December 5 – DOHA, Qatar – Today, youth groups issued a strong demand to governments across the world at the UN climate conference.
The youth groups from every continent stood in solidarity with the world’s poorest people, who are most at risk from the current and projected impacts of climate change.
The Filipino minister, Lucille Sering, held a somber tone at the action, in light of the devastating super-typhoon that has left over 80 people dead in her home country.
“We stand behind the countries who have voiced their rejection of false solutions and a dirty deal here in Doha. The deal on the table, which they are being bullied into accepting is a suicide pact for their people,” said Julian Velez, from Mexico and a student of the College of the Atlantic.
“We stand here today not only as members of a silenced civil society, not only as representatives of our various organizations, but as human beings standing in solidarity with the suffering and loss caused by a lack of political will and inaction,” Velez said.
A call-and-response song of resistance lead by Neelam Khare of the Canadian Youth Delegation accompanied the action.
Youth are drawing attention to super-typhoon Bopha, the 16th extreme weather event to affect the Philippines this year and a reminder that climate change is affecting people now.
Khare said, “we stand behind the countries who have experienced, are experiencing and will experience these devastating effects and who continue to hold out for a deal that will provide them with basic human rights and dignity at the international level.”
Youth condemn the inaction reflected in the current standings of negotiations by blank pages of text and a lack of serious emission cuts both inside and outside of the Kyoto Protocol.
Youth also supported the G77 in their strong position to create a mechanism on loss and damage. A mechanism that would help address negative impacts from climate change in developing countries, impacts such as typhoon Bopha or sea level rise. This mechanism is mainly being blocked by one developed country, the United States.
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Meghan McCarthy
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