Sometimes things take you up and down but we must continue to move forward and learn along the way. You might fall down but you learn as you get back up. This is a list of lessons I have learnt and how I felt throughout COP.
They are in 2 categories. The categories are personal growth and skill building. Be kind, this was sort of my diary during COP21.
Personal Growth
Confidence boost – I have learnt to doubt my self less and if I feel it is right I should be more confident in my decision making skills, I fell I have not shown enough confidence in myself and this was evident throughout week 1 when I kept feeling lost and doubtful eg. making route decisions or decided on how to help out in actions for YOUNGO.
Focus – after realizing this, that everyone is in the same movement and I should find my focus and further the cause to the best of my capabilities at the Alternatiba event , I feel so much more liberated, like I don’t have to do it all, I don’t need to have everything on my shoulders, I know there are others out there in this same fight. I know now that I must find focus
Patience – I never knew what true patience was till handling with the UN Secretariat, dealing with them to work out permissions for YOUNGO actions has been taxing, it has been moments of frustration and irritation, annoyance and anger for them denying audience with us, for being treated like kids. but nevertheless we must carry our smiles and keep up the good vibes. never let personal feelings and annoyances affect your conduct,.
Persistence – throughout helping out with the D12 march in the little way that I have, I feel that I have witnessed great persistence that I wish to emulate. The organizers never gave up when they were told they couldn’t do this, faced with police blocks and infiltrations, they never stopped trying to seek approval, they never stopped their conviction in the movement.
Skill Building
Navigation skills – trains systems in Paris confusing, trying to adapt to their system is to foreign to me, so from day one I relied on my own instincts (although not always confident), I used things that were familiar to me like maps, locating land marks and asking people when I am unsure
Woodwork – there are many ways to cut wood and make wood work for you in ways you couldn’t imagine, why cut when you can take another piece of wood and work around your problem, the creativity I’ve seen birthed at the art place is fantastic, just remember if a stick is just straight and you need it for another design, feel the creativity and you’ll have so many different ways to solve your problem
Painting skills- sometimes its about simple things, I feel that you can make the best out of the little things, in the art space I learnt a crucial time saving and amazing tip to painting things especially wood, why use a brush when you can take a cloth , dip it in paint and just go with it. Its faster and way more efficient.
Color! – anything with color is more catching than a plain black and white banner or sign. I have been shown the impact of color and I feel that making these small changes, from black to bold and red, makes the biggest difference in the world when you want to make something stand out
Interpersonal relations- I have never been the best at communicating with others, everyday in COP I meet new people and I have to deal with so many different situations with them, in the bus, walking down a street, talking to people while waiting in line. All these different interactions have shown me many different situations that I have never been accustomed to, it honestly made me weird a bit, well most of the time but now at least I know how to better deal with these moments, lie what to say after the normal hey or hi such as how are you feeling today, doing good? Like I completely froze when I accidentally asked the president from a country ‘where is the toilet’ I was so blur and didn’t realize what had happened.
Organizational charts and timetables are important – amazing work at the press conference I was at, message was clear cut, it was regarding some Serbian countries agreeing to curb their deforestation rate. They had clear cut timelines which they enforced, they had everything thought out for like how many questions to give out and even expected how long each respondent would answer a question. Everyone had a role and a task, I feel in all the things I have done so far, I have never reached this level of efficiency and I would love to reach that level of excellence on day.
You might fall down but you learn as you get back up.
How psyched I felt when one morning in the second week of COP21, my friend shows me a video on the UNFCCC main website. I was like, “dude, I don’t want to watch this. Can we like just chill and relax for awhile?” I watched the video anyway, and about half way through I lose my shit, that’s me!
I’m in that video! Holy Moly.
I was ecstatic. I was involved in an action with 350.org called “keep it in the ground”, a campaign against the use of Carbon or fossil fuel in any sense. I was actively involved and I was proud to hold up that banner and chant out loud. I felt nervous at first when the cameras were right in front of us, at the time it was my first big action and it was so well done. A clear cut message, a wow factor, a social media attraction we were but most importantly we delivered our message and we were heard. I didn’t realize at first that all these cameras were from big media agencies or that they would make a difference, I thought hey we’ll at least be on some news right.
But lo and behold we came out on a lot of different media, like the Guardian and many others, and I’m vainly saying that my Malaysian sexy face and beard is all over them. I was proud to lend my voice to a cause I cared about and to see myself on that video, I can say, “Hey, I was there. I made a difference, no matter how small it may be. I made a difference.”
Sometimes even the smallest drops, create the biggest ripples. Here is that epic video. Look out for me 😀
A visit to the Asia Indigenous People Pact (AIPP) booth in Green Zone led me to a series of immense thoughts on indigenous people in climate change. We were there to have a short Sumazau Dance practice with Winnie, a representative from JOAS. The dance performance was for Asia Day on the next day. JOAS stands for Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia, translated in English as The Indigenous People Network of Malaysia.
Compare to the indigenous people (IP) that I interacted with previously in Krau, Pahang; Winnie is different, as she has much more exposure to the modern world. She was such a pleasant lady, teaching us the Sumazau dance with such patience and joyfulness. After a few conversations and interactions with her, I came to realised that there is always one common in trait in all IP deep in their heart- which is their connection to the nature and their purest form of attitude towards life.
IP are well known for their close to nature lifestyle. In climate change perspective, they are mostly one of the most vulnerable marginalised group. As most of them stays in remote areas- either in the forest, by the forest edge or near the forest, some even in the mountainous region; their lives are directly influenced by any climatic changes within the region.
Why? Well, for one, most IP do not get food from supermarkets or even wet markets. They gatherof plants, herbs and fruits, they fish, they hunt, they do some small scale planting, all for consumption and maybe for a bit of bartering or source of income. In the face of climate change, the most sensitive species will be most severely influenced, there those delicate fungi are gone, here some baby squirrels could not survive and there some beetles act all funny. You might think meh, two or three species were disturbed, so what? The forests have so much more but wait, do you not know that all species interact and rely on one another? They form a tightly knitted community and ecosystem where all species are either directly or indirectly related to each other. Changes in environment might perish a few species and the shake the ground of many other species. Without food, this might force the IP to shift away from their own villages as well as changing their lifestyle, which can be a threat to their cultures and social identities. Instability of food source, low ability to adapt changes and oppressed rights made them extremely vulnerable.
Researchers believe that some of the IP possess the traditional knowledge deemed essential to understand about our surrounding environment, which would be crucial to produce a comprehensive adaptive method that combines traditional knowledge with modern science. In the latest Paris Agreement, IP was recognized and acknowledged in the texts but it is under the non-legally binding preamble which shows no protection to this group of marginalized group which could be a key information provider in combating climate change.
I then recalled and flashed back all IP related events that I attended throughout COP21. From the side events in blue zone, country’s pavilions till the Global Landscape Forum; it seems that IP from the American continent (Canada, USA, Amazon and Brazil) were much more vocal and well represented in occasions like this. Asia’s IP are relatively quiet from my observation, especially those from South East Asia region.
I wonder was it because of lower media coverage? Or the lack of platforms to voice up?
I was buried in a thick hard clump of frustration thoughts (on the unjust treatment most IP had to bear) only to be levitated on Asia Day itself. The pavilions are filled with IP from numerous Asian regions showcasing their traditional cultural performances. These nice people even prepared their traditional dishes as refreshment. I was deeply touched by all the efforts done by them. They traveled so far away from their hometown to Paris to be part of this global event, all the while displaying good spirits of never stop fighting for their tribes. True, they might not have the capacity to understand nor participate in the negotiations, but at least they do whatever they could to show their eagerness in wanting to be heard and they are concerned about global issues. With that said, I strongly believe that they deserve much more capacity building aids from their respective governments and international organisations.
“My name is Areeya. I work for an environmental NGO in Thailand named TERRA. We monitor Thai investments in neighbouring countries in the Mekong Region and campaign to promote understanding of trans-boundary impacts and rights of the communities to protect their natural resources, livelihoods, and posterity.
I came to Paris hoping to witness the global movement of the people, to find youth voices that speak about climate change and hope that their stories would inspire Thai youth to be interested in climate change. At the moment, many communities are losing their lands to extractive industries. Fishers folks are fighting against coal-fired power plant proposals.
Indigenous communities are at the forefront to protect the forests and their communities from being taken away. Extractive industries and especially coal induce climate change and pollute our soil and water–the basic ingredients for food security.
The forests are part of the natural ecosystem to recycle and absorb carbon, yet they are being cut and the communities who have been living in and protecting the forests–their homes–are being chased away. So, I believe that these are climate change induced disasters.
We (my organization) are not directly monitoring COP or the negotiation; however, we monitor energy policy to help our campaign against large dams and coal-fired power plants. It’s a good news to see Thailand submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) which inserts a 20-25 percent decrease of nation’s greenhouse emission. It shows that it pays attention to take part in the climate negotiation and our prime minister also spoke before the members of COP21 about Thailand’s plan. I do not know much about Thailand’s adaptation and mitigation plan. Nonetheless, if we look into another document: Thailand’s Power Development Plan, we see that it aims to add in 57,459MW in the next twenty years and many projects include more coal-fired power plants and hydro dams, especially in Thailand’s neighbors in the Mekong Region.
At the moment, (the youths’) interest in climate change is still primitive. Many groups are aware of climate change but I personally do not know many who actively advocate on this issue. Thailand did not send any delegate to participate in YOUNGO or the official youth delegation.”
– Areeya from Thailand
Kuan-I from Taiwan
“I am Kuan-I, Lee from Taiwan and I am an auditor in KPMG. The two main issue in my country that caused by climate change would be the extreme weather, especially typhoon and air pollution caused by deforestation and the exhaust emission. My organization, Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition (TWYCC) hold several workshops and Taiwan Power Shift to raise the awareness of the civil society and especially for the students and the young people. We are also one of the most positive teams in Taiwan to join in the COP and become the bridge between local and global communities.
Quite a lot of youth are interested in the environmental protection issue or energy conservation and carbon reduction, but the lack of whole picture on climate change is a problem. Youth have a much more ambitious goal and determination. It is probably what the delegates in UNFCCC need, for they may compromise with rather unambitious standard due to the pressure from certain sectional interests.
A series of COP21 documentary sharing events are organized, and we have already prepared 10 videos of different topics, including COY, human chain, red line march and the voice of youth.”
– Kuan-I, Lee from Taiwan
Kristina from Japan
“I’m a student in France, Sciences Po, studying law and political science. I represented Japanese youth in COP21 as a member of climate youth Japan. I have been participating and organizing COP21 simulations around the world in 2015, so my initial purpose was to follow negotiations and compare with what we’ve done, but I ended up also learning a lot from the side events.
Interestingly even though Japan is an island and is supposed to be affected a lot by the climate change, we don’t hear much about the climate change induced disasters. I have read minor news how the agriculture in Japan (especially rice) is being affected by it (lower amount). We are doing our best to influence and improve government policies(we submitted opinion papers to three ministries – economics, foreign affairs and environment) but I think our most important purpose is to increase the awareness among the youth.
We should organize youth NGOs better through YOUNGO. It’s a very huge organization but since this COP was my first one I felt excluded and could not make the best use of it. We are thinking of organizing a climate march but I am not sure when. I really think we need to share the analysis of the paris agreement among the world youth!! and we need to come up with the solutions how the youth can contribute to the IMPLEMENTATION”
– Kristina Yasuda from Japan
Bellinda from Malaysia
“I’m a fresh graduate, my purpose of attending COP21 is to be the UNICEF Climate Youth Ambassador representing Malaysia. In my opinion, we can increase the Malaysian youth participation in UNFCCC by encouraging and ensure the active participation locally – e.g. participation in activities at their particular region, by going on the ground and organizing activities for youths at their particular area/region.
After cop, we plan to expand our work and maybe organize some activities at other different area/region in Malaysia so that more youths can participate and aware of the climate change issue.”
– Belle Bellinda from Malaysia
Yu-Cheng from Taiwan
“I graduated from Keele University majored in International relations. Now I am looking for a job in the PC company. Typhoons, flooding, drought, mudslide, sea level rising and dengue fever are the major climate change induced disaster in Taiwan.
One of the strategy that Taiwan government took to address the issues is by passing the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act in June.
I believe the youth should have the right to participate in the high-level negotiation meetings and be able to intervene directly (in UNFCCC process).
We completed the Youth Delegation Interview Program and participated in the discussion of Asian Youth Climate Netwok Declaration during COP21.
I have also joined the Climate Global March, Health Central to Climate Change Action (Monaco & Health and Environment Alliance – HEAL) when I was in Paris “
– Yu Cheng, Chang from Taiwan
“I am now studying in Master in International Relations and European Studies, I went COY because I wanted to get some incite/ information about climate change related policy/ ongoing works before the start of COP21, it is valuable for me as I planned to work on climate change in the future.
In Hong Kong there is more higher average temperature, causing longer and hotter summer with heavier rainfall and more unexpected extreme weather like heat waves and fluctuation in temperature, typhoon and rainstorm which affects a lot in traffic and daily life in Hong Kong. Climate change also threatened the deep-sea species due to alternation of circulation pattern of regional ocean.
Youth participation and motivation are not strong, nor the coherence of climate change related youth group. Young people will discuss among us, but there is no concrete platform for us to join some campaign or take actions against the climate change issues. ”
On 12 December 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted. That day might be a wonderful day for some people, but might not for others. It certainly is not easy for 196 countries to come together and have a common agreement that everyone will adopt, compromise will surely needed.
During the closing plenary of the Comite de Paris, something happened.
At the final hour before the meeting of Paris Agreement adoption started, a typographical error was noticed. In the Article 4.4 (“Developed country Parties shouldcontinue taking the lead by undertaking economy-wide absolute emission reduction targets….”), the initial wording should be “ developed countries shall…” but the “shall” was changed to “should”, which diluted the principle of “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR)”. “Shall” word will grant the developed countries a stronger legal obligation while “should” is considered as guidance only.
That night the Malaysian Delegation was very down, some of them were red-eyed when they left the hall. No intervention giving by Malaysia after the adoption of the agreement. In fact, they had been fighting very hard at the last minute after the error was spotted. However, the correction never happened because if they need to change the wording, another Comite de Paris need to be called and the arguments may continue and there might not be any Paris Agreement reached.
After seeking opinion and explanation from other people, I comprehend that in the formation of LMDC is “interesting”. Big countries like India and China would have many “friends” in the negotiation table, but why they choose to group with Malaysia? It is because that Malaysia has good relationship with many countries, our negotiators are sharp, vocal and respectable in the field. While the purpose of Malaysia forming alliance with the big developing countries is to get support for certain stand. Some of the LMDC members probably hoping Malaysia stay firm on the CBDR demand.
This is politics. Though the Paris Agreement is not perfect, but for now we should work together and ensure elements included in the Agreement are achieved accordingly.
Side Event in COP21: Asean collaboration in tackling Peatland Fires, Haze and Climate Change
In this session, Dr. Gary William Theseira, Deputy Undersecretary, Environment Management and Climate Change Division, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Malaysia has shared several key points on how Asean countries come together in combating climate change, peatland fires and haze including:-
At COP21: Asean is not a group to speak at COP but for the past two years. Asean has been working as a group on a joint statement on climate change.
Adaptation strategy by Asean on climate change: Asean Working Group on Climate Change (AWGCC) was formed to find common ground to fight climate change and hence, they agreed to share information of sea level rise, extreme events in detailed levels.
Asean on sharing expertises:
ASEAN Haze Monitoring System (AMHS) developed by Singapore cost $100,000 is expected to make use of land concession maps from each country, hot-spot data and high resolution satellite images to pinpoint companies responsible for burning land illegally.
Asean work closely in conducting researches and a number of joint programs related to forest and natural areas. E.g. Global Environment Centre
Malaysia share their expertise promoting Green Building Monitoring Tool – monitor the life cycle of architecture / building.
Here are some Q&A on how Asean Countries handle Peatlands and Climate Change:-
Q: Do you have any framework on tackling illegal forest burning and encroachment? As I understand, Asean cannot interfere other Asean countries that causes this problem.
Law and legislation are there but there is lack of implementation/enforcement on peatlands in the region. Currently Asean is coordinating enhance capacity of local government, local sectors, and community to work together. Further works need to be done.
Q. Direct to Dr. Gary: I am struck by your statement that ASEAN countries want to develop without becoming the major emitter. How Asean can contribute in the debate in equity when it comes into the agreement. How Asean can come into play in the negotiation?
Dr. Gary: There is growing role in Renewable Energy. Asean does not have access to traditional Renewable Energy like wind, and solar. We are looking forward to something like biomass and wave energy. This is where technology transfer comes in. This could be the pathway where we can achieve clean energy.
Rehabilitation of peat swamps are achievable in other parts of the world but we need to consider the cultural, and social parts of the world.
With the current technologies – it is evident the cost is very high. For instance, to build a railroad, every one meter you need two concrete slippers. We know the carbon price of steels and concrete slippers. We need to pass via a phase where carbon emissions will be higher. We are trying to incorporate that into agreement. Benefit of that, you can remove x number of cars. Means and numbers are there. We need to come down to speak honestly. We need to come down to the level where we can honestly discuss and work on this together.
Q. I think we are overlooking issue such as peatland subsidence. Peatland oxidize, carbon release to the air and soil is lowered 5 cm per year. In asean region. Bottom of the peats lie below. What would the solution be in addressing such issue?
Peatland subsidence (lowering of the soil): Impact of drainage without fire has been recognized as the main sources of GHG. That has led to adoption of new principles and criteria. Any plantations on peat must do a drainage projection on the next 40 years. If not, it must rehabilitate and use only for wet-production. Only applicable to RSPO for now. This is one of the major challenges in the future.
Q. Long Term Solution for Haze Problem?
Dr. Gary: Long term solution to the haze problem lies in building your capacity of indigenous and local people the dangers of traditional agricultural practices in a changing environment.
