Я пишу это в конце августа, по окончании очередной сессии переговоров ООН по климату в Бонне. Предшествующие переговорам полтора месяца я проработал в молодёжном активистском центре в Берлине, вместе с 20 молодыми людьми из Avaaz.org и 350.orgиз 15 различных стран мира.
Сегодня 100 дней отделяют нас от самого масштабного и важного политического события в истории человечества. Масштабнее, чем Саммит Земли в Рио-де-Жанейро, прошедший в 1992 году, и, возможно, важнее, чем Ялтинская конференция в 1945. Это событие станет для человечества экзаменом на готовность оставить свои недальновидность, эгоизм, национализм и алчность в прошлом, и объединиться — впервые в истории — всем вместе для предотвращения глобальной катастрофы и построить более счастливый и устойчивый мир. Эта встреча, конечно же — Конференция Организации Объединённых Наций по изменению климата, также известная как Конференция Сторон (к Рамочной конвенции ООН об изменении климата, РКИК), или просто КС-15 (по-английски COP-15) — сокращение, которое часто используют политики, активисты и учёные из различных стран мира: www.cop15.dk
Эта встреча будет проходить с 7-го по 18-е декабря в столице Дании Копенгагене. Эти переговоры так важны, потому что страны мира должны разработать новый климатический режим — международное соглашение о совместных политических мерах по предотвращению изменения климата. Это соглашение должно вступить в силу после окончания первого периода осуществления Киотского протокола в конце 2012 года.
Переговорный процесс полон недостатков и часто вызывает расстройство. В Познани и Бонне я был свидетелем того, как богатые страны отказываются брать на себя конкретные и необходимые обязательства, в то время как бедные страны, неоднократно преданные богатыми в прошлом, отказываются делать какие-либо шаги первыми. Это настоящий тупик, наблюдать его очень больно. Мое сердце разрывалось, когда я видел как мои друзья-активисты плакали в открытую на этих переговорах. Признаюсь, что я и сам иногда не мог сдержать слёз. Этот опыт породил во мне желание привезти сотню (а лучше тысячу) молодых активистов на эти переговоры, чтобы прокричать переговорщикам в лицо: «Перестаньте играть в рулетку с нашим будущим!». Поэтому в этом году я основал компанию Wake-Up Call, которая занимается организацией тренингов для молодежи, распространением информации о политических переговорах по климату и готовит активных и эффективно действующих молодёжных делегатов, которые примут участие в КС-15 в Копенгагене в декабре.
Но проблемы климатических переговоров ООН намного глубже. Брошюра “Provocation from Tällberg Foundation” обобщает их следующим образом: текущие переговоры не принимают во внимание более широких угроз экосистемам Земли со стороны быстро меняющегося климата; они также не принимают во внимание самых последних научных данных и понимания механизмов так называемых «переломных пунктов»; этическому аспекту практически нет места на переговорах ООН, зато в избытке присутствуют цинизм и Realpolitik; и, наконец, нет адекватной системы глобального управления, которая гарантировала бы успешное осуществление нового климатического договора.
Мохаммед Нашид, первый в истории Мальдивских островов демократически избранный президент, так высказался по этому поводу:
«Копенгаген войдёт в историю как одна из следующих двух вех … либо как историческое соглашение, в рамках которого мир объединится для противостояния климатической угрозе … или же Копенгаген станет самоубийственным приговором человечеству».
Воистину так. Копенгаген — это действительно перекрёсток путей развития человеческой цивилизации. Какой путь выберут наши политические деятели через сто дней? Станет ли он началом столетия невобразимых страданий? Станем ли мы свидетелями того, как тысячи биологических видов будут вымирать с беспрецедентной скоростью и волны климатических беженцев захватят врасплох наши социальные и экономические системы, в то время как волны морские смоют с лица Земли целые народы и страны? Или же это будет зрелое, ответственное и солидарное действие, в котором человечество примет на себя роль заботливого и сострадательного попечителя — всем биологическим видам, экосистемам и нашим сёстрам и братьям по всему миру?
Я могу ответить на этот вопрос прямо сейчас. Если бы копенгагенская встреча проходила сегодня или завтра, мы были бы обречены. Умы политиков слишком далеки от понимания того, что должно быть предпринято — в ближайшие 5—7 лет — для спасения планеты от климатического хаоса. Они отвергают это, они запутались, ослепли, не готовы. Они пытаются вести переговоры друг с другом, но они не осознают того простого факта, что законы физики и химии не способны идти на компромиссы. И у них нет права торговать нашим правом на выживание. Потому что «выживание — не предмет для переговоров», как напоминает нам свежая песня молодого шведского зелёного активиста Эммы Лильестам. Эту песню Эмма написала после того, как побывала на переговорах ООН по изменению климата в Познани.
Есть и хорошие новости. Они заключается в том, что у нас есть ещё время. У нас есть ещё сто дней для того, чтобы попытаться помочь нашим политическим лидерам прийти в себя и принять срочные меры, которые вернут нас обратно к безопасному уровню CO2 в атмосфере, ниже 350 частиц на миллион (мы уже достигли 390 чнм и, возможно, переберёмся через 400 чнм в ближайшие лет пять).
24-го октября выше упомянутый Мохаммед Нашид поведёт 349 других граждан Мальдивских островов в полном снаряжении для подводного плавания на проведение символической акции на дне океана. В тот же вечер в другой точке земного шара триста пятьдесят танцующих пар будут кружиться в центре Амстердама, скандируя: «Нам необходимо триста пятьдесят!». Ещё западнее на планете тысячи велосипедистов будут колесить по улицам Сан-Франциско, образуя гигантскую форму числа 350, которую зафиксируют геостационарные спутники GPS на орбите. Альпинисты возведут флаги с числом 350 в Альпах и Гималаях и 350 порций вегетарьянской паэльи будут приготовлены в солнечных печах в Барселоне. Успеем ли подготовить подобные яркие мероприятия в России, Украине, Грузии, Армении, Литве, Казахстане? У меня пока нет ответа… Но время неумолимо тикает — и я надеюсь на всех вас, на вашу креативность и ваши организационные способности, чтобы мы вместе обнаружили этот ответ 24-го октября.
И это — самые лучшие лучшие новости для нас. Нам понадобится вся наша позитивная энергия и энтузиазм, чтобы подготовить так много мероприятий на 24-е октября на всём постсоветском пространстве, сколько мы только сможем. Даже самая маленькая акция в самой отдалённой деревеньке может сделать огромный вклад! В этот день вы и ваши друзья вместе смогут изменить ход истории. Сколько раз в жизни у вас был подобный шанс? Я считаю, что каждому поколению он выпадает лишь однажды.
Attending Roskilde Music Festival is a very rewarding experience for a Fairtrade ambassador like myself: the organisers took great care to provide as many Fairtrade-certified food&drinks products as possible: there's only Fairtrade-certified orange juice, chocolate bars, fruit smoothies, red and white wine, coffee and tea that are being officialy sold here at Roskilde Festival. You can see the Fairtrade logo everywhere - on bottles and cups and cartons! (One thing that I personally miss here is a Fairtrade cola drink - which doesn't seem to have arrived to Denmark yet).
Even this year humanitarian fundraising effort is focused on Fairtrade. It's called "Fair Phone - Fair Future" and it's about pushing consumer demand for a fairer trade terms for cobalt that's being mined in Democratic Republic of Congo. I think this is a great idea - but I was very surprised when I first heard about it here at the festival. I mean, there's no FLO certification of mineral resources so far, neither there're highly technological Fairtrade-certified products like phones or computers. I've been constantly wondering if this campaign aims to "fix" just the trade terms in favour of the people of DR Congo, without actually labelling the outcome of a "fairer" cobalt shipments as "Fairtrade", or if it would also try to adopt new rules for FLO certification to include mineral resources such a cobalt; or if it will develop its own "fair trade" label for mobile phones and maybe computers? I wonder whom shall I ask all these questions...
…это больше не 42, как утверждает «Автостопом по галактике». 350 намного важнее и актуальнее для нашей планеты сегодня. Почему? Узнайте на www.350.org (на русском!).
So, I'm in Stockholm now! The reason is that I was selected a participant in a big and exciting project, ‘Challenge Europe’, focused on the European youth and climate change. Why? Well, you guess it: I'm very passionate about climate change.
I see my participation in this project as a precious opportunity to accomplish my life's highest goal: to contribute to helping human world come into harmony with the world of nature, by becoming careful and compassionate stewards for all ecosystems on the planet, including the human society itself. I hope that together in ‘Challenge Europe’ we will agree on solutions that will facilitate this vision. I'm convinced that the challenge that lies ahead of us is not about technology only, not only about money. The issue of climate change is systemic and all-encompassing. At the same time, there’s lack of ethics in the current debate and lack of political action. That’s why the solutions should be accordingly structural and system-wide, taking ethical dimension into account and building up public support for radical change of policies through political means. And so, to facilitate solutions that we are going to choose, we should stop talking only among ourselves and start talking to the rest of society. This is what I hope 'Challenge Europe' will be about. Because if we fail in communicating the necessary changes to the public and to politicians, fail to penetrate and influence mainstream institutions, we might lose a unique opportunity to save this planet as we know it.
I believe that climate change should be approached from a holistic perspective. We shouldn't strive to reduce carbon emissions at all costs: at the cost of biodiversity, at the cost of planet's ecosystems, at the cost of healthcare or human well-being and happiness in general. Quite the opposite: we can see the threat of climate disruption as a great chance to fix many things that are wrong with our society! Things that have been causing and aggravating many of the societal and environmental problems until now. Climate change comes at the cross-section of issues like indigenous people’s and women's rights, peace and conflict, global justice and intergenerational solidarity, starvation and water scarcity, energy poverty and many others. Let us not forget about these issues while we are trying to solve climate change. This urgent challenge should become our great opportunity to hurry up the transition towards a sustainable harmonic world.
for all you coca-/pepsi-/whatever-cola addicts (like myself) out there – now you can satisfy your thirst in a more sustainable way, without giving up your cola addiction! A new Fairtrade-certified cola drink named UBUNTU Cola® is now available for purchase in all Pressbyrån shops across the country. When you buy that particular drink you ensure that sugar cane growers in Malawi and Zambia receive their fair share of profits that help improve their working and living conditions, while ensuring that their agricultural practices don't harm the natural environment. They also receive a special premium that goes into improving social infrastructure of their villages (like building new or renovating existing hospitals, schools, wells and so on). Besides that, the producer company reinvests 15% of the profit in social development programmes via its Ubuntu Africa Programme (details on www.ubuntu-trading.com ) This drink sells in neat grey-white aluminum cans with easily recognizable Fairtrade logo. You can return those cans for money in Sweden (50 öre) or Norway (1 kr).
Ubuntu (philosophy), an ethic or humanist philosophy often summarized as humanity towards others
Hanna Hallin, the president of LSU, said in her welcome speech at the conference opening that we can be "provocative and constructive" over the course of this weekend. Well, let be me a bit provocative in my coverage of the first sessions of the conference and I'll hope that the organisers won't get angry with me (especially since I'm borrowing their laptop to type this post).
And so in this critically provocative spirit, I want to point out to some moments in the otherwise very interesting and (sometimes) inspiring keynote presentations, that I personally found myself in disagreement with. Like, for example, when Hanna herself said "climate catastrophes are fair, because they hit everyone equally and don't discriminate on basis on race, religion, or country". Well, let me (and the chairman of the IPCC, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, who also made this point in his speech on a videolink from New Delhi) disagree with that. It is a known fact that the current state of climate politics is full of inequalities of different kinds and suffers from lack of ethics. See, the today's situation is mostly the developed countries' responsibility, but those who will suffer the most from the consequences are actually those who are least able to deal with them. That is to say "poor countries" and poor people in "rich countries". Not very fair, is it?
Then Stefan Henningsson, WWF's strategy analyst, repeated the point of the Sweden's Environmental Minister Andreas Carlgren that this country's emissions have decreased by 9 per cent compared with 1990 levels and that Sweden successfully managed to decouple economic growth and the greenhouse gases emissions. Inside, I was protesting, but fortunately there was another speaker (namely, Carl Mossfeldt of Tällberg Advisors) who pointed out to a clear fact that Sweden's emissions didn't decrease (as one might believe when looking at the domestic production processes, and not counting in international sea and air traffic) but were displaced to the developing countries. When one analyses increased consumption in Sweden, taking imports into accounts, it becomes apparent that the emissions have actually grown by almost a third from 1990 levels. I think it's important to know not to make false claims about non-existent "success stories".
The deputy mayor of the city of Örebro, Gabriella Blomgren, a young leader herself, however passionate and determined to make a difference, made a funny comment about how she always try to carry her laptop with her instead of using paper notes. To help climate, of course. Well, maybe she didn't consider all the electricity produced to power her laptop (even though in Sweden half of it comes from hydro and roughly another half – from nukes). And that paper can be a good stock of carbon, especially if it's recycled paper and the one that is going to be recycled again when discarded. It's nice to see Gabriela's passion, but it's good to be on the right track and have your facts straight.
Then, after the opening ceremony we had a keynote presentation by Dr. R. K. Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC and the man who shared Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore last year. I have to say that I really liked his presentation! By the way, by having him on video link instead of in person, the organisers saved 697 kg of CO2 emissions, but Dr. Pauchari himself was mostly happy for his back that didn't have to suffer from another long-distance flight. He said that he has to fly so much around the world, that he got a sore back and a scalp infection (because of which he had to wear a hat during his presentation). Well, let's wish that more organisers of similar events will utilise opportunities of video conferences, instead of contributing to increasing air traffic, right?
Among some interesting facts that he mentioned was how consumption of meat contributes greatly to climate change and how he himself is a devoted vegetarian. He said that advising to eat much less meat might not be a very popular idea in many countries around the world, but that alone will make the planet – and ourselves! – a lot healthier. That really pleased me (kudos to Dr. Pauchari!) and made me wonder (for the hundredth time, probably) why environmental or climate conferences like this one are not completely meat-free (there was chicken served at lunch and bacon during coffee break, but the vegetarian alternative – let's give the organisers a due credit – was great, including even very tasty soy tsai and some crazy green beans that I never ate before, but – oops, I digress here!) Something to think about in the future, I guess… We'll see what will be served at the buffet dinner with the Mayor of Örebro two hours later tonight.
One important thing that Dr. Pauchari said was that the window of opportunity to take necessary actions on climate might be as narrow as only 7 years from now. The radical measures must include:
Putting price on climate, through taxation and carbon trade
Enforcing regulation for energy efficiency (especially in buildings)
And enacting major changes in lifestyles and patterns of behaviour
And so he was talking a lot about technologies (the need for technology transfer from developed to developing countries) and about changing lifestyles, but nothing about the role of population size and population growth. So decided to seize an opportunity and ask the question that my organisation back home (Hållbart universitet in Lund) has commissioned me to raise (thanks, Elias!). Dr. Pauchari agreed that the population growth is an important issue, but even more important are consumption levels, that are currently out of check and totally unsustainable (there are not enough planets to satisfy it). Speaking of measures of population control he pointed that while some "draconian measures" might work under less democratic regimes, in genuine democracies the only way must be through: education of young girls, raising status of women and giving more rights to women in general and over decisions over reproduction in particular, and encouraging young families to have fewer kids. Thus, a strong emphasis on education.
Then he was talking about initiative for "One Billion Lights" – to provide 1,6 bln people currently living without access to electricity and other modern forms of energy with affordable and sustainable (solar + CFL) lighting solutions. Again I felt funny when he spoke about CFLs (aka energy-saving light bulbs) for Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, while right there, in the big conference hall where we were sitting, I counted 432 (I'm a freak, I know) old incandescent light bulbs in five huge lamps over our heads plus couple of tens incandescent light bulbs in smaller lamps. I wonder who runs the congression centre, whether it's municipality of Örebro or some private entity, but didn't those guys figure out that they could save lots of money and CO2 emissions by replacing those light bulbs? I wondered if any other "leaders of tomorrow" in that hall noticed those light bulbs of yesterday and if any of them were feeling as strongly about that as I did. (update: my cool roommate Gustav have later confirmed that he was)
Well, enough of criticism for today, and let me assure you that informative, exciting and inspiring things that happened at the conference's first day have greatly outweighed those moments that I described. Kudos to the organisers and participants!
I hope to be able to tell you more about the first and the following days later, like for example about the very energising and pretty radical presentation of Carl Mossfeldt, that totally blown me away. So, keep checking this blog for more updates from me and other bloggers.
I'm going to a very exciting conference, 'Climate Change: youth perspectives on security, peace, democracy'. Basically, it's a high profile conference on climate change for the leaders of tomorrow, coming from a great variety of organisations (NGOs, business associations, youth political movements) and countries (in Europe, Americas, Asia).
The conference's programme reads:
“The transition towards sustainability will present new challenges for global leadership. globalisation makes us more mutually interdependent than ever before. Leaders require a holistic mindset, and to be open for ideas on how to make our global village sustainable. This three-days-conference will provide the possibility for the group to examine the meaning of leadership, with the stimulating company of other committed individuals. The purpose of the conference is to examine and discuss how the participants and their organisations can relate to, and work for, sustainability, and give the participants concrete tools to bring back home, to share with colleagues and friends.”
Among the speakers at the conference there will be Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairperson of the IPCC, who shared this year's Nobel Prize with Al Gore; Michael wood, the US ambassador to Sweden, climate campaigners of SNF and WWF Sweden, and lots of other very interesting and inspirational people.
As you can probably feel, I'm very exciting about this event. Today and the day before I held consultations with my comrades from Hållbart universitet and from Green Students Lund, where I was just re-elected as a co-spokesperson. I've got some valuable ideas and advices on what and how I shall communicate at the conference. You can also follow the conference's proceedings on the live blog at http://climatechange.joneysworld.com
I plan to have a series of meetings in Lund, after I come back, to report back to my organisations about what has happened at the conference, what was my role there, and what were the things that I learned there and contacts that I made that we can use in our local activities and to benefit our members. I'll post more about that on my blog later.
