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AoC Blog
What We Got From Copenhagen: A Growing Global Youth Climate Movement
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 03 January 2010 05:00
- Last Updated on Sunday, 03 January 2010 05:00
- Written by Kyle
Now that the excitement around Copenhagen has died down a little, and we’ve had more than two weeks to sift through the countless analyses and debates about what we did or didn’t get out of the negotiations or the much-discussed Copenhagen Accord, there’s one thing we assuredly did succeed in making – a more diverse, powerful, and interconnected global movement of young people working to create a clean energy future.
In Copenhagen, more than 1,000 youth from over 100 countries participated in the climate negotiations. That’s to say nothing of the many more who were active in the streets of Copenhagen at the same time. Inside the negotiations, youth were celebrating a level of interest and participation in the negotiations never before seen – from only a handful of youth in the early years of the debates, to a rapid rise beginning in 2005 at the Montreal meeting. In recognition of this massive growth in youth involvement (a growth Brighter Planet users helped support by funding part of our Agents of Change delegation of U.S. youth), youth were for the first time recognized as a formal constituency in the international climate policy process, and were successful in securing significant funding from the Netherlands government.
This new status and funding helped us to achieve some incredible things. We were able to bring over 50 youth from Global South countries to the negotiations, youth who would have never had the chance to represent the young people in their society otherwise. This was in addition to the efforts of groups like SustainUS, who also raised money for new youth to come. SustainUS helped to raise money for Latin American youth to participate in Copenhagen. International youth helped to fund several pre-Copenhagen training sessions to mobilize youth around the world who couldn’t make it to Copenhagen. U.S. youth, for example, generated thousands of calls to their Senators, Representatives, the State Department, and the White House, and SustainUS delegates were featured in almost 100 media stories in the U.S., helping to motivate their campuses and communities for strong climate action. Youth from many countries were similarly successful in motivating their hometowns.
Most excitingly, the global youth climate movement has now become a permanent organization, working to mobilize youth year-round. With the election of two “Focal Points” – official liaisons to the United Nations, the creation of a core team of youth representatives from many countries (including three from SustainUS), the hiring of talented youth to help build our movement full-time, and even more interest from funders in supporting our success, international youth now have a solid platform to build toward stronger climate action over the next year, leading up to the next major negotiations in December 2010 in Mexico City.
Building a movement is not a climate success story in itself, most would argue, and international youth agree that the partnerships we’ve made and friendships we’ve formed are not our ultimate goal. Still, surrounded by so many of our global youth allies, it’s hard not to feel optimistic for our future and our generation, if only we can keep the momentum we’ve built in such a short time.
SustainUS hosts the website for the global youth climate movement. Learn more at: www.youthclimate.org
