APE at COP15
The Copenhagen Climate Conference, 7th – 18th December 2009
For the last few months, the Artists Project Earth team have been preparing for the United Nations CoP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. As well as upgrading our website, making a short film about APE and working flat-out to promote the new album (whew!), six members of APE are in Copenhagen to talk about the charity, the new album and our work helping organisations all over the world in mitigating serious climate change.
The powerful closing statement by Al Gore on the first day of the high level discussions at the COP15 Climate summit in Copenhagen. A MUST SEE!
Although we are now no longer there, we are bringing you a live feed, courtesy of OneClimate.net. So if you want to continue to keep apace of what’s happening in COP 15 watch this space! You can also read our diary from our time at the Conference below.
Day 6
Sadly it is our last day in Copenhagen – much as we’d like to have stayed for the whole COP15 Conference, we had to return to the UK for other pressing matters, but as luck would have it, our last day also turned out to be the best yet! By Day 6, we’d all got to know each other a bit better – seeing familiar faces in the crowds, people we’d had meaningful conversations with and speakers who’d given heartfelt speeches during plenary sessions. So how much more connected we felt when, amongst the 100,000 protesters at the Climate Change rally on Saturday afternoon, we saw those self-same people dressed up as polar bears, or playing samba, carrying placards or simply waiting patiently in the crowd to start walking the five or so kilometres to the Bella Centre.
As we stood in the sunny yet chilly December afternoon, listening to the rallying speech by Vandana Shiva (who never fails to stir the spirit and inspire commitment to the cause), I was taken back to a similar chilly February day when 2 million of us marched through the streets of London for the anti-war rally. It felt, at both gatherings, that we are at a turning point, that the collective will of the masses must, and surely will make a difference. One could say that it didn’t in Iraq – but now as the legalities of that war are debated, we can at least feel vindicated that we did the right thing by standing up and being counted. Perhaps that is all that will come of this demonstration, but as Vandana reminded us, the WTO has never recovered from the demonstrations that undermined it’s authority. So anything is possible.
And so we marched, some of us less far than others – my excuse: a strategy meeting with the APE team booked for the only afternoon that we were all together – and so I didn’t see the trouble that the press and media chose to cover. But I know that the agitators were so much in the minority that it seems a great over-reaction by the police forces to arrest 900 people when only a few were eventually charged. But that is the nature of these gatherings: we represent a great threat to the status-quo, but we will not be silenced when our future is at stake.
And so the day darkened into evening and all the NGO members headed off for a massive party at the Vega Centre – where we let our hair down, took off our suits, drank a glass of wine and danced through the night to some slinky salsa, an amazing Balkan band who got two thousand people grooving to their particular brand of anarchy and then to the lounge where DJs played until the early hours. There was a lot of kissing and hugging going on that evening!
As we left to wend our way back to our digs in Malmo (by the extremely efficient train system, courtesy of the Danish government), I reflected on the first day that we arrived and how dry, sterile and insular it all felt: then as people began to open up and talk, as Avaaz continued their wonderful Fossil of the Day show, we got to see the art installations and exhibitions that were taking place all over Copenhagen, and as we ended up at the Vega party, we realised that music and the arts does play a huge role in bringing people together: in bridging the gaps that conversation cannot, in communication a shared message without misinterpretation and in lightening the load of such an intense, world-changing gathering – which still has another week to go!
Day 5
It is getting busier and busier in the Bella Centre and we just heard that there are 33,000 people accredited next week for this venue that only has the capacity to house 15,000 - but that's good as it will mean that observers will have to get out and about in Copenhagen and see the other events, campaigns, demonstrations, alternative forums and myriad 'happenings' that are taking place across the city. But is seems the powers that be aren't particularly good with figures anyway - otherwise why should the EU delegates be haggling over making 3 billion dollars available to the global south for climate change mitigation strategies, when the IMF have 150 billion dollars in a Special Drawing Rights Fund that could be made available to these countries immediately? If this is money that has been put aside for 'a rainy day' - then surely this is it? What could be more of a crisis than climate change? Even the billionaire financier George Soros - who, let's face it, could fund the initiative himself - thinks this is a good idea.
APE got an invitation to go to the PlanetCall.org launch today, where thousands of global youth from 127 countries have signed a pledge to cut their carbon emissions. Four youth delegates from China, India, Australia and the Netherlands then put forward their 'youth ideas for sustainable development'. These ranged from twinning schools in the developed North with those in the global South so that mitigation projects, sustainable education and cooperative strategies could be shared and replicated. Another idea in India was to use the 'cow' as a symbol of sustainable development so that people in rural parts of the country could relate to and be taught issues of sustainability using the sacred cow as an example of climate resilience through small-scale agriculture.
But the idea that caught our attention most was from a young Chinese delegate who stated that China has the largest population of internet users and social networkers on the planet with over 400 million youth using these technologies. But, there is a huge lack of climate change information translated into Chinese. He asked that environmental organisations translate their websites and subtitle their films into Chinese - so that China Youth could get a clearer idea of what is happening around the world to mitigate climate change. This is an idea that most NGOs could afford to do - and in the process engage with an audience whose future choices will affect the whole planet.
Jeremy Leggett, Founder of Solar Century and one of the invited gets at the PlanetCall launch made a statement that struck us as very prescient: he said that he'd worked on some research that looked into how long it would take the world to be powered completely by renewable technology - including the whole transport sector - if only we were not held back by vested interests and governments in thrall to the fossil-fuel lobby, and the answer is, twenty years. TWENTY YEARS. That's within the working lifetime of this generation of young people who talked to us today. The good news is that, according to another statistic also being bandied around, it is the new media generation of 19-29 year olds who are most likely to set up businesses that are going to make the change to a sustainable economy. If only the official climate talks were as visionary, cooperative and good-natured as this!
Sadly, it seems that the official climate talks are not communicating with the global youth so readily, with many young people feeling that the climate negotiators are turning their backs on them. Indeed such is their consternation about this lack of participation in the process that they have produced a huge red banner stating, 'We Will Not Die Quietly'. It must be remembered that these talks are a matter of life and death to the youth of today.
Day 4
Young people today face adulthood in a diminished environment where, amongst other things, the availability of water and clean air cannot be taken as a given – and they justifiably feel cheated out of their futures. There is a palpable air of determination here as the youth movement make themselves heard in no uncertain terms. From the Chinese youth dressed as pandas, eagles and various other endangered species who waylay COP15 delegates to give them a prescription of Chinese medicine: “You are too stressed, therefore you must drive less” – to the vegan animal-rights activists picketing the entrance zone who maintain that the only path to a stable and humane future is to desist from meat eating, which contributes more carbon emissions than the entire transport sector, we find an agitated, motivated and extremely informed youth movement that is focused on fighting for their future.Some choose not to confront, but to create. We met with two young people at the newly-opened cyber-hub – The Fresh Air Centre – and learned about what could be the first Twitter-originated book called, What’s Worth Saving In This Place? Through the medium of Twitter, these young people asked for answers to this question and received replies from all over the world, which they turned into a beautifully-illustrated little book. And the responses are heartfelt and humbling: “The hill tribes that gave me hospitality in Thailand depend on the rainy season for their living. Those seasons are now disappearing...”; “Male sea turtles off the SW coast of Turkey: an increase of 4 degrees will eliminate male offspring due to a female sex bias in warmer waters...”; “The Franz Joseph Glacier, the most amazing and beautiful thing I have ever seen...” We agreed to take some of these booklets into the Bella Centre and to try and place them in the hands of the delegates – those who most need to know the peoples’ response to climate change.
We then learned a salutary lesson when we went to Christiania, the self-governing community started in the 1970s on a disused military base on the outskirts of Copenhagen. We were keen to go not only to have a look around this infamous place but because it is running an event called ‘Climate Bottom’ - the antithesis of the ‘Climate Summit’ with a spiritual perspective on climate change. We walked through the gates of Christiania and into a Christmas Fair, selling locally-made crafts and delicious organic lunches. From there we wandered over to a designated space covered with yurts, tipis and marquees where we listened to Indigenous voices from around the world beseeching us to respect Mother Nature and each other. Two Ashaninka Amazon Indians did some beautiful healing chants and we came out of the marquee full of equanimity.
One of our colleagues then took some photos of the Indians and out of nowhere a young man came up to us demanding to see the shots she’d taken. In Christiania, there’s a drug-dealing zone which is tolerated by the community, but frowned upon by the Copenhagen authorities. The self-policing dealers don’t allow photos to be taken and although we were not in the zone and actually facing the other direction, this guy got really heavy with us. He started swearing and threatening to throw the camera in the bin. Needless to say, we were rather shaken by his menacing attitude and in the end, he made us delete all the photos we had taken– because he thought we could give them to the police who could zoom in on them and identify the dealers.
It’s so ironic that twenty feet away from a place that advocates peace, love and respect, we experienced such a menacing confrontation. It goes to show the great paradox of humanity; a species that can produce great overtures of music, magnificent works of art and literature and incredible technological developments, whilst at the same time, waging war on the innocent, polluting the Earth and atmosphere and destroying Mother Nature for short term gain. We still have so much to learn.
Will humanity be able to cope with the onset of climate change? With the rising tides and severe droughts, the forest fires and melting glaciers? Or is it all now a matter of adapt and survive? And will our hopes be replaced by fears if the politicians fail to come to an agreement at the end of these two weeks, billed as the most important gathering of humanity to date?
Wandering the debating chambers and conference halls at COP15, it seems nigh-on impossible that we will ever be able to reach an agreement as there are fifteen thousand differing opinions on just about everything in the Bella Centre! Most NGOs are campaigning against the ‘solutions’ that are being debated by the delegates: whilst Friends of the Earth International demand an end to Carbon Offsetting - “What do we want? Climate Justice, When do we want it? NOW!!” – REDD Alert are drawing attention to what they perceive as the shortcomings of the REDD process, that many are touting as the most effective way to save the rainforests. It seems the disagreements are set to go on and on.
Yet a few short metro stops away from the Bella Centre, in the the heart of the city, an inspiring exhibition entitled ‘Hopenhagen’ makes you believe that anything is possible. With it’s smart bicycles, electric cars and motorbikes, its sustainable city demonstrations, power houses that generate more electricity than they use and a myriad other “everyday miracles”, Copenhagen is setting a precedent for sustainable cities that other countries can and must follow.
Copenhagen aims to become the world’s first ‘carbon neutral city’ by 2025 and 75% of its CO2 emissions will be saved through its energy supply which will be from renewables. Every day, people cycle 1.2million km in Copenhagen and cyclists rights take precedent over those of other road users: in winter, snow must be cleared from cycle lanes before it is cleared from other parts of the road network. 37% of all commuters already cycle to work, and with over 100km of new green cycle routes planned throughout the city, this figure is set to rise to 55%. Copenhagen’s city planners have the political will to make the changes necessary for its citizens to tread lightly on the Earth and the good news is that 80 other mayors from around the world have come here to learn the lessons of Hopenhagen.
At an Interfaith meeting at the Bella Centre, participants agreed that climate change is challenging humanity to rise to our next level of maturity. That in fact, climate change is a spiritual issue: one that depends on us changing our inner values from voracious consumerism and greed, to balance, respect and reciprocity. If we respect the Earth enough to take only what we need but not what we want, then we will have taken a great step towards maturing as a species and living in harmony on this wondrous planet. We have to change our thoughts, because what we think today becomes tomorrow’s reality. “Think Green!”
Day 3
Will humanity be able to cope with the onset of climate change? With the rising tides and severe droughts, the forest fires and melting glaciers? Or is it all now a matter of adapt and survive? And will our hopes be replaced by fears if the politicians fail to come to an agreement at the end of these two weeks, billed as the most important gathering of humanity to date?
Wandering the debating chambers and conference halls at COP15, it seems nigh-on impossible that we will ever be able to reach an agreement as there are fifteen thousand differing opinions on just about everything in the Bella Centre! Most NGOs are campaigning against the ‘solutions’ that are being debated by the delegates: whilst Friends of the Earth International demand an end to Carbon Offsetting - “What do we want? Climate Justice, When do we want it? NOW!!” – REDD Alert are drawing attention to what they perceive as the shortcomings of the REDD process, that many are touting as the most effective way to save the rainforests. It seems the disagreements are set to go on and on.
Copenhagen aims to become the world’s first ‘carbon neutral city’ by 2025 and 75% of its CO2 emissions will be saved through its energy supply which will be from renewables. Every day, people cycle 1.2million km in Copenhagen and cyclists rights take precedent over those of other road users: in winter, snow must be cleared from cycle lanes before it is cleared from other parts of the road network. 37% of all commuters already cycle to work, and with over 100km of new green cycle routes planned throughout the city, this figure is set to rise to 55%. Copenhagen’s city planners have the political will to make the changes necessary for its citizens to tread lightly on the Earth and the good news is that 80 other mayors from around the world have come here to learn the lessons of Hopenhagen.
At an Interfaith meeting at the Bella Centre, participants agreed that climate change is challenging humanity to rise to our next level of maturity. That in fact, climate change is a spiritual issue: one that depends on us changing our inner values from voracious consumerism and greed, to balance, respect and reciprocity. If we respect the Earth enough to take only what we need but not what we want, then we will have taken a great step towards maturing as a species and living in harmony on this wondrous planet. We have to change our thoughts, because what we think today becomes tomorrow’s reality. “Think Green!”
Day 2
On Day 2 of APE’s visit to the Copenhagen Climate Conference, we decided to visit the Klimaforum 2009 – billed as The Peoples’ Forum. Here we found a much more human-scale venue, where art, culture and performance played an integral part in the proceedings. We marvelled at the fact that though there were far less people here, there were far more people to talk to: somehow the scale of the venue – its more intimate spaces and communal areas – lent themselves so much more readily to human interaction.
Here we met the Eco-village Network and learned of their pioneering work in facilitating the growth of small, self-sufficient, independent communities that have done much to lay the foundation of the transition towards a more sustainable society; we talked with the Earth Journalism Network who are soon to announce the first ‘Earth Journalism Awards’ that honour the world’s best climate change reporting (visit www.awards.earthjournalism.org to cast your own vote) and we discussed the revolutionary idea of the Footprint Diary with the founders of a new iPhone ‘app’ that will enable users to calculate their personal carbon footprint using a specially-devised carbon calculator, available via their mobile phones.
Yet the tired and tested (no, that’s not a typo) format of ‘conferencing’ was still very much in evidence here: rows of people facing a stage where the speakers rattle-off the same old statistics, analysis and solutions. Information that I have heard repeated ad nauseum over the years, so that now, each time I attend a conference, I vow never to attend another! Yet here I am – and here we all are: and I wonder if this form of debate will ever achieve anything other than so much hot air. Because the audience are the converted and the speakers are the environmental elite but those who really need to hear these words of wisdom are not here. And if it is left down to the mainstream media, the true stories of Copenhagen – or ‘Hopenhagen’ as it is being billed, may never hit the headlines.
I know this as I spoke to 72 year old Lise who was one of 600 volunteers helping to keep The Peoples’ Forum on schedule. As I browsed through an avalanche of leaflets, brochures and fliers about the events and organisations at work here, Lise took me to one side. “Please tell the real story of Hopenhagen,” she asked. “Tell everyone about the wonderful volunteers from all over the world who have come here. Tell them about the seventy-year old pensioners who have come to work 12 hour shifts throughout the entire event. Because all you read in the papers in Copenhagen about COP15 is news of security alerts, activist cells bent on civil disobedience and a general air of fear. Please tell them the good news,” she urged.
So here’s the good news: from smart bicycles that use the energy from braking to recharge onboard batteries that later power cyclists uphill, to the building of ‘power houses’ that produce more energy than they use; from pedal-driven Christmas tree lights to biodynamic vegetarian restaurants that have a zero air-miles tolerance – Hopenhagen as it is becoming known, is not a place of doom-laden apocalyptic scenarios – it is a place of dynamic energy, green entrepreneurialism and, yes, hope. Obama will love it when he gets here.
Day 1
Six members of the APE team are attending the COP15 conference in Copenhagen for the first week – with the specific aim of raising awareness of the charity, connecting with like-minded organisations and forging partnerships and collaborations to enhance the work we are doing to create a better world through music and the arts. After a few brief hours at the Bella Centre, it became clear to us that the arts are not given a high priority in this palace of politics, and although the organisers have placed plants, sculptures and paintings strategically throughout the venue, music, colour and creativity seemed to be sadly lacking.
However, the NGO exhibit hall is the place at the Bella Centre where the diversity and creativity of humanity begins to reveal itself: here people raise awareness of the folly of our current worldview in all sorts of ways, such as ‘Fossil of the Day’, where at 6pm each evening the person or organisation considered to be most counter-productive to the negotiations is named and shamed. Here you can also find the Climate Kitchen, where locally-sourced, organic food is made available to the delegates (well, 65% of the food is organic...) and where Project Gaia shows the innovative ethanol cooking stoves that are transforming the lives of women in the global South. Questions and answers are scrawled on post-it notes and white boards – and sharing ideas is encouraged. It was here that we found a dynamic counter-culture that is not depending upon the outcome of these talks, but is being the change and making the changes. A great place for inspiration!
Unfortunately, due to over-demand, APE was not able to get an exhibition booth at the Bella Centre where the main talks are taking place. But we brought plenty of leaflets, posters and postcards with us and have been deploying guerrilla-tactics: depositing them in document stands, leaving them at the internet cafes, giving them out to passers-by and sweet-talking other exhibition stand holders into displaying them on their stalls!
Technology is obviously playing a great part in these talks. Thousands of journalists are here to report on proceedings, and the Press Area is one of the biggest meeting points in the Bella Centre – but here you find people plugged into their laptops rather than speaking to each other. There seems to be an air of isolation around many of the participants as they sit at tables glued to their laptop screens or tapping into their mobile phones. Have we begun to truly speak with and listen to each other yet? Despite this, technology of course, helps us to remember the reasons why we are here: the Google Earth Room can give anyone the opportunity of a ‘NASA’ moment, as we see our homes from space on a grand scale and remember that this one beautiful planet is our only home.
Our first day at the COP15 was fascinating and our first evening was inspiring – as we made our way into Copenhagen city centre (by public transport of course!) to watch the launch of the CO2 Cube – an art installation of immense proportions, floating on a lake in the darkness of a December night. And as we watched, images of the Earth, the oceans, endangered species and aeroplane flightpaths, were projected onto a cube the exact size that one metric tonne of carbon emissions would displace – a huge space – and knowing that we are pumping billions of tonnes into the atmosphere compounded our understanding that we cannot continue to pollute our fragile planet in this way.
Tomorrow we report on the alternative COP15 conferences that are taking place throughout Copenhagen and see what the grassroots activists are up to.
Reasons for being in Copenhagen.
One of our reasons for being in Copenhagen at this critical moment in time, is to meet up with other organisations and find out what they are doing – we want to publicise their wonderful initiatives and where appropriate, invite them to apply to APE for funding.
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