Canada: Lead, Follow or GO HOME

Victoria Cate, young green and former YGC councillor, is in Copenhagen and wrote this blog for Granola Unit.


As the final days of the COP 15 in Copenhagen approach, NGOs and other non governmental organizations are having their admission passes to the key negotiations area cut substantially. Many activists and people of civil society are only arriving now to find that their accreditations are not given to them due to an overload at the registration and that they will likely not be admitted to the conference hall once in the final week. As of tomorrow the participants from nongovernmental delegations will be cut by 40%. Due to the increase in the number of high level participants in the final days, the other participants will be increasingly shut out and by Friday, the final day, only 90 of 10000 accredited attendees will be admitted.

The overall sense of the negotiations is one of resignation. Almost every person here believes that nothing meaningful can be achieved this week. I was with Elizabeth May this afternoon as she spoke with members of the Canadian youth delegation about the expectations for this COP, the possibilities still open and the best way to react to the conclusion, whatever it involves. Above all, she encouraged the youth not to despair and not to become cynical. Her overall optimism is driven by the knowledge that this conference must succeed or else threaten many countries in the world and their people with losses, both in economic terms and in lives. It is difficult for the participants of this conference to endure what is happening.

African delegations threatened they might not attend this morning to communicate their dissatisfaction with the game playing and uncooperative strategies of the developed countries delegations.

This afternoon, china and the g77 stalled all their working groups and walked out in what looked like a political power play. Amidst all this uncertainty and reticence, Canada is still coming out worst of the pack with no meaningful commitments or action plan.

Canadian youth wore signs on their backs today, reading: Canada: Lead, Follow or GO HOME.

There are many people here from all over the world who are dedicated to seeing real progress on climate change. It is unhelpful to downplay our expectations at this time. We have to hope for a decent agreement because it is not acceptable to walk away empty handed when we know the consequences of inaction.