Weak Climate Accord Disappoints Student
January 14, 2010 • By Katie Hibson, Contributing Writer
Print This Post
Email This Post
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Mary Shindler went a little farther than most students with her goal to help the earth — she went all the way to Copenhagen over winter break to take part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Shindler, a Charlottesville resident and philosophy major, went to the U.N. Convention as part of the 19-member Sierra Student Coalition. Held Dec. 7 through Dec. 18 at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, the purpose of the convention was to try to create a binding agreement among more than 110 nations on climate change. Shindler was one of 2,500 youths from around the world to attend the convention.
“The conference was one of the most physically and mentally intense experiences of my life,” Shindler said. “We were up at 5 a.m. and working 20 hours a day setting policy, presenting interventions and organizing with other youth activists.”
Although Shindler described her experience working at the convention as eye-opening, disappointment was the ultimate outcome of the two-week effort at cooperation.
“The participating nations ended up not coming anywhere close to a binding treaty,” Shindler said. “They came out with a Copenhagen Accord, which didn’t really say much.”
The Copenhagen Accord, which was the end result of 31 straight hours of negotiating, produced an agreement urging major polluters to make significant emissions cuts to keep world temperatures from rising above preindustrial levels. However, the accord does not require nations to abide by the emission output goals. The agreement also provided billions in climate aid to developing nations.
According to Shindler, most of the disappointment and lack of cooperation came from developed nations, including the United States. The developed nations opposed plans to help less developed nations adapt to climate change, which increased the difficulty of negotiations by creating obstacles and objecting to proposals.
“It was very frustrating,” Shindler said. “The developing nations have caused this problem, and we really need to step up and take responsibility for it. We can’t keep putting it off.”
Shindler described one day when negotiation tensions grew so high that the delegation from the Republic of Maldives, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean, stood up, angrily announced displeasure with the developed nations’ proposal and stormed out of the Bella Center. Shindler and other youth representatives quickly organized an “approved action”, similar to a protest, in the Bella Center with signs backing the position of the nation.
“We supported them because the Republic of Maldives is a prime example of the how we are already seeing the effects of climate change,” Shindler said. “Their country will probably be underwater in the next few years because of climate change, and they’re trying to figure out a new plan for what to do with their people when it happens.”
One of the most memorable experiences of Shindler’s trip was a dinner that Chinese and American youth representatives attended. Approximately 50 representatives from each nation talked about how their nations could better facilitate future economic and political discussions.
“It almost brought me to tears to see and talk with the future leaders of the U.S. and China,” Shindler said. “Some of the most intelligent and inspiring people were in a room together peacefully discussing how to work together.”
China and the United States have historically been at odds politically, with particular regard to issues involving climate change. The United States and China, the two leading emitters of carbon dioxide, disagreed on many key points about clean energy in Copenhagen. China wants to use coal as the main energy source to help build its economy, while the United States favors a more clean energy alternative.
“If we can do it, how come our leaders can’t do it?” Shindler said laughing. “Just get out of the way and let us do it!”
Shindler joined JMU’s EARTH Club during her sophomore year, despite no previous involvement with environmental activism. She soon joined the Sierra Club, where she first heard about the UN Convention. The Sierra Club is an organization which works to protect the environment. The Sierra Club wasn’t originally planning on sending a student delegate to the conference.
But Shindler and Ethan Buckner, a Vassar College student, submitted a proposal during the summer, much past the April deadline. The Sierra Club accepted the pair.
Each member raised $2,500 to finance the trip, with contributions coming from a grant through the JMU Office of International Programs, the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley, the Sierra Club Shenandoah Valley Chapter of Harrisonburg and the Mother Nature Network. Plans for the trip were hastily arranged, with confirmation for housing coming a mere week before the scheduled departure date.
Despite the last-minute travel plans, the accompanying stress was worth it for Shindler.
“I love the idea that I can take an issue I am concerned with and actually do something about it and make a difference,” Shindler said. “I just hope that next year will be.”
Comments
2 Responses to “Weak Climate Accord Disappoints Student”
Got something to say?
Check Out New Videos!
March 4, 2010 Issue in Print
2010 Baseball & Softball Guide
“If we can do it, how come our leaders can’t do it?”
The answer to that is our leaders understand that the draconian restrictions you would impose on developed nations, in the name of unproven science, would lead to the crippling of their economies. The results of that would be much worse. Especially if the theory is wrong.
While the intentions of some of the climate change crowd may be noble, others in that group may have a different agenda. That being the leveling the economic playing field around the globe.
I also find it a bit offensive and arrogant when alarmists are certain that they know what is best for others. Too many scientists dispute man’s impact on climate change. Before we commit billions of dollars to a theory that might be wrong wouldn’t it be prudent to wait until the “unfalsified” results were in?
Little Friedrich agrees with Norm.