But while people debate whether it is right or wrong, we must remember that, after all, the Science of Climate Change does not matter that much.

What really matters is:

Monsoons are failing, crops are failing,
droughts are prevailing, along with floods.
People are hungry, children are wailing,
“development” is sucking our Earth’s blood.

I cannot drink the water in the streams,
nor eat the snow that falls from the sky,
some would have be believe that nothing has changed,
but I know that the worst is yet to pass by.

I visit the city and can’t see the next block,
the smog is choking, people’s hearts are locked.
In the countryside too, the problems exist:
people struggling hard, just to subsist.

The river that flows past my friend’s house,
once over his head, he remembers,
Is now but a brook, the flow only seasonal,
Ten years of change have thus rendered.

The rice which once grew aligned with the season,
now withers and dries before harvest.
The rain comes without pattern or reason,
lays waste to the crop and farmers divest.

Bees, the very pillar of food production,
are gone from a whole district in China,
are disappearing fast, abandoning their function
poisoned by our toxins in the clima.

The Coral, the treasure-chest of beauty and life,
is bleaching and dying before our eyes.
Killing ecosystems – do we have the right?
We don’t! Yet we do it; ask yourself “Why?”

“Develop!” is the cry of the bygone age.
It’s farce and inequity now bare,
To increase in prosperity at the expense of the Earth,
Is not just, not right, not kind, not fair.

To Survive we must remember that which sustains us,
and give thanks to the many on who’s efforts we live
From Aardvarks to Zorillas, they all live in service,
Creating the global web that our Ecosystem is.

Why do we, as humans, break the sacred chain,
create waste for which no other life has use?
Our chemicals are found everywhere, even in the rain,
our behaviour has become inter-species abuse!

Our plastics are choking the ocean,
smothering out huge swaths of life.
Toxic, inedible are the fish that lie therein,
among so many life forms deformity is rife!

Our style of living has a visible cost,
hidden only by our willfull blindness.
Cancer and disease, to us are now tossed,
our body’s symptoms of environmental unkindness.

The way to redemption is clear, clean, and pure,
“Simple Living, High Thinking” – true development for sure,
The rights of all people to eat, drink, live, and think,
The same for all is our duty to ensure.

I pray that this poem will have an effect:
Remember that life is not just to get.
Now you are here, now do you live,
But when you lie dying, you will think:
“What did I give?”

Reposted with Permission from Tale of Grace.com

Namaste. We are the Indian Youth Delegation representing the concerns of Indian Youth and many more to the United Nations COP-15 in December. Our group, selected from all over India by the Indian Youth Climate Network consists of a 20 members team. We come to you in the interests of over 1.3 billion people in our country, 35% of whom are under age 15, and well over 500,000,000 are under 30.

We feel that India can lead the planet, setting an international example, as She simultaneously pursues meaningful development.

To this end, as the youth and for the unborn who are forced to live with the economic and environmental decisions that are made at Copenhagen in December, and by individuals every day, we would like to present our urgent concerns to you for presentation to the world community at the COP-15.

1. Leader-ji, our Mother India is literally covered in plastic wastes from Himachal, Arunachal and Kashmir to Kanya Kumari; from head to toe. Even in places where the use of disposable plastic bags at the check-out counter is banned, as in Himachal, the use of disposable plastic in nearly every facet of consumer products means an astronomical amount of waste. Plastic breaks down into toxic molecules whose chemical effects are devastating the human body and have been found everywhere, even in mother’s breast milk throughout the planet. 40% of all imported oil is used to make toxic plastic.

We want to see India leading the world in a strict policy preventing the use and production of disposable plastics.

We encourage you to demand this simple right for future generations, the right not to live in and with the plastic waste created by the last 6 generations; we encourage you to make a call for a national and planetary moratorium on disposable plastic usage.

2. Leader-ji, the lungs of the Earth are found in Her Trees and Forests. We want to see India leading the planet in halting deforestation and creating jobs in reforestation. Without healthy lungs, clean water, soils and clean air cannot take place or be found on the planet.

We encourage you to demand this right of all future generations to have the clean air and water that Nature intended for us, by calling for a national and planetary moratorium of any and all deforestation of existent forests and promoting reforestation and jobs in forest care and management.

3. Leader-ji, we need education that will enable us to meaningfully live in an over-populated world with tremendous human suffering at our doorsteps. We need education that will teach us how to clean up the planet, how to create and use technology that is applicable to our inheritance: the travesty of the natural creation and natural systems. We want to see India leading the world in using Her skilled scientists, Her engineers applying their education to find means to solve the toxic mess our planet is in. At the same time, out of the whole planet, our India has a unique culture, born of ethical thought and living. We do not see any other country having the high level of ethical human philosophy that India espouses.

We encourage you to call for education that takes these two facets, of living in our environmentally stressed world, and of making the right decisions for the good of all, no matter how difficult, into one curriculum.

4. Leader-ji, India has demonstrated that She has the capacity to engage in massive cooperation with righteous action. We want to see India leading the world in a one day a week moratorium on all polluting vehicles and industries, until industry and political agreements are able to bring down carbon emissions to well below pre-1990 levels.

We encourage you to call for our country and all countries to agree to participate in this world-wide moratorium on air pollution one blessed day a week.

5. Leader-ji, we want to see India’s development guided by ethics, Earth ethics. We want industry that takes into account environmental and ecological sustainability, human necessity and justification.  The earth is running out of ‘raw resources’ to produce items to feed a consumer based mentality and media. Please demand the use of the Precautionary Principle of Development to guide India.

We encourage you to call for industrial development and production that is based upon ecological realities and actual need, not individual greed.

6. Leader-ji, we want adults to take control of media to ensure that it promotes ethical values, not immoral ones. Values that will promote and encourage ecologically ethical and sustainable life and human relations. Adults feel it is their right to enjoy immoral values, and currently thrust them into our faces against our will, by newspapers, billboards, movies, television and advertisements. Our childhoods are short, we want to make the best use of them to gain noble character qualities to lead us through life. We demand our right not to be exposed to their thinking unless and until we seek it of our own.

7. Leader-ji, India does not need to be in the tragic mess She is in, with 50% of the world’s malnourished, the hungry and the poor. India has the resources herself to change things, the greatest resource is each and every Indian.

Leader-ji, without the participation of each individual, the destruction going on in the planet cannot be stopped. We urge you to demand democratic decision making power for all citizens begining at the community level. We want to see our families and communities having power and control over the environments we are in and resources to create, and make political and economic decisions that effect us. We can do this through an ever widening circle of participatory democracy beginning at the level of neighbourhood parliaments.

Leader-ji, these are the calls for action by India’s Youth today for ourselves and the unborn for generations to come. We ask you to carry our concerns into every activity that your position causes you to undertake. Please, help us to help the Earth, and restore the balance of Nature through intelligent and sane decisions, respect for one another and humane ethics.

Very few of us.

When I think of people going hungry for weeks on end, I think of the people on this planet who are living in drought ridden land which won’t yield the crops they have been waiting for. I think of those people who are thwarted by the changing monsoon patterns who can’t predict when to plant their seeds. I think of people who have been victims to a hurricane or flood and have loss access to food and water. I think of the victims of climate change: past, present and future. 

But that’s not all.

When I think of people going hungry for weeks on end I also think of determination, dedication, vision and sacrifice. I think of the hunger strikes lead by Gandhi in India’s fight for independence from a British oppression. I think of civil society rising up and reclaiming their power and asking for what is just, what is right. I think of non-violence, of peace and of love. 

And now, I think of the Climate Justice Fast.

Many of us across the planet, especially young people are at points of frustration, despair or disempowerment with the state of politics and action in response to the climate change threat. Even though entire countries predicted to go under water, hundreds of millions losing access to water, massive food shortages, extreme weather events, these issues are being treated as if we are approaching another trade agreement. The result many people feel like they can’t change anything, that they’re voices aren’t being heard, they don’t know where to start, or that they may as well live life now since they will be screwed later. 

It is this desperation, frustration and desire to be heard that is instigating a group of people from across five different countries to fast for the future. Every day people who care about the future of their children, who care about the millions of lives that will be lost, who care about the future of humanity, will be conducting a hunger strike up to 40 days long.

They don’t want to waste their time in frustration or petty politics, but want to drive home that no matter what the implications of taking action on climate change, nothing is more costly than compromising justice and basic human life and rights. No amount of loss in GDP will bring back the lives of those who have died due to the impacts of climate change. 

The idea of a hunger strike may seem scary, and that’s ok. It’s not the only way a person can take action. You can choose whether you want to be an innovator, or a policy maker, a community worker or a consultant, a mother or a teacher, you can be a young person taking action on campus, their religious community or school. You can organise a flash mob, or a climate concert, a meeting with your local politician or a protest. However for some of us it is time to take things up a notch.

So for those of you tired of trying to negotiate with decision makers that the survival of humanity is not negotiable, join the climate justice fast. You can fast for a day, a week, a month or the entire 40 days. Each fast will count.  

Check out the website www.climatejusticefast.com and join us as we fast to ensure that justice and the human rights are ensured.

We reported to the COP 14 at 8:45 am for our participation in an international youth side action. Representatives from 50 countries stood at the entrance corridor in a disciplined queue showcasing different messages with their country flags. ‘Share our vision”, we called out in unison to the negotiators, UN observers, intergovernmental party members, journalists, NGO & business participants as they walked past us. We continued to echo our messages one by one till our time slot came to an end. “The youth of the world are cooperating, when are the political leaders going to join hands?”, “Fight disease, tech transfer funding, stop deforestation save our coral reefs, indigenous rights, adaptation fund, mitigation, save our forests, developed countries should take responsibility of their historical emissions.”

The youth movement had kick started with yet another powerful, energetic event which beckoned to the political leaders of the world. I felt charged up standing in the midst of the youth, voicing their slogans in a crescendo.

Another highlight of my personal experience in the conference was my role as the youth liaison to the UNFCCC Secretariat along with Line Kirk from Denmark. After the action in the morning, we went together to discuss with Maurice working under the UNFCCC Secretariat about the booking of meeting rooms for the youth. We were thrilled to know that the secretariat had agreed to give us a room (Aesculapian Snake) from 10am to 11am, everyday for us to assemble and have our youth meetings. This arrangement worked out very well for the youth as we all had a debrief in the morning before we launched our actions for the day as a youth movement.

I went to the stork plenary for a while to listen to the various parties talk about technology transfer, and provision for financial and technical support. While I glanced through the stork Plenary, I ran to hear the last 5 minutes of the European Union in a press conference. The representatives made a key note on technology and investment as hand in hand opportunities.

Inspite of not attending the full press conference it was extremely fruitful for a few representatives of the Indian Delegation to have a three minute chat with UNFCCC Secretary, Yvo de Boer, and confirm an appointment with him for the next day for 20 minutes for a one on one meeting with the India youth delegation . The Indian Youth Delegation were delighted to share this opportunity with the youth community and represent them with specific questions for Mr. De Boer .

While the excitement of our break through subsided I headed for a UNFCCC side event on the LEG/NAPA at 1:00 pm. It was an update on the work for the Least Developed countries Expert Group (LEG) and the status of implementation of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) highlighting results of collaborating institutions. As per the definition of UNFCCC, NAPAs provide a process for LDCs to identify priority activities that respond to their urgent needs to adapt to climate change – those for which further delay would increase vulnerability and costs at a later stage. As of October 2008, the UNFCCC secretariat received NAPAs from 38 LDCs. As per the status from 2001, there had only been one NAPA project implemented in Bhutan.  The reason why it was implemented was because the studies with regard to disaster risk, feasibility and assessment of costs were completed before hand by the infrastructure in Bhutan. In most developed countries this process is extremely time consuming. The discussion that followed the presentation voiced concerned opinions of many officials representing LDCs. They questioned the implementation strategies of NAPA, the reason in the delay of the implementation. Why did it take so long to implement one project since 2001?  Why was it taking so long to implement NAPAs from 38 LDCs while there was a dire need for ground adaptation strategies?  The board specified on the need for a comprehensive climate strategy at national level. There is a need to mainstream adaptation in all aspects of economy and society. There is also a dire need to establish a vital connection between traditional knowledge and the solutions for adaptation policies. There was also a need to define adaptation and streamline it in development.

Along with the side event, the international outreach group were active in organizing yet another international youth action at 1:15pm, ‘Meet and Treat,’ for government delegates entering the afternoon plenary session – offering traditional polish pastries together with an invitation for government delegates to meet with the youth.

At 3 pm I headed for the communications group meeting. We discussed a fresh angle to add to our discussions. We decided to have two press conferences oriented towards the youth. Another challenge was to get across the international youth message through our actions, particularly to the media and the country representatives. We also discussed various aspects of the working groups. There were to be liaisons from all the working groups. The liaisons were to meet every evening at 6pm and put together an amalgam of all activities and feedbacks from all working groups. They were further to report back to their individual groups and share information as to what was happening with the other groups.

At 3:30 pm I headed for the AD Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action under the convention (AWG – LCA). This was a workshop on a shared vision for long term cooperative action.

The shared vision encompassed of mitigation and adaptation priority actions targeted country based. The idea was to build on a national level adaptation planning and implementation, building on existing processes and existing financial programs. Every country would have to prioritize in new and additional finance and investments.

The goal was to reach 350 ppm, below 1.5 Centigrade above pre–industrial levels. In reference to the baseline of 1990, the emissions reductions were to be more than 85% by 2050.

The goal of Annex 1 countries: reductions by 20% to 1990 levels by 2020 and more than 85% by 2050.

Japan was to achieve stabilisation of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climatic system. The suggestions were to incorporate innovation in day to day lifestyle, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

Dr Pradipto Ghosh, negotiator representing India stressed highly on per capita emissions and climate equity. He pin pointed on the ultimate goal of the shared vision. The method, the relevance of the method, the relevance of the provisions of Kyoto, cumulative emissions, historical emissions in a time frame of eco-systems, food production, economic development. “All the elements of ‘The Bali Action’ plan are comprehensive and interrelated. “

According to Dr Pradipto Ghosh, three relevant points include ;

1. Equity: All humans are responsible towards achieving any stabilization target.
2. Right to development of LDCs: Rapid development, poverty and vulnerability are interrelated.
3. Adaptation: economic & social development and poverty eradication, stabilization of emissions, mitigation measures should be compensated by developed countries through transfer of technology to account for their historical emissions.

The need of the hour would include deep reduction targets of 25%-40% by 2020 on the baseline of 1990. India stressed on equal rights to the common man, equal arrangements in Copenhagen wherein all parties should reach a consensus.

Ghana stressed on polluters pay principle, urgent precautionary measures, equity at an intra and inter generational level, access to ecological space, solution not limited to mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and finance. Ultimately the global goal should be measurable, verifiable and reportable with the help of mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and finance.

According to Brazil, an innovative approach on technology development was very important. Currently there is an implementation deficit. The shared vision would require a new cooperation approach determining responsibilities of the Annex 1 countries and non–Annex countries. The level of support would determine the action. However financing of projects wasn’t to depend solely on markets. It would demand scaling up of public sector funding on a concessional basis. Further adaptation would have to be country driven. Historical emissions were to be considered and each country would act accordingly with a view of the future.

Despite the fact that the workshop was extremely interesting, I had to rush to meet Joydeep with the Indo-Asian News Service to discuss our role as an Indian delegation. The article he published came in the Deccan Herald, Times of India, and a blog of news relating to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

I ran to the UNFCCC office to book a press conference room. The theme of the youth press conference to take place on the 11^th December, was to be “voices of the global youth.”   Having fulfilled this, I attended a little of the negotiations in the Stork Plenary. While it was extremely interesting, I remember being very tired. At 6 pm we had our Indian youth delegation debrief session. We spoke about our busy day and each one shared their thoughts and ideas about the conference. It was a fruitful exercise since everybody clarified their misconceptions and problems if any. We also had the dinner reception on this day hosted by the Polish government for all participants. So it was great to look forward to good food and interactions during dinner time. We had the opportunity to meet with the official delegate from Trinidad. We chatted the night with our youth colleagues from around the world–dreaming of a future that can be.

1^st Dec, I took the tram number 9 to get to the venue at 8:45 am. The very idea of my first United Nations conference as a youth delegate made me nervous. Just outside the venue I was greeted by the Youth Welcome Banner, “Join us in saving our future” plus the word ‘welcome’ in 50 different languages written around the outside. Another action I found extremely interesting was the walnut given to me by the WWF team which symbolized “Crack the Climate Nut.”

I entered the COP venue and was greeted by a scene similar to the airport. Lots of queues, lots of security guards and lots of security checking.

Finally I managed to wade across to the stork plenary, where the main UN Negotiations were being held. We met with the official Indian delegation and fell back in the background while the UN Negotiations introduction started.

It was extremely overwhelming to watch the UN negotiations at such a large scale. There were representatives from more than 192 countries under the same roof. There was a welcoming speech by the participants which included the Prime Minister of Poland, Yve de Boer, the excecutive secretary general and a few others.

The Indian youth delegation decided to have their first debrief meeting to decide our political and action strategies. Our discussion led to our waiting outside Dr Pachuri’s office since we were to meet him to take a brief recording on the role of youth in the conference.

Looking at the daily program I realized that a typical day at the COP14 would be filled with a zillion events and meetings.  I would have to run from one event to another. The idea was to take in as much as knowledge as possible to benefit the most out of all the events.  A lot of side events and press conferences were taking place along with the main Stork Plenary events.

I decided that I would prefer to go for a CDM panel discussion. Inspite of the fact that I reached late I learnt a lot. There was an faq round with the CDM Exceutive Board. There was a presentation which summed up the plans, and the methodologies of the CDM process. I found a few questions extremely interesting. The CDM board diplomatically answered the crooked questions asked about methodologies, transparency , role of small scale private sector , standardization,input of the public in the CDM process,capacity building. There had been a general dip in the number of CDM projects since April 2008 . The CDM Executive Board assured the audience that it was a passing phase. They were also over burdened with the number of projects to be passed and were currently under review.

When I left the CDM talk I realized that I had missed the press conference with the US negotiators. Apparently the chief negotiator had discussed everything to do with the Montreal negotiations and didn’t accept any emissions cuts. Since Obama has just taken office everybody was really hopeful. “The decision should come in Copenhagen.”  In retrospect, every government had said that as part of every statement, every speech ,every future decision to be made in Poznan.

At 3 pm I headed for the communications working group. This was an interesting exercise to reach out to the traditional media , to enhance the international youth message to the world , the public message etc . We were 10 of us. And each one was assigned a role to reach out with our message. A few roles we decided to concentrate were leadership, urgency, climate equity and messaging .

I went directly to the stork plenary after that, having missed out on the opening ceremony .It was fascinating to watch the live un negotiations. There were some interesting comments. The LDCS were putting up a good defense to put forward their case.

I headed for the side events after this. There was an interesting talk about REDD and indigenous rights. REDD is an incentive ‘to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. Emissions from deforestation account for 16% of the overall emissions. Therefore reduction in deforestation is extremely vital in order to maintain the global mean temperature well below 2 degrees.

I was completely tired by the end of this day and awaited my bed eagerly. However the Indian delegation had a debrief before we all finally called it a day. In our debrief we discussed about our personal experiences and the stance we were to take as representatives of our country.

The school called for ‘Sanskriti 350′ – an inter-school event inviting eco-clubs from over 30 schools, in a bid to highlight the importance of 350. Remarkably enough, Sanskriti (meaning culture) 350 was an event completely for the youth, by the youth and of the youth!

The youth event had everything from a green fashion show, a brainstorming session, green film competition, ad-mad, to a rock-band competition titled ‘the sounds of 350′! The event saw a good participation and was inaugurated by the Secreatary, Environment in the Government of Delhi Mr. J.K. Dadoo – who elaborated on the science and policy of climate change. He also warned the students of a disease called ‘affluenza’ which, according to him, is a major threat to the global environment.

The enthusiasm of the young adults and the energy levels in them clearly suggested that the youth has understood the urgency to act today in order to ensure their survival, and the survival of their children and grandchildren on this Planet. It was most inspiring when the School Principal Mrs. Abha Sahgal took to stage and declared that her generation had clearly not done enough to protect our environment and that she is whole-heartedly with the youth – leading the green movement.

Sanskriti 350 also saw participation from the Indian Youth Climate Network, Delhi Greens and the 48C Festival being celebrated in the city.

“Climate Change is a global issue but needs a solution on local level as priority. The hilly towns like Manali are most vulnerable, as their whole economy is dependent on weather conditions. The apple –tourist economy will survive no longer if the present conditions prevail for a longer time,” said Kabir Arora, Coordinator, Pahal in a workshop organized at Delhi Public School. The workshop was organized as an outreach programme of Pahal with the theme “Climate Change and Manali”. The students present pledge that they will participate whole-heartedly in the coming programmes of organization in next session which will include cleaning projects. Ms. Sukhjeet Kaur was the other speaker of the occasion. Ms. Amarjeet Kaur, School Principal and Staff were present along with more than 50 students.

The Words:

Dekho! Dekho! Yeh India hey hum,
Fir bhi, kyun hey, yeh atmosphere garam?

Jabki, hum may, hey itna saara dum,

Kyun na, kare hum, yeh CO2 ko kam?

Youth action frames the conversation at the UNFCCC in Poznan, Poland

Young people from around the world made their voice heard today at the UN Framework Convention on Climate change in Poznan, Poland. After an inspiring speech from Al Gore, over 200 young people from India to the U.S. to the Congo held a spontaneous action inside, with banners that read “SURVIVAL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.”

The demonstration was the next step in our “project survival” – inspired by a speech earlier this week by a representative from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), stating that current emissions targets set by powerful countries condemn their nations to extinction. In the last two days youth have mobilized to get over 80 country delegations to sign a pledge to “safeguard the survival of all peoples and nations.” Youth organized actions, tracked down delegates in the halls, lined the entrance to the plenaries, and knocked on meeting room doors to push their countries to sign the Survival Pledge. This morning our text has been adopted in the official UN Ministerial declaration document emerging from COP14, the COP President’s text on long-term vision. Heads of state referenced our call in major speeches. “It’s been an amazing success,” said Amanda McKenzie, of the Australian Youth Climate Network. “Hearing Australia’s Climate Minister Penny Wong commit to ’survival’ yesterday had me cheering in the halls. Now, it’s time to make sure she delivers.”

Actions like the one that happened 15 minutes ago aim to create the pressure to do just that. At the end of our action (after engaging with some angry UN people) several delegates and dignitaries came to thank the Youth for their action. A woman said “I am in a very high position in my government in Norway. Youth doing actions like this makes my work easier. Thank you.”

We’ve had an exciting victory, but we know we must continue to organize to make the implications of that statement meaningful – we know that any targets less than 350ppm will not insure the survival of all peoples and nations, and we know that any solution that is not equitable and just, is no solution at all.

Click below for many more photos and reflections.

While our demonstration today was not permitted by the United Nations, young people felt compelled to step outside the boundaries of rules and etiquette to ensure that the main message emerging from COP14 is one of SURVIVAL. We will continue to work year round, taking on this generational challenge.

the media reacting to us:

Photos by Shadia Fayne Wood, Ben Powless, Robert VanWaarden, and Joshua Kahn Russell.

for more photos see: http://pa.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000SIp4.f3wK2U

Earlier today, high up in Leh, Ladakh, over 1,500 people gathered for a beautiful display of their concern for climate change and their call for a world returned to less than 350 ppm CO2.

Ladakh, like more and more places around the globe, is already facing real challenges in face of climate change — unpredictable weather, floods, and the prospects of diminished water supply from glacial melt.  All this and more, is reason enough for the people of Ladakh to stand up and call for bold action around the world as they did today.

Fortunately, news of the 350 movement is gradually reaching more and more parts of the planet, and in Ladakh, a visiting student, Will Wickham, carried the message with him.  When he a arrived a few months ago, he met others interested in leading a new 350 project there, and today we get to enjoy the remarkable images of the first 350 event to take place at over 3,500 meters (roughly 12,000 ft).

Here is the full press release from the event:

Today in the North-East region of Ladakh over 1500 members of the local community turned out in Leh the capital city to join in events aimed at raising awareness regarding climate change. The event was organised by the Ladakh Young Buddhist Association in collaboration with the US based NGO 350.org, “it was a success,” said Will Wickham the 350.org organiser of the festival.

Special guests included the Vice President of the well renowned Ladakh Buddhist Association Thupten Phuljung who spoke to the crowd, 97 year old Tashi Angchuck from the village of Skurbuchn charismatically shared with the attendees his experience of changing weather patterns in the region such as unprecedented cold spells in the spring and autumn months in addition to the increasing rainfall in recent years. It was such intense rain that destroyed over 20 houses and washed away local Nepali labourers in the village of Phyang in 2006.

Throughout the day there were drama performances from local schools groups, music from the Ladakh Scout Band, a movie showing in Hindi of Al Gores ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, a human sign in the shape of 350, as well as a poster competition. Rigzen Namgyal from Landon Model School in Shey village was awarded first prize for his poster that most creatively conveyed climate change.

The days speeches were commoned by the theme of empowering community to take action and address the impending climate disaster, with particular attention towards lowering the earths carbon ratio to a sustainable level of 350 parts per million in the atmosphere. Starting climate action groups, planting a tree on ones birthday and using less non-renewable energy sources were suggested as small steps to be taken in the direct future.

All images and text copyright Conor Ashleigh 2008

A complete photo story on climate change in Ladakh that particularly cover this 350.org event will be available on 07.12.2008 at www.conorashleigh.com

Requests to publish images or to attain high resolution copies,

Contact:
Conor Ashleigh

www.conorashleigh.com
conoraaa@hotmail.com
Ladakh #    96229 53952

All India#   998160 81605

Following which our delegation launched a barrage of questions ranging from the role of youth in these negotiations to the current deadlock amongst certain groups of nations. Answering with poise, he spoke of continuing the work that the youth currently were doing at the COP and try to make their voices heard in more innovative ways. Answering to Deepa’s question of the recent financial bailout by the US govt. and its lack of action on climate funds, his answer was simple and obvious while stating that money induced would gain more voters and thus a political advantage. Having visited India before and having interacted with the bureaucrats and politicians, he seconds India’s right to develop but propounds the need for a sustainable growth.

Speaking of engaging youth in a bigger way at the conference, he was a little less forthcoming by asking the delegations to meet him with a “spectacular proposal” that if approved would take the youth delegations inside the private sessions of the official delegates. Quite a challenge, one might say! The meeting in the whole was a positive experience and a quiet motivator for all of us to work harder. Hopefully, the days to come will allow more delegations to meet and interact with their governments on a regular basis and create an atmosphere for mutual exchange of opinions.

The Indian youth delegation is pumped and ready.  They will leave no stone unturned, no questions unanswered, and with deep resolve claim their rightful place at this international forum to show the world that young India–the real India–has arrived at last to determine its own future.  Nine individuals from across the nation have come together to put together policy perspectives on some key issues being debated at the conference including the Clean Development Mechanism, Technology Transfer, Deforestation, Adaptation, and of course, engaging rapidly industrializing economies in the dialog in order to break the climate deadlock.

Not only have the youth emmersed themselves heavily in the group of international youth convening at the conference, but they are also readying to make two of their own to be a part of the official government of India delegation as youth representatives a move which is landmark in its implications and sends a powerful signal to the world that it is indeed showing leadership by engaging its next generation of climate leadership.  These youth will not only be learning from the process by sitting with their government representatives, but they hope to give inputs on policies bring the voice of youth to their own government delegation.  No, nothing like this has ever been done before.  But the times require bold measures and such a move by the government is welcomed by the Indian Youth Climate Network, the body that has organized this program.

The days ahead will be long and arduous.  It is expected that the labrynth process of the negotiations will make one loose all sense of urgency on the issue.  But this is an opportunity for them to learn–a chance to prepare to take on the mamoth task of representing the views of a constituency who has much to loose (48% of the world is “youth” and 700 million people in India qualify as “youth” ) and whose voice is so urgently required to shed light on the most contentious issue of global climate equity.

Stay tuned for more Dispatches from Poznan.  The Indian Youth are setting the bar high!

It gives us immense pleasure to introduce iClimate – the IYCN Social Networking website which is a next step in uniting the youth in India for a clean, bright future.

Link: http://iclimate.ning.com (Or http://iclimate.iycn.in)

All of you are invited to join iClimate and we hope you will find this social network useful in sharing your ideas, plans, activities and your vision for the future.

Hoping to meet you all there!

The summit was very well facilitated and organised. In the opening plenary we were all told to make sure that we join a table whose members we don’t know. I thought that was the best way of getting to know each other. At the end we had to put down a question that we felt must be answered by the end of the summit. They were compiled and hung on the wall. Looking at them up, made one feel very focused and motivated towards finding a solution and it somehow also helped in focusing our energies, streamlining our goals and identifying issues that we wanted to resolve. 

This was followed by an equity dialogue wherein we were paired opposite to a person and had to share our interpretations of equity,what it meant to us, to our organisation, and to our country.  It then struck me that more than bringing about equity, the issue was more of how one defines equity. And since there was so much ambiguity regarding the terms of equity , the political factors such as the government or organisations took advantage of this and had an excuse for not solving the debate.

We then got to listen to one of the CAN “fossils,” (the ones who are the oldest and senior most in the network,) Bill Hare of Greenpeace and coauthor of the IPCC Synthesis of the 4th Assessment Report on climate change, who presented to us the relation of equity to climate science . He made us realise that the temperature rise just has to be below 2 degrees otherwise things will spiral out of control. He had loads of interesting graphs and statistics to show us , especially relating to the “ppm ” (parts per million) values and their projected values in the nearby future.

After the much needed tea break we had a very interesting presentation by Dr Ambuj Sagar who had put together a new way to measure the role of each country towards the emission reduction, which took into account its GDP, the social factors like poverty etc, population and also the steps and initiatives taken by that country to adapt and mitigate. The index constructed had India as low as 2.3 and China as high as 10.8 and US of course blew off the charts in comparison to other countries if it carries on the way it has so long.

We were again split in groups of 5 on each table and were given three different coloured sheets which had to be filled with things that we agree on , we agree to disagree and agendas that have conflict and need to be resolved. On my table I had a Ukrainian, Britisher, African and an Indian.

We agreed that the license to pollute does not mean we have a right to pollute and that we can  have a global sustainability regime which does not limit development. We agreed to disagree on the definition of equity and we felt that the common but differentiated responsibilities is an area of conflict that needs to be resolved.

Right when I thought that I had a little too much to digest, we had a session by Bill to answer the most stupid questions we could come up with regarding COP, UNFCCC or climate change. That came as a relief since I realised I wasn’t the only one for whom the jargon was flying over my head.

Next day we were split into two major groups into adaptation strategies and effort sharing principles and key issues for a fair global deal. After the brainstorming sessions , each group was told to report to each other and I gathered the courage to voluteer to do that.

The first we had to figure out the principles. The adaptation plan should be a people centered approach which will safeguard the poor and the vulnerable. It should be modelled on principles of equity, fairness and and resilience and gender equity. We also believed in the “Polluter Pays” principle. Further its should monitored, transparent, inclusive mechanism where we unite with respecting indigenous and local values at the same time. also, food security, Public Health, Education and awareness also figured in our principles.

These principles should be operationalised in the following ways.  We strongly believe that the UNFCCC should set up a mechanism for funding NGOs and civil society groups, communities probably youth groups. Funding sources should be from different countries.  We should review all are actions, identify groups at risk and involve local participation at all levels. There should be a dialogue and mobilisation in civil society and government organisations and the South Nations should unite for operationalising of principle of adaptation. We find it ok to disagree whether CDM can bring about any constructive adaptation.

Further we believe that there should be definitely some trust building measures between the north and south countries within CAN and otherwise.

The day ended with a storytelling session where Gaines, the oldest man in the summit told us about how he reached here and that story really moved me. He like most other success stories has risen from the ground, where he was rejected by college once to then getting a full scholarship to MIT and marrying the Portuguese woman he fell in love with.

Next day , we had broken up into proposed working groups. I essentially was in the Development with Climate action and had proposed it along with Nazria Islam who also happened to be my roommate, but also lent a helping hand to the gender equity group.

In the development and climate action group our major thrusts were on the:

-trade offs between them or whether we consider them to be complimentary goals

- politics of development

-economic development vs mitigation

-poverty alleviation and climate justice

We reached to the following conclusions

-redefining or comprehending the true sense of development.

-decentralisation of production , consumption and distribution activities.

-knowledge, governance , resources to be liberated from control

-community and village autonomy to be established

-ecological and cultural values

-solidarity between movements

-rich lifestyles need to be adapted.

-CAN should move beyond in terms of its outreach from Bali to copenghagen ,accra etc

-prioritization of CAN beyond international negotiations

-more open dialogue within CAN and also with NON CAN members

-Southern face of CAN should be projected.

In the gender equity group we reached the following conclusions.

-Building a CAN gender group, projecting the reality and communicating within CAN and also with other gender groups.

-its important since women suffer more as a section of society due to climate change disasters.

- transforming the role of women from being victims to enablers by intervening and bringing change into their everyday lives.

- Involve women in decision making and especially get adequate representation in the UNFCCC.

In all , combined with the shells and waves of the beach it was one trip worth remembering considering I am very lucky as a college student to get the opportunity. But I guess the experience is better when you meet people who share similar goals and are more determined than you. It really makes you realise that you have to keep fighting and that you aren’t alone in the fight .

Thanks to all who made it possible.