I first met them in COY11 on the first day. Miranda had heard me introduce myself as from the MYD and she had previously been liaising with Thomas, my teammate about doing a possible interview for their documentary. I hadn’t heard about this so she brought me up to speed.
They were Miranda Cawley and Scott Brown from NorthWestern Uniersity , U.S.A. and they were at COP21 and COY11 to do a documentary about Youth from the Global South. We got further acquainted and they seemed like cool people so I said yea, you can follow us around and document us and ask us questions, the team had pre-approved and I said yes. It was free publicity and I’m not one to turn that down.
So over the next week we were followed closely by Miranda and Scott, ever present with their cameras . We would have random interviews at the most unlikely of spots like train stations or in lines for dinner or just while we were unwinding at home after a long day. It was fun. They asked us interesting questions and we knew that our voice was going to be heard. Hey they were making a documentary about us. It wasn’t some second rate one either, Miranda and Scott knew their stuff. They were environmental enthusiasts themselves, both of em are even vegetarians for this cause, they knew what they were asking and how to really engage us to get the right answers and controversial questions answered.
Scott and his ever present camera on the train getting an interview with me done
I had an amazing time having them around with us. I personally feel I have made lifelong friends in them and can’t wait till I can go over to the states and free load of my new friends while I travel, haha. But all in all I would like to THANK both Miranda and Scott for being an awesome film crew with their crazy heavy camera bags going everywhere with us to document what we were up to and for also being amazing friends that I have had the privilege to share an awesome first week of COP21 with.
I can’t wait for when that documentary airs sometime this year in 2016 but for now here are some clips from the interviews they conducted with us.
I was in Paris 2 days before my team. I had registered for all 3 days of COY11 and was going to attend a lonely first day without my team as they would only arrive on the 27th of November, the 2nd day of COY11 and in the morning, meaning I would see them soon. I was so stoked for it. I had not seen other familiar Malaysian faces in awhile and I felt I needed to bond with my team and realign ourselves for the task ahead.
The morning of the 27th arrived and I was already at COY11 eagerly awaiting my team-mates as they were on they had arrived in the morning and were on their way to the COY11 venue. That same morning I had another surprise when I arrived, Adrian, our mentor and advisor, who was supposed to be in Malaysia, was there, at the COY11 venue. I was shocked and surprised. It was amazing seeing him. I needed a familiar comforting face. It really was lonely and with the overwhelming presence of this international stage , it was really a well needed surprise.
Adrian in the flesh, a well needed surprise
Here is a little video on our first day back together. It was awesome. Thanks to Scott Brown from NorthWestern University, U.S.A for shooting and putting this video together.
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.
