At the COP Global Climate Justice Youth Speak Out Interviews compiled from young global climate justice activists by www.climatejusticeproject.com Principal editors: John Foran, Corrie Ellis, Summer Gray Contributors: Reem al-Mealla, Anjali Appadurai, Louisa Casson, Bryna Cofrin-Shaw Antoine Ebel, David Gawith, Fatima Ibrahim, Ben Liddie, Silje Lundberg Jamie Peters, Raquel Rosenberg, Nathan Thanki, Natasha Weidner Emily Williams, Leehi Yona First Release December 2014 at the Conference of the Parties/COP 20, Lima Peru CONTENTS Acknowledgements . iv Introduction . v Contributors . vi The Arab Youth Climate Movement Reem Al Mealla from Bahrain . 1 PUSH Europe Marco Cadena from Hungary/Mexico/UK . 11 Earth in Brackets Anjali Appadurai from Canada . 15 Nathan Thanki from Ireland . 24 United Kingdom Youth Climate Coalition Louisa Casson from England . 33 Jamie Peters from Scottland . 45 Brown University Climate & Development Lab Bryna Cofrin-Shaw from the United States . 47 CliMates Antoine Ebel from France . 56 Connected Voices David Gawith from New Zealand . 62 Young Friends of the Earth Europe Silje Lundberg from Norway . 74 Engajamundo and Coalición Latinoamericana por la Clima Raquel Rosenberg from Brazil . 86 Brahma Kumaris Juan Vazquez from Mexico/United States . 95 Ghana Youth Environmental Movement Sylvia Yirenkyi from Ghana . 101 SustainUS and The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition Leehi Yona from Canada/Israel . 113 2013 Global Day of Action March Voices from Poland . 135 Dear UNFCCC…I Think We Need To Take a “Break” Fatima Ibrahim . 147 Open Letter to the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Conditional Invitation to Attend Powershift Central and Eastern Europe. 150 Power Shift / COY9 Emma & Clémence . 153 Posts from Warsaw Hamzat Lawal . 157 Natasha Weidner . 166 Thoughts from a Newborn Climate Activist Emily Williams . 176 Cultivating Climates of Resistance Ben Liddie . 186 ¡Volveremos!/We Will Return John Foran . 190 What is Climate Justice? . connect the ACRONYMS CLIC – Coalición Latinoamericana por la Clima CJN! – Climate Justice Now! COY – Conference of Youth COP – Conference of the Parties GYEM – Ghana Youth Environmental Movement IICAT – The International Institute of Climate Action & Theory IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change NGO – nongovernmental organization UKYCC – United Kingdom Youth Climate Coalition UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change WTF – Where's the Finance? YOUNGO – Youth nongovernmental organization ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THE EDITORS WISH TO THANK EVERYONE who shared their time, energy, and passion for climate justice to make this work possible. We present a small glimmer of the wisdom of youth climate activists in this book and hope to share much more in the months and years to come. First and foremost, of course, we thank all the activists whose words are the heart of the book. We have learned so much from you! Our wonderful transcribers, almost all of them undergraduates at the University of California, Santa Barbara, put in countless hours of service into preparing the audio interviews into word documents: Carla Arciniega, Cristina Awadallah, Hannah Berman, Abigail Bernal, Stephanie Del Toro, NhuMai Do, Nia Evans, Paige Gankema, Codi Hale, Holly Higgins, Julia Lara, Jennifer Melo, Marcelo Mendez, Citlaly Negrete, Ashley Sneary, and Gaelen Vasquez. Thank you! Those who edited each contribution, including Anjana Ramkumar, Christina Orzechowski, and especial- ly John’s mum, Ramona, who tirelessly put her love of language into the fnal product. The members of the Climate Justice Project group who joined us in Warsaw for two crazy weeks in November 2013 shaped and made this project possible: Ben Liddie, Natasha Weidner, Emily Williams, and Richard Widick. Special thanks to Ben, Natasha, and Emily, for conducting some of the interviews, holding the camera when Summer couldn’t, and making connections to the activists in these pages. John wants to add a special note of thanks to Corrie, who did so many of the best interviews, and Summer, whose camera work and typesetting of this entire book are things of beauty. iv INTRODUCTION WE STARTED TO DRAFT THESE WORDS the same day as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the fnal document of its Fifth Assessment Report. Those of you who are reading this proba- bly need little reminder of the state of crisis in which the world fnds itself, a crisis marked by a precarious global economy, governments characterized by corporate infuence and inaction, and cultures where vio- lence is embedded in everyday life, from sexual assault to global warfare. This gloomy reality is now exponentially worsened by climate change. To avoid some of the most cata- strophic effects of climate change, we need to leave four-ffths of the planet’s known fossil fuel reserves in the ground. Forever. We have changed the planet so much from the benign climate that marked the rise of the species as to constitute a new geological epoch, named the Anthropocene. We have created a world where the majority of the population and life itself lacks the fundamental conditions for dignity. But we can recreate it too. Into this dramatic moment has come a glimmer of hope, and that is what our “book” is about. This work is not ours, in fact. It is the work of the young activists whose words and images grace its pages. It is an on- going work that belongs to all of us, and it is in that spirit that we offer it and invite all to continue to write the story of climate justice that is now the most important one in the world. John Foran, Corrie Ellis, Summer Gray Santa Barbara, California, November 2014 v CONTRIBUTORS Reem al-Mealla is a young Bahraini marine and conservation biologist who has worked on various conservation and environmental research projects involving intensive feld work in South Africa, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Bahrain. She was awarded the Abel Imray Prize for the outstanding environ- mental project of 2010 from the University of Essex and is the author of the book Resource Partitioning in the Indo-Pacific, which was published in 2011 by Lambert Academic Publishing. Reem's interest in climate change was sparked after witnessing the impacts of climate change on various ecosystems during her feld research which has led her to becoming one of 20 founding national coordinators of the Arab Youth Climate Movement spread across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. Coming from a region often titled a “diamond in the rough,” her passion for research, conservation, education, and knowledge transfer is end- less. She believes that youth are capable of achieving unimaginable things when given the necessary tools and skills to venture out towards shaping the world we need. Therefore, she dedicates a lot of her time towards knowledge transfer and working with youth to sow the seeds for a more sustainable tomorrow. As the world is coming together to defne the Post-2015 Agenda towards a Sustainable World, most countries, especially in the Arab region, do not have the environment in their top list of priorities even though it is known that the quality of human life and health is a refection of our surroundings. Through her work Reem is determined to make the necessary shift in the region to bring environmental protection and conservation into the priority list. vi Anjali Appadurai is connected to land in South India, British Columbia and the American South- west. Her motivation to protect human rights came early, and she has been an active communicator and campaigner in the international youth climate movement. Specializing in the intersection of international climate politics and social movements, she began this work with the youth organization Earth in Brackets which aims to translate political processes to civil society around the world. The personal is political, and Anjali is interested in how the enemy lives in our minds and hearts. With [Earth] she explored the question of how to tell the story of climate justice in a way that re-frames the values we want to live in accordance with. This inquiry got her interested in working with the media, which she thinks of as a powerful tool and a fckle lover. She enjoys diving into the study of power, ideology and societal narratives through strategic commu- nications and media work, an interest galvanized by her work with [Earth]. Anjali currently organizes with the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, an international coalition of people's movements around the world taking action on energy. She is also co-founder of the online political platform Tipping Point Collective, which launched in November of this year. She has been writing about international climate politics and the youth climate movement for several years. Marco Cadena is an environmental justice activist, climate justice communicator, and movement coordinator with wide experience in mobilizing activists on the regional and international levels. He has worked with PUSH Europe, Young Friends of the Earth, and Reclaim Power. He was a very active civil society organizer at the last two COPs, working in various communications capacities, for Climate Justice Now!, among other organizations. He lives and works in London, and he tweets @MarcoCadena99. Louisa Casson is an organizer with the international team of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, work- ing to strengthen networks of young campaigners across Europe and support youth groups engaging with the UN climate talks to amplify the voice of youth in climate change decision-making processes. She also works at the environmental think-and-do tank E3G in London to support civil society engagement with European climate and energy politics. As part of this, she encourages and co-ordinates interventions from groups in the UK including environmental and development NGOs, youth networks, progressive businesses, and campaigning organizations to call for strong climate leadership from the EU. Working with the International Youth Climate Movement since 2012, she has run capacity-building workshops for youth activists, coordinated actions and digital communications at UN climate conferences, and advocated for greater opportunities for youth participation in global multilateral processes.