In a few weeks time the AYCC will be heading to the UNFCCC’s COP16 in Mexico. If you aren’t fluent in the peculiar language spoken chiefly by policy buffs known as acronymese, this roughly translates to this year’s United Nations summit on climate change. The last one, as you might remember, took place in Copenhagen.
Perhaps having inferred a causal relationship between the outcome of Copenhagen and the Scandinavian winter, the UN has decided to hold the next summit in the sunny beachside resort town of Cancun, Mexico. Lonely Planet somewhat cryptically tells me that Cancun is a city that ‘just won’t give up.’ Exactly how a city would go about giving up, and what exactly it would be giving up on, is unclear. But it nonetheless seems a fitting description for the town that for twelve long days will become the focus of the international effort to address climate change.
Copenhagen was a huge disappointment to the international climate movement. Over 100 nations stood committed to stabilising greenhouse gases at 350ppm. On the Saturday marking the midway point of the conference, the AYCC peacefully marched with 100,000 people through icy streets calling for climate action. The world was ready for a fair, ambitious and binding agreement to prevent catastrophic climate change. But as is too often the case, the resistance of a powerful few undermined the willingness of a less powerful majority.
Hear our message to world leaders after Copenhagen!
The resulting disillusionment in the UN process as a means of dealing with the climate crisis is hardly surprising. But there are many good reasons why we should take a leaf out of Cancun’s book and not give up on the international process.
For starters, the world’s governments will be there whether we think its worth their while or not. With 194 UNFCCC members, all with an equal vote, the UN remains the most inclusive and democratic global mechanism we have to fight climate change. Where else can a tiny island nation of Tuvalu make a stand against the most powerful nations on earth? If you think it’s hard to do at the UN, then you’d be right. But at the G20 it’s an impossibility.
But even more important will be what happens outside the rooms holding the official negotiations. No, I don’t mean Greg Combet and Ban Ki-moon sipping margaritas by a pool. I’m talking about the International Youth Climate Movement – the hundreds of young people who are set to descend on Cancun alongside the government and business delegates.
In the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing you to our twelve Australian and four Pacific Island youth delegates. To keep up to date on all the latest from the conference, you can sign up to our Mex Watch list.
While the international process seems to be floundering, the International Youth Climate Movement is taking off. With groups like AYCC sprouting all over the globe – from Greece to Ghana, and Canada to China – Cancun will be a chance to come together and unify a diverse and dynamic movement.
There are lots of reasons why a truly representative and cohesive global youth movement is needed to fight climate change. Paradoxically, the less we want to rely on the UN process, the more vital a global youth climate movement becomes. The more decentralised the process, the more we need to support and strengthen the work of national youth movements. And we need to use moments like Cancun to tie together the threads, to construct a global web of national action that pulls the world in the right direction.
– Lucy Manne is an Arts student and the AYCC’s Media Director.
