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Canadian Youth Delegation to Poznan
This is the official blog of the Canadian Youth Delegation to the UN climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland (COP14/CMP4). The delegation, a project of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and TakingITGlobal, is a diverse team of committed young Canadian leaders, from coast to coast to coast. They will be live on the ground at the talks in Poland from Nov. 29th to Dec. 12th. Stay tuned for the latest news and updates from these critical negotiations!!
Check out cydpoznan.org for more information! |
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Youth set the bar high on effective international co-operation
About this event: The UN Climate Change Conference - Poznan, Dec 08
Related to country: Poland
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While international negotiators are finalizing their position statements, and pressing their shirts for the start of the conference, the International Youth delegates were already hard at work.
Today, almost 200 youth from over 50 countries joined together to develop our shared vision, strategy, and positions as we head into the 14th UN climate change conferences. Beginning with some inspiring messages about why we have been brought together in Poland, participants learned the history of youth involvement, the basics of the policies involved, and the opportunities for making a difference here in Poland, as well as next year in Copenhagen.
After lunch, the youth split into various working groups, including communications, media, actions, and policy. Being of the policy bent myself, as any readers can probably now guess, I joined in with this working group. I was in disbelief over how much the interest in policy has grown since last year! We went from a group of about 10 international youth, to over 50 since last year. We were able to develop subgroups on 6 key issues, which include Forestry issues, Clean Development Mechanism issues, Mitigation, Adaptation, Finance, and Technology Transfer. The group is already very well organized, highly co-operative, and I am looking forward to seeing what this dynamic team is able to accomplish over the next two weeks.
At the end of the day I was amazed at how well such a large group of young people from such diverse backgrounds and cultures seem to cooperate seamlessly. We are able to agree on issues effortlessly, and share a strong, unified vision of reversing the climate change trends. A look around the large room at all these passionate, dedicated faces suggests that these are my teammates, and my partners in this quest to slow or end the destruction to our climate. Mal, a UK youth delegate, said it best when he said, "we are setting an example for how the international community should be cooperating on this issue". I couldn't agree more.
(Disclaimer: If typos or repetition are rampant in this entry, I blame the lack of sleep that we are all currently experiencing!)
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| November 29, 2008 | 3:02 PM |
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Comments
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Oh my aching head!
Of course Poznan is not all boring meetings.
Last night our little group spent all night at a Mexican restaurant drinking tequilas.
This conference is e-awesome
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Monday
You do get the impression that the Poles hearts might not really be into all this stuff. After all, it was a top of 4 degrees today. Some of the delegates probably didn't come prepared for the cold, with several having to go out and buy layers of sweaters.
Not much to report from the actual conference today. "Polish Business Day" was the theme, so you can imagine our excitement. A number of us stumbled out for the first speech and went straight back to the hotel room.
Just as well there was not much on really. After the tequilas of last night my head still felt like some old ballroom that just hosted an AC/DC concert.
It's a veritable United Nations here, with some of us hanging out with other youth delegates from around the world. In my group, there's Jonah from Tuvalu - he's the most serious of them all. He doesn't drink and can be a bit of a drag on a night out. There's big Jim from San Francisco. Nice guy, but he sure has a reputation for drinking,
Then there's Xao from China and Gupta from India. Those two don't seem to care at all about the conference. Surprisingly, these two seem to drink more than all of us put together.
In the afternoon, we met up with a nice lady from Australia called Penny. Somehow, this afternoon, we all made it up to her room for a bit of a party. First of all, Penny said we would not be allowed to drink, but once she had her first sip of Polish vodka from the mini-bar, pretty soon we were all into it, and she had a lot more to drink than she ever intended.
Unfortunately, still feeling the effects of last night, I threw up into a pot plant. I could tell Penny wasn't very pleased when she walked in the room. Luckily, no-one saw me do it, and I blamed our American friend Jim - and everyone believed me. Somehow, we got Jim to take the potplant outside and clean it up.
Jonah was stone-cold sober all night and trying to tell people what to do, but everyone ignored him and had a pretty good time.
Xao and Gupta were the worst though. They got truly snotted, even worse than last night. Last time I saw them, Gupta was picking a fight with a Pakistani and Xao just didn't care what anyone thought.
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words of solidarity
I simply wanted to say how proud I am of you all in the CYD - to be part of such a significant movement is really wonderful, and as an ordinary citizen in Canada I am glad to see that you are fighting for our right to a healthy planet :)
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