Away from the UN the power is shifting!

Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by annac in E.U., United Kingdom

So here I am sitting back at home in the UK. After two weeks at the UN you may have picked up a slightly depressed tone from me. The sheer lack of pace, the enormity of the task, and the seemingly unmovable politics, all contributed to a definite lowering of spirits.

Nothing momentous happened in the couple of hours I missed to dash home. So the answer to the question ‘what did we see achieved in two weeks?’ has not changed much from my previous blogs. We saw more clarity in the text, but no real reduction in length. And we saw lot of messy politics being aired, but with no signs of compromise, or even any points of possible convergence.

We did see one piece of good news- Norway’s announcement that they would go to 40% emission reduction on 1990 levels by 2020. And though we don’t know how much of this will be through offsetting, in my eyes this process is so screwed that we have to applaud any baby steps of progress to get countries to running pace as soon as possible.

But you know, as little as we saw happen at the UN, these two weeks have been pretty momentous here in the UK. It almost made me wish I had just stayed here (although then I wouldn’t have got to see Andrea our Italian tracker being scared like a little girl when riding in a Tuk Tuk…).

Here in the UK we have seen a huge build of energy around climate activism.

And we have seen results

Kingsnorth cancelled due to the ‘recession’ (whatever we know why).

BAA saying the third runway will not go ahead.

And in the week our politicians returned to Parliament…

A 3 day long occupation of the roof of the houses of parliament by Greenpeace with the message - ‘change the politics, save the climate’

And of course a whole weekend where 350 young people learnt how to change the world by telling their story. Power Shift explored why we care about climate change on an individual level and as a group, then taught young people how to tell this story so we can inspire others to action. This is the technque used by Obama in his election campaign, so we’re expecting big things from our Power Shifters!

All this was rounded off by a celebration of the youth climate movement and a reminder to our politicians that we are here and we want action, in the form of a flash dance in central London. We actually did it twice. Once by the London Eye where we had permission, and then one impromtu repeat on parliament square to show solidarity with Greenpeace. Due to the laws surrounding protesting on Parliament square this dance was actually, for many of the young people there, their first bit of direct action!

Proof these young people really are ready for a Power Shift!

So what have these past couple of weeks taught us?

Well the biggest thing I am coming to learn is that the power isn’t at the UN.

The power is right here.

And not with our government.

The power is with us.

Listening to young people, from all over the UK and a huge range of backgrounds, really connect with why they care, and then connect with each other, gave me hope for the future. When we know why we care, what binds us together, and we can share that with others, we can create an unstoppable force.

A force that has the power to change things.

This week has proved that! And that’s enough to raise my spirits from their UN slump!

Tags: Bangkok, Greepeace, Heathrow, Kingsnorth, Norway, Power Shift, Third Runway, UKYCC, UNFCCC