CYEC News

Mariama Branker's experience at COP15.

Well, Copenhagen has ended and it has been just as I thought. Exciting! Confusing! Inconclusive and of course cold!

The first week presented a mix of emotions. When I first arrived at the Bella Centre, I saw this huge space and I couldn’t believe that I was there, I was standing in a place where, Presidents, Prime Ministers and other officials would certainly enter in a matter of days to negotiate a treaty which would determine the world’s fate. However, my expectations for a fair treaty were not high given China and America’s continual resistance to committing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and America’s clear position that it could not negotiate until a climate change bill had been past nationally.

Nonetheless I remained optimistic and hoped that the Conference of Youth would help to build my capacity and my energies to continue throughout the conference. I had the pleasure of meeting with youth from all across the world- youth from the Pacific and the Maldives who face the same challenges as I do in the Caribbean. I hear several stories of economies based on tourism, being ruined by damage to coastal infrastructure as well as low crop yields from increases in droughts and floods. Bahaullah, Iranian prophet and known advocate of world peace and unity said that “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” Small island youth decided to mimic the wisdom of our government leaders and come together to produce the Small Islands and Vulnerable States Declaration on Climate Change. The document fully supports the Santo Domingo Caribbean Youth Declaration on Climate Change, the Maldivian youth declaration the Pasifika youth declaration and most importantly the AOSIS shared vision document.

Little did we know that while we were doing this the developed countries (headed by our very gracious country host) were coining their own declaration, the formulation of which was against the democratic process agreed to in the Kyoto protocol. This document-called the Danish text- caused much frustration and in fact disappointment at the negotiations, especially with the AOSIS member countries, like Tuvalu who walked out of the proceedings in disgust and disappointment at the text and its implications for the already disappearing island.

Throughout the remainder of the negotiations tensions were high and mistrust was rampant, countries who had originally pledged their allegiance to saving the climate were suddenly changing their positions within the negotiations. It was as I expected, a veritable battleground of poor against rich, profits over people and developed against developing!

The outcome of COP15, the Copenhagen Accord, is a document which many have said will provide hope for SIDS. The Copenhagen Accord is not a legally binding treaty and is not representative of what is necessary for the sustainable development of developing countries and vulnerable states. By virtue of its very definition the accord is simply a harmony of ideas of our global heads of government. This means that there is still room within the negotiating process for changes to be made. Changes that should range from a goal of a reduction in average global temperatures from 2 degrees to 1.5 degrees,; to arranging the financing for adaptation in small islands and vulnerable countries from 100 billion to 250 billion dollars.

Specifically for the Caribbean region, COP 15 was successful for two (2) reasons:

i. The establishment of the sustainable energy initiative fund- SIDS-Dock
Caribbean governments, along with the Pacific and Mediterranean countries launched an energy initiative to reduce emissions and pursue low carbon development. SIDS-Dock is an institutional mechanism which will allow small island nations to transition into clean energy economies. It provides an opportunity for small islands to take advantage of revenue from public and private sector and from the EU and US carbon trade markets.

ii. Development of the relationship between Caribbean youth and our governments.
We were able to get youth representatives on the national delegations of Barbados, St. Vincent and St. Lucia. One of the major goals of the Caribbean youth delegation was to have youth delegates integrated into our respective national delegations. Ddespite the fact that we were unable to be a part of all of our government delegations, I feel as though this is a small step towards the development of a good relationship between youth and Caribbean governments. As a member of national delegations we were able to get the Caribbean and indeed Small Island Developing States youth opinion directly to our leaders. Important also, is that to truly understand the UNFCCC negotiations, youth need to be on the national delegations so that they can have access to sessions which would normally be restricted to high level technocrats, presidents and prime ministers.

I think my experience at the COP has certainly been a learning process. I do hope that our leaders will be able to negotiate a deal which benefits vulnerable countries and small island states. I hope that globally leaders will listen to the voice of their young people. That they will stop thinking about the here and now, but look towards the future to embrace the concept of sustainable development.

NEXT BLOG: A REVIEW OF THE COPENHAGEN ACCORD-What it means for Caribbean youth?