FOUR MONTHS AFTER COPENHAGEN: MEMORIES AND FUTURE EXPECTATIONS
Published by: Egle Buitvydaite the 22 Apr 2010, 4:12am
Almost half a year has already passed after UNFCCC COP-15. However, the impressions and experience gained last December still remain relevant for our heroine, Deepa Gupta, co-founder of the Indian Youth Climate Network. Today “Heroes of Our Time” presents you the special interview with Deepa on her personal achievements and broken expectations.
Deepa, what were your expectations prior COP-15?
I had naively expected that we would come out with a strong, binding deal. That although all the countries were really far off the strong commitments that were needed, I hoped that perhaps their compassion for other nations and our planet was much larger than any of us realized. I had expected that it would be big, chaotic and a frenzy – however expected a happy ending despite all the stress.
What was the preparation process for the conference?
Launching Agents of Change (AoC): Having participated in COP-14 in 2008, I played a role in getting the IYCNs Agents of Change (AoC) Program up and running for 2009. This is our program that enables Indian youth to get involved in the UN Negotiations process. In this endeavour I helped design the AoC application and released it earlier in 2009. I also supported in low capacity to Ruchi, one of the AoC coordinators until July.
Building Negotiator relationships: During May, I focused on building up strong relationships with some of the Indian negotiators we had met in Poland (COP14). These were mainly Surya Sethi (ex-negotiator), Pradipto Ghosh, RK Sethi, Shyam Saran, Ajay Mathur, Kirit Parikh (ex-negotiator), and the purpose was to ensure they knew of our existence and views, and to also understand their views both in professional and personal capacities.
Bonn Negotiations: These relationships were further strengthened when I attended the interim climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany. I also managed to get funding and opportunities for Leela and Ruchi who were then also able to attend the Bonn negotiations. I initially participated in the adopt-a-negotiator campaign which I then handed over to Leela. This campaign involved building relationships and following around the Indian negotiatiors and writing about the negotiations and getting perspectives from the negotiators. This has been a very interesting medium in building relationships with the negotiators, as it has enabled our voices to be better heard (considering they read and comment on the blogs!).
Working with the Indian Youth Delegation: After the grounds team and then Indian youth delegation were selected, I continued to have some interaction with them via the googlegroups. However I wasn’t as active as the other team members as I was quite heavily involved in international youth related work, and as a result spent time also introducing some of the Indian Youth delegation to the broader global youth movement on climate change. My biggest role with the Indian Youth delegation was doing a lot of funds coordination. I fundraise money for 9 people (including myself) from the University of Technology, Sydney, and was also keeping track of who was getting money and from where until the end of November.
Building Equity in the Youth Movement: I continued to stay in touch with the international climate community through online mechanisms. My first role being that I continued the discussions from Poznan (COP14), on equity and how to ensure better regional representation in COP15.
Lobbying International Governments: As mentioned before, I attended Bonn Negotiations where I played a strong role from a more international perspective. From a political perspective, I went to lobbying meetings with other country delegations, primarily forming stronger relations with the Australian negotiating team.
Global South Affinity Group: I also started the Global South affinity group both online and offline. So at the negotiations this was an affinity group that met daily, which allowed the minority of youth from the Global South to voice their opinions and concerns in relation to the negotiations, and also became a launch pad for the “Global South Project” which aimed to fundraise for youth from the Global South to attend COP-15. And simultaneously an online google groups was formed that linked up youth from the Global South involved in climate change from all around the world.
Global South Project: From September to November, I spent a major role in coordinating the Global South Project that was trying to fundraise and select youth from Africa, South America, Asia, Pacific Islands and Middle East to participate in COP15.
Climate Justice Fast: I Agreed to participate in the Climate Justice fast, a global fast for climate justice. Prior to the fast in December I wasn’t able to do much, but I managed to promote it a little bit, and wrote 2 blog posts on it.
What were these two weeks of UNFCCC COP-15 for Deepa Gupta?
I ate one meal every night (as I was doing a solidarity fast), I slept on average 5 hours a night, and did a lot of walking (as I always caught public transport). So I was running off a lot of adrenaline and experienced a wide range of emotions from happiness and excitement, to frustration and tiredness.
Copenhagen Accord received a high criticism from mass media and many climate change activists. What is your opinion about it?
The morning after Obama’s announcement of the Copenhagen Accord, I had almost every negative emotion you can describe. I was sad. I was very demotivated and depressed. I was just really angry-angry at the injustice of how it had happened. It was really challenging to take. It is nowhere near what the world needs to prevent dangerous climate change. In reality it is simply a document where countries are listing what they are politically willing to commit to instead of what is scientifically needed. It is not pushing for the scientific target of 350ppm CO2e- as the upper most safe limit of CO2 concentration to prevent dangerous climate change (which was supported by over 110 countries in Copenhagen). It is doesn’t have sufficient commitment of funds by developed nations to support the world in transitioning into a low carbon economy. It isn’t legally binding. Overall it is a pretty poor outcome.That said, things could have always been worse, so I’m grateful that there is at least something is better than nothing. However we have a long way to go, and I can only pray that we see a miracle in the near future if we are going to protect our island nations, Africa and the poorest people of the world.
What goals do you have now?
The way I’m looking at the climate change revolution now, is by looking at a 50-year timeline. In the next two to three years we need to stabilize emissions; the US is still by far the biggest influential country in these negotiations, far more than even India or China. In the next ten years though, I have faith that India is going to play a key role in showing the world how a transition happens. Because the majority of our country hasn’t developed yet, it has the opportunity to redefine development.For us, as activists, a large part of our campaigning has to become a lot more domestically focused, personally connecting with more people. The media has been used and abused. It’s a form of communication, but it’s also the source of confusing a lot of people, because their getting too much information thrown at them. Moving forward we’ve got to get moving on the ground, implementing solutions on the ground. We’ve got to start talking to people face to face so that they can trust and understand why climate change is so important.
We also need to become a lot more focused on the vision for the future. Us as activists often get very focused on the problem and play that same fear campaign that a lot of skeptics and politicians do as well. We need to show people what that beautiful vision looks like, where we’re going. Unless people see where they are going they are going to be really afraid. But if we can show that to them it will build up a lot more faith in the movement.For me personally, this year I’m back at university (University of Technology Sydney) trying to complete my Bachelors, so I am mainly be campaigning to get my university to become the first major institution in Australia to run off 100% renewable energy. Moving forward into 2011 and 2012, I will hopefully be back in India aiming to mobilize the public in a big way on the issue – where they take both local action and political action.
What should be done in the future not to re-experience the same Copenhagen fiasco?
I think it’s important to not see Copenhagen as a failure only, it was also a big success in many ways. Copenhagen allowed the world to mobilize around a single social issue in a way that has never been in seen in history. The number of people that took action last year, and the number of people that marched in the streets during the negotiations was incredible.I know that I was expecting to see far too much in Copenhagen – to see all the countries come together and come out with a solution. Our planet has never been faced with such an issue before, where we have to come together as one unit, as one planet. We’ve always grappled with things as countries or as regions; we don’t even yet know how to think as one planet. It’s really a hard concept for a lot of people to grasp. What I realized, a lot of people around the world aren’t ready yet. If there had been a deal, I don’t know if there would have been buy-in from the people. If we’re going to create a true revolution, it’s going to need not only buy-in of politicians, but it’s going to need buy-in of all the workers, of all the universities that are going to have to train up all these people, of every mother, child, farmer etc.So one way to avoid such a fiasco is to continue to mobilize our public in our respective countries in a really big way until the people themselves shift their behavior and vision (along with the politician). E.g. The Indian fight for freedom lasted centuries. So we can’t give up.
How each person from all around the world could contribute to this global warming combat?
We could transform this world if each person could commit to making 3 changes in their lives. If they committed to making one change in their personal life (i.e. taking a shorter shower), one change within their family (i.e. sourcing their household energy from renewables), and one change in society (i.e. joining a climate group, or meeting with their local politician). It is only when each individual changes can we transform the entire world!
Daniel Esty
Published by: Egle Buitvydaite the 13 Dec 2009, 2:46pm
Daniel Esty is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University and Chairman of “Esty Environmental Partners”. He is considered to be one of the leading corporate environmental strategy thinkers and practitioners in the United States.
Mr. Esty’s education involves Economics, Politics and Law that all are highly relevant in the realm of Environment. He explains that “In the environmental protection, answers that do not have a strong foundation in both the social sciences and the natural sciences are likely to be misguided.” Namely such profound education gave the man a unique blend of knowledge that is the most reliable proof of expertise for companies such as “Coca Cola”, “Honeywell”, “Northeast Utilities”, “Limited Brands”, to name just a few, which Daniel Esty works with.
Mr. Esty believes that “the business world is one of the most important points of leverage for environmental progress”. For this reason, a good bit of his work has been aimed at trying to engage business leaders in thinking about how they can contribute to a clean energy future, more energy efficiency, and better resource productivity.
As the Environmental Law and Policy professor, Daniel Esty notices the trend of change in his students’ attitudes. “Over my 16 years of teaching at Yale, I have noticed a very sharp change in the attitudes of the students regarding the interface between business and the environment. When I first got to Yale in the mid 1990s, there was a strong sense on the part of many students that the business world could not be trusted to help support environmental efforts. Today, however, most students recognize that an approach to environmental protection that is based on economic incentives rather than old style command-and-control regulatory strategy is more likely to yield good results. In this regard, most young people are interested in trying to find ways to harness the private sector’s capacity for innovation and contribution to a greener future. This is promising.”
Working hard and devoting himself to creating the more environmentally sound world through teaching young people, consulting companies and writing books, Daniel Esty finds several ways to inspire himself. “My work in the environmental arena has a number of sources of inspiration. I am deeply committed to the idea that we owe our children and grandchildren a better world than the one we inherited. I think this is a core element of the social compact and fundamental to what it means to be an ethical person. I also think there is a great need to translate environmental thinking into terms that the current generation can make sense of, as opposed to relying on the views that were advanced when the environmental movement first got off the ground in the 1960s and 70s.”
”Heroes of Our Time” Launch Party
Published by: Egle Buitvydaite the 11 Dec 2009, 10:54am
GlobalFOCUS team successfully launched “Heroes of Our Time” last Thursday in Copenhagen. The party took place at Karrierebar, where many people from various corners of the world gathered to mark the project’s take off.
Huang Ming, the board chairman of ”Huang Ming Solar Energy Group”, payed a visit to this party and shared enthusiasm and his views on the growing generation with all the guests.
Another heroine, Laura Dzelzyte, delivered a speech and expressed her strong belief that “when you have a dream you also should strive to make it come to fruition.”
The party was really successful and all of the organizers are very grateful for all of you, who came last night to spend time with us and learn more about project.
Andrew Winston
Published by: Egle Buitvydaite the 13 Nov 2009, 6:53pm
Andrew Winston was successfully working in dot-com, when suddenly the company lost its profitability. This influenced Andrew to contemplate life and look for new undiscovered opportunities.
The passionate vegetarian and supporter of the environmentally friendly products, Andrew one day came up with an idea that there must be a way to combine his business training with environment. Following such belief, he decided to earn his Masters degree in Environmental Management. During his studies at Yale, Andrew Winston met his co-author for “Green to Gold” book and they decided to work together and write on how companies succeed, and fail, at green efforts. “I didn’t see how business could continue in the old way or how society would advance without a new industrial revolution” Andrew unfolds his main incentive to become a green business expert.
Today Andrew Winston is also an author of “Green Recover”, the recently released book, and works with Fortune 500 companies to use environmental thinking to innovate and profit. “There are many reasons to go green, including lowering costs, driving innovation, and staying relevant in society. The demands are rising and the benefits of operating in a much leaner way are getting clearer. Those companies that help customers lower their environmental impacts will also profit mightily. I’d just say that if you don’t go down this path, your competitors will!” believes Andrew Winston.
Laura Dzelzyte
Published by: Egle Buitvydaite the 10 Nov 2009, 9:46pm
Lithuanian-born Laura Dzelzyte strongly believes that the time has finally come for the whole humanity to realize the quintessential impact that every single human makes daily on the environment and the future of the planet. “I feel that as a mature society we must look beyond price and quality equilibrium and account for other impacts that to the quality value.” Says Laura and following such approach, in the year of 2006 together with John Higginson, she founded “GreenIndex” organization in the United Kingdom.
“GreenIndex” is based on “eco pricing” initiative, thus aims to unfold two prices of every product: monetary and the one paid by the environment. “GreenIndex” creators generated a scale label from 1 to 100, where one is really ecological sound product and 100 is extremely environmentally unfriendly. The number is devised by looking at various factors of a good’s production, packaging and transportation that have implications on the environment. Laura elaborates that they hope to empower consumers, so that they could choose ecological products by a simple means of green scoring and labeling.
This project has been successful right from the start. “We managed to get an interest from the major players such as “ASDA”, “Allen & Overy” and “KPMG” to help us to kick off. “ Just during the months of the global economic recession the project was ought to slowdown.
Recently, the young lady has been appointed minister’s advisor by Lithuanian Ministry of Environmental. This position gave Laura an opportunity to keep contributing herself to combating global ecological problems, just this time from the very different angle. “As a young person, I feel being privileged to be able to brainstorm strategies for reduction of Lithuania’s green gas emissions for the next 50 years, participate in the negotiations for the global deal on fighting the climate change, think about technologies that might make our living more harmonious with the environment, design financial models to pave the way to sustainable and green economy.”
However, Laura admits that it is really hard to enact harsh, punitive regulations such as environmental taxes blindly without global solidarity. . “Employing regulations at home, you are actually putting your people at competitive disadvantage to others. We must consider methods that are in-line with our economies but pave the way for transformation towards sustainability such as carbon trading.”
Inspired by children and utter beauty of autumn colors in Lithuanian countryside, Laura concludes that she is still very far from reaching all her environmental goals, but she is marking the milestones along the way. “I wish people were better at identifying the value of charitable work. Plus, I would like to remind everyone that we are no longer isolated individuals, but an integral part of the world and nature. I wish people started to account for the consumerist actions, therefore they need to start questioning what impact their apples, cotton socks and cars have to the environment.”
Huang Ming
Published by: Camilla Williamsson the 27 Jun 2009, 4:44pm
Huang Ming was a successful researcher developing oilfields in China when his career took a sudden turn.
One day he realized that his daughter and her whole generation would be brought up in a polluted world with no chance to see clean water, blue sky or white clouds. Huang Ming searched for a solution and with help from what later became his Bible – a book about solar energy – he started making solar water heaters.
Huang Ming started from scratch by giving the solar heaters away for free. Interest started to spread and in 1995 he founded the Himin Solar Energy Group. As a believer in the Chinese way of public education Huang Ming went on a “green tour” around China, showing people how to use the solar heaters, he called this the “Solar Culture Revolution”.
Today, the company has developed into the world’s largest manufacturer of solar water heaters and 200 million Chinese people have enjoyed Himin’s solar energy products.
In order to develop a sustainable solar industry the Himin Group is constructing the “China Solar Valley”. The Valley will among other things consist of a solar production area and an energy saving international conference center, which will be ready in 2010, just in time to host the International Solar Cities Congress.
Huang Ming says, “The only way out of the climate crisis is to initiate a green demand and a green market, which needs to be done by the government, society, industry and new entrepreneurs together. The climate crisis and partially the financial crisis can be solved by investing in solar energy since it creates job opportunities and reduces green house gas emissions.”
Huang Ming also believes that, “with the effort of our entire society the future will be bright”.
Deepa Gupta
Published by: Camilla Williamsson the 27 Jun 2009, 4:22pm
Deepa Gupta is the co-founder of the Indian Youth Climate Network, IYCN, and has been an enthusiastic driving force for climate change for several years.
The network emerged in the summer of 2008, partly due to disappointment over low representation from youth from developing countries during the UN Climate Talks in Bali in 2007. IYCN works to create awareness and to find new solutions for climate change, and they have already managed to unite an amazing 300,000 members.
Deepa Gupta says, “It is not only because of the climate change IYCN has become so popular; the Indian youth are concerned about the condition of the planet and also about the future of their country and themselves. We must describe the climate change as an opportunity for young people to reconsider their ideas about development and to create the future that they want.”
In the spring of 2009, at the Climate Solutions Road Tour, a group of twenty young people went on a five-week electric car trip to raise awareness for climate change. They traveled from Chennai in the south to Delhi in the north, in a caravan of climate-friendly vehicles. One of the main purposes was to show India’s potential to develop green technology.
At the moment, IYCN is preparing for the Climate Talks in Copenhagen in December 2009, where the representation from India will be much better than in Bali.
Deepa Gupta promises, “Even if the new treaty does not become what we are hoping for, we will continue our work. India has everything to gain on shift to a more sustainable way of living and we can affect the world as well. Those we have met during the Climate Solutions Road Tour were both excited and upset because not enough is done by politicians. I really believe that we planted a seed for change in many people’s minds.”
Bill McKibben
Published by: Camilla Williamsson the 25 Jun 2009, 12:27pm
Photo: Nancie Battaglia
The climate entrepreneur Bill McKibben is an American writer, environmentalist and spokesperson for the climate movement 350.org.
To fight global warming, Bill McKibben has organized over 1,400 demonstrations, including a five-day walk across Vermont which became one of the largest demonstrations in American history.
Bill McKibben got inspired to work with climate change twenty years ago when he wrote “the End of Nature”, the first book about climate change for a general audience. While doing research he got sad at how the world he loved was on the brink of irreversible change, and felt he had to do something about it.
What drives Bill McKibben in his continuing work with climate change is, “The stubborn idea that humans would wake up, that our big brains and big hearts would eventually kick in and we would get to work.”
Bill McKibben’s latest project is the international campaign 350.org. The campaign has one simple message – that we have to go below 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. That is the safer upper limit for carbon in our atmosphere according to leading climate scientists. Bill McKibben and his global team have been extremely successful in involving people. It is estimated that more than one million people have participated in their activities worldwide in less than one year.
About the future Bill McKibben says, “I am not hopeful in the ‘everything is going to be okay’ sense. We have waited too long for that, but I am hopeful that we are finally waking up and starting to fight. That is what we see at 350.org, which is exploding into something very large indeed.”
