COP15 Day 2: Lindsey’s Top 5

1) Garett and I decided to focus our first hour, following the daily Youth Delegation Meeting at 8:00am, on developing a system for our day-to-day scheduling and event selection. It takes about 20 minutes to weed through the daily program distributed at the Bella Center and an additional hour or two to review the 5+ digest emails sent out by our youth constituencies. Once all of this is compiled, Garett and I decide who’s going to attend what. We look for sessions and events that are highly visual (for excellent photo and video coverage), then discuss our country’s role on the outcome of COP15 and other countries, and those likely to have official U.S. government officials participating.

2) The highlight of my day was definitely meeting E.P.A. Administrator Lisa Jackson in the hall of the Expo. Recognizing her immediately, I turned to my 350.org friend and said, “Ben! That’s Lisa Jackson!” With little surprise, given his exuberant enthusiasm, he said, “Let’s go talk to her!” I think he must have read it in my eyes. Administrator Jackson kindly stopped to talk with us. Ben thanked her for her presence in Copenhagen and I continued, thanking her for participating in the White House Clean Energy Forum last week with US youth organizers. “We are all really excited to collaborate with you further on this issue.”

3) At 2:30pm, the High-Level Youth Briefing with Michael Cutajar (Chair of *AWG-LCA) & John Ashe (Chair of *AWG-KP) Q&A Session would begin. While waiting in the mob of a line that had formed, the 200+ youth broke out into song… “Oooh, it’s hot in here! There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere! I said Oooh, it’s hot in here! There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere! Take action! Take action… and get some satisfaction! Take action! Take action… and get some satisfaction!” It was amazing how quickly the press showed up at the sound of our youthful chants.

*AWG-LCA: Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action

*AWG-KP: Ad-Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol

4) Today also marked our first of daily US youth debrief meetings. Our friends Matt and Ben, the official US Delegation trackers, reported on where the US stands (at the moment – it changes day to day). Matt clarified that both LCA and KP tracks are supposed to end here at COP15; however, there are divisions between developing countries (who want a 2^nd commitment period – LCA) and developed countries (who want a one-track outcome – KP). I am still working to better understand the differences between LCA and KP… I’ll keep you posted.

5) The most anticipated event of Day 2 was, hands-down, the US State Department Briefing… and we, the youth delegation, DOMINATED IT! Five of the seven questions taken were from youth. When the first question was asked by a female youth, she introduced herself and proudly said that she is here with over 500 US youth delegates. At this time, all of us present waved our hands in the air; it was brilliant! Garett and I were seated towards the back of the room, able to estimate nearly ¾ of the audience as youth.

Although I am unable to share the conversations from this event (the terms of participating in this particular discussion), I can tell you that Jonathan Pershing (Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change) and Lisa Jackson sat on the panel. As Administrator Jackson was introduced, we gave her a much-deserved standing ovation for the EPA publishing the endangerment finding and that, as of January 1, 2010, public reporting on greenhouse gas emissions will be a requirement!

Signing off from COP15,

Lindsey