It’s been a weird few months, hasn’t it? Recovering from the bruises of Copenhagen, we’ve struggled on here in Australia with an endless (and endlessly frustrating) back and forth on ETSs, CPRSs and WTFs…not many LOLs, though. Even for those who really care, it’s hard to keep engaged with the ever changing plans our political parties come up with every other week to solve the climate crisis. The only thing that remains the same is that everyone keeps talking! But for those struggling with the ‘isms,’ologies and acronyms of Australia’s climate change debate, you can find a serious overview of the Aussie issues here or a slightly more entertaining one  here, and a very  gentle intro to the international scene here.

Former UN human rights commissioner, ex-president of Ireland and all round super woman Mary Robinson was interviewed by the Guardian last week, and told them that she thinks governments were the among the biggest obstacles to achieving climate justice. Mary reckons Copenhagen was one massive dead canary in the coal mine (no pun intended, I’m sure), and that the solution to climate change lies in the hands of “civil society” …and by that you mean who, exactly, Mary?  ”I mean churches, I mean business, I mean trade unions, I mean the environmental groups, development groups, human rights groups, youth groups – as never before we have to build up the pressure.” Preaching to the choir, sister!

Another big problem at the moment is the rise of climate change sceptics. It isn’t just happening here (I’m looking at you Andrew Bolt, Tony Abbott and Miranda Divine!), it’s happening in the UK too. The British equivalent of Penny Wong released an ad campaign based on nursery rhymes that was supposed to remind people of the threats posed by climate change, but there is speculation that there was a counter-campaign by deniers to sabotage it after the British Advertising Standards Authority was inundated with complaints.

The real issue here, however, is just how difficult it is to communicate the seriousness of climate change without sounding like the boy who cried wolf. When you go too hard on the doom-and-gloom-we’re-all-going-to-die angle, it creates paralyzing fear about the impacts of climate change. If you over-hype the threat of climate change’s impacts you ultimately play into the hands of critics, who can then dismiss the message by saying it’s ‘’alarmist’’. It also adds to something called ‘green fatigue’, where people just tune out completely. We face a really similar situation here in Australia, so you all need to put your massive brains to work and think of creative ways to inspire people to act, by getting involved in the AYCC’s Climate Reality Week!

But for those of us who grew up with a 30 second attention span, and even shorter retention rate, we’re still a bit hazy on what the real issue is, how it happened and what to do next. Ok…we could blame it on the smog, but we all know it’s cos of too much Simpsons, MTV and refined sugar – which is why it’s awesome that The Coalition of The Willing have united the best and most creative artists from around the world to animate the climate movement’s history in handy 30 second bite-size pieces. Watch the film at http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk/ .

I’m trying not to panic. I haven’t packed, my ticket is AWOL, and my printer has decided to die in the middle of some very essential documents that I’ll need when I eventually get where I’m supposed to be going. I’m frantically running around trying to solve any or all of these problems when smoke begins to waft from the kitchen.  Just another Thursday night at my place, really, except this Thursday night, I’m supposed to be leaving for four days on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula that I hope will turn me from  ‘’Ciara O’Riordan: disaster zone’’ to ‘’Ciara O’Riordan: kick arse climate activist”.
Roughly an hour after burning my dinner, I take my (very uncomfortable) seat on the overnight train from Sydney to Melbourne. With 12 cold unforgiving hours ahead of me, and the faint taste of a charcoal stir fry lingering in my mouth, I settle in to reflect on what exactly I have got myself in to; 4 days on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula in charge of the cooking and logistics at AYCC’s  inaugural training camp .

I’ve never been an activist before, yet I somehow found myself not only attending but organising a training camp for the most inspiring youth climate leaders in Australia. Me, who could set cornflakes on fire! Me, whose idea of being organised is to be only 10 minutes late, instead of 20! Me, who couldn’t even make it on to the plane without losing her passport the last time she travelled (thankfully found where she had absentmindedly left it in the women’s bathroom)! For the next four days I’m supposed to be the go-to gal for 35 people of all ages from around Australia, coming together to gain the skills to lead the next stage of AYCC’s fight against climate change. I am convinced any one of them would be better qualified than me to fill my role. The chill running over me isn’t just from the blasting air-con – I am beginning to feel very, very worried.

Perhaps noticing my anxious face, the white-haired man next to me introduces himself as Keith and asks where I’m headed. As I unburden myself, his eyebrows climb his forehead with increasing alarm. “Well love,” he says exhaling heavily as I conclude, “I think the question you should be asking yourself is what those 35 kids have got themselves in for.”  Thanks, Keith.

What a difference a day makes. Having arrived at Southern Cross station and meeting the rest of the AYCCers travelling down by public transport, we had settled in at the Bayplay Lodge, unpacked and taken a quick swim at the beautiful beach just 500 metres away. I already feel a world away from the sleep deprived, fretful person on the train.

We sit ourselves in a circle to make introductions. One by one we share our names and something we care about.  Everyone has a different story, but they all share a clear vision of better future and a determination to make it a reality. I decide that honesty is the best policy and tell the group that I haven’t been involved in much activism before, but I joined AYCC because I no longer wanted to feel powerless to have an impact on my world; my hope for the weekend is to come away feeling equipped with the skills to do what activists do best – take action! By the end it’s very clear that there is enough passion, potential and smarts in this little lodge to take on anything, but there is only one BIG ISSUE in our collective sights – climate change.

It is also immediately clear that this is a group of friends, though many of us are meeting face-to-face for the first time. Throughout all the workshops, people encourage and support each other. Laughter is always coming from somewhere, and there are more hugs than Oprah would know what to do with. It’s the best possible environment in which to learn.

The workshops, led by AYCC’s senior members, cover everything from leadership styles, to project management, campaign strategy and personal narrative. Things really get cracking on the third day when we divide into groups to work on AYCC’s projects for the year, including Climate Reality Week and the upcoming federal election. There is practically electricity in the air as people realise that they are integral to the creation, planning and execution of the 2010 strategy for Australia’s largest youth coalition.

Another highlight is 2 hours spent picking the brain of Simon Sheikh, who is National Director of Get Up!, a 300,000 member strong grass-roots community advocacy organisation. His conversation ranges over the domestic political landscape as if he’s a tour guide for a bus load of eager activist-sightseers; to your left you’ll see the divides in the Australian environmental movement, to your right the lobbying power of industry and business. Just ahead of you, a possible Emission Trading Scheme, but mind your step over the double dissolution election just here.

As the camp comes to a close on Monday afternoon, everyone feels excited to throw themselves into the work that lies ahead. When AYCC’s co-founders, Anna, Ellen and Amanda, look around the room one last time they tell us that they too look forward to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with such committed, intelligent and passionate young people in the months ahead. For my part I feel very lucky to be counted among them.

“Given the future growth of green jobs in our economy, an education system grounded in sustainability is critical to the development of engaged and productive citizens,” said AYCC spokesperson Lucy Manne. “Students themselves know this, and we are glad to see this reflected in the draft documents.”

Over 5,000 young Australians have now signed a petition calling for meaningful inclusion of sustainability in their curriculum. The released documents list a “commitment to sustainable living practices” as one of three cross-discipline perspectives, recognising that sustainability must be central to our education system.

With areas of the curriculum still being written, however, it is yet to be seen whether this commitment to sustainability education will be carried through all aspects of the National Curriculum.

It is particularly vital that the Geography curriculum, set to be released in mid-2010, integrates sustainability in a way that allows students to develop the skills and capabilities they will need in this crucial area.

“Students themselves are asking for an education which has a strong focus on sustainability,” commented AYCC co-director Amanda McKenzie. “It is vital the new National Curriculum takes this into account.”

###

For more information or media enquiries please contact:

Lucy Manne

0417 387 516

lucy.manne@youthclimatecoalition.org

After the excitement of the year that was 2009, it was high time for our hard-working volunteers to kick back and relax, and last Sunday that’s exactly what our Melbournians did. At the AYCC Victoria Summer Picnic there were no petitions to sign, no data to enter, and no votes to cast – just good company, spectacular banana bread, and the sounds of Bhangra and Bollywood beats in Melbourne’s beautiful Fitzroy Gardens.

Of course it wouldn’t really be an AYCC event without dancing. And dancing there was. Our attempt at Bollywood dancing was amusing, if not entirely convincing – but a lot of fun, as always.

2010 promises to be an even more productive and exciting year for the AYCC. But while things might get busy, it’s always worth making time to get together to eat cake, bask in the sunshine, and have some fun. And don’t forget your dancing shoes!

Horseshoe Beach, Newcastle: Sunday March 28, 10am onwards

• Join in on the water or the shore
• BYO vessel, or use one of ours
• Or…make your own funky raft!

What’s happening
Hundreds of people will peacefully occupy Newcastle Harbour, and prevent the passage of coal ships. This will be the fifth action of its kind in Newcastle. No one has ever been arrested. At the last, in March 2009, we successfully stopped all ship movements in the harbour for the day.

There’ll be plenty happening on the shore too, so please come along and show your support even if you can’t get out on the water. Good food will be available by donation.

There’ll be a ceremony of home made rafts! Check out the funky floating masterpieces, and enter your own creation!

What about boats?
Bring you’re canoe, kayak, tinnie, surfboard, whatever pleasure craft you like. Don’t have you’re own boat, and don’t fancy yourself a raft-maker? That’s fine. Rising Tide is organising as many kayaks as we can, and making them available for general use. If you have access to a multitude of kayaks, please get in touch!

What about safety?
There will be fast rescue boats, generously provided and operated by Greenpeace. If you get into trouble, someone will save you. We will also have a first aid tent on shore.

Why should we blockade the coal port?
Now, more than ever, we need to be turning up the heat on the coal industry, and their friends in government. The export coal industry is Australia’s single biggest, and fastest growing contribution to the global climate crisis.

Newcastle, already the world’s biggest coal port, is set to open a massive new coal terminal this year, bringing the export capacity of the Hunter Valley coal chain to an incredible 178 million tonnes of coal per annum. That’s the climate change equivalent of 30 Bayswater Power Stations.  Within ten years, the coal corporations plan on exporting more than 300 million tonnes of coal per annum – a tripling of current export capacity.

Tripling coal exports means tripling coal mining. As Newcastle coal exports boom, more precious bushland will be razed, more waterways polluted, more communities ripped apart as the transnational coal companies carve their way westwards into the Liverpool plains. The profits will be exported, but the devastation will stay here in the Hunter. The catastrophic effects of climate change will hurt all around the world.

This madness has to stop. The climate crisis is deepening, and time is fast running out. Politicians are failing to take action against the rampant coal companies, so we have to do it ourselves.

Hundreds of people will be doing just that in Newcastle on 28^th March, and we’d love you to join us. We’ll be taking to the harbour in a big way, occupying the world’s biggest coal port with a mass of people, and demanding:

• an immediate ban on the expansion of the coal industry in Australia,
• a swift phase out of coal, replacing all coal industry jobs with jobs in renewable energy and other sustainable industries.

www.risingtide.org.au

Sydney: Wednesday, February 24 2010, 9-11am

Did the huge volume of media coming out of Copenhagen this week overwhelm you and turn you off? Are you unsure what the final outcomes will ultimately mean? Are you wanting to plan your personal and organisational work for 2010 around the international negotiations but are unsure where the most effective pressure points lie?

To assist you and to build a stronger civil society response post-Copenhagen, the Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) is holding a follow-up public event on February 24 2010 that will feature presentations from CANA member organisations that are currently in Copenhagen.

Unpacking Copenhagen: What happened, what it means, and where we’re headed

• Wednesday, February 24 2010, 9-11am
• Mitchell Theatre, Level 1, Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
• Cost: $30 (incl. GST), including morning tea
• Book online by February 11

This public event features speakers who attended Copenhagen to give first hand analysis of the negotiations and subsequent outcome. Speakers will address the machinations of the two busy weeks in Copenhagen and will dissect the meaning of the agreement that occurred. The aspects of development, political agreements, climate science and scientific impacts will be explored. Then the conversation will broaden into a deeper discussion about the role of the diverse climate movement in influencing the UNFCCC, and the role of grassroots power bases to achieve a safe energy future.

Speakers include: Don Henry (Director, Australian Conservation Foundation), Rev Elenie Poulos (Director, UnitingJustice of the Uniting Church), Dr Georgina Woods (International Coordinator, Climate Action Network Australia), Maria Tiimon (Kiribati national, and officer, Edmund Rice Centre), Will McGoldrick (Economic Policy Advisor, the Climate Institute) and Trish Harrup (Senior climate campaigner, Greenpeace Australia Pacific).

The mood in Oskenhallen was sombre. Small groups of climate advocates were conferring around tables, talking quietly and seriously about next steps post-UN Climate negotiations, and working hard to frame the debate back in their home countries. The sense of activity and purpose and expectations of the past few days had drifted away in a blur of confusion, disappointment, anger, outrage, disbelief, sadness and sleep deprivation. Most of our team had been up all night – either at the snap action held outside the conference centre as soon as news of Obama’s “accord” was released, or doing domestic media interviews and writing opinion editorials for Australia.

At 4pm the 21 members of our core team came together. Slowly, each person reflected on what the past 2 weeks had meant, and expressed their reactions to the outcome.

I looked at our team and smiled. What an amazing group – comprising an up-and-coming comedian from Adelaide, a scientist-turned-activist from Mildura, a young Labor party member (“I might have to re-think my membership of the ALP after this,” she said), two inspiring young Aboriginal leaders who played an influential role in getting Indigenous rights recognised in the draft negotiating text, a PhD student studying emissions trading, two film-makers, a high school student from rural Victoria who fought the Black Saturday bushfires, an economist, a musician and many more. Despite the fact that everyone in our team is under 27, together we have a wealth of experience in policy, advocacy, media, public speaking, online campaigning, logistics and project management.

It’s truly an amazing team – complemented by our “base team” back on the ground in Australia, who are just as wonderful and did an incredible job organising actions, vigils, and the domestic pressure we needed for us to be a credible and effective voice over here. To give you an example – over 2,000 of our members back home wrote letters of support to Pacific Island negotiators in under 12 hours. These were delivered along with home-baked brownies by our Project Survival Pacific team in the Conference Centre to exhausted AOSIS negotiators who’d been under immense pressure from Australia and other nations to back down from their strong stance supporting a deal based on 350 parts per million.

As we went around the circle in our team meeting, people cried, laughed, and shared stories that were truly special and moving. After spending just 2 weeks together, our group felt as close as family. I felt a sense of determination sweeping through us. Although Copenhagen did not achieve what we needed it to, we knew we wouldn’t give up. Our leaders aren’t done yet – so neither are we. We are all aware that the type of deep change we seek has always required great struggle and great sacrifice. Our movement has grown, in size and depth, and determination.

Sitting in on our meeting was Hannah Mia, a young Swedish climate activist with one of the most heart-warming smiles I’ve ever seen. After listening to us talk, she said that the Swedish youth delegation was back at her hostel, sad and depressed – but that our determination and energy had given her hope to keep going. In this movement, we inspire each other, we support each other, and we keep each other strong. I didn’t go into our meeting with a false sense of positivity, some kind of idea that I had to “stay positive for the team” like I have seen leaders do at times. I went in with an open heart and honesty.

Beyond exhaustion, beyond anger, beyond sadness and disbelief, beyond sleep deprivation and exhaustion and working so hard for so long, what is left? Hope – still hope, always hope, and the knowledge that in many respects, our movement has only just begun.

What’s left is the understanding that this was never going to be easy and that we will have to work harder to get the outcomes the planet needs, even though the urgency of the problem presses down on us every day. What’s left is a resolve that we can accept small steps, but not steps backwards.

This is why the fact that Obama’s weak “accord” was only “noted”, not “adopted” by the UNFCCC plenary, is important. It means the UN Climate negotiations will continue. What’s left is the fact that despite huge pressure, many countries stood up for their survival and refused to endorse through the UN process a non-legally binding document that “recognises” that science saying we should limit global warming to 2 degrees but which would probably ensure a 3 degree or even higher temperature rise.

It’s Monday morning, and Copenhagen’s over. Monday morning, to many people in the world, means we wake up and get back to work.

Many will need – and deserve – a break to recover from the emotional and physical burnout that Copenhagen induced in our movement. I am in London, a city I’ve never been to before, but I won’t be doing any sight-seeing until I process what has happened the past 2 weeks, regroup, and clear some space in my head to prepare for the strategising that needs to be done as we plan for 2010.

In some respect, knowing what our next steps are domestically is easy. It’s an election year in Australia, and we need to make climate change the number one issue for Australians as they case their votes. We need to challenge all our politicians – local, state and federal – to commit to stronger climate change action. We need to counter the destructive force of Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce, Martin Ferguson and Co. in confusing the debate on climate change in Australia. We need to make these kinds of politicians political liabilities for their parties. We need to enrol more young people to vote! And we need to involve more people in our movement, be more strategic, more inclusive and continue to build alliances with non-traditional allies.

But first, we need to allow ourselves to feel. Without feeling, our movement can never win. Because we are up against forces bigger than ourselves – big coal, big oil, and their lobby groups with money to burn – but we are fighting from  our hearts as well as our heads. This means we have to be able to mourn about what happened in Copenhagen. It was the world’s best chance to solve climate change, if countries had looked to their long-term interests and agreed on a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to reduce emissions. They didn’t do it, and it’s ok to be full of sadness about it. As long as we don’t give up.

I have two mottos, as all my friends know. The first one is, “Those who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those already doing it” and the second is, “We have to do the impossible to avoid the unimaginable.” I say them over and over, in almost every speech I do and to all the young people I meet who are new to the movement. Both of these mottos are timely and today I think perhaps I should get one tattooed on my body, like my friend Anna Keenan who tattooed ‘Climate Justice’ on the back of her neck.

I’ve received a few passionate emails over the past week, full of emotion, from young climate advocates around the world. From my friends. This is what keeps me going when I feel it gets too hard. These people and their passion move me to tears, and allow me to re-connect with the core thing inside myself that makes me do the work I do – my sense of justice, and my determination that is motivated by love for this beautiful planet and the people who live here.

If you’re reading this – thank you! And I look forward to working with you this year for a safe climate future. What’s left after Copenhagen is us – a stronger movement, a new year about to begin, another chance for us to make the world a better place.

“Given where we started and the expectations for this conference, anything less than a legally binding and agreed outcome falls far short of the mark.”
- John Ashe, Chair of Kyoto Protocol talks.

THIS is it? After two years of negotiations since the Bali Roadmap, 4 countries – the US, China, India and South Africa, have presented an “accord” that delays real action on climate change.

There are 192 countries here at the negotiations. All of their survival – and all of ours – depends on the world’s response to climate change.

Today, humanity, all species, all nations and all peoples’ survival hung in the balance as negotiators bargained over targets, finance, ambition and ultimately, moral questions about what kind of world we will live in in 2050.

But tonight, 4 countries seemed to forget all that, and instead reach for the familiar frames of short term-ism when they reached a private deal, outside of the UN process, that doesn’t meet even the weakest of expectations going into Copenhagen two weeks ago. This deal is not based on climate change science and is not legally binding.

The proposed accord is an abject failure to grapple with the biggest issue that humanity has ever faced as one global community. It gives a nod to an inadequate target to reduce emissions when it says it “recognises” the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more than 2C – but it does not contain commitments to emissions reductions to achieve that goal. It sets a target for the world to have reduced emissions 50% by 2020, but does not have any short-term or 2020 targets. This is despite the fact that we now know global emissions must peak by 2012 at the latest and then decline if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

It’s almost 4am here and the countries have finally gone into plenary after regional meetings, but Tuvalu, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Cuba, Equador, Bolivia and Venezuala have all spoken out against it – so no-one knows whether the proposal will be agreed to and it is certain that the draft will be changed before the night is up.

Kevin Rudd has said this is a “step forward” – but in essence it’s just a deal to delay the real deal we need, and in that sense it’s a step backwards. It ignores recent climate change science, which says we need to stabilise emissions at 350 parts per million, or 1.5 degrees of warming, if we are to avoid runaway climate change. It is not legally binding. It undermines the UN process. It is deeply, heartbreakingly disappointing.

Our leaders need to step up. Hundreds of young people are holding a peaceful protest outside the Conference Centre in below zero temperatures (and don’t forget, it’s the middle of the night). After two years of negotiations from the Bali roadmap to now, and with 120 world leaders in Copenhagen, this is unacceptable. They need to do better. It’s not too late – it’s never too late.

We know that Kevin Rudd was one of the 25 countries who was consulted on, and lent support to, the deal. Tony Abbott has already come out with his predictable lines, to hide the fact he doesn’t have a climate policy of his own. The Government needed to do a lot more here. Rudd has STILL not put his final targets on the table here.

Our message? Not done yet. Our leaders are not done yet on getting a real climate deal – and our movement is not done yet either. We will not give up until we get a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty. Keep pushing… we have unfinished climate business here.

The accord has been designed to save face for world leaders, not to save the planet.

It aims to limit warming to two degrees. But at two degrees many developing nations, including Australia’s Pacific neighbours, will still go under water.  Moreover, just how warming will be limited to even two degrees has also remained unaccounted for.

Reflecting a stunning lack of transparency, the accord merely places X in the text in the place of actual 2020 emission reduction targets. This is despite the fact that the science demands emissions to peak by 2015 and rapidly fall thereafter to prevent dangerous and irreversible climate change.

The deal’s lack of adequate ambition was accepted by Obama himself when he said: “We know the targets will not by themselves get us where we need to be by 2050 but it’s a first step. The science dictates that even more needs to be done.”

In his press conference, President Obama said that he thought it was important to stand in the shoes of all parties – developed and developing countries.  Yet this statement stands in stark contrast to the Obama’s actions in formulating a private deal with just four countries.

This accord is a step backwards, because it is not legally binding, it does not reflect climate change science, and it undermines the UN process. We need our leaders to step up, not step backwards.

Perhaps it’s because today I finally got more than a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, or perhaps it’s the sense of hope that was infused into the air at the vigil that civil society held tonight as we sat with candles and listened to strong young leaders from the climate movement around the world speak words more powerful and with more emotion than I could ever hope to represent in writing. Mostly it’s too hard to find the words to describe how I feel about climate change. This is even more so here in Copenhagen. Yesterday at a talk by George Monbiot he pointed out that climate change is too benign to describe what’s happening to the world… it’s like describing an invasion as “unexpected visitors”.

To be young and alive today is to witness our Earth breaking and see our “leaders” demonstrate a spectacular failure of leadership. As Alex Steffen wrote, “to be young and aware today is to see your elders as cannibals with golf clubs”. I’m not sure why, but the despair many of us felt of yesterday – when we were locked out of the Bella Centre, when police beat and tear-gassed peaceful protesters in the snow, when the talks were collapsing and world leaders like Obama were rumoured to not be coming any more – has lifted, from me at least.

Tonight I just have a quiet sense of clarity and purpose, sitting here with a thousand others in a warehouse working on planning tomorrow’s actions, writing blogs like this one, articles for our local newspapers, and co-ordinating with our wonderful team on the ground home in Australia, who are as we speak holding vigils and 24 hour fasts in solidarity with those around the world suffering from climate change. I have been fasting today, only for 24 hours, but in the company of thousands of others around the world who are doing the same thing including Vandana Shiva, Mary Robinson, Blue King Brown and Cate Blanchett. Fasting allows us a chance to reflect and is also a way of demonstrating our deep commitment to climate justice – telling the world that we will do whatever it takes to solve climate change.

Today’s global fast was inspired by the Climate Justice Fast – which began with several young Australians including Paul Connor and Anna Keenan. They are now on the 42nd day of their fast. The past 24 hours, despite the flurry of activity – making banners, doing a lot of media interviews, getting across today’s policy issues and helping delegates still inside with their lobbying efforts – I have had the chance to reflect on where we’ve come as a movement since I first got involved in the environmental movement when I was 14.

Back then, climate change was not on the agenda at all, and our struggles were local. My first campaign – to protect a place near where I lived from sand mining, and have it declared a protected area managed by the Traditional Owners – was typical of the campaigns back in 1990s. In around 2003, when I was at University, climate change finally became a big issue for the Australian environmental movement, thanks to the dedication of the first climate activists I knew, many of whom would later go on to form Rising Tide Newcastle. They had a hard time convincing the student movement – which at the time was focused firmly on saving forests and stopping uranium mining – that climate change was worth our time. But they were successful, and many of us haven’t stopped working on climate change since then.

At first the issue seemed too big, too intangible, and so we focused our efforts on education and reducing the greenhouse emissions of our own campuses. Hence, the campus clean energy movement was born, and would form the basis of the initial growth of the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN), which continues to do some of the most cutting-edge work on climate justice and fighting the coal industry in Australia today.

Finally, because of the hard work of these “early adopters”, climate change became an urgent and mainstream issue for society as a whole. Groups like the Australian Youth Climate Coalition had the perfect environment to flourish, with our message that climate change was not an “environmental” issue, but simply one of survival – for our generation and those to come. AYCC will turn three this February 5th, World Kyoto Day, and in the past 12 months alone our membership has grown 1000% – from 5,000 to 50,000 young people. In addition, all the major youth organisations in Australia have put their weight behind AYCC, leading to an unprecedented youth alliance and the strongest movement in Australia since our parents’ anti-Vietnam days.

Since 2005, since the climate has been rapidly destabilising, the climate movement has been slowly globalising. This has culminated in Copenhagen this year. 160 youth attended from the Global South, as well as many more civil society groups from Africa, South America, Asia, and all over the world. We are reaching understanding as our movement matures, that climate change is an issue of justice. There is a huge climate debt that industrialised nations like Australia owe the Global South. And yes, the issue of debt is scary, and people don’t like debt – but we have to face reality and be clear that climate change is deeply, deeply unfair. How can we even call this Conference of the Parties a “negotiation” when over 112 countries here have endorsed a global deal based on reducing then stabilising emissions at 350 ppm and limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, and the small remainder of nations who oppose this can decide on an outcome that will mean many of the most vulnerable nations here will literally cease to exist. It’s hard to find language strong enough to talk about this; to write about this. The President of the Maldives said, “We will not sign a global suicide pact”. Granada described the failure to reach a deal to cut emissions to safe levels as an act of “benign genocide” – because it would be a deliberate act that commits whole cultures, ethnic and national groups to extinction.

What does it mean when our Prime Minister, and our Leader of the Opposition, decide to push courses of action that condemn millions of people to death? What kind of humanity do we have left when our leaders can get away with this? At the moment we’re tossing up the three words we want to reflect our key message when this is all over. It’s just speculation at this point, because anything could happen in the next 72 hours (negotiations have been extended to Monday), especially now that people are feeling like the negotiations have turned around. But we’re thinking of things like “350: Not Done Yet” or “We’re Still Here”.

Because no matter what happens inside the Bella Centre in the next few days, we still have so much work to do. Some kind of deal will be reached; that’s almost certain. But it’s unlikely to be the deal that meets the needs of the climate, and of the world’s most vulnerable people.

There’s still a chance; and we can’t give up. Earlier this year, world leaders found the political will to mobilise trillions of dollars to bail out the banks and their bonuses. They have 72 hours left here and they must find the same kind of political will to reach a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal. There are 120 world leaders either here in Copenhagen now, or on their way – this is still our best chance to get the kind of global deal we need that will put us on the right path to solving climate collapse. Most of civil society has been locked out of the Bella Centre, and for a few hours there it meant we were lost about how we could continue being effective. But then we came together – in the place where we are now, in a giant warehouse hall called Oskenhallen, for a vigil that centred all of us.

My thoughts now? People will say it’s impossible for Copenhagen to succeed at this late hour; but as always my response is the same – we must do what seems impossible to avoid the unimaginable. Our survival is not negotiable, and it is unacceptable to fail to reach a strong deal here. Hopefully the major blocking nations at the moment – the US, Canada and Japan (and sometimes the EU) will have a change of heart soon, helped by the huge pressure being brought to bear by global civil society. Avaaz’s global climate treaty petition is up to over 12 million people now. More updates soon…