Sierra Student Coalition

Sierra Club Gives College Basketball Clean Energy Boost

Kim Teplitzky — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:57:06 -0800

In a unique move this month the Sierra Club and Sierra Student Coalition are making moves into college basketbal fandom by sponsoring games with two of the top teams in the nation. The Sierra Club Clean Energy Match-Ups Jan 12 at Indiana University (vs. Minnesota) and Jan 17 at the University of Kentucky (vs. Arkansas) will featuer Sierra Club giveaways, signs, logos, radios spots and presentations.

“We hope to get more Hoosier basketball fans involved in making Indiana a leader off the court by retiring the coal plant on campus and replacing it with clean energy solutions. Moving off coal will mean cleaner air and a healthier campus that Hoosier fans can be really proud of,” said Megan Anderson a senior at Indiana University and President of Coal-Free IU which has been campaigning to move IU beyond coal for nearly three years.

The idea behind the games is to connect fans with the idea that athletes and all students will perform better if they have cleaner air to breathe. Both Indiana and Kentucky operate dirty coal plants right on campus. At IU the campus plant is the largest single source of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide pollution in the county.

“I grew up in rural Kentucky as a Wildcats basketball fan and now as a student I’m working to make sure UK is a real leader by investing in clean energy that will create good jobs here in Kentucky, boost our economy and mean healthier air and water for everyone,” said Patrick Johnson a senior at the University of Kentucky and leader of Greenthumb, the campus group working to move UK off coal on campus. “I couldn’t be more excited to see two things so important to me come together with the Sierra Club Clean Energy Match-Up here in Kentucky.”

In addition to the games the Sierra Club is running full-page newspaper ads and local students are hosting campaign actions incluuding a major petition delivery at IU where leaders will present the more than 5,000 petitions collected since the campaign launched in 2009 to IU President Michael McRobbie.

The games have already earned significant coverage in both Kentucky and Bloomington, IN. Here's just a few of the clips so far:

Lexington Herald-Leader (front page!): Sierra Club sponsoring Kentucky basketball game

Indiana Daily Student: Coal Free IU Launches Week of Action

Kentucky Kernel: Sierra Club sponosoring UK-Arkansas Game

See the full press release here: http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=224123.0

Update: Plenary Likely Closed for Evening in Durban

Randy Downs — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:24:23 -0800

By Angela Wiley

After an intense day of action, chanting, singing, and running the halls of the ICC in search of power/internet, the closing plenary has likely been postponed until 10am local time, tomorrow. It is currently 11:20pm on Friday, December 9.

All decisions are speculative, as they have been for the past two weeks. Does this postponement mean negotiators are making more ambitious decisions, or are they simply in a gridlock? We'll find out in the morning. We will keep you updated although continued access to the ICC after tonite is questionable. Stay alert! These decisions may be painfully slow, but they are incredibly important to our future and the well being of affected countries throughout the world.

Solidarity from Durban,

SSC Delegates

BREAKING: Civil Society Demands Climate Justice at COP17

Randy Downs — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:04:58 -0800

Story by Angela Wiley

Photos by Lauren Ressler and Holly Jones

DEVELOPING: At 3:00pm on December 9, members of civil society entered the negotiating halls of COP17, led by party delegates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Maldives, Senegal, and Egypt. The peaceful assembly demanded climate justice and leadership in a meeting with low ambition and uncertain outcome as negotiations enter their final day.

The human microphone ensured that everyone could hear messages dispersed throughout the crowd; and the assembly demanded climate justice from negotiators that are working through a complex and extremely slow paced negotiation process in Durban. Currently, the assembly is negotiating with UN security, who have separated the protest from traffic within the hall.

Wireless internet within the hall is very slow, perhaps owing to the volume of people accessing it. I have managed to snag an ethernet cable further from the action to offer some photos and update you! Follow HollyMJones on twitter for updates, and back here, of course! If you have time to take action, please follow the rapid response request below. With so much at stake, I hope you can find a few spare moments to help battle climate change:

Background: The US has made it very clear that they are not interested in developing a treaty to cut global emissions until 2020. This is unacceptable, the science is very clear and demands we PEAK our emissions around 2020 to avoid temperature increases over 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. Our generation's future is in the balance, and the United States is compromising the fragile trust that has returned to the UNFCCC process since the devastating outcomes of COP15 in Copenhagen. When they Delay We Pay.

It is time for us to take action. We want to let the State Department know that we will not sit idly by while they risk our future to please large corporations and backwards politicians.

Step 1: Call the State Department: You will call the switchboard and ask for the Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change, and leave a message with them. The switchboard is: 202-647-4000

Script: Hi I'm _______ from ________ and I am calling to let your office know that as a young person in the United States my future depends on the action you are taking at the COP17 negotiations and we must move forward with a treaty to cut global carbon emissions this year. Postponing this action until 2020 is endangering my future.

Step 2: Make Some Noise Online: please post comments on the state department's facebook page and twitter feeds.

Sample Tweet: @StateDept Youth at #cop17 need you to commit to future generations and move forward on a treaty before 2020. #2late2wait #IYCM

They're also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usdos

Step 3: Get 5 friends to take action. I know this is hard, but this is our future we are talking about here and 5 minutes now will make a lifetime of difference. Real friends help friends save the planet.

In Solidarity,

SSC COP17 Delegation

Powerful Human Microphone at COP17 Intervention

Randy Downs — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:09:24 -0800

Global youth participate in a powerful human microphone after an intervention delivered by Anjali Appadurai.

Video captured by Katie O'Brien.

US Youth Know that 2020 is Too Late to Wait

Randy Downs — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:10:52 -0800

Yesterday, I sat in the plenary hall, grinding my teeth as I waited for Todd Stern to speak. After several briefings with United States negotiators, I felt deflated about their lack of leadership. Furthermore, the sentiment that the U.S. has “done enough” by increasing fuel efficiency standards almost made my eyes pop out of my head. Particularly in a space like COP17, where ambassadors from Small Island Developing States and African nations are sharing stories and science about the real effects of climate change, it is apparent that moving to 50 mpg is not going to address climate change. Pushing long term agreements to 2020 misses the peak emissions goal. These are all concepts I have learned quickly over the last few weeks, as a new delegate to the COP process.

As Todd Stern was introduced and reminded to stick to his three minute speaking slot, Abigail Borah stood up a few rows ahead of me and started to shout what I could only dream of articulating.

Abigal Borah stands up to speak as Todd Stern is introduced to the plenary.

Her speech was met with rapt attention from the plenary, and a warm round of cheers as she was escorted from the room by UN Security. I think her message should be heard far and wide, because it resounded with me as a U.S. youth who is incredibly disappointed in the role of United States negotiators at COP17. Read on to see what Abigail communicated to the plenary yesterday afternoon:

"I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot. The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair ambitious and legally binding treaty.

You must take responsibility to act now, or you will threaten the lives of youth and the world's most vulnerable.

You must set aside partisan politics and let science dictate decisions. You must pledge ambitious targets to lower emissions not expectations. Citizens across the world are being held hostage by stillborn negotiations.

We need leaders who will commit to real change, not empty rhetoric. Keep your promises. Keep our hope alive. 2020 is too late to wait."

--Abigail Borah, December 8, 2011

Abigal Borah is escorted out of the plenary when she is finished speaking, to a large round of applause from ministers and observers.

Todd Stern addresses the plenary.

Capacity Building Victories at COP17

Randy Downs — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:17:11 -0800

Story by Heather Hatzenbuhler

Photo by Adriana Gonzalez

Heather Hatzenbuhler and Lauren Ressler sit at a roundtable youth briefing with Jonathon Pershing, representing the Capacity Building working group.

When I came to COP I had no idea what capacity building even was, or at least I didn't know that it had a specific definition. The more I learned, however, the more I realized that capacity building is what I have been doing at the University of Georgoa (UGA) for the past two years. Having mobilizing forces "on the ground" is not only necessary to win campaigns and assert political pressure, but is essential to all of the adaptation and mitigation policies being debated by parties at COP17. Prior to coming to Durban I was feeling very conflicted about how working with the UNFCCC was at all relevant to the organizing I was doing on campus. Ultimately, the reason I had the ability to attend COP was because of capacity building that was done throughout the semester. I could leave and progress would still be made on our campaign at home. IN fact, not only was there progress, but the UGA Beyond Coal campaign packed a theater with students, faculty and community members to watch a documentary about coal.

For the past week and a half I have been working with the capacity building working group in the youth constituency at COP17. Our objective is to influence the textual agreement drafted in negotiations. We have several specific asks and amendments to existing policies, which include non-formal education as a means for building capacity, inclusion of stakeholders, and explicit recognition of youth as crucial players in capacity building. Our view is that the more times youth are mentioned in the text, the more we must be consulted in the negotiating process -- eventually we'll gain a seat at the table. To do this we have to both write the policies and amendments we want to see and then advocate for them. Given that policy analysis and lobbying are my two favorite pastimes, I had a hard time choosing between these two sub-working groups, so I didn't. On the second day of COP I attended a drafting session where we analyzed the existing agreements being negotiated and word-smith-ed them how we saw fit. Then I went directly to the strategy meeting to talk about our messaging and lobbying negotiators to adopt our text.

My indecision led to overcommitment. I felt early burn-out of the initial fire I had for this working group. Regardless, our efforts were hugely successful, and by Wednesday we had secured a meeting with the chair of the official negotiations on the capacity building section of the agreement. Maas was his name and being able to spend an hour with him talking policy and the politics of negotiating was an incredible privilege. Maas really took the opportunity to teach us about the process and did so in a way that was empowering and not patronizing. However, at this point I realized I had spent every “free” hour of my day working on this issue, and was missing out on other potentially wonderful things at COP17. From that point on I lowered my involvement in this group and allowed other things to take priority (like sleep, schoolwork and building relationships). This has been a huge step for me personally, because it is the first time in a very long time where I have the luxury of just being a participant or observer rather than running the show. It is amazing to me that I can still meaningfully contribute to a goal/group and participate in exciting opportunities like negotiator bird-dogging, sit-downs with ministers, and Secretariat briefings without leading and coordinating all the details.

At UGA and here at COP, the network of leaders and supporters is truly exceptional. This strength has been built by the Sierra Student Colition, whose structure and strategy is aligned with the crucial component of capacity building being addressed in Durban's negotiations.

Youth Raise Voices in ICC Cafeteria

Randy Downs — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:04:34 -0800

Youth attending COP17 sing in support of the strong position African countries are taking in negotiations. With strict rules on organized action within the conference center, this display shows the vibrancy of civil society and young people at COP17 as negotiations near decision points. The urgency of ambitious decisions is key, and the youth know this better than anyone else.

Videography by Katie O'Brien, Editing by Angela Wiley

You are our Conscience

Randy Downs — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:45:34 -0800

Ambassadors from Small Island Developing States, including Marlene Moses address the people's space outside COP17's conference walls.

Videography and Editing by Angela Wiley

Speak for Yourself

Randy Downs — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:41:04 -0800

Written by Katie O'Brien

I cannot speak for anyone other than myself. It seems obvious—at least to me it does—because how can I speak on things I have not experienced myself? But this is exactly the problem with the UNFCCC process (and other processes as well but lets not go into that today): speaking on behalf of people. I suppose my statement wasn’t entirely true because in applying to be a Sierra Student Coalition delegate I was chosen (hopefully) with the confidence that I could accurately speak for and represent the SSC at these negotiations and in working groups. But I don’t think I can extend my power of speech beyond that. At the same time I feel like my voice is already represented and I feel that there are many others not represented. So I would like to speak for them but I cannot. I am privileged. I am a white, upper-middle class North American female who speaks English, has never had to worry about food, is able-bodied, of sound mind, and who goes to a private liberal-arts college in Maine. At the same time you can’t just boil me down to this. I am still a young person who cares about our future, I am a human and so I care about other humans’ lives and their experiences, and I am a being on this Earth who cares about what happens to its climate and to its biodiversity. My privilege has allowed me to speak about these cares but has silenced the voices of many South African youth and countless other peoples who have these concerns and more. And this is only within YOUNGO (the youth constituency). In the actual negotiations my voice is barely heard above the roars of those who represent me. So what about those who don’t even have the agency to come here and attempt to shout?

I suppose this is not a problem with all of the UNFCCC. I feel like many African and Small Island States are accurately representing their people’s sentiments. I’ve been to a few side-events with speakers from these areas and many of them reference their lives before being in government, back when they too were just people. They speak of their experiences in their lives of the effects of climate change where they are from. But like I said earlier, I cannot speak for them and really I have no idea what I am talking about. But as a Canadian and a pseudo-American, I can say delegations like the United States and Canada are not accurately representing their people. These delegates are listening to the corporations over the people; I suppose money is louder than real words. The delegates themselves are not to blame, the people did not choose the delegates, but someone the people thought represented them chose the delegates.

Maybe it sounds as if I am just going with the times of the Occupy movements, but I feel like this system is broken and I have for some time. I have felt for a long time that we need a more fair and accurately represented governing body. The system here is just as corrupted and convoluted as our political process at home because our politicians back home choose the people here.

Despite all of this I still am trying to work here and make a difference in some way. I am in the YOUNGO Water Working Group and we are working towards getting a larger focus on water, to us it seems to be only slipped in as footnotes and is ignored. But it has become apparent to us that this will take some time. Instead we hope to make some noise and establish this group and have a larger basis to continue this work. We have gained attention from other countries and organizations looking for the same thing and we hope we can use our unique position as youth to bring these issues to more light.

Is this worth it? If this is such a broken system shouldn’t we work to fix the system or create a new one?

I feel I have to think that it is worth it. Just as how I feel it is worth it to fight for climate justice in the United States despite how many people tell me it is dismal. I have to fight because I never know who might hear me screaming my lungs out at what seems to be just a blank wall of a building filled with deaf people. And I remember that I have so many people here at the negotiations and back home who care just as much as me and are working just as hard or harder at making sure people hear us. I have to work at this because if I don’t than why should any of them work on it? We can’t let things continue the way they have. We have to be loud and we have to work at these issues until we can say they have been solved. That means working on them in all theaters, within this broken convoluted system as well as outside so that maybe, just maybe something actually happens.

Civil Society Puts Pressure on Negotiators at COP17

Randy Downs — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:00:31 -0800

Saturday, December 3 2011
Written by Angela Wiley
Edited by Holly Jones
Photos by Adriana Gonzalez

This morning, Adriana tapped me on the shoulder and said in a low voice (despite the cacophony of whistles, singing, shouts), “We’re in a march in South Africa right now”. Her eyes were sparkling, and despite the general discomfort from walking in paper thin flip flops, I felt reconnected to the energy of thousands filling the streets of downtown Durban. The peaceful march was headed to the ICC to deliver messages of urgency to negotiators discussing climate change.

So far, negotiations in Durban have been panning out “as expected” -- that is, we won’t be seeing a fair, ambitious and binding treaty by the end of next week, and the United States often stands firmly planted in the way of consensus throughout negotiations. Implementation plans for the Cancun Agreements, particularly the Green Climate Fund (GCF), may be moved on by the end of negotiatons; and if not, another sagging year remains in between decision making on the GCF. Most disappointing is the discussion of a 2020 timeline for agreements. With most countries ideally peaking emissions at 2020, the timeline is obnoxiously slow for an issue as urgent as climate change. After a week of meetings in the conference center in Durban, my anger at the possibility of a 2020 timeline has been building. In a briefing with U.S. negotiator Jonathon Pershing, he said to youth, “...this is not a scenario when any one actor is the solution.”. Of all the disappointing sound bytes I’ve collected from Pershing’s briefings, this was one I finally agreed with. I needed to stay engaged, but needed to take a break from the conference halls to sound off.

The power of marching with activists from every continent on the planet was incredible; and the messages of the day expressed the urgency that is absent in the ICC. “People before Profit”, “Listen to People Not Polluters”, “Climate Justice Now”, and other slogans revealed the political relationships that shape the interests of decision makers. Despite process constraints within negotiations, agreements would come much quicker without heavy influence from fossil fuel players. Although the people marching today were members of different countries and identified strongly with their occupations, issue groups, or national identities, a global community was also speaking. As Secretariat Christiana Figueres and COP17 President Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane emerged from the ICC, a ring of police was surrounded by a ring of march marshalls, and then media (including me). Protestors stretched beyond, continuing to sing, chant and hoist their banners. Speakers on the megaphone represented grievances of civil society with brief but powerful speeches. A South African youth shouted over the loudspeaker “...you will be long gone when we have to deal with the consequences [of climate change]. Please bear in mind when you negotiate that you have our future in your hands....let’s move away from coal, leave the coal in the hole and the oil in the soil!” With Figueres and Nkoana-Mashabane less than a meter away under their umbrellas, I hope they got the message.

Visit SSC's Flickr page to see more from the march and our delegation's experience at COP17 Climate negotiations.