On Wednesday the 9th of November, most of us woke up shocked and disappointed by the US election results. And of course, many of us feared the Paris Agreement and all global climate action is threatened. My guess is the climate will be fine, but other values might be at stake. The election of Donald…
Category: Climate Change
Expectations for COP22
I am Mitja from Finland and also a part of the FYEG delegation to the climate negotiations of COP22 at Marrakech in Morocco. My expectations towards the negotiations are focused on action – what needs to be done to stop global warming? This year is heralded as the year of action yet during the first…
Growth driven society and the illusion of climate change mitigation
Sustainable development has been the focus of all the contemporary climate negotiations. All the environmental agreements and media releases mention the words “sustainable development”, however the COP22, as many other socio-political arenas, are rooted on the definition of economic growth as the route to development. Article 10.5 of the Paris Agreement set out that “Accelerating,…
COP22: The Newcomer
I’m new to COP, here’s a brief update on what it has been like so far. My name is Danika Formosa and I am the International Secretary of the Maltese Young Greens. I am part of the Federation of Young European Greens delegation attending the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as…
Trump trumps climate – climate trumps Trump?
Actually, this should have been an article about expectations for this year’s UN Climate Talks after a few days of negotiations. It was prepared for the election of Hillary Clinton as 45th President of United States. But then Donald Trump was elected – a sexist, a racist, a homophobe. And when it comes to science:…
The Current Environmental Crisis
There is no doubt that we currently face the widespread destruction of the environment. Today, humans have massively been caught in social as well as environmental destruction as they are at the core of the problem. It is clear that the contemporary environmental crisis is worth considering as it has threatened us over the last…
World Economic Forum: Are the leaders working for us?
Time to rethink our political and economic system I am an environmentalist, but this label has never sat well with me. The term “environmentalist” is of limited use and those who worship at the altar of limitless growth struggle to see past the label – as if being “green” was no more than a fashion…
FYEG at COP21: Paris Agreement – An Ambitious Disaster?
On the 12th of December 2015 evening a story, ongoing for 21 years, ended. This was the evening when nearly 196 countries agreed to have the first legal treaty, applicable to all, that tries to combat climate change. Unlike it’s predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol which only asked developed countries for emissions reductions, this agreement expects…
FYEG at COP21: Too big to fail – Analysis of the second draft
Last night, a new text was released in the negotiations halls of Paris. The first important thing to note is the kind of text. It is a proposal by the President of the COP and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Laurent Fabius. This means that the new text is not the final text…
FYEG at COP21: A new draft agreement reached
Yesterday, there was a new historical moment for the on-going climate negotiations: We finally have a draft agreement! This new text saw a reduction from 21 to 14 pages, and we have a broad overview of what is in the draft and what isn’t. Firstly, the text still has the form that would be needed…