History will judge you

by Lauren Nutter

The final day of Bangkok is now wrapping up.  It’s only morning here and now youth are sitting in the plenary for the Ad-hoc working group on the Kyoto Protocol.  It’s a bittersweet end to the talks… I want to be hopeful but I fail to muster much hope.  Really I guess my hope lies outside of these processes; it lies in knowing that youth all over the world, despite this pitiful display by our leaders, are taking leadership themselves.  We are not settling on the dimsal prospect– no we are rallying to continue our local work to fight climate change and support each other because it is afterall OUR future.  Below is the youth intervention for the KP session today, and more reflections to come later.

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My name is Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and I hope to be 64 In the year 2050.

Earlier this week, we declared “no confidence” on the road to Copenhagen.

The process has been hijacked by carbon cowboys looking to profit from this crisis; our future is being held hostage to the self-interested dirty delaying tactics of Annex 1 countries.

We have seen the arrogant betrayal of the Bali Action Plan, with the perverse idea that developing countries should or can somehow act first.

History will judge you.

We witness the US deliberately undermine the negotiations by introducing language to merge the Kyoto Protocol and convention processes, tearing out compliance and top-down target setting.

Other Annex 1 countries hide behind the US to avoid their responsibilities; setting disgracefully low targets; with deceptive offset measures that amount to no real emissions cuts at all.

We will not accept a dirty deal.

Our stand is clear. Let Norway’s commitment of 40% on 1990 levels by 2020 be the minimum benchmark for real emission cuts, but with no offsets, Indigenous rights based language secured before any discussion of REDD, recognition of climate debt, and targets of 350 ppm and 1.5 degrees Celsius.

History will judge you.

While governments are cautiously calculating their commitments based on what they believe is possible, the youth respectfully remind them that throughout history, political forces can shift rapidly when people rally together for change.

As one of the youngest people in this room, I will have to spend my life with the decisions you make today. We have an opportunity to make some of the most profound and positive changes in the history of mankind. Lets start acting like it.

Young people around the world are doing just that, organizing in our communities locally, nationally, and internationally, and we find our hope for the future in our movements.

We ask, will you join us? It is not too late to do your part.

The youth are leading..please follow.

History will judge this.