Voicing their dissent to government efforts to derail climate change negotiations, 150 representatives of the International Youth Delegation gathered in Warsaw, Poland, last month to protest a European Union Climate Package meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Chancellor Merkel, who in the past has campaigned to make world industrial powers cut greenhouse gas emissions, vowed last month “to fight any EU climate deal that jeopardized German jobs as recession tightens its grip.” (EU Business. December 9, 2008).
The meeting was part of the larger United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan and the 14th Conference of Parties (COP 14), attended by 12,000 participants and 189 governmental delegations. The main task of the gathering was to review progress in a two-year push towards a new U.N. climate treaty to be agreed upon in Copenhagen in December 2009. The new treaty will replace the Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in 2012.
Greengrants’ Brazilian partner Rubens Born was there with his organization, the Vitae Civilis Institute for Development, Environment and Peace, to document the event. The message of the protest was focused on fixing the economic and environmental crisis simultaneously without sacrificing climate change action, and on using green jobs to stimulate economic growth.
Vitae Civilis—a non-governmental organization based in Sao Paolo, Brazil—works to contribute to the construction of sustainable societies by strengthening citizenship and civil society organizations. The organization traveled to Poland to document the Poznan Climate Change Conference as part of its commitment to follow the international dialogue on climate change and be a channel of communication for civil society, the press, and policy-makers at all levels. To find out more about Vitae Civilis and watch their other COP 14 related videos, click here.