Reflection on COP15 (by Rui Wang)

It is nearly one week since I came back from Copenhagen. From the media reports on the conference results at home and abroad, there are some positive news but much more negative ones. Now, I will say my reflection on COP15.

About Negotiation

Before I went to Copenhagen, I was told that the negotiation might not reach an agreement, but it would not affect my passion for it. Instead, I was full of eagerness for the Climate Conference which was regarded as a significant event in history. However, I found it more complicated than what I had expected on arriving there. In the first two days, there was no conflict in the conference; while on the 3^rd day, Tuvalu jumped out to advocate tearing up the Kyoto Protocol and moreover working out a more radical and valid document. Tuvalu’s suggestion soon got the support from many developed countries but at the same time met with the opposition from a lot of developing countries. The fuse ignited the whole assembly hall and the conflicts suddenly became fiercer. In the following days, the developed countries were fighting against the developing countries; Oriental countries were struggling against the Occident countries; and the island countries were crying over being flooded… The political farces were put on one by one… Then, the Ministers from different countries and decision-makers came here successively. Denmark government almost blocked the Bella Centre, so many NGOs could not enter the hall. With the strong dissatisfaction with Denmark government, NGOs organized large scaled march and the police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. Then, it came to the final situation that various countries were secretly competing with each other inside and the police and the crowd were locked in fierce struggle outside the Bella Centre.

Facing the disordered situation, I did not know which word would be the perfect one describing my mood. At that moment, I realized that the climate conference had developed to a competing game on politics and economics instead of a simple negotiation about the climate change and the global warming. It was just like the dirty footprints on the white snow.

Seen and Heard

Although felt bitterly disappointed with the negotiation, I was moved by the passion of NGO and deeply impressed by their march on Dec. 12th. Tens of thousands of people were parading by holding banners and shouting slogans despite the coldness that day. Among them, the most impressive one was the slogan that “There is no planet B.” Deeply touched by the slogan, I realized the indisputable fact that the earth is the only homeland for our human beings.

Besides, another exciting thing was the chance to meet with Robert Swan, the first man in the world reaching both the South and North Pole. I was overawed and moved by his persistence in the dream and his devotion for the environmental protection. By spending nearly 10 years, he tried to collect money to realize the dream of crossing the Antarctic; for 7 times, he took the cargo ships to the Arctic to clear away the rubbish left by other countries… Not merely realizing his own life value, he created chances for others to realize theirs. With his own stories, he inspired the ambitious young people all over the world who had the same dream. “Every step you take is a story. You must build your story.” This is the word he told me. I believe that it will encourage and accompany me to realize my dream that “I will be an international environmentalist no matter what kind of job I will take in the future.”

Reflection

As a common high school student in China, I do not really understand the complicated political issues but I would view the climate negotiation from a neutral perspective. To my delight, I have seen a great many young people are willing to devote themselves with the close concern for the climate change despite different nationalities. At the same time, I have heard some indifferent and even opposed voices. In my opinion, the knowledge of climate change is still need to be popularized and more people should realize the urgency of global warming.

Every day, we are told that each one of us should participate in the environmental protection, start with small things and influence the people around. It cannot be denied that it is very important, but the more important thing is the participation of different governments, whose force is much more powerful than ours. If there is only the participation from our individuals with the government looking on coldly, we can imagine how miserable the future would be. I think this is my reflection on the conference from the bottom of my heart.

NGO, are we the lowest of the low? (by Xixi Sun)

NGO, are we the lowest of the low?

By Xixi Sun

Wednesday afternoon 3.30pm. Bella Centre. Outside Plenary Tycho Brahe.

Everyone was waiting to get back in. 20 minutes ago we were told that we had to all leave the plenary for a security check before the high-level segment starts again. I have double-checked with the security if NGO passes are allowed to get back in and they said YES. I was the very few (if not the only one) among our delegation team that has a NGO pass for the plenary and I wanted to be at least be in there to represent China youth.

It turned out that we were fooled. “No NGOs are allowed into the plenary!” As the government delegates lined up in front of the door, the NGOs were stopped and turned away.

I do not remember if the same official has given me the different messages. He might have consulted with senior officials and got the latest update on security information, which was NO NGOs whatsoever (instead of limited number of NGOs in plenary). At the same time I was told that the Bella Centre was closed to NGOs now even if they have secondary passes. Before I got some time to figure out what was going on, I got another update from outside Bella Centre – the climate protesters today have been put down by police force using pepper spray. When I saw the pictures of people holding banners and flags, falling into mud on the ground, shouting silently, my feelings were hard to describe. The president of Venezuela, H.E. Hugo Chavez Frias, has said in the high level element this morning that the young people out there on the street should have our respect. They were protesting on the streets, some of whom were arrested by police.

The future belongs to the young generation, who has been marching in rain, in snow, in front of military troops, just to have their voices heard. I am one of them. We are them. But as young people, as NGO, we are not being treated in a fair way. The UNFCCC wants to keep all NGOs out of Bella Centre for Thursday and Friday, and after long negotiation it has been pushed to 300 tickets for NGOs. They are depriving our right to observe the historical moment which will determine our life in 2020, 2030 and 2050. They have silenced us in the Bella Centre by keeping us out. For the past week in Bella Centre, I felt that this is probably the only international event that I did not have to get information through media. We hope that the youth back at home can gain our insights from the youth’s prospective instead of the media alone, but now we can no longer do it.

To conclude, I strongly feel that we as NGOs and young people have been pushed around, and our voice to push for a fair, ambitious and legally-binding deal in COP15 has not been taken by the decision-makers. I admit that in the capitalist world, we cannot possibly have the same amount of power as the other stakeholders, such as the businesses, because we do not have the money and we cannot provide immediate interests and benefits for making relevant moves. But we will not give up. Our colleagues are still peacefully sitting in and waiting for a FAB (fair, ambitious and legally-binding) deal. It might take considerable amount of time. But we can be bothered to sit here all this time for the real deal, because we do not want to spend the rest of our life facing devastating consequences of climate change when it is too late to fix things.

Frustration (by Hanna Helsingen)

Bella Center is now different. With the high-level segment arriving, ministers are spotted everywhere. With entering the ninth day of negotiations, the time pressure is bigger than ever before. With delays of plenaries and even a move of the COP meeting, parties are frustrated and they are not alone. When entering the plenary hall this morning, tables were full of empty bottles and trash, showing that negotiators had been here all night, some going home at 07:00 this morning. In the AWG-KP

Lena Helsingen dec 16, '09, 12:32 em

meeting last night, the President of that group, John Ashe (Antigua and Bermuda) tried to explain to parties that they have to present a draft to the high-level segment. Brazil, India, Algeria and many others explained that they cannot present anything, because they don’t have anything to present. Some parts of the draft are even left blank. Only one word to explain the setting of that meeting: FRUSTRATION.

Being a problem with the scheduling of the COP meeting that should had taken place at 10 AM, but was left out, there is now a question wheather they will proceed with the high-level segment or if they will discuss these isssues further. The President of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed, pointed out that time doesn’t permit these points of order, they must proceed with negotiations. The danish prime minister, the president of that meeting said, that they understand the points of orders and they will take them into considerations, but they have to proceed with the programme. We’ll see what happens during the day. The clock is ticking.

Copenhagen Week 2 - heat and chill (by Scully Meng)

After a dramatic parade with hundred thousand people and the police and helicopters over the weekend, after the informal negotiations between ministers of different nations, after the influential talks from religious leaders, the second week of COP15 has started.

Something unexpected happened first thing in the morning. The queue for entering Bella Centre has been stopped due to a fault in the security inspection equipment. The people has been waiting outside at a temperature of 1 degree in wind. We did not manage to get on the COP15 bus at 8 30am and it was already 9am when we arrived at Bella Centre. The queue has reached the subway station, with an approximate width of 5m and length of 100m. The entrants were equally treated no matter the type of your passes. Thai officials tried to negotiate with the security but could not get through. The other ministers had to follow the queue too. An American professor behind us has been complaining: "It is a good thing for youth to come in here and learn, but under present conditions, it is ridiculous to have the kids in the Centre and someone really relevant to the negotiations kept out here."

This week, as the senior officials arrive with heads of nations, new passes have been issued for entrance to Bella Centre. This is to limit the number of entrances and ease the chaos in front of Bella Centre, under the condition that their security check equipment will not fail again and again.

Chinese government delegation meeting with over 30 Chinese youth (by Ning Wang)

Negotiation won’t take a break and delegates can't enjoy Copenhagen’s sunshine as the crowded troops in climate demonstration did. Without banners, without slogan, China government delegation holds a unique meeting with over 30 Chinese youth. The event was held in the same venue as daily news briefing’s-China Information and Communication Center (CICC). As the representative of China’s official government delegation, three distinguished guests* were invited to this first ever formal communication between “China leaders” and “China future leaders”.
Young people showed good insight into the climate talk and special eagerness to understand China’s situation in the negotiation. The initial problem focused on China’s standpoint towards KP and LCA approaches. “Some developed countries exhaust their ideas to blur the distinction between developing countries so that they could jump out of the restriction of historical responsibility” Prof. He Jiankun proposed. The major conflict is G77 and China will defend the KP while without the restriction to US, other umbrella group members are ready to jump out it at any time and EU’s promise to keep the target will be meaningless when all the members have gone. [The outcome verified the conflict that G77 walked out the LCA plenary and declared them will be back only if the KP restarted and reached an acceptable result.] In term of “finance”, Jiankun emphasized that the future is not decided by who provide the money. African groups’ action slogan could describe the mechanism appropriately- “Rich Countries Pay the Climate Debt”.
Following the basic standpoint of China, youth negotiation observer mentioned sensitive words from Sudan representative on Friday’s G77 briefing moment. In response, Ms. Chao and Prof. He critically evaluated this statement. 350 ppm and 1.5 degree were good expectation, in a better word-wish. China does hope entire human being could take action now and make effort to retard climate change, but this target is unrealistic at this point. In Prof. He’s point of view, China’s target is ambitious enough. The low carbon economy is not only an attractive name but very expensive. Tens of trillions of foregone cost will be added to fulfill China’s climate commitment. REDD is excluded to the total promised number which means 40~45% might still underestimate China’s reduction goal. According to China’s calculation of leading developed group, United States only promised an insignificant target of 32% carbon intensity reduction when adopting China’s framework.
Youth people raised a question based on civil society’s observation that some NGO recently summarized all developed countries carbon reduction commitments in a single table and intend to conduct a side by side comparison across different groups where all countries were following BAU only except China and India. Ms. Chao and Prof. He expressed opinions to multi-countries comparison from both negotiator and technical expert’s angles. Some arguments have been made that India and China’s commitment is tricky since not following BAU. However, considering the high speed of clean technology substitution and a larger room for energy efficiency enhancement, the BAU of developing countries will take a more dramatic decrease than the developed group. Hence, BAU can make the commitment number small but less comparable across developing and developed countries.
As an ending of the conversation, government delegation indicated young people are the future of the country and youth have comparative advantage to bring the encouraging information and ideas back to China and spread to the public. Increasing number of young people is expected to devote themselves to the development of low carbon economy. Also, long term cooperation in youth globally should be initiated.
As a member of China youth delegation, I would say: Chinese youth lag behind in climate change action at first, but as the significant progress our country has made - we caught up soon. There were only 2 Chinese youth in Poznan last year, which was super tiny delegation compared to over 100 US students. Enthusiasm for climate action gathered 40 Chinese students from Mainland China, HK, Britain and States to Denmark. To date, it was only one month since the first proposal of this delegation has been organized. We, Chinese youth, should take the future responsibility in climate change and build up the leadership in global environment. We are ready to devote ourselves to either industry or government to fulfill China’s ambitious commitment in following decades. So we proudly deliver us to Copenhagen as “China Youth Delegation”.
* Ms. Chao Qingchen from China negotiation group, vice director of technology and climate change bureau of China meteorological administration; Chinese chief climate policy specialist Professor He Jiankun, the director of Tsinghua Low carbon energy laboratory; China climate change science specialist Prof. Luo Yong, director of climate change center of China meteorological administration.

High-level Youth Briefing with Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, IPCC Chairman （By Xixi Sun)

Dr Pachauri is the chairman of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. At the beginning of this youth briefing, he started by saying that youth can bring change to the world. He said that we cannot possibly ignore what is happening around us. Scientific evidence proves that most warming in the past 50 years is most likely to be caused by human activities, and more details can be found from the 4th IPCC report.

IPCC has been seen as the “supreme body in science” and the “fountain of knowledge”. These big names have been challenged by its “enemies” and the leakage of emails has been under attack. Dr Pachauri emphasised that none of the illegally stolen emails were able to find its way into the IPCC 4th report and explained the IPCC assessment process a bit more. At every stage, the draft will be reviewed by a team and each comment will be addressed by authors directly. All governments will need to approve the report word by word, so there is no way that the report can be produced/supported by individuals. The robustness of the process ensures that nothing will be put down unless there is clear scientific evidence supporting it.

Dr Pachauri has mentioned that the costs of taking actions against climate change are in fact very low. With investment, the stability of agricultural production which is of vital importance will be improved, as well as higher food security.

At the end of his 5 minutes speech, he talked about how youth is associated with hope and idealism. He said that whenever there is a conflict in schedule between a youth-related event and some other events, he would always ignore the others and come to see the youth. As youth we are very delighted to hear that and we hope we can make our efforts to pass on our hope and idealism to the decision makers to foster change.

There have been a number of interesting questions coming from the audience. A youth representative from Singapore asked how much impact do youth have on negotiations. Dr Pachauri answered that the only way we get results is through grass root actions. As youth, we should take the messages from COP back home and carry on with our work back there. Copenhagen is not the end of world. There are more work that needs to be done. After all, our life extends beyond their next generations and we should drive for change.

Kenya youth mentioned the people who deny the work and efforts of youth and the criticisms and sarcasm. We were reminded that whenever new knowledge comes up, there will always be people rejecting it and since it is going to affect everything where people are making huge profits, there will be nasty comments coming up, meaning that they are taking exact notice.

This youth briefing has been very encouraging for us to hear and we sincerely hope that other decision makers can also listen to the voice of youth, the voice from the future and make changes, give us the real deal at COP15 that’s necessary for a sustainable, low carbon future.

9 December 2009 CMP without KP （by Scully Meng)

Deputy Chief Negotiator Su Wei said he was discontent, and he expressed his concerns in the meeting. Not only that Chinese officer was blocked outside Bella Centre for various times, but that the organizer of CMP did not put the logo of Kyoto Protocol in the conference. It was a clear conspiracy to abandon KP.

Whether to abandon KP was an issue haunting over the developed and developing countries during the conference, and heated debates were ongoing. Su Wei said, “Does it mean that CMP5 does not exist?”

President Hedegaard, embarrassed, said the logo had been published for several weeks but no problem was found till now…

“CMP 5” re-appear the next day.

Marching ahead, because there is 'No Planet B' (by Si Tingting)

COPENHAGEN: Coming from a country which had held the Olympic Games and has the world's most crowded train station, I had seen a crowd of over 100,000 people several times in my life, but never such an exciting crowd as the one I saw at the Climate March in Copenhagen on Saturday.

An estimated 100,000 environmental activists representing 515 environmental NGOs from 67 countries descended on downtown Copenhagen to call for "climate justice".

The demonstration began at 1 pm and people marched for 4 kilometers from downtown to the conference center. Although my mobility was confined by the huge crowd for a long time and I was too far away from the celebrity speakers at the center stage, I was not at all bored. I was surrounded by music, hot dances, inflatable snowmen and people dressed as dinosaurs, pandas and polar bears, and most of all, flashy banners with really smartly coined slogans.

While many people shouted out slogans, a lot more spread the message with the global language: music - Afro, dub reggae, funk, indie, salsa and more. A shabbily-equipped band, with a dozen people armed with whistles, drums, steel pipes and flutes, had together worked out the most motivating tune I have ever heard. There were also people blowing the battle horn to say "the war on climate change is on".

I couldn't say that I met the oldest protester in my life at Saturday's demonstration, but I definitely met the youngest one. Nine-month-old little Hakki, who lay flat in his stroller, busily looked up and down, checked left to right at the dramatic demonstrators around him. His spokesperson, his father, told me he wanted the kid to be an eyewitness to the biggest demonstration in most Danish people's memory because "it matters to his future."

Above all the fancy background and the cries of too many voices, one message cannot possibly be heard.

Climate negotiators! Stop the "bla bla bla" and make immediate progress to achieve "a real deal" because there is "no planet B" - those were the most widely seen messages on thousands of banners.

However, there are still groups here asking for the rights for people in developing nations to look up to the lifestyle of those in developed countries and the rights for developed nations to continue with business as usual.

The presence of these groups put me into deep thought, as I heard the heart-wrenching stories in the past week from people from small islands such as the Maldives and Fiji.

These countries are experiencing rises in ocean levels, more hurricanes and increased tropical epidemics like dengue fever and malaria. Their people will be most disappointed if a dealis not delivered at the end of the conference.

Right now, there is such a disparity between the climate proposals that different nations have brought to the negotiating table, it may be impossible for anything to happen in the coming week but more dialogues in the future.

But people that are most vulnerable to climate change can wait no longer for more dialogues and the world should stop spending so much time and money to achieve a watered-down climate deal.

I finally decided to leave the so-far most exciting event of the Copenhagen climate conference after I heard two gunshot-like "bangs" and the ensuing sirens after two hours of march. I was afraid something ugly might turn up that day.

Later I learned from the news that the climate march turned violent when a group of protesters, dressed in black and faces covered in masks, shot fireworks at police officers guarding the Foreign Ministry.

Future Generation Day (by Li Li)

UNFCCC approved YOUNGO (a youth constituency under UNFCCC) in COP 15. Two focal points were elected as the major liaisons. One is the China Youth COP 15 member Li Lina and the other is from a Singapore youth NGO. Any youth activities will be submitted to the UNFCCC secretariat through them.

Yesterday was also the Future generation Day. Youth hosted all sorts of demonstrations and activities within Bella Center.

This is the shirt that everyone in the Bella Centre is wearing to symbolise the Future Generation Day.

China-US Youth workshop at University of Copenhagen

This is a call to the Japanese Government for taking actions.

This is what it looks like after 4days.

"Made in Denmark" better at delivering green message (By Si TingTing)

When it comes to attracting people to the overheated topic of climate change, it's never bad to go dramatic.

The first few days of the Copenhagen climate summit passed with an awful lot of speeches. All negotiators said that their countries are committed to do more to get a climate deal. A handful of others made emotional pleas that the poor are suffering from climate disasters. But none of them work better to wake up people's numbed senses than a presentation of efficiency-minded ideas, especially when the ideas are of Danish origin.

The made-in-Denmark conference itself is pretty green by all itself: no bottled water, no gifts of Little Mermaid statuettes for the delegates.

The traditional Christmas tree in Copenhagen's Town Hall square, like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York, will only remain lit as long as enough energy is being generated by the 15 bikes set up to power them. The 21-meter-tall tree is decorated with 700 energy-efficient bulbs and the alternative means of powering the Christmas lighting will save the environment nine tons of carbon dioxide.

Next to Copenhagen's landmark Little Mermaid statue, local sculptor Jens Galschiot set up a provocative statue showing an obese Lady Justice sitting on an emaciated African man, representing hypocrisy in the climate debate.

The message to reduce environmental impact went so deep into Danish people's lifestyle that they even look to people's final journey for emission cuts. Starting in 2011, new environmental regulations in Denmark will require all crematoriums to have mercury filters. There are also plans to replace seven crematoriums in eastern Denmark with a single central facility for the sake of energy efficiency.

However, it's not just the Danish who are good at delivering the "go green" message; so are those who came to Denmark.

Scottish businesses and non-governmental organizations created a special-edition Scotch whisky as a gift to key negotiators at the talks. The 42 percent proof (21 percent alcohol), 20-year-old spirit is called TwentyTwenty 42 -- to mark Scotland's pledge to cut its greenhouse gases by 42 percent by 2020.

British wildlife sculptor Mark Coreth brought a life-sized ice polar bear to downtown Copenhagen to let people touch the bear and feel what their touches could do to hasten its watery demise. He hopes that people will appreciate the effects of human action and the plight of the polar bear. Coreth is now back in London to carve a twin bear to display in London's Trafalgar Square and hopes to follow with others around the world, even Tian'anmen Square in Beijing.

In addition, youth delegates from around the world are using their own low-budget but novel ways to pressure the negotiators. Yesterday, outside the main plenary session conference room and against a backdrop of suits and briefcases, scores of youth from around the world, dressed in pajamas and armed with pillows, asked their leaders to deliver a deal which will ensure the survival of all human beings and species. And today, a Chinese youth dressed as a traditional Chinese doctor will send out his prescription for a healthy earth at the conference center.

“Less than 2 US Dollars of fast aid on average is not even enough for buying a coffin..." (by Scully Meng)

“Less than 2 US Dollars of fast aid on average is not even enough for buying a coffin..."

Deputy Chief Negotiator Su Wei said, the price level at Copenhagen is really high, a fast track of 10billion US dollars shared by the world pupulation will end up to be 2 dollars per person, not even enough to buy a cup of coffee here. A foreign colleague has interpreted as "coffin" though...

On the sencond day of COP15, Su Wei has criticised the EU, US, Japan and the major developed countries during the media briefing.

"The EU should not always compare to China. They should compare to the figure they have committed to in KP for the first commitment period." Said Su Wei, when talking about EU's query regarding China's reduction figure.

Considering the historical GHG emission of developed countries in the past 200 years of industrialisation process, China considers the reduction commitment of EU, US, Japan and other major developed countries in their second commitment period still lower than expectation. Su Wei has given the reporters relevant figures: EU's target of 20% reduction on the 1990 level is equivalent to an annual reduction of 1.05%. This is less than a half of their 2.48% average annual reduction target in their first commitment period. Even if the commitment increases to 30%, this is still only equivalent to an annual reduction of 1.93%. In the face of the self-claimed "ambitious" targets, EU is still comparing its own duties to China's voluntary reduction actions, Su Wei says, "EU is not kind at all".

Regarding Japan's 25% reduction target based on 1990 level, Su Wei thinks that there are still concerns despite the progress. Firstly, one of the conditoins associated with Japan's commitment is a reduction commitment by China, and KP states that developing countries do not have reduction obligations, therefore the requirement of Japan has violated KP. Secondly Japan has required the US to join KP, this is an impossible condition, therefore Japan's target does not need to be commited to given the conditions not realised. Even if eventually the conditions are fulfilled and Japan has commited, Su Wei still casts doubts on the figures: Japan is very likely to achieve its target by a substantial purchase of carbon credit or increase in carbon-sink program, instead of solid carbon reduction actions.

"At the current moment, the commitment of the US will determine the final outcome of COP15," Su Wei said, but the reduction of 17% based on 2005 level of the US is hardly a substantial reduction target, same as the EU. In fact, the CO2 emission of the US from 1990 to 2005 has grown substantially, to 16%, therefore the current commitment is only a 1% reduction at 1990 level.

Regarding another important issue, financing, Su Wei said, even if the finance provided by "fast track" of 10billion US dollars by 2012 has a large total sum, it is hard to help the developing countires with an enormous population. "If we share the money with everyone in the world, we get less than 2 US dollars per person, this is not even enough to buy a cup of coffee in Cophenhagen." Su Wei told the reporter.

Su Wei has always emphasised the truth of China being a developing country. The current mission of developing countries are still economic development, poverty elimination, achieving sustainable developement, whilst the developed countries has the capability and historical responsibility to pioneer in taking reduction actions. If they abandon KP and Bali Action Plan whilst push developing countries for reduction commitments, this is definitely not a positive signal for global action in fighting climate change.

The story of the China Youth COP15 "transportation team" (by Yufeng Zhan)

Each member in our delegation team needs to write blogs, and it is an important task. This will ensure that we can pass on the information of COP15 to the youths in China, who are actively following our activities. I do not have a habit of writing blogs, but I will try my best to record the story of my COP15 trip and share with you.

The first two days were without internet. In fact, the internet at our hostel was so "excellent" that I couldn't connect to it for once. So I appologise for leaving everything until now (I'm now writing in the Bella Centre).

The story I want to tell is about our China Youth COP15 "transportation team".

We are the last few to leave China for Copenhagen, and a lot of campaigning materials were actually just received from the manufacturers. Therefore we had enormous responsibility to take all of the material to Copenhagen.We have 20kg of baggage allowance, and a lot of us had exceeded the limit. We were delighted to find that the staff at the Beijing International Airport saw us carrying a flag of China, so they allowed us to take 23kg of luggages each, saving a total of 10,000rmb.

These are the ballons used for the Green China campaigning event on the first day of COP15 (a blog was written for it previously).

We did not want to waste any time and tried to fit work into every minute of spare time that we had to ensure efficient internal communication.

The WWF donation box at the Copenhagen airport:

We have now got the group stickers everywhere!

Finally we have arrived in Copenhagen safely. Please stay tuned and follow our upcoming events.

COP15 Opening Ceremony

COP15 happens inside here. It's huge.



Here are the sculptures outside the Bella Centre. The picture itself is quite self-explanatory. You see skinny kids standing in water up to angle height. That is what is going to happen with climate change - the sea level rises, so their homeland will soon be under water. More frequent extreme weather affects their lives heavily, because they are living in LDCs and are most vulnerable to climate change and its consequences.




Due to the large number of total delegates and the limited capacity of the Bella Centre (15,000 capacity, 20,000 participants), the civil societies have only got a limited number of tickets of the Opening of COP15, which means that many observers cannot get inside Planetary 1 to see the actual opening ceremony. It was a bit disappointing for us, since most of us did not get in. Nevertheless we went to Planetary 2 to watch the live broadcast. It was very crowded and filled with people.

As you can see in the picture below, Denmark showed the world this video of a young girl, who had a dream of a terrifying future with climate change consequences. Young children are important stakeholders, as they are inheriting the world from the present generation. They are passionate about COP15 and they want to express their concern and hope. This should provoke thoughts for everyone in COP15 and around the world, to stop for a second and think for a while, before rushing to make decisions.

Hello Copenhagen!

Hopenhagen is the slogan created for COP15 by the Government of Denmark. You basically see it everywhere once you arrive at the airport. There are even COP15 booths where you can get information from the friendly volunteers. This somehow reminds us of Beijing during the Olympics last year :)

The first poster (of course I mean a digital display screen) I saw when I got off the plane was a futuristic picture of Obama in 2020 (obviously a bit older than now, and looking very dismal) saying that we could have stopped climate change but we didn't. There are also other versions of this (eg the Gordon Brown version) which are very eye-catching. Unfortunately I have not taken photos of them, but I guess you'll all have the chance to see them yourselves, or go on their website http://www.hopenhagen.org/ and have a look at what they are doing now.

We were also not surprised to see plenty of advertisements by the alternative energy industry and green enterprises. There was even a contemporary art exhibition themed around climate change.

Here are some photos that our team members have taken today:




A lady carrying a plastic bag with "reuse this, reduce CO2 Emission (or something like that)" said to one of our colleagues, "Enjoy the Summit". :)



(that's Connie Hedegaard staring out from the poster)



The city is prepared for the COP15 (tougher than the Olympics, we think).

Santa Clause Embraces "No Other Way"

On 3 Dec, four of our team members have set off for Copenhagen. They have bumped into Santa Clause while they were waiting during a flight transit in Helsinki!
However they were not aware of the fact that there was a strike going on with Finnair. And our happy folks have lost their luggages... Let's hope that they can get them back asap.

China Youth COP15

WHO WE ARE

• We are a self-organized delegation of 50 young leaders from China committed to a secure and low-carbon future
• We all have a proven track record of excellence and a vowed commitment to educate and lead others
• We represent a nation that makes up one-fifth of humanity, and a youth population of 400 million people (1.5 times the entire population of the United States).
• We aspire to become China’s future entrepreneurs, chief executives, social pioneers and government leaders
• We will be alive in the year 2050, and we understand that our lives depend on political decisions that must be science-based
• We believe there is No Other Way!

OUR MISSIONS

1. Represent China’s Youth Commitment to a Low Carbon Future
2. Set a Precedence of Chinese Youth Engagement on International Issues that Affect Us
3. Inspire a New Generation of Forward-Thinking Leadership
4. Pioneer Peaceful Youth Diplomacy Around the World

OUR CAMPAIGN: NO OTHER WAY but NOW!

OUR ACTIONS

- On October 24, 2009, we organized 300 simultaneous ciimate action events throughout China in an unprecedented display of positive and peaceful collaboration towards finding solutions for climate change
- In October, we organized a rigorous nationwide search for outstanding youth to form China’s first youth delegation to COP15
- In November, we conducted intensive professional training, and learned from experts on COP15 Negotiations and Climate Change Issues, Communication Strategies and Leadership
- We intensively raised grassroots funds of over US$100,000 in less than one month to be able to pioneer this effort in Copenhagen
- We will spend 2 weeks in Copenhagen utilizing all our knowledge, talent and resources to inspire and make a difference!