The International Youth Delegation did an action this morning targeting the Umbrella Group. The Umbrella Group is a loose coalition of non-EU developed countries (Canada usually is part of). On Tuesday they received third place in Fossil of the Day (check out www.fossil-of-the-day.org/) for proposing, by way of Australia, a joint session of the ad-hoc KP (Kyoto Protocol) and LCA (Long-term Cooperative Action) working groups. These groups will have to join for Copenhagen but the suggestion to do so now would only delay the discussions that need to take place in Poznan.
The action was held outside in the early morning light (which also meant it was freezing). It included 6 of the International Youth Delegation holding umbrellas with holes cut in them and a banner statement ''Under the Weather''. It was performed along the entrance pathway and received quite a bit of attention. I hope it gets picked up by media. I spent the action holding an umbrella and trying to guess what passing delegates was part of the Umbrella Group. My criteria was that if they walked by and didn't acknowledge us then they were probably a member –this includes Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Ukraine or the US. On the other hand, if the delegate stopped, took a picture and smiled they guessed that they identified with our message highlighting the shortcomings of the Umbrella Group. I was half expecting to see the Yukon delegation, who arrived today, pass by.
There are lots of ideas for actions, and as the talks continue I predict that there will be many other issues to develop actions around. I think we had a lot of success with the tabloid action from this morning and hope we get the chance to develop others. In other news... the CYD staged their own action this afternoon at the Fossil of the Day, where Canada made history by being ‘honoured’ with a record four fossils. The video is posted up here, but to summarize it: the Canadian youth have no confidence in Canada's current climate policy.
