Young and Future Generations Day

Some of us headed in early today to participate in an action in honor of Young and Future Generations Day.  After dressing in bright blue t-shirts (I ended up with a Large one, which I wore for the whole day :) we lined up along the walkway in Cancun Messe where anyone passes who is going to Moon Palace (all of the official delegates except those staying in Moon Palace).  We stood in silence for an hour, alternating whether we faced to or away from the crowd, so that the back of our shirt was obvious; it quotes Christina Ora from the Solomon Islands during an intervention (a pre-approved speech given at a UN meeting by a non-official delegate) she gave at COP15:  "You have been negotiating all my life, you can not tell me you need more time."  This statement applies to most of the over-one thousand youth here at cop16.

I then sat in on the spokescouncil meeting which was once again frustratingly focused on translation issues (whether or not to conduct the meetings in Spanish with an English translation, or in English with a Spanish translation).  Next I slipped out to go to a side event held by the European Union about the feasibility of the EU have zero carbon emissions by 2050, which was encouraging because everyone on the panel claimed that it would not only be possible, but economically beneficial.

Next, I attended the "USA, Canadian, and South Asian youth climate perspectives, local solutions and global actions" which included a speaker from my delegation, Abigail Borah, who spoke about a story of youth climate action in Vermont.  Along with a group of college students she rallied youth to vote for clean energy, successfully increasing the portion of youth who voted, and electing a governor who was willing to close Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and replace it with renewables (wind and solar).

The second Young and Future Generations Day action was a "Youth Market:  selling cultural heritage goods."  It was an extremely sarcastic demonstration at which youth were animatedly trying to "sell" items such as clean air, the cooke islands, endangered species, coral reefs, etc.  The youth doing the action were loud enough to attract many people with cameras and video cameras.

Randomly informed that an event titled "Intergenerational Inquiry" was being eld by the Secretariat, I made it in time and was very grateful that I did.  Executive Secretary Christiana Figuerez spoke to us again, and was close to tears as she encouraged us to never give up on our ambitions for an appropriate climate treaty.  She also agreed with us that zero carbon emissions is the ultimate goal, which is actually quite a progressive concept considering that it has not yet been mentioned in the negotiations.


I then took the shuttle over to the Moon Palace.  There were furry animals with curly striped tails in the lawns; it looked suspiciously like they had been intentionally placed there.  So I sat in on a UN meeting about clean development mechanisms for about half an hour, until I found out about a YOUNGO working group meeting back at Cancun Messe about zero emissions targets.  I am happy to have a new aim, I am going to research cities emissions descent plans in the US.