![Malaysia’s negotiator applauded in ADP Contact Group]()
by admin | Dec 4, 2015 | MYD2015, UNFCCC
Prof Gurdial of Malaysia Photo credit: Jean Su
When do you feel proud in the COP21? When the room clapped for Malaysian Negotiator!!!!!
Voiced on the behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), Prof. Gurdial condemned the efforts and sincerity of the developed countries on coming together to curb global climate crisis. The developed countries’ reluctance and failure of doing their part in cutting carbon emission (providing developing countries financial and technical support) has always been the main problem of forming a legal binding agreement on climate change. In the negotiation language, the Principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilites (CBDR) is not accepted by many developed nations.
“Developing countries are doing their fair share (on climate change) while the developed countries are far from their responsibilities. They (developed countries) say they want to take the lead but when come to the text, they bracket (means phrase is still under discussion, not yet accepted) everything, then developing countries have to take the lead. There is no sincerity!”
This certainly is a resounding smack on the promise-breaking developed countries. The justified intervention won the applause from the full-house observer room!
As a Malaysian, I felt very proud of our leaders. Not only the down-to-earth and daring negotiators, I also very grateful of our Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental, YB Dato Sri Dr. Haji Wan Junaidi bin Tuanku Jaafar for granting us the “Party Overflow” badges. We thank him for enhancing the transparency and involvement of youth in the policy making processes, as well as for being open-minded and generous to be the first Minister who approved the “pink” badges to the Malaysian youths.
#COP21 #CBDR #MYD #Malaysia #MalaysianNegotiator #MalaysiaBoleh
![Cooperation among ASEAN countries on climate change]()
by admin | Dec 2, 2015 | #PowerShiftMsia, Blog, MYD2015, UNFCCC
ASEAN, GEC: Towards Low Carbon and Climate Resilient ASEAN Community Post-2015
Despite the countless negotiation meetings and hectic schedule, Dr Gary Theseira, our respectable Head of the Malaysian Delegation in COP21 has spoken in the “Towards Low Carbon and Climate Resilient ASEAN Community Post-2015”, particularly on the “Cooperation among the ASEAN Countries on Climate Change”.
“(This is) new era of sharing on a number of (different) levels,” said Dr. Gary.
Five points of the ASEAN collaboration on climate change:
1. Sharing on information – countries have been sharing the information about the threats such as the rising sea level and the extreme events, at very detailed levels. Furthermore, the Southeast Asia countries have their diversity in terms of climate change action. For example, not all of them do carbon labelling. In this case, Thailand which made a good position in carbon labelling (Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management & Asian Institute of Technology) can share their knowledge and experience with their neighbouring nations.
2. Sharing expertise – different ASEAN countries have different forte in addressing climate change. For instance, Thailand has good education program whilst Singapore has invested a lot of effort on private sectors. Exchange in expertise will improve the capacity of each country.
3. Collaboration of monitoring and hotspots researching – A number of joint programs related to forest and natural areas have been organized between countries, for example, the Borneo forest. When two countries work together, there will be much lesser trouble on forest management and can prevent biodiversity trafficking.
4. Familiarize each other with climate finance and funds – Not all ASEAN countries are familiar with the private sectors of financing and climate. Malaysia’s Green Building Index, which is a monitor system of the building’s lifecycle (eg, carbon emission), is not common in the Southeast Asia region. Therefore, sharing of information should be done to improve communication and knowledge.
5. Drafting the Joint Statement on Climate Change – Although the ASEAN is not a negotiation bloc in the COP21, we have been working as a group to produce the joint statement for 2 consecutive years. This has strengthened the bond among the countries and showed that they are taking it very serious, as the ASEAN members are vulnerable. Food security, indigenous people are important yet fragile in these nations.
Written by Elaine See
![ADP Opening Plenary at COP21]()
by admin | Nov 30, 2015 | MYD2015, UNFCCC
ADP Opening Plenary on 29th November 2015
The 21st session of Conference of Parties (COP21) is one of the most unique COPs ever held in the history of UNFCCC. Not only due to the urgency of achieving universal agreement on Climate but also of its uncommon opening plenary that is held on SUNDAY!
This year, Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) parties have decided to held their procedural meeting a day earlier in order to kick-start the technical negotiations required to achieve a universal agreement by the end of COP21.
The opening plenary was graced by the presence of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also known for his role as the President of COP21, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of UNFCCC, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal President COP 20 and 1,300 attendees around the globe.
Before the opening ceremony of the plenary, a minute of silence was held for Paris in response to the recent barbaric attack at Paris. It is then President COP20 highlighted the importance of finding solution in an articulated manner.
“To be effective we need clear solution. We need to be solution oriented. We also need full trust. This means – inclusiveness, transparency and efficiency of the whole process. Decision has to be solidified by the first week of COP21.” – President of COP20, Manuel
In support of the statement given by President COP20, 150 heads of state and ministers gave their opening speech at COP on 30th November 2015. The political language expressed are required to be translated into concrete mechanisms, that to be adopted and transformed into a universal agreement at the end of Paris COP21.
President of COP21, Mr. Laurent Fabias
“We have to to decide how to live on this planet together where, everyone has the access to sustainable development. My priority is to facilitate the attainment of the ambitious agreement among all countries” says, President of COP21, Fabias.
The work of ADP is to be completed by Friday, 4th Dec 2015, and have the negotiation text to be finalized by the mid of second week. If, we want to achieve a universal agreement by 11th December 2015.
Written by: Jolene Journe T.
![The day before COP21 – Amalen]()
by admin | Nov 30, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015, UNFCCC
Amalen here from #MYD, I’m in Paris now for COP21 and the following is my account for today, the 29th of November 2015,one day before the official launch of COP21. If you want live updates from me do follow me on twitter @amalen_fs
Feeling excited to be in the COP21 area!
Its 3.30pm and its badge collection time for us. Arriving at Le Bourget, closest train station to COP21 venue, was pretty standard but once we made our way to the shuttle centre it was intense. So many people waiting for the shuttle busses to the convention centre. I’m sitting in the bus and I’m hearing all sorts of language around, French English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and others I didn’t recognise. Everyone’s excited. And it’s just giving me a whole lot of energy. Our story begins NOW. And I can’t wait to see how things will unfold.
Collect badges – done
Familiarise self with areas within cop21 – done
How I feel right now – overwhelmed. Simply overwhelmed
This place is huge. It’s intense. There is just so much going on and this is a day before cop21 officially starts. There are a total of 6 halls and two plenary halls. And these places are immense. Each Hall has its designated allocations of spaces such as parties meeting rooms, exhibition areas, eating areas, media centre, etc.
Seeing everything and trying to take it in is perplexing me right now. I’m trying to get my bearings and head on proper but still I feel very ‘jakun’. But we’ll there’s 14 days left. Let’s hope things get better.
It’s already 5.05pm and the Opening plenary for the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) is yet to begin. The hall is already crowded with tons of people and more are flooding in. Later on we find out that they had to shut the door after the plenary began and a number of negotiators were stuck outside which created some drama of its own.
Map of COP21 venue
5.08pm and the first plenary for ADP has begun!
The ADP opening plenary begins!
It begins with a moment of silence to honour those that have lost their lives in the Paris attacks and for those that have contributed to the continuing COP process that are not with us anymore.
The outgoing President of Cop from last year (COP20, Lima) gave an opening statement to talk about the cop process to thank those involved and to give motivations for the process ahead.
This was followed by the incoming President of Cop who gave a speech in French about the things that he has in mind for the next 2 weeks as well as encouraging ambitiousness. He then went on to talk about the text and his optimism for it as well as the challenges that he expects. He mainly stressed on transparency.
A second co-president of the ADP followed up about the ADP text and what has been done and what needs to be done for this process. He continued to inform the hall about working group meeting times as well as deadlines and reasoning’s behind them. Something I found interesting was that he addressed observers and where they may be so they can observe the sessions going on properly. And a lot of these meetings will be publicly displayed as well.
After giving all his clarifications, he went on to commence that work would begin today itself and this was not met with any objections.
The other co-president then followed with a lot of fluff about keeping promises and meeting deadlines and the importance of them.
The Tuvalu Delegation brought up an important point of transparency, stating that they had a lack of information about the previous ADP sessions that went on in the past week. The Co-president of the ADP then assured him of the transparency process through the pledges they’ve taken before to ensure this. Ending the plenary, he made an interesting statement about how ‘If we save Tuvalu we save the world.’ Something rather interesting to say, and I wonder why. Something to read later I guess.
That’s all for now. Till next time.
Amalen
Malaysian Youth Delegation
by admin | Nov 27, 2015 | #PowerShiftMsia, Blog, MYD2015, UNFCCC
Date: Friday, 27th November 2015
Time: 22:57
Author: Loh Rachel, 18 (Selangor, Malaysia)
Current location: Yoyogi Olympics Memorial Youth Center (Tokyo, Japan)
So before I begin my account of today’s activities, this is a quote that really stuck with me today: “We shouldn’t live at the expense of our younger generation.”
My highlight of the day was the poster making session for the Earth Parade where we designed posters for the march tomorrow. Along with part three of the “Youth of East Asia Action Agenda” (YEAAA) brainstorming session. We will be finalising the declaration tomorrow as well, so it’s a really busy and productive evening for all of us here at COY11 Tokyo! Our declaration will be representing the voices of the youths of East Asia and will be sent to world leaders in time for COP21 to ensure our(the youths’) opinions are taken into account during the negotiating process.
The result of our brainstorming session.
I’ve also learnt more about divestment through a short presentation by 350 Japan and a film “This Changes Everything”. The session was really interesting because it shed light on the possibilities of solutions for climate change…. Divestment is one of them (start Google-ing!).
❤️(movie)
Additionally, my group and I learnt more about trans-boundary haze: its relation to climate change and its solutions. We churned out many creative and innovative solutions including: increasing the opportunities for youths to speak up through organising roundtable discussions, combatting the issue of lack of enforcement of environmental laws by establishing a HAZE Watch group. I’ll explain in more detail after finalising the declaration with the COY11 Tokyo committee tomorrow, so please stay tuned!
Making posters for the Earth Parade tomorrow.
Furthermore, I met with many accomplished and talented youths today and snagged interviews with five of them. I will be posting them soon on my social networks in hopes of inspiring youths who are passionate about tackling climate change.
So that’s it from me, I’m extremely excited for the Earth Parade tomorrow (a.k.a. Global Climate March), where COY11 Tokyo participants will be marching from Hibiya Park to “Kajiyabashi”. Not to mention, this movement will be happening in over 150 countries simultaneously!
Talk to you soon,
Loh Rachel
by admin | Nov 26, 2015 | #PowerShiftMsia, Blog, MYD2015, UNFCCC, YOUNGO
Date: Thursday, 26th November 2015
Time: 22:13
Author: Loh Rachel, 18 (Selangor, Malaysia)
Current location: Yoyogi Olympics Memorial Youth Center (Tokyo, Japan)
First things first, hello! I’m Loh Rachel from the Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD15) and am currently attending the Conference of Youths on Climate Change (COY11) in Tokyo! Feel free to ask me about COY11, MYD or anything at all through my social media networks.
So, I mustered a little courage today and spoke up during the roundtable discussion where we connected (via Skype) with all the COY conferences across the world in Brazil, India, Canada and France, to name a few. I was definitely nervous represent the youth voices of COY 11 Tokyo, but I am so glad I did! I always seem to have a problem voicing out my opinions to a large audience, afraid of their judgements, but I have learnt that we all deserve a voice and if you don’t speak up when necessary- you. Will. Regret. It.
Me speaking to youths at COY 11 in 8 countries across the globe!
One of the best parts of my day was producing part one my group’s discussion during the “Youth of East Asia Action Agenda” (YEAAA) session. We collectively decided on the topic of Haze in East Asia, while others concluded on various topics such as conservation of biodiversity, poverty, the rise in sea levels, etc. My group was positively charged with energy. From tackling the causes of the haze to delving deep into the consequences and its relevance to climate change, we achieved A LOT during that session. Wooohoooo, go productivity! We’re ready for part two where we will talk about solutions and the logistics of incorporating this pertinent issue in our COY11 Tokyo manifesto.
Team “WE HATE HAZE” with their poster.
Second best part of the day was when the MYD group consisting of Ginger, Sze Ming and me going out for a stroll to the Meiji Shrine! We witnessed the mesmerising beauty of the fall colours merging with the traditional Japanese architecture. It was so beautiful that we decided to walk there every morning.
The Malaysian Youth Delegation (#MYD15) at the Meiji Shrine!
So, aside from learning a few Japanese phrases (e.g. Mataashita : see you tomorrow), I’ve learnt more about the negotiation process in COP21 through a film called “Make It Work” by Theatre de l’air, where students from various universities around the world experienced a COP simulation and ended up negotiating as representatives of entities (e.g. Soil) instead of the usual format (i.e. Countries). The documentary provided a wonderful insight to the harsh reality of the negotiating process in COP.
Lastly, my goal for attending COY11 is to establish a network with like minded people who are passionate about climate change and the environment, learn more about climate change and how youths can or should be involved, and make sure our voices are heard by world leaders in time for COP21. And today, though I didn’t achieve the first goal as I believe it takes time to foster strong bonds of friendship, I believe I will achieve it in the long run. As for the latter, I strongly believe we as youths achieved that today and I hope we can continue to keep this energy as we proceed with the next two days!
Domo arigatou once again to Air Asia for sponsoring our flights! I’ll be posting daily updates, so please stay tuned. 🙂
