This week I had a slightly different experience of COP20 to that of my NZYD teammates, as I spent the week on the outside looking in. Entry to the official proceedings requires an accreditation pass, of which we were only able to secure four this year, so two of us have split one pass, giving us one week each. This gave me a a chance to simultaneously follow what was happening inside through my friends, while walking in the shoes of the many activists here in Lima who for one reason or another have not been granted access.
Voces por el Clima
My first stop was Voices for the Climate, an official COP20 event aimed at communicating climate change information to the public in an interactive and accessible way. Here I found a plethora of talks throughout the week broken into the broad categories of forests, mountains and water, oceans, energy and sustainable cities. I set up camp for a day at the forest pavilion where I heard a range of perspectives on forest carbon stock management, biodiversity, rights of indigenous and forest communities and the controversial United Nations REDD+ scheme. I heard stories from throughout the Amazon region, about the fauna, the people and the challenges they are facing. While I didn’t agree with everything I heard, it was fascinating to hear about work being done in the region and to learn more about the realities behind the statistics.
The other area which hooked me at Voces was the Indigenous Pavillion; the product of collaboration between the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, AIDESEP (Interethnic association for the development of the Amazon basin), and COICA (Coordinator of the Indigenous Organisations of theAmazon Basin), with support from the Norwegian government. Exhibition spaces weave a narrative around how climate impacts affect indigenous groups throughout Latin America and beyond, and challenge the dominant paradigm of extractive based ‘development’.
CasActiva
In another part of Lima activists gather to ‘Change the system, not the climate’ in a convergent space hosted by local organisation TierrActiva. The convergent space is provided for all people to come together for workshops, discussions, art, and action planning. When I discovered this little gem, I was welcomed by a beautiful wall to wall mural and a giant noticeboard covered in post-it notes about all the activities on offer. With my new friends I shared a delicious locally-sourced vegetarian meal prepared by volunteers, I made paper-meche corn cobs amid screen printing and weaving of giant dream catchers, and I met young people who plan to cycle 5,000km to COP21 in Paris next year. The coming together of diverse groups of people to work together towards a common goal creates a wonderful energy and is a working model for how to create the kind of change we want to see in the world.
Looking ahead
As I contemplate my week ahead within the COP, there is a small part of me which is questioning the need to enter at all. During my week on the outside I have encountered people and organisations which have spoken to certain ideas that have been percolating within me for some time. For me, the United Nations does not offer much hope. I have seen signs of the corporate capture of the COP process, and I am dissatisfied with the false and inadequate solutions being offered up, such as carbon trading and REDD+. I see that current market-based attempts to halt deforestation are simply re-entrenching existing inequalities and neo-colonial appropriation of resources in developing countries. I am increasingly convinced that we cannot achieve sufficient action on climate without addressing the root cause: the reality that our global system is inherently unsustainable, as it requires unrelenting economic growth fuelled by consumption of resources. Until we redefine our relationship with the earth and our way of relating to it, we are simply throwing band aids at a gaping wound.
So then why will I be entering COP20 tomorrow with my shiny new observer badge? Well, because I believe that it is still crucial to be there to contest that space. The absence of critical voices would grant free reign to governments to avoid implementing change, and mean that corporate influence, both on individual governments and the UNFCCC process itself would continue unchallenged. I believe, as do many others, that it is important to highlight the inadequacy of the UN process, shine a light on examples of corporate influence and communicate the need for deeper action to address this crisis. What’s more, there are a good number of voices which have not been granted access and whose concerns and experiences warrant a mouth piece on the inside, if only to be that nagging moral conscience as our negotiators stall the process.
Perhaps my experience as an ‘outsider’ at COP has radicalised me somewhat. But I also believe it has allowed me to synthesise my ideas about climate change and the UN process in a coherent manner, alongside others who feel many of the same things. Now I have the connections at my disposal to begin to engage with the question of what action is needed, and the confidence to engage with delegates and speak my truth, knowing the volume of stories which underlie my views.
