SCI volunteers at COP 15

The conference was huge and full of opportunities to keep ourself busy. Apart from main negotiations there were dozens of side events every day. Lectures, meetings and discussions were  a perfect opportunity for us to learn a lot. We got to know new, wonderful people and learned about how international climate movement functions from the inside. Topics were many: from renewable energy sources to land use and forestry issues, and from industrial eco-friendly investments to indigenous peoples rights. To support our informal education, we were also collecting numerous publications provided by different organizations.

YOUNGO

Some of us devoted their energy to YOUNGO, which stands for a structure uniting all youth NGO's gathered at the conference. Thanks to YOUNGO young people from all over the Earth had a chance to be recognized as a negotiation partner at the UN and to speak with one voice inside and outside of the conference. YOUNGO consisted of many different working groups. SCI members were most active in the Action Group and the Forest Group. From within these groups young people were following the negotiation process in order to be able to react rapidly and express their point of view on how the negotiators should proceed. All SCI delegates participated on a daily basis in actions inside of the conference building, joining dozens and sometimes even hundreds of young people gathered together for one cause. 

Massive demonstrations

Saturday, 12th of December, was the day of massive peaceful demonstration through the streets of Copenhagen, demanding Climate Justice. Around 80 000 people participated in this event. It was an incredible experience, giving us lots of new energy and the motivation to speak out loud the words of solidarity with the most vulnerable in the world.

Barack Obama speech

The last days of the conference were the most difficult ones. All of us had to stay outside of the negotiation area, officially due to security issues. But still we were doing our best. After president Obama’s press conference - instead of finally giving up we joined spontaneous late-night demonstrations outside the conference venue. Shouting till 2 am, we showed to the negotiators that we keep our eyes open, no matter the time or the weather conditions. We also managed to show our objections to restrictions on civil society participation in the negotiations in a different way. You can see it with your own eyes by clicking on this link.  http://www.vimeo.com/8231100.

Workshops in local schools

Neither did we forget about the real world outside. SCI activists were leading workshops in schools in Copenhagen and in Malmo. We managed to reach many young people. Some managed to surprise us with their level of knowledge about the negotiations and climate change issues. From discussions to art work: we all had a great time. We hope that the youngsters got just as motivated as us thanks to our visit, as we got thanks to talking to them.

We didn't lose our time in Copenhagen and already we are working on how to make the best use of the time before the COP16. This year in.... Mexico!