Dear friends, family, and colleagues,
 
Happy New Year! Hope you are enjoying the first week of 2010. After epic travel delays and visiting family, I am finally back in Caroline. As I write this, I am reliving the intensity and overwhelming pace of the climate talks Copenhagen just two and a half weeks ago. Here are the important highlights (with my reflections below):
 

TALKS END WITHOUT TREATY
 
The United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen ended two weeks and a half ago. It was a historic summit with the expectation of producing a binding climate treaty: over 192 countries participated, including a record 117 heads of state. Despite this momentum and intense international attention, on Friday December 18 (the final day of scheduled talks), international headlines reported the talks were "in a state of disarray" and that a "weak political statement" was anticipated.
 
Early on Saturday morning, after a series of closed-door sessions, the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa released a three-page “accord” that contained no targets for emissions cuts or many other elements deemed critical for a treaty. It sets a timeline of six weeks for participating nations to “append” their targets, but offers no consequences if they fail to do so.
 
When the draft was released, many nations protested, claiming it side-stepped the UN process. A delegate from Bolivia, whose urban populations face water shortages as Andean glaciers melt, called the accord “anti-democratic, anti-transparent and unacceptable.” Many poor nations said the accord was far short of the fair, ambitious, binding treaty they fought for. The lead negotiator for the vulnerable island nation of Tuvalu said “It looks like we are being offered 30 pieces of silver to betray our people and our future.” After hours of contentious debate, the UN voted to neither adopt nor reject it – instead to “take note” of the three-page text.
 
The outcome disappointed many who were in Copenhagen. European Union Commission President Jose Barroso said, “I will not hide my disappointment regarding the non-binding nature of the agreement,” adding, “the document falls far short of our expectations.” Lumumba Di-Aping, head of the G-77 negotiation block of poor countries, was fiercely critical: “[The accord] asks Africa to sign a suicide pact in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries.”
 
NGOs were just as harsh. The leader of Friends of the Earth said “Copenhagen has been an abject failure. Justice has not been done. By delaying action, rich countries have condemned millions of the world's poorest people to hunger, suffering and loss of life as climate change accelerates.”
 
Here is an excellent video, capturing peoples’ reactions from inside the Bella Center:
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-clima...
 

OBAMA DELIVERS SPEECH
 
Although reports are conflicting about what took place behind closed-doors, including uncertainty over China's role, by all accounts the United States failed to deliver necessary leadership.
 
Many hoped President Obama’s arrival during the high-level meetings in the second week could create a breakthrough if he announced strong new commitments for funding, targets, or insistence on a binding treaty – opening space for other nations to follow suit.
 
On Friday, in the spotlight of international media, President Obama delivered his highly-anticipated speech. Inside the conference center, participants crowded around plasma monitors, while participants off site watched the speech on huge projection screens. As Obama walked to the podium, onlookers hushed. Obama was somber and unemotional as he addressed the assembled prime ministers and presidents. He acknowledged climate change is an urgent problem and said the time had arrived to solve it. Speaking in broad, general statements, he concluded without any mention of change in US position on any of the key issues.
 
The effect was immediate: deflating of hope. Throughout Friday, every person I talked with said it was profoundly disappointing. Later that evening, the situation repeated when Obama held a brief press conference before flying home to Washington. Youth crowded in front of a large projection screen, watching Obama explain he and several other world leaders had came to consensus on a non-binding agreement that he acknowledged “was a first step” and fell short of what was needed. People shook their heads in disbelief. One person booed in disgust.
 

CIVIL SOCIETY SHUT OUT
 
Copenhagen saw a sharp increase in the number of “civil society” observer organizations at the negotiations. These non-governmental groups (environmental, women, youth, indigenous, research, business, local government, and others) provide valuable “on the ground” perspective. They also provide a critical window into the UN negotiations, allowing the world’s citizens to engage in and judge the outcome of the negotiations.
 
Unfortunately, the UN accredited 45,000 people, three times than the Bella Center capacity of 15,000, forcing thousands to wait in lines five hours long that stretched to the next metro stop.
 
In an unprecedented move that compounded chaos, on Thursday and Friday of the conference’s second week, the UN Secretariat banned all civil society organizations from entering the Bella Center. Tens of thousands of people, representing hundreds of organizations (including SustainUS) were directed to watch the proceedings via video link at a few sites around the city.
 
One of the few young people allowed to enter and witness the talks was Juan Carlos Soriano from Peru. Early on Saturday morning, on behalf of young people from around the world present at the conference, Juan Carlos gave an impassioned speech at the plenary (although most delegates were not present to listen). You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH7ezO8DoKw
 

UN REPORT LEAKED
 
In another development from Copenhagen, a draft United Nations report was leaked which looked at the real impact of proposed cuts of CO2. Greenhouse gases and climate are tightly linked, so it’s sobering just to know atmospheric carbon dioxide is already at its highest level in more than two million years. But it gets worse.
 
If you sum up all the world’s nations carbon-cutting proposals (totaling a 15% cut from 1990 levels), the report found atmospheric CO2 levels will still skyrocket from current 387 ppm to a terrifying 770 ppm. The last time CO2 was that high was at the end of the super-warm Eocene, 33.9 million years ago – when Earth had no Antarctic ice sheet. The transition to our current climate system was marked by worldwide mass extinctions.
 
(A member of Congress told me, “The world’s deposits of coal and oil formed over tens of millions of years. You don’t need an advanced degree to know that if we dig up and burn it all in a few decades, something bad will probably happen.”)
 
According to the report, a rise to 770 ppm would trigger a cascade of feedbacks, and the Earth would warm by 6 degrees in my lifetime. Droughts and shifting rainfall would mean a staggering 90% of African peasants would no longer be able to farm their land. That’s right: ninety percent. Millions would be forced to find another livelihood. When the report was released, non-governmental organizations in Copenhagen responded by calling the UN accord “climate genocide.”
 
Some groups are now calling for the world's nations to go far beyond even ambitious goals such as 80% cuts by 2050 or even carbon neutral. They say that because we have already overshot safe levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and CO2 emissions are cumulative on a human timescale (they stay in the atmosphere for 1,000 years), we need to go "carbon negative" -- stop all emissions and start removing carbon from the atmosphere. Already, some buildings are being designed as carbon negative structures, sequestering CO2. The technology we'll need in the next 10 years doesn't even exist today, and that means innovation and jobs.
 

REFLECTION: CAN WE INSPIRE THE WORLD TO DANCE?
 
As I write this, Copenhagen seems like a faraway world. Being inside the cavernous UN negotiation hall was intense and emotional. I was honored to work with some of the most passionate, talented, and amazing people I’ve ever met. It is deeply inspiring to join with young people from around the planet for our common vision: a safe, healthy, fair, and abundant world for present and future generations.
 
Reflecting back, what I’ll remember is being part of a growing worldwide movement. On Saturday December 12, more than one million people at 4,000 events in one hundred and forty countries held vigils to call on global leaders to agree a fair, ambitious and binding climate agreement. One hundred thousand people marched in the streets of Copenhagen. The TckTckTck campaign (an unprecedented coalition) gathered over 15.2 million signatures -- creating the largest petition in history.
 
My spirits are raised by fellow youth bringing their passion and heart inside the UN negotiation halls. Two years ago in Bali, only a few delegates in the plenary spoke with any passion. In Copenhagen, nations walked out, pleaded, got angry and emotional. World youth rallied behind the poor and vulnerable countries who are making brave stands. Several courageous youth leaders fasted for an unimaginable 44 days, and inspired countless others (I was among them) to join in a global day of solidarity fasting.
 
For me, I feel a deep sense of moral responsibility. My nation is responsible more than any other for the crisis – contributing a whopping 29% of total carbon emissions since 1850. According to our American ethic of “polluter pays” and “you break it you bought it,” the United States owes a massive ecological debt to the world and to future generations, which is growing larger every hour.
 
For young people today, this isn’t news. We’ve grown up hearing the science; we know the world is changing. And we vote.
 
It’s disappointing, frustrating, and embarrassing that Obama did not push the world towards the strongest agreement possible. But – the good news – there may be common ground for Americans to agree. Over french fries at Hard Rock Café Copenhagen, a member of Congress told US youth, “Even the most adamant climate hold-outs in the Senate are concerned about America’s competitive advantage in the clean energy economy. They don’t want America to be left behind.”
 
For me, ultimately, this is about justice. It is deeply unfair that a small group of people is actively destroying the ability of people in poor countries and future generations to have a decent shot at life. With tears in his eyes, a SustainUS delegate told what his new friend from a poor country said during his goodbye: “Please, promise me when you return to America you will do everything in your power to save my family and our way of life.”
 
Time is running out. Science says we have at best a few years to turn this enormous ship around. It seems that nothing short of a unified and powerful movement will create the political imperative to move. We have to quickly expand our notion of what is possible for the world and of what we ourselves are capable of.
 
Here’s a video which does just that. The story behind this is incredible. A small young girl in Belgium wanted do something about climate change -- her dream was to have a beach full with people dancing with her in a climate dance. Her vision caught the attention of a video producer and they organized a video shoot.
 
In August 2009 on the Ostend Beach in Belgium, 10,000 people turned out to dance for the climate. It gives me goose bumps:
 
http://www.dancefortheclimate.org/
 

If one girl can inspire 10,000 people to dance, what are we collectively capable of?
 

Thank you again for your encouragement and well-wishes. It means more than you know.
 
Let’s build the world of our dreams. Our future is calling, Dominic