6.12.2010
Over the weekend the champions worked as volunteers at the World Climate Summit, the business summit on climate issues. A demonstration was held outside when the summit started against the business presence at COP. But I feel that they are as entitled to be here as the other stakeholders. But I don’t like the fact that just because they have bigger resources for lobbying, their voice is heard louder. That is very obvious in Finland, where for example youth are not included in the delegation nor heard before the negotiations and business lobbyist seem to be in charge of Finlands position in the climate negotiations.
Another thing I don’t like was how we volunteers where treated at the summit. I found out that racism still exists. We where told that we may have lunch at the summit. Everyone else did not have a problem with this, but when our darker champions from Indonesia and Bangladesh went to take food, they where told that they shouldn’t eat of the same lunch as the attendants who had payed $1.000 for the summit, or they would have to pay for it too. The issue got sorted out later, but left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Another thing that is unfair is that the Least Developed Countries (LDC) and especially the small island states (AOSIS) don’t have enough resources to send negotiators to the COP. Recently the host country announced that no more than 6 meetings are going to be held at the same time, but there are still delegations with less delegates than that. The UNfairplay initiative is doing what they can to help out. UNfairplay is a group of young people that help underrepresented delegations by for example attending sessions and taking notes for them. They just came out with a report of the unfairness of the negotiations and suggestions of how to improve the situation. You can read the whole report, Levelling the Playing Field – A report to the UNFCCC Secretariat by UNfairplay, here.
On this issue I also have to give a hand to Finland, who finances womens participation from the LDCs in the negotiations.
ps. The Article 6 went through, with all the amendements that YUONGO, the youth constituency, whished for! Lots of news on that in Spanish, but haven’t found a good one yet in english. I’ll keep you posted!
UNfair
One can’t help but to become frustrated here at COP. The slow negotiations is an obvious source of frustration but there is also so much unfairness in the air. The host country, Mexico, is doing a good job at trying to reduce the unfairness of the stakeholoders participation, by having hearings with the stakeholders like businesses, environmental organizations, youth organizations and others that are present at the negotiations and by preparing a review paper of stakeholder participation. Hopefully that helps because right now it feels like our possibility to have an effect on the negotiations are slim to none.Over the weekend the champions worked as volunteers at the World Climate Summit, the business summit on climate issues. A demonstration was held outside when the summit started against the business presence at COP. But I feel that they are as entitled to be here as the other stakeholders. But I don’t like the fact that just because they have bigger resources for lobbying, their voice is heard louder. That is very obvious in Finland, where for example youth are not included in the delegation nor heard before the negotiations and business lobbyist seem to be in charge of Finlands position in the climate negotiations.
Another thing I don’t like was how we volunteers where treated at the summit. I found out that racism still exists. We where told that we may have lunch at the summit. Everyone else did not have a problem with this, but when our darker champions from Indonesia and Bangladesh went to take food, they where told that they shouldn’t eat of the same lunch as the attendants who had payed $1.000 for the summit, or they would have to pay for it too. The issue got sorted out later, but left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Another thing that is unfair is that the Least Developed Countries (LDC) and especially the small island states (AOSIS) don’t have enough resources to send negotiators to the COP. Recently the host country announced that no more than 6 meetings are going to be held at the same time, but there are still delegations with less delegates than that. The UNfairplay initiative is doing what they can to help out. UNfairplay is a group of young people that help underrepresented delegations by for example attending sessions and taking notes for them. They just came out with a report of the unfairness of the negotiations and suggestions of how to improve the situation. You can read the whole report, Levelling the Playing Field – A report to the UNFCCC Secretariat by UNfairplay, here.
On this issue I also have to give a hand to Finland, who finances womens participation from the LDCs in the negotiations.
ps. The Article 6 went through, with all the amendements that YUONGO, the youth constituency, whished for! Lots of news on that in Spanish, but haven’t found a good one yet in english. I’ll keep you posted!
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