Making a statement

Posted on 17. Dec, 2009 by annac in United Kingdom

Yesterday was the last day we were allowed into the negotiations in Copenhagen. The world leaders have turned up and access for civil society to these negotiations is now severely restricted.

So yesterday we had to make a statement.

In fact yesterday lots of people made statements.

The negotiations here are in crisis. What we have on the table now, is actually worse than anything we have had over these last 6 months. It’s a jumbled mess that just isn’t anywhere near what we need.

Very late last night (more on that later) we bumped into Ed, he made his feelings about how all this is going quite clear…he thinks it is going terribly! I like a politician with a bit of honesty.

But even though this is the case, even though they are delaying and suspending negotiating sessions for hours, even though we are getting nowhere, yesterday they started the high level summit. For the first few hours this basically meant lots of leaders got up and made a statement.

It’s ridiculous.

It doesn’t get us anywhere. It’s frustrating and mind numbing to see. The feelings of despair this whole process brings up in me are like someone reaching inside me and grabbing my insides tight. If I dwell on where we are actually at in the negotiations for too long, I return to the state of immobility that has been haunting me for much of this week.

But yesterday the leaders weren’t the only ones making statements.

Yesterday a lot of people both inside and outside the conference centre made statements.

Yesterday people from around the world including many friends of mine joined together to try and reclaim power. Thousands tried to get into the conference centre area from the outside and hundreds left the conference centre to join them half way. Here they held a people’s forum. They took politics and money off the table and instead brought rights and respect. They made a statement about who and what these negotiations should really be about.

Yesterday the youth in the conference centre also made a statement. Yesterday at 5pm we sat down in the main hall of the conference centre and we started reading names.

The names we read were just some of the 11 million people who have raised their voice for a fair, ambitious and binding deal here in Copenhagen. We intended to sit for as long as possible, to read as many of the names as we could.

At one point some of the group were forcibly moved by security, but we continued to sit peacefully and read the names.

We said we would not leave until our calls, and the calls of the 11 million people, were heard.

We sat for 9 hours in total, it was inspiring to be a part of. The feeling of solidarity amongst both us, and others who came over was so powerful to feel. In the end we negotiated to leave peacefully at 2 30 in the morning. We agreed to leave because we did not want to risk the limited civil society participation we have left in these negotiations for the next couple of days.

We left slowly and quietly in a single file line.

We left because we had made our statement.

We left our future in their hands.

Decisions are now being made about us, without us.

But just as we were in the last few minutes of the sit in, the final few people in the building were leaving. As we watched them pass I recognised one.

It was Jan!

She smiled at me as she walked past, then, as she got to the end of the corridor, she turned round, caught my eye and smiled again. I like to think she was proud.

As we walked out I passed her and stopped for a chat. We discussed how hard the negotiations are in the state they are in, and I said goodbye.

Then without me even asking she said

“I promise we’re still really trying.”

And you know,

I believed her.

I’m going to miss Jan!

We are on the penultimate day of Copenhagen and today I can only wish her well.

Tags: cop15, Copenhagen, Ed Milliband, International youth climate movement, Jan Thompson, UKYCC, UNFCCC