January 22nd, 2010 | Published in About Us, COP15 | 1 comment
We found you… you found us at COP15: 150 committed leaders of today and tomorrow.
Even though the deal did not meet our expectations at all, we had the chance to join forces with all of these people, giving us the chance to speak up even louder.
Thank you, let’s keep going together!
December 16th, 2009 | Published in COP15 | 1 comment
One of the most applauded speakers of the “before lunch session” Hugo Chavez contributed some alerting political talk in many senses. He agreed to Brazil and China that the formation of a top secret document by the developed countries is undemocratic. He calls it an imperial dictatorship by the countries feeling superior – fostering exclusion not inclusion.
He expresses his thanks to the people protesting outside the hall and the young people on the streets of Copenhagen. He thanks the ones, who are scared about their own future for raising their voice – knowing that inside the negotiation hall they were silenced.
Outside he heard the paroles: “Don’t change the climate, change the system.” Claiming that this is what he is doing. As well as, concerning the astronomic amounts of money that have been invested in saving banks: “If the climate was a bank, they would already have saved it.”
Chavez calls it a scandal that the president of the United States, who is sending more and more military into Afghanistan killing innocent people, will come here to present himself with the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead he recommends the book “How the rich destroy the planet”, comparing it to the paroles of Jesus Christ: “It is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, than that a rich enters heaven.” Therefore we shall consume less and share more. Stop hidden agendas and lies. He raises the question: “How long will we accept epidemics, children dying, hunger, the dictatorship of markets and the threat of climate catastrophes?”. He states “We have to fight capitalism and save human race.” The planet won’t miss us, it has been existing long without us, but we cannot live without the planet. He quotes Fidel Castro: “The human species is threatened by extinction.” After 25 minutes, where the speaking time was restricted to 3, he wishes the world to be a heaven of peace and fraternity – and an enjoyable lunch.
Interesting enough, that he did NOT talk about the power he has been wielding through the Venezuelan oil fields…
And off the audience goes for lunch, just not the following speaker – the president of Suriname. The rich people of the world, even if stemming from the poorest countries of the world have a big lunch together. I am wondering if they will be able to enter heaven according to Chavez.
December 15th, 2009 | Published in COP15 | No comments
Tuesday, turned out to be a very special day: not only for INEX, but also for me personally.
In a meeting of the Interamerican Development Bank I got in touch with Roberto Dobles, Costa Rica’s minister of Environment, inviting him to hold a worshop at our upcoming INEX Summer University in Costa Rica, July 2010. He enthusiastically said yes.
From there we moved right into another meeting hosted by the Bella Foundation, chaired by Ashok Koshla, President of the IUCN, Co-President of the Club of Rome, holder of the UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize and Founder Member of the Alliance for the New Humanity. I was happy to catch a few minutes of his attention, asking for his institute to participate in the ISD India. His time is short, but his assistant is willing to host our students. Another success.
And not only that. Yes, it was high ranking so far. But then comes a historic moment for me. José Maria Figueres, the man whose history inspired me to shift my career focus to sustainable development. Being a former president of Costa Rica, introducing the Costa Rican Model of Sustainable Development, shaping its future. He speaks out in favor of getting back to real democraty, with informed voters, not media vitims.
Babinsky: “Mr. Figueres, thank you for shaping my career in such an enriching way.” Figueres: “Nonono, thank you!”
Wow. I am breathless. When INEX was born, about five years ago, I was dreaming to meet this man one day. And I never imagined that moment would come so soon.
As a finisher, we decided to attend a high ranking political meeting in the plenary. Asking for the ticket we had no chance, but taking the ticket to Al Gore’s speech instead. We got only one ticket, but both got in :)
Knowing that we would not be able to attend tomorrow’s meetings, because another entry restriction, we consider this a great ending! Let’s go for the online stream tomorrow and hope for a good deal!
December 15th, 2009 | Published in About Us, COP15 | No comments
INEX being the Earth Charter Affiliate for Austria, we attended the hight ranking Earth Charter meeting.
The Earth Charter, as our ethical framework is now starting a new communication strategy, with a new Head: Fernanda Baumhardt. Starting in Brazil, a TV spot has been published. Joint action of affiliates with the board is now called upon to take this fresh spirit back “home”, share it and live up to the ethical values of the Earth Charter.
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For the next day only a a small part of all accredited participants of COP15 were allowed inside Bella Center. It takes a so called Secondary Badge to join the next days’ high ranking political talks…
December 12th, 2009 | Published in COP15 | 1 comment
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Today, Saturday we had the opportunity to be part of a special ceremony attended by a small audience only. Archbishop Tutu paid us a visit at the Candle Light watch arranged by 350.org. Standing in a small circle holding a candle, we took the cold easily, enjoying warmhearted words. Together with Mary Robinson both Elders, spoke words of peace and hope, while the largest demonstration started outside.
Encouraging the masses to show their committment , Tutu says: “They marched in Berlin and the wall fell, they marched in Johannesburg and Apartheid fell, they march in Copenhagen and we will get a fair, ambitious and binding deal.”
Both of them offer young generations their power and will to fight for their futures. We all leave our candles on the ground in a sea of light, taking with us some more energy to keep going for our common mission.
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December 11th, 2009 | Published in About Us, COP15 | No comments
On our way to COP15 we brought an entire trolley full of buttons these two core messages. This shall be our guiding star during our stay here in Copenhagen. Trying our best to stop time consuming talks about facts that we all know about – agreeing to each others opinion, making us feel like we are good people. Stop – Blahblah… Get down to action, now. On our mission we started to speak with people from all over the world, who are willing to make a change.
December 11th, 2009 | Published in COP15 | 1 comment
After our arrival day yesterday, we are proceeding to action: Today is “our” day.
There are so many events running at the same time, its almost too much to handle. We decide to go for Session on intergenerational Equity hosted by the European Youth Forum (YFJ) , supposing that it would be full of young Change Makers. And it was.
The panel proclaimed, that we have only one choice: wield power. My mind started racing by this comment. “How?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking it aloud. As a response it got, that I should go into politics – with the European Greens, if possible. Hm. I’m not sure if I will take that advice. Eventuall I would rather propose to start a global alliance of student organizations working towards Sustainable Development.
…and as a closing statement we also learned, that “Weak men are dangerous. We wish for strong men, able to accept strong women’s leadership.” Pretty smart.
The evening was filled with the YOUNGO reception. Rapping, dancing and chanting for/against climate change. Our special guest Ivo the Boer, Master of resistance to climate change, came to visit. He spoke warm hearted words of encouragement for youth activities and took the time to speak to quite a bunch of youngsters, even one we all know very well…
Still, the large quantity of events leaves you with the bitter feeling that the big decisions are taken elsewhere.
Let’s take the spirit of the young voices we heard today and keep the hopes up, folks.
One last message for today:
…at least :)
Love,
Fabienne
December 11th, 2009 | Published in COP15 | No comments
Stepping out of the airplane we found ourselves surrounded by advertisments centered around one topic: climate change. It seems like every single product sold in whole Copenhagen turned into a green one. Mobile phones, cars…everything. Welcome to HOPEnhagen, the place to be.
Despite the lack of sleep during the last nights, that were busy with preperation, we landed here full of engery and totally excited to be part of the decision taken these days – a decision, that will shape the future of mankind.
The COP15 bus was already waiting outside the arrival hall, ready to take us to Bella Center. With our 6 pieces of luggage full of inspiring promo-material we struggled our way to the security check and had to stand in line to get our foto badges. Once inside we saw a totally different world in front of us. A cloakroom with the size of a trainstation, hundreds of infostands, posters, ads, media labs, TV screens with kind messages to the “Leaders of the World”. Overwhelming.
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We decided to sit down to let this atmosphere settle the Austrian way: drinking coffe (of course FairTrade out of future friendly cups). This was the beginning. It is true. This is COP15 and we are there to make a change. Wow!
The vibe caught us and we followed the impulse to run around, just like all the others - checking out the program schedule, watching a the plenary session, trying to find our way through this. While the energy started to flow, we found that some people were really lost in this spectacle. What a start.
Let’s see what is to come.
Excitedly,
Fabienne
December 11th, 2009 | Published in About Us, COP15 | No comments
The world is facing serious challenges. Poverty, diseases and the depletion of important resources are just a few out of many. On top of everything else stands one that will probably impact humankind more than anything else we have seen so far: climate change. To tackle the issues of global warming is the target of COP15 (the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen).
Many call it the most important meeting in history since the ending of World War II. It will have life-changing effects on 6.8 billion people, their way of living and survival. It has the potential of saving the world as we know it… but can the global leaders act? Or will they stick to talk instead of action? Will Barack Obama (USA), Jose Manuel Barroso (EC), Wen Jiabao (China), Angela Merkel (Germany), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Silvio Berlusconi (Italy), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran), Nikolaus Berlakovich (Austria) and more than 160 other heads of governments commit to a treaty that will help to save millions (or even billions) of people?
Once thing is for sure… this 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the biggest event on this topic that the world has seen so far. One and a half decades after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro people seem to have realized the dramatic impact that climate change already has – and will have even more over the coming years. People therefore call for a fair climate agreement (see the Seal the Deal website) that will commit to cutting greenhouse emissions (especially CO2) considerably until 2020, establish a framework that will bolster the climate resilience of vulnerable countries and protect lives and livelihoods. In hope for justice and a prosper future 20-30.000 people will try to attend the meetings and side events that are taking place from 07 to 18 December. Ten-thousands of people are additionally expected to come for the hundreds of side events an d conferences taking place at same time (for example Klimaforum09, the global civil society counterpart of the official UN conference in the Bella Center).
We are following our mission of identifying, inspiring, educating & empowering change makers.
By identifying these stakeholders and inspiring them to engage themselves in concrete actions (and joint projects, such as study abroad programs and other ESD projects), we will all learn on the way – and empower duplication of our efforts.
Follow us on this blog to find out how this idea evolves, what we find out on the way and how successful we are in accomplishing this plan…
