Conference Youth Demand Better Future

Hundreds of people from many countries, predominantly teenagers, staged a demonstration on Wednesday (11/12/2019) at the Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain, screaming, “Climate justice!”

KOMPAS/AHMAD ARIF

Security officers block access to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) plenary hall in Madrid on Wednesday (12/12/2019), following a demonstration by hundreds of youths and activists who staged a sit-in protest to express their disappointment with the lack of progress in the climate negotiations.

The demonstrators, some wearing the traditional dress of several countries, were shouting, “Shame! Shame!” before they were ushered out of the complex by security personnel. Their observer access cards were confiscated. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres finally granted them access again on Thursday morning (12/12/2019).

Mohammad Reza Sahib, National Coordinator of the People’s Coalition for the Right to Water (KRuHA), and four other Indonesian activists affiliated with the Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) global network were also escorted out of the venue.

“A lot of people’s fear regarding global warming has reached its nadir. The negotiations do not reflect that the safety of hundreds of millions of living things on earth is now at stake. We were forced out because of our peaceful protest against the slow progress in managing the climate crisis," he said.

Although it lasted only around two minutes, the joint protest by the DCJ, the Climate Action Network (CAN), Fridays for Future and other organizations represented the disappointment of millions of people, especially young people.

A lot of people’s fear regarding global warming has reached its nadir.

Ejecting the demonstrators indicated the growing divergence between the public and the negotiators that serve the political interests of their respective countries. “Attending the COP (Conference of the Parties) for 25 years, I’ve never seen such great discrepancy between public expectations and the reality,” Greenpeace executive director Jennifer Morgan said before government representatives at the plenary session.

Greta Thunberg, 16, who inspired the Fridays for Future student movement, got her turn. The Swedish teenager reminded the world’s leaders of the scientific fact that the rate of climate change had reached such a dangerous stage that it necessitated immediate action.

Thunberg, named as the 2019 Time Person of the Year, was angry. Raising her voice, she directed her disappointment at wealthy countries for using excuses to avoid cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.

Thunberg is known for her tough stance and outspokenness in urging action on the climate crisis. The youth, who refuses to travel by air or to consume meat in order to reduce carbon emissions, has been in the spotlight since August 2018, when at just 15 years of age, she protested for days outside the Swedish parliament. In her solo action, she appealed for greater efforts against global warming, holding up a poster that read “school strike for the climate”.

Her persistence has inspired similar student protests in many countries. Called Fridays for Future, the school strikes have involved millions of students, as what happened in Madrid last week at the 25th United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (COP25).

Thunberg’s stance has earned the ire of some world leaders. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, for instance, called Thunberg “pirralha”, the Brazilian Portuguese world for “brat”, after she criticized the killing of Indians in the Amazon. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump called Thunberg “a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future” on Twitter.

KOMPAS/AHMAD ARIF

Participants head to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) climate in Madrid on Thursday (12/12/2019), passing posters about the melting ice in Antarctica. The climate negotiations between the representatives of 197 countries have entered their final days, but no significant decisions have been made so far on taking progressive action to tackle climate change.

Broadening gap

As Thunberg pointed out, science shows that climate change is in a state of emergency.

“Global warming is growing further, along with increasing emissions. The global temperature has risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius and sea temperature by 0.5 degree Celsius since the pre-industrial era (1850),” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

He warned that rising atmospheric and sea temperatures would have a very great impact on physical conditions, ranging from the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters to a slump in the food supply. Facts on the latest situation were conveyed by several scientific panels, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is supported by scientists from all over the world under a UJN mandate.

Ahead of the conference, they compiled a scientific synthesis, “United in Science”, which presents the latest data and scientific findings on the current state of the climate crisis.

The scientists recommended that all countries fulfill their commitments to cut emissions pursuant to the Paris Agreement of 2015. They also appealed for the emissions target to be raised, as the previous target was inadequate to curb the rate of global warming below 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. At the present trend, the temperature could rise by 3-4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Global warming is growing further, along with increasing emissions.

Towards the end of her address, Thunberg asked the conference participants: “So please tell me, how do you react to these numbers without feeling at least some level of panic?”

The concerns Thunberg voiced represented millions of youths who were facing a deadlock. Although some accords were reached, after 10 days of negotiations, no significant progress was made on several crucial issues. Deliberations were hampered by politically laden disputes over the carbon market’s architecture, schedules for carbon reduction commitments and uncertainty about funding for poor countries affected by climate change.

With only one day left to the negotiations, hope is fading. Young people are preparing to again take to the streets in Madrid and other cities around the world this Friday to demand their right to a better future for the Earth.