Celebrating with Cristianna Figueres after the adoption of the text
The Paris agreement a historical moment where for the first time a legally binding agreement on climate change which involves all countries . A big hurrah for that. I mean let me explain the situation, during the final minutes, I noticed something odd, they were withholding info from everyone in regards to the text the whole day and during the morning speech on the 15th day of COP21.
The ‘Fabulous Fabius’ speech which was given by the president of COP21 notified that the deal was made when no one had actually reached a final consensus, I mean we hadn’t seen a final text and we knew the negotiations were not over, so what was going on? When a text was finally released I went around to several negotiating groups after they had run it over with their teams they all agreed that it was optimistic and that although they weren’t the happiest about it, they didn’t disagree with it which was good news!
Selfie rampage while waiting for the last minute huddles to be done.
Right before the last round of negotiations before the text was to be adopted by Committee du Paris,and then by COP, a last round of huddles broke apart. We waited for up to an hour for all this to end. When they finally begun legal and linguistic experts had something to say about some errors that came about. Then another chap mentioned some technical issues such as language in several articles. Just like that one crucial word was changed forever. There was a flurry of motions and next thing you know it the agreement was adopted, the gavel was struck and No one had a chance to react to what had just happened.
The huddles being shown on screen for viewing areas to see
I saw a big flaw in the final text ,when it was finally released which led me to believe that there is something wrong with this agreement, the switch of the word ’Shall‘ to ‘Should’ in article four in concerns to whether developed countries should or shall reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This I feel didn’t make things as pressured onto the developed countries as they should be, we the developing countries should be given our right to develop and with that comes pollution but hey we should have our turn and is our right to come onto equal playing field with other developed countries but with this shall and should issue it becomes more of a goodwill situation, if I feel good hearted-then and only then shall I do something. This is ridiculous and I was perplexed why some countries did not voice this out. I couldn’t be the only one now could I?
After the end of the closing ceremony and final session of COP21, it dawned on me on the politics and bureaucracy that silenced many developing nations and prevented them from voicing out. Firstly, in the way the media puts it out, this is a historical event, we are finally getting a universal legally binding agreement on climate change and whoever objects whether for reasons good or bad would be vilified and no country wants that. Who would want to be the one country that postponed this agreement?
Other smaller countries who would be mostly affected by this, developing nations of course, could not say much after big countries like India and China had spoken in agreement to this new last minute changes in the text. If these big powers in the developing nations blocks says ok with all their wealth and power, how can the smaller nations who depends on these big voices go against them. They are small for a reason, they do not have the sway and power that these nations control. Also when countries who have vehemently been fighting against the process in the past,such as Venezuela finally agree to something as big as this like submitting their INDC all other hope is loss, even the big nay sayers have agreed. No one but Nicaragua spoke up but even then they were completely ignored by all.
I wouldn’t say this agreement is a failure, like I said earlier it has its ups and downs. There are tremendous strides in adaptation and loss and damage that are addressed in this test as well as the mention of 1.5 degree celcious in the article for accepted temperature increment. We finally have a legal document that we can hold our countries accountable to. There are flaws in this agreement but we can persevere and work on this to get what we need for a more just and sustainable future.
I was in the actions working group for YOUNGO, this meant that I helped to coordinate and acquire permission for actions being run inside the COP21 area, the blue zone. As the first week was ending myself and a fellow activist Louis Plottel from Canada realized that the YOUNGO actions were not unified and were very haphazard. A rift was forming and we saw a need to unify the youth that to us seemed a bit divided.
Die- In all around COP21
We organized a ‘Die in’ action, where at a certain time we would all just drop down on the floor and just ‘DIE’ for 30 seconds (this was all the time we we’re allowed). This was to show the people around us that the future is already feeling the affects of climate change and we don’t want to die as well. The main objective for this action was to show ourselves as well as the people around us the power of the YOUTH. So we gathered everyone we could, which were quite a number of people and successfully complete a Die in throughout the COP21 venue in Hall 4 primarily and throughout all action zones that had been predesignated.
Die- In all around COP21
We had organized this literally within 11 hours and we had successfully completed it. We had dozens of youth involved, inside and outside of the COP21 venue. This frantic mad dash to organize the locations with the security, organize the people to these locations as well as setting up a press conference after was certainly maddening but we did it. The two of us with the help of many others successfully completed our little vision and it was definitely a success I feel in my eyes.
The whole event went well and our post action press conference, though small, went off smoothly and we were done. I feel our action really made a big impact and helped show the Youth at COP21 our impact. In a way I feel the youth were more unified seeing everyone do this together, seeing the media scramble around and wonder what you are doing. I feel this shows everyone that a unified youth voice is much more powerful. I don’t know if I directly made an impact but I would like to think that I did make a change, no matter how small.
Louis and I with Yugaratna from India during the Press Conference after the action
“My first COY was in 2009 and our purpose was to learn how YOUNGO work and how the international youth climate movement works. My purpose to COY-Tokyo was to help and facilitate a COY in East Asia and strategically to support the march in Tokyo for Global Climate March moment, which is part of Road through Paris plan with 350.org. Now there are more than 10+ student clubs working with Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition which is the national youth climate organization and is the first youth-led environmental NGO. We had trained more than 1000 youths to our yearly youth climate gathering in July.
Taiwan is yet an official member of UNFCCC which is improper, we hope we can loop Taiwan in the Framework to keep Taiwan’s Carbon emission to Paris Agreement and more to have its legally binding to international community. Youth power and consistence are both keys for me to maintain myself to climate issue. It is hard for everyone to attend all the COP/COY meetings, but we can follow from the previous participants to learn before we are heading.
We just had our 1st NO Coal march in Taiwan aiming for the Presidential election in Jan 2016, and soon we will have Anti-coal youth trainings around Taiwan in 2016 on planning.We want to face out fossil fuel through divestment approach and saving electricity to push government toward 100% renewables and green investment.”
– Liang-Yi Chang from Taiwan
Yew Aun from Malaysia
“I’m a MSc student. My purpose in COP21 is to show support to the cause at COP and prove that impossible things can be done. Intensification of El Nino and other climate effects leading to annual floods/more storms/intense drought is happening in my country. I am not well read on this but government has allocated budget in 2016 to establish National Disaster Management Agency and flood mitigation projects.
I think we can improve the youth participation in UNFCCC by improve awareness through dialogues with local youth groups. I feel youth participation is important but not necessarily involving sending youth to COP, there is much work to be done in the ASEAN/Asian region.”
– Quek Yew Aun from Malaysia
Melissa from Singapore
“I am a former environment reporter with Channel News Asia and graduate from the London School of Economics. Currently running a start-up consultancy for NGOs, Game Changerz, she is focused on running effective advocacy campaigns, recognising that first-world urbanites have every role to play in the fight against global issues, from climate change to extreme poverty.
My team went to COP21 to connect with other civil society groups, engage with our negotiators and ministers, attend side events that are of relevance to the Singapore context and communicate our insights of being there in the COP event. Personally, I was very keen to meet the 10,000+ climate heroes who flew to Paris from around the world. It is a rare opportunity to learn from experts! As a low-lying island state, we will have to adapt to sea level rise, which will be very costly. This year, we saw an extended El Nino which gave us a bad bout of haze. Singapore will be affected by food security issues too.
From COP21, I learnt that there are so many ways to join this fight against climate change! You don’t even need to be a nature-lover. For example, the divestment movement, or green finance, are all relatively new movements which has great potential to change things — but isn’t considered ‘environmental movement’ in the traditional sense. There are many exciting things brewing in other societies which Singapore can learn from.”
– Chong Youwen (Melissa) from Singapore
Beatriz from Brazil
“I’m a climate activist in Brazil, and my purpose of going to COP21 is to work with YOUNGO. Brazil faces droughts and floods that are induced by climate change. My organization, Engajamundo works to empower young people on the ground and to increase youth political influence in decision making processes.
I think the youth participation in Brazil is increasingly active. To increase youth participation in UNFCCC, we should translate how climate change will impact youth in their realities and get more funding so that we (the youths) can participate at negotiations.”
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 😀
