I was wide awake at 6am as jet lag still consumed me, it was 1pm Malaysian timing. The team started off the day early for it’s Day One of COY13. I left my accommodation and embarked my way to the main Bonn station at 7.45am. At the main station, I met up with Azam and Mike and we departed to the IGS, the COY13 venue together.
Azam figuring out which tram line to use to get to IGS
The COY13 atmosphere was buzzing with excited youth, eager to start their day and met lots of like-minded youth from all over the world. As soon as the three of us arrived, we checked in with Mike and I making our way to the PR Office, situated upstairs.
The day kicked off with an opening ceremony. One of the hosts was a Malaysian himself! Our very own Amalen, a recipient of the Global South Scholarship. The opening highlighted the Local COY, the theme for this year’s COY and YOUNGO intro session by Yugratna and Nouhad. Nouhad pointed out something very important, which was the crucial need of global south to be more engaged with YOUNGO and the negotiation process of the UNFCCC and COP. However, the Global South are having challenges in terms of participation due to financial constraints and only have limited accreditation bodies for badges.
Opening ceremony of COY13
Lunch was served. All food that was served at the COY13 was vegetarian – an effort to lower the meat consumption and carbon footprint. Mike and I sat beside Plant for the Planet, who is currently running a campaign that engages youth globally to express their efforts in creating a better future. We were then filmed to be part of the campaign, which will be shown at COP Bula Zone.
Interview by Plant for Planet
As part of the COY13 PR-Team, I was tasked to take pictures, covering slots of the programme for the purpose of media, social media and public relations. There are about 13 people in charged of photography, including myself and Mike, and about 33 people in the PR-Team altogether. Mike and I are the only Asian representatives in the team, with majority of the team are Germans, and some represented by Klimareporter from Austria.
Having participated in COY12 at Marrakech (read the article here), I took interest in COY13 with an open mind and no expectations as I didn’t have a pleasant time last year. However, I am quite happy at how COY has upped their game this year, with (most of) the programmes well managed. Truly, it is really refreshing and motivating to see youths from all over the world uniting for a same cause, fighting for a climate just future.
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.
After a downhill walk from Vinxel to Oberkassel, Lhavanya and I were headed to IGS (the Red School) for COY. We had a little problem getting around because we were still confused by the transportation system in Bonn. But in the end, we still managed to get to the IGS safely. We got our tags and bought a meal chip for lunch as well as a transportation ticket for the period of COY. I have been mentioning quite a bit about COY, so now we will get into the details of it.
Conference of Youth (COY)
Opening Ceremony of COY13
The Conference of Youth (COY) is an official event of YOUNGO, the official youth-constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It gathers youths from all around the world (this year COY receives participants from 123 nationalities) talking about environmental and climate change thematics. Held over the weekend, it takes place before the UNFCCC annual Conference of Parties (COP) and therefore, preparing youths to attend COP.
A COY is envisioned to have the following objectives:
Provides capacity building and policy training to prepare youths for their involvement in the upcoming climate negotiations
Facilitates the sharing of knowledge and experience in the broader context of climate change between the participants
Builds and enhances youth networks and movements
As we enter the building, it wasn’t hard to notice how the participants are predominantly from the Global North.
The divide between the participation of the Global North and South has long been a problem for COY (and COP). Considering the exorbitant price the Global South needed to pay just to attend the conference, it is no wonder that YOUNGO started the Global South Scholarship to encourage more people from the South to participate in COY and COP. However, even with the initiative, the participation from the Global South is rather disappointing.
The North & South Divide
The Global North is commonly recognized as the more developed societies and economies of the world, whereas the Global South mainly comprises the developing countries as well as the middle east. The standard measurement for the divide is the Human Development Index, emphasizing the importance of the people’s standard of living and capabilities.
Blue: Global North; Red: Global South
The divide between the two groups is obvious and are constantly being reminded of because it affects a country’s ability to participate in international negotiations and make their voices heard. The economic strength of the delegation from the Global South would generally be lower than that of the Global North. When the countries from the Global North could send a large delegation to attend international negotiations, countries from Global South would face substantial difficulties in doing so. As there are many smaller breakout meetings happening concurrently at a conference, the size of delegation affects a country’s representations in all the topics and subtopics where they need their voices to be heard. Ultimately, it tones down the severity of many issues as the people, who are affected the most (developing countries from the South), are not able to be fully represented in the discussions.
The north-south divide in COY may be insignificant compared to that of COP, but more work still needs to be done to encourage more participation from the South. However, it is good to see that the YOUNGO working team has a good balance of the North and South.
Logistics vs Accessibility
Some may question the decision of the Fijian presidency holding the conference in Bonn, Germany instead of having it in another country in the South. Although it is easy to explain that it is because the UNFCCC Headquarters is in Bonn, and there already are facilities for all the sessions, having the conference in the North will still be a problem for delegates from the South to attend. The problem of accessibility and lack of representation is still not solved. Having the conference at the South will also create more awareness and pressure around the issue.
However, on the other hand, organizing the conference at a country from the global South will inevitably bring massive financial burden for the hosting countries (if the country does not already have available facilities and needs to build it from scratch). And the building of new facilities is not only a financial stress but also an unsustainable action considering that there already exist many venues that could be used.
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Syaqil Suhaimi
An Environmental Science student at Nottingham Malaysia campus, Syaqil Suhaimi was introduced to the Malaysian Youth Delegation through Emily whom he initially met at a Power Shift Malaysia workshop in 2015. There are two major reasons as to why he embarked on the MYD journey: the first reason is self-actualization – by pursuing this environmental cause, he believes he will fulfill his potential as a global citizen in trying to preserve and/or better manage the environment through intervention and sustainable development related practices. The second reason, as cliché as it sounds, is to give back to society as he believes that there’s no better way to contribute than by ensuring that Earth is in a healthy state for future generations to come.
Lhavanya
Lhavanya considers herself a jack of all trades and believes that skills from different disciplines and areas of interest can be translated and used in other areas and discipline. Which is why she is doing a degree in International Relations, is heavily involved in journalism and wants to use the skills and experience she has to fight environmental and wildlife related problems in the communications and policymaking arena. In addition to that she also loves hiking and really, really hopes that the pristine beauty of all hiking areas can be preserved and managed for everyone and future generations to enjoy.
Mike Campton
Mike has not always been environmentally-aware. All the way up until high school, he never really cared about waste management, air and water quality, greenhouse gas emissions or any other environment-related issue. What really flipped the switch and helped Mike expand his worldviews on these environmental issues and other social issues was studying abroad. In 2013, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a BSc. in Environmental Science and has since kept a passion for climate science and environmental responsibility. By being a part of MYD 2017, Mike hopes to gain knowledge around international climate policy, to ultimately dedicate his life to environmental research, policy and management.
Muhhammad Azamuddeen
Before 6, he was already catching scorpions, bugs and lizards. Exploring nature has become a hobby which he loves to do every free time. As he grows up, he would often sketch animals and plants which appeal to his curiosity, before advancing to photography. He would observe tiny details of their pets – cats and fish to little insects. His passion towards nature is so natural that he was determined to study environmental science. Unlike other teenagers, he spends a lot of time in the woods studying plants and small animals in there. Indeed, this is one true nature lover and enthusiast.
Xiandi Ooi
A proud Penangite, Xiandi has no qualms on “No Plastic Day” because every day is a no plastic day to her. Spoiled by the greens along Penang’s Kelawai Road, she dreams for a greener urban landscape. Xiandi believes that environmental policies can bring collective change and youths need to be involved in the advocacy process. She hopes for an accessible sustainable future and thus joined forces with other youths in MYD to fight for a #green future. As a social media addict (okay, maybe not addict enough to be an addict), she’d love to see her timeline flooded with environmental-related posts because she knows that “sedikit-sedikit, lama-lama jadi trending”.
One of the Malaysian Youth Delegation’s objectives is to engage with our national government, specifically the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) the focal point of UNFCCC negotations for Malaysian.
During a meeting with the NRE Minister in September, we put forward a request to have a pre-COP briefing on Malaysia’s position at the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP 23).
The request was granted and on the 16th of October, the NRE hosted a pre-COP preparatory meeting to discuss matters in regards to the upcoming COP 23 in Bonn, Germany later this November. In attendance were Malaysian environmental CSOs such as Third World Network (TWN), along with Malaysian Climate Change Group (MCCG) organizations, Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Global Environment Centre (GEC).
We thank the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for hosting a crucial meeting for Malaysia that allows the CSOs and NRE to act in solidarity during COP23. It shows how Malaysia is clear in its goals to help combat climate change and acknowledges the importance of different stakeholders to make a change.
With COY13 and COP23 just a week away, MYD17, as always, will strive and persevere to make the best out of the event to align with its ambitions.
Syaqil Suhaimi
Jasmin Irisha
Lhavanya Dharmalingam
Mike Campton
Muhhammad Azamuddeen
Xiandi Ooi
Thomas Lai
Program
