working on a blog/video with UKYCC or creating material for a YOUNGO press conference. And if there’s time – got to end the day with beer o’clock!

Q: Could you share a little on your work as one of the YOUNGO focal points?

A: Along with Nouhad, we were the contact points for the UNFCCC Secretariat (admin body) to convey information about all the meetings and intervention opportunities, which we would then pass on to the rest of the young people wanting to get involved with international climate politics (there are quite a few!) and pass back any requests, or questions from the youth constituency. But it is also being a point of contact and coordinator from within YOUNGO, and helping people make the most of the opportunities that you get from this weird and wonderful space.

Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?

A: Get involved, however you can. Climate change is going to be the defining challenge of our lives, don’t you want to be part of the solution? If you can’t follow the negotiations in person or don’t understand the politics, then read some of the many summaries about what’s going on (ECO or Climate Tracker are good places to start) during the conferences. But don’t forget that politics starts at home. All the negotiators will come to the conferences with their red lines already set by the government back at home. We need to mobilize as many people to hold our representatives to account, and we do that in numbers. So talk to anyone and everyone about why you care about climate change, and you’ll find that other people get interested because you are, maybe not all, but every conversation helps and who knows where it might lead.

Content and Media Provided by Joanna Read

Edited and Arranged by Xiandi

Humans of COP: Cuifen Pui

by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO

Humans of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.

Q: Please tell me about yourself.

A: Hello! My name is Cuifen. I have been an environmental scientist with DHI, a global environmental not-for-profit for the last 15 years. In my day job with DHI, I help leaders make better decisions that they can communicate with confidence by transforming knowledge grounded in good science into visuals and information that they can relate to and analyze. My first degree was in biology, and so when I first started out, I had the opportunity to conduct surveys in mangroves and other forests, as well as the marine waters. I worked a lot on environmental assessment and monitoring projects and more recently shifted into climate change and disaster risk projects.

Cuifen has a multifaceted involvement in the climate change scene.

A few years into my career, I decided to take a gap year to do Masters in Applied Environmental Science in Australia. I totally loved what I was learning and experiencing, and this helped me understand the why we do what we do at DHI. I signed up for various things I didn’t imagine I would get into. One of these was a 2-week Youth Encounter with Sustainability Course, which helped me connect the dots, re-learn what I thought I already knew, gained a lot of new perspectives and understanding. A huge part of this was the exposure to classmates from all around the world, realizing we are so similar and yet different, hearing their stories and being inspired by what other youths are doing.

When I was doing my Masters, I also came across a street of edible gardens, that totally took my breath away and helped me internalize a lot of what I was experiencing and learning. You know, it is the moment the lightning hits, and you kind of gain “enlightenment”. I started Googling about the edible gardens street and was inspired by what I saw. I started going to talks etc to gain new knowledge in a more conscious way, rather than just being a participant. I was still not ready to take any action, but I was really curious and ready to learn.

When I came back to Singapore, I continued my learnings by going to Green Drinks Singapore monthly talks and joining Nature Society (Singapore) on walks/learning opportunities. It helped me find a bit of what I valued in Australia here in Singapore, and also gain broader perspectives and understanding on who and what is in Singapore’s environmental landscape.

I had the opportunity to create my vision of edible garden with my neighbors. This led me to create Foodscape Collective, after learning that people in Singapore hold so many stories and knowledge of our foodscape. After much ground-up work, I felt very much in tune with what me, my neighbors, the people I met want.

I started wondering what the policy makers / global leaders negotiate for when they make decisions and agreements about our collective future. My interest was especially sparked when in 2015, I joined ASEAN Power Shift as a policy delegate (despite knowing nuts about policy) and doing a 1-month climate perception survey focusing on youths. In a few weeks, we had ~200 responses, many of them youths (the non-youths do want to have their say also!). Many of them were less than 15 years old, and a 10-year-old called me to say how she spent 45 minutes working on it because she really wanted her voice heard. I wanted to find my way to COP21 to hear what our Singapore leaders and global leaders say, and especially to tell our local leaders what the youths, especially the younger ones, want them to hear.

So, a couple of months before COP21, Lastrina who organized ASEAN Power Shift contacted me and said there is an opportunity to do so. We just need to start a network of climate change-focused youth leaders here in Singapore. As we discussed and Melissa came on board also, we started thinking of “Singapore Youth for Climate Action” as a name for this network. With the support of Mark of Avelife Foundation and various individuals, we made our plans to go.  Lastrina contacted the Minister; I got in touch with the negotiators. Just before we boarded the plane, we launched the SYCA FB page.

Cuifen is one of the founder of SYCA.

Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?

A: I think the sustainability course, as well as some coaching courses I took to build the courage to live life the way I want to, really made a difference. It has been a bit of a balancing act though – there are opportunities where I could speak up from a citizen / civil society/youth perspective, that I choose to give up given my role in the environmental sector. Must one’s passions remain separate from what we do at work so that we can clearly differentiate what a person says in the context of work/industry / civil society/citizen? These are questions I still ask.

Q: Could you highlight one of the projects you or your organization is involved right now?

A: This year is the Singapore Year of Climate Action, and we have been actively engaging various people in the Government Agencies on climate action-related initiatives. For SYCA, we are curating a second round of Learning and Learning Program.

We are also preparing a write-up of our COP22 experience, and hope to share that publicly on end Feb. At this point, SYCA team (7 of us) have our own initiatives that are inspired by what we learned through SYCA or other initiatives. Pamela has just started Tingkat Heroes and is collaborating with her university and secondary school, food stalls, retailers and civil-society organizations to bring about a huge change in use of disposables by ~10,000 students. Jeremy is looking to create Skillsfuture courses that the public could sign up for, to learn about various aspects of climate action in Singapore context. Lastrina is starting a reading club (need to learn more about this myself). 

For me, I am working on an “Environmental Day” in my neighborhood. Besides that, I am also talking to artists to see how we can convey climate stories in a way that people can really understand right away (still exploring).

Q: What is your typical day at COP? Are there any topics you are following in this COP? Can you highlight some similarity and/differences between COP23 and your previous cop?

A: I have attended COP21, COP22, and COP23. Each COP has been a hugely different experience for me.

COP21

I wanted to follow negotiations and was very frustrated when I couldn’t understand what they were discussing on, and especially so when they can “quarrel” over the same paragraph for an entire afternoon. I started going to side events and realized that a lot of what I do at the workplace is being showcased at COP21, just by other organizations. I was especially thankful that farmers were there (first COP that farmers got to represent themselves), indigenous people were there, tribal leaders were there…

I was especially thankful to Mel Low, fellow Singaporean from Energy Studies Institute, for helping me to understand what was discussed, and leading by example on what a youth actively following negotiations can achieve. I was especially happy that I helped my team and other Singaporeans to connect with and learn from our local negotiators. I was also thankful that I talked to random people in the bus etc, for many of these people are from places I may never have heard of or thought to connect (e.g. Ministers), and learned so much just by interacting with them, listening to their stories, and capturing their 1-min videos.

COP22

I was busy working on projects for my day job and wasn’t able to fully participate in the ongoings of COP22. There was so much I missed! I was really thankful to speak on behalf of UNEP-DHI on water projects that were carried out in Africa region. This was one of the few opportunities that helped me to try to understand how my work / personal interest can sometimes collide, and support one another. Because of this, I connected more with the Africa leaders

COP23

I was still a little unsure of what I wanted to focus on really. I decided on the first day to follow a series of APA discussions, as limited passes were available at the RINGOs daily meetings. RINGOs is a “home base” of researchers, scientists, educators. Although SYCA is about youth empowerment, we are also about inclusivity and following areas that are your personal strengths/passions. I felt that I wanted to give RINGOs a try as they fit better with my sense of work/personal identity. Turns out, although the other Observer organizations also have passed to the APA discussions, RINGOs was the only constituency that encouraged people with passes to give back by taking notes. My initial notes were not that great, they put it up on RINGOs website anyway. Other RINGOs members told me how useful the notes were, especially if they were not able to attend the session. This helped me to want to go to the discussions, take good notes, understand what is discussed, and share with others. I realized that although I still don’t know everything (and sometimes do go into the wrong rooms), I had come a long way from when I first started in COP21. The note-taking also sparked an interest in draft interventions on behalf of RINGOs, and in particular, to present at the APA closing meeting. The drafting process, which included reading and contributing to other interventions done on behalf of RINGOs worldwide, was one of my major highlights for COP23.

At all 3 COPs, we met with the Singapore negotiators and Minister. I’m still trying to learn how best to engage them (as we didn’t want them to meet us, only to have yet another coffee shop chat). I feel encouraged by the interactions we have, and also how Singapore has positioned herself to take climate action seriously from 2018 onwards.

Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?

A:  Growing up and even up to my mid-20s, I had no clue on what I wanted to do with life. I was merely following the crowd. If my friends like steak at a certain restaurant, I would want to go there too. If there was a leather bag that a popular girl in school was carrying, I wanted an exact same too. This was quite ok for a while until it came to a point – I realized I was not living to the values I hold to be important, I felt my voice to be not important. So even though I had friends, I felt I didn’t have anyone to truly turn to. Taking climate action is one of the “what” I chose to do, after realising what I hold important to me. There is still a way to go. I may have started 4 community initiatives, but there are so many more things to learn, to be, to unlearn.

Everyone is on a personal journey, and where you are at right now is OK. Understand what you hold important, where you want to be, and know that there will be roadblocks ahead that you can and will overcome. Have the resources you need with you, and have good relationships with people you meet. No matter what, remember your health comes first! I realized this the hard way last year when my health really suffered. It is a huge challenge to live to your “responsibilities” and other commitments you may have. Take care of yourself, be a leading example of what it means to truly live a sustainable life starting with you and the steps you can take to move forward.

Content and Media Provided by Cuifen Pui

Edited and Arranged by Xiandi

Youths of COP: Muhammad Ibrahim

by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO

Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.

Q: Please tell me about yourself.

A: I am Muhammad Ibrahim and I come from Egypt. I am now a fifth-year dental student at Mansoura University. I am so passionate about environmental, climate change and sustainable development issues and sharing new ideas and experiences. I worked in lots of NGOs and students clubs which aims at serving the community in the fields I am passionate about.

Muhammad has been involved in the fight against climate change since 2015.

Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?

A: I started my journey with Climate Change and Sustainable Development in 2015 when I decided to reduce my meat consumption because of the livestock agriculture, which is one of the main reasons of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. I was accepted to participate in an Environmental and Cultural German-Egyptian Exchange Program. I am now the African CliMates Community officer and the COPinMyCity Regional Officer for CliMates, I also work as a member of its Administrative Council.

Muhammad is highly involved in CliMates.

Q: What are the topics you are following in this COP?

A:  My main focus in COP23 was Adaptation; especially the adaptation fund for people who are expected to be Climate refugees if they will not provide with help. I focused on that because I am living in a developing country which will suffer sooner or later from climate change consequences and would like to find an improvement in this sector especially when we are watching this slow progress in the mitigation field. Developing nations are the biggest sufferers from developed countries’ contributions to Climate Change.

Q: How has your work with YOUNGO working group been?

A: We wrote a very strong policy paper to send our message as youths to the COP23 presidency. We wrote about the estimated 200 million people that could be displaced as a result of climate impacts by 2050 and how much is it important to start capacity building and technology transfer from developed nations to developing ones.

Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?

A:  In general, I would like youth to work more in their countries on increasing awareness and providing education for young people. Maybe climate change will be a very big problem for the next generations, therefore they should be aware enough.

Content and Media Provided by Muhammad Ibrahim

Edited and Arranged by Xiandi

Youths of COP: Wing Wu

by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO

Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.

Q: Please tell me about yourself.

A: Graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in sustainable agricultural system, I started my journey improvising climate actions and innovations in China through various projects of China Youth Climate Action Network(CYCAN). Before joining CYCAN in spring 2017, I’ve actively engaged in student-initiatives and grassroots NGOs during my study, where I gained experiences working with projects focusing on youth engagement, intercultural education, and food advocacy.

Wing from CYCAN

Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?

A: There is a strong linkage between food, livelihood and climate change. My study provides me a perspective to reflect on the urgency of tackling climate change in terms of global food security. Industrial agriculture and intensive livestock production contribute a significant share to human-induced warming effects, meanwhile, consequences of climate change are continuously altering the natural landscape for food production, especially for the climate-vulnerable communities. The fight for global food security couldn’t be completed without addressing climate change issues.

Q: Could you highlight one of the projects you or your organization is involved right now?

A:  With the Presidency of Fiji for COP 23, climate conference this year has a particular focus on climate justice. In China, there is also a huge economic and environmental gap between the East and West part of the country. People live in the Western regions of China encounter more frequent extreme weathers and have access to limited resources, thus their livelihood becomes extra vulnerable to climate shocks.  The organization I work in CYCAN has initiated a field research project on climate adaption, which we aim to create a knowledge transfer and capacity building between young environmentalists and local communities in climate vulnerable regions. Through a series of workshop, case studies and field interviews, we encourage students to work together with the villagers and different stakeholders at the local level to strengthen their resilience and finding a sustainable approach for better livelihood strategies.

CYCAN’s field research project focuses on climate adaptation.

Q: What are the topics you are following in this COP?

A: In this COP, the negotiation topics that I follow are mainly on Loss and Damage, and gender justice. The meetings on Warsaw International Mechanism of Loss and Damage, unfortunately, had not made much real progress. The public observers were shut out of negotiation process after the first meeting. The urgent need for sufficient climate fund, technology, and knowledge exchange opportunities to the climate-vulnerable communities was failed to be given priority. However, not all negotiation scenes are looking so grim. There has been progressive steps taken to support the equal and meaningful female participation and promote gender-responsive climate policy in UNFCCC process. I was involved in the YOUNGO Women and Gender Justice working group, which was working together with the Women and Gender Constituency under the UNFCCC which pushed very strongly for the Gender Action Plan and finally got adopted through SBI by all parties last weekend.

Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?

A:  Like I shared in the previous question, climate negotiation is a complex process heavily involved with different political interests, as well as economic and environmental loss and gains on different levels. As the young environmentalists who’re engaging in the process, we have to be a little patient to accept the reality that it goes up and down. But don’t drop the hope yet, it doesn’t mean that we are impaired to make any impacts – follow your passion, learn from experiences, communicate with others and act now! Together we can make a difference.

Content and Media Provided by Wing Wu

Edited and Arranged by Xiandi

Youths of COP: Harlino Nandha Prayudha

by admin | Jan 26, 2018 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO

Youths of COP: A brief Q&A with people met at COP23.

Q: Please tell me about yourself.

A: My name is Harlino Nandha Prayudha. I’m a student in Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia. As an agriculture student, I learned that climate issues really affecting agricultural sector and the future of the world. Deforestation, bad agricultural practices, the rise of waste and landfills contribute to the greenhouse effect which in turn lead to a disaster. I wholeheartedly agree with the making of the Paris Agreement and would like to emphasize that I am eager to pursue efforts that may reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. My involvement with climate change starts when I join IAAS (international association of students in agricultural and related sciences) Indonesia. I initiate a VCP (Village Concept Project) ‘Genteng Bagja’ as a Co-Founder of this program. VCP itself is a social project which aims to improve the living standard of rural communities in terms of agriculture, entrepreneurs, education, and environmental sectors.

Harlino attended COY13 as a Global South Scholarship delegate.

Q: What inspired you to be involved in the fight against climate change?

A: I believe that the greatest threats facing this planet are man-made climate change. Witnessing a number of global issues happening in the world and reality of the exacerbated environment condition have encouraged me not only to become the one who can adapt but also become the part of the solution.

Q: Could you highlight one of the projects you or your organization is involved right now?

A:  I believe waste, isn’t a waste as long as we know how to utilize it. As I mentioned before, VCP is one of the focuses from IAAS to fight the climate change, especially the one that related to agriculture. VCP is formed to help rural people empower themselves based on waste treatment and entrepreneurship mentality as a solution for their problems. By transforming eggplant (the least sold product) into a fabulous snack, we help rural communities to empower themselves increase their prosperity and put an end to their waste problem. Furthermore, we encourage farmers to reuse plastic bottle to do “VertiCulture”, a simple way to do farm from home. The project increases people’s income and acts as a waste treatment alternative solution.

Q: What is the typical day of a Global South Scholarship delegate? Are there any topics you are following in this COP?

A: As a GSS Delegate, we have to attend the YOUNGO daily spokes and after that, we can involve in any side events or negotiation that we want. For me, I’m working with the YOUNGO Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) Working Group and the YOUNGO Agriculture Working Group. We had daily meetings and working mostly to enhance the youth role in each topic. We make position paper, intervention, action, and press conference to deliver a message and statement of what we stand for. Related to that, agriculture working group already conduct an action to celebrate agriculture day and raising awareness about food waste and press conference to raise youth awareness in agriculture future. The ACE working group had a workshop with the NFP and do several negotiations to encourage countries to include youth/ACE in their NDC’s.

#UglyIsBeautiful action during COP.

Q: What are the key messages you would like to share with youths in general?

A: Youth is the engine of change who has the power to drive the mission, we have the power to foster the people and connects the dots between people and the decision maker. Make it count.

Content and Media Provided by Harlino Nandha Prayudha

Edited and Arranged by Xiandi