There are few moments in life that count forever. Choosing who (and if) to marry, becoming a parent, buying a house… Before all of these come the last years of the Greek Lykeio (senior high school) and the critical final exams held during the month of June. The grades one gets at the end of those three years give shape to all the life milestones to come.  

This year’s exams – especially their final days, June 11-13 – were for sure memorable… Temperatures soared to 43C in the month of June in much of the country – an unprecedented occurrence in our lifetime, which forced us to go through this important rite of passage at the end of high school in unbearable conditions.  

Difficulty to focus and breathe, dry mouths during oral exams, stifling heat slowing one’s handwriting, and temperatures that the human body cannot endure for long – these were not the ideal conditions for a successful graduation.  

But the heatwave that messed up our graduation exams is not just bad luck. It is the result of very bad decisions. Recent studies have attributed Greece’s searing heat and ensuing wildfires of the past years to climate change. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that the burning of fossil fuels is a primary cause for the excessive heating and rapidly rising temperatures.

Saudi visa crackdown left heatwave-hit Hajj pilgrims scared to ask for help

This year’s heatwave was not only intense, but earlier than in previous years. As schools close for three months in the summer when the summer heat is high, there is normally not much need for air conditioning and most public schools don’t have more than ceiling fans to cool off.  

The climate crisis has become an unfair obstacle to our individual prospects, affecting our entire generation across countries and continents. Of course, we will work hard to go through all the precious moments that life can offer, but it will be impossible to look back at this boiling month of June and ignore how badly it impacted our grades – and our future.  

This might be a year that fossil fuels, and the companies that profit out of them, stole our opportunity to make memories and build a bright future. 

Climate chaos hitting children

What we have missed in Greece this year pales in comparison to what others around the world have lost. Millions are displaced by floods in Bangladesh, while wildfires and storms claim victims from the Caribbean to China and Canada.  

Children are often those more severely affected: we’re living through a global decline in the provision of education, with the number of children missing out on schooling inflating to a quarter billion. Extreme heat waves, fuelled by fossil fuel companies, threaten our generation’s future. In our times, the climate crisis is no longer just a warning. It is a harsh reality that is affecting our daily lives. 

Climate chaos is real – and we are already facing its impacts. Yet governments have failed to move beyond fossil fuels and continue to depend on oil and gas companies, whose profits have been going strong, at an average of $3 billion a day for the last 50 years.  

UK court ruling provides ammo for anti-fossil fuel lawyers worldwide

Big oil and gas majors like Shell, TotalEnergies, and ENI have known about the impacts of climate change for decades. Yet even though they kept making record profits – they never devoted their talents and resources to fix the problem. They didn’t use their political ties to ring the alarm bell. They rather invested millions and millions in greenwashing and denial.  

Many others knew as well. Even our grandparents knew the lines of Greek singer Cat Stevens (today Yusuf Islam): “You roll on roads… pumping petrol gas… But they just go on and on and it seems that you can’t get off.” It was impossible to ignore.  

Now it’s definitely time to jump off the fossil fuel wagon. Our generation must devote all its energies to raise awareness of how climate chaos is affecting us all, and to mobilise more people to support climate and environmental action. Alternatives must be pursued, and historical polluters must pay for all that they’ve taken from us – including our future. 

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Dozens of states spoke at the meeting, none argued that the rights of children were adequately protected under current policies.

The special meeting was convened by the UN Human Rights Council to review how governments protect child rights in the context of climate change. The conclusions will inform the council’s annual resolution on climate change and human rights in June.

In the prestigious room of the council in Geneva, panelists emphasised how governments are currently failing younger generations by not adequately addressing climate change.

Coal lobbyist Trump attorney seeks to bypass US kids’ climate lawsuit

Unicef recently estimated that 500 million children live in flood-prone areas, 160 million are exposed to severe droughts, and 115 million are at high risk of tropical cyclones. Malnutrition – which is often exacerbated by climate impacts – is a contributing factor in 45% of all child deaths. Increased temperatures and associated impacts also exacerbate diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia – three major causes of death in children under five years old.

Additionally, children are particularly exposed to and negatively impacted by air pollution. Three hundred million children live in areas where the air is toxic – a situation contributing to the deaths of nearly 600,000 children under age five every year.

Kirsten Sandberg, a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child warned the governments gathered for the event: “A child rights approach to climate change is overdue.” She highlighted how existing, universally recognised legal obligations should – if enforced effectively – ensure that children do not bear such a heavy burden as a consequence of climate change.

Climate change is a matter of human rights, agrees UN

Last year, the council agreed to consider climate change and the rights of children in order to assess lessons learned from best practices and to identify opportunities to further integrate child rights in the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Children’s rights are the most widely recognised in the international community. Since its adoption by the UN in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by every single state except for the US, making it the most universally supported of all international human rights instruments. The convention defines a set of rights that every government must protect.

Sandberg highlighted that the Convention on the Rights of the Child defined obligations for every state to protect the rights of children such as the rights to life, health, and adequate housing, as well as to ensure that children are consulted in matters impacting their lives.

Quoting the former Irish prime minister Mary Robinson, Sandberg said: “The world needs a groundswell of people equipped, not only with the knowledge to devise solutions to the climate crisis, but also the vision to see that all people must be included in, and empowered by, the global response to the great challenges of our time.”

Through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, all states have also recognised the right of children to education, including on matters related to the environment.

Governments speaking at the Human Rights Council agreed with Sandberg.  “It is essential to develop child-centred policies in adapting to climate change and mitigating its negative impacts,” the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam stressed, describing concrete policies developed within the country to protect children in the aftermath of disasters or through specific climate projects.

Ambassador Ahsan of Bangladesh emphasised the role that the Paris Climate Agreement could play to protect child rights, noting the objective of limiting global temperature increase to no more than 1.5C. The ambassador further stressed the importance of taking child-centred approaches, particularly in relation to national commitments and to climate migration during the climate negotiations resuming in Bonn in May 2017.

Many states attending the event also welcomed the recognition of children’s rights in the Paris Climate Agreement or reaffirmed their commitment to better integrate human rights in future climate negotiations – a commitment made formally by thirty-four states that have signed the Costa Rica led Geneva Pledge for Human Rights in Climate Action.

Closing the panel, 16-year–old Kehkashan Basu challenged the ministers and ambassadors gathered in Geneva, stressing that youth around the planet are “demanding the right to live with dignity, because we are the citizens of tomorrow… but we will not live to see tomorrow if our today is not taken care of.”

Sébastien Duyck is a senior attorney at the Centre for International Environmental Law. Follow him on twitter: @duycks

This article has been amended to correct a misspelling of Sandberg.

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By Jazmin Burgess

When talking about the impacts of climate change on health, it is impossible to overlook the specific impacts on child health.

Climate change is increasingly putting children all over the world, but especially in the most vulnerable countries, at risk. Despite being least responsible for its causes, children are bearing the brunt of its impact.

In the context of health this is highly pertinent. It is estimated that the increased range for dengue fever due to climate change suggest the population at risk could increase to 3.5 billion by 2080 – children will be most at risk in this situation.

Negative impacts on childrens’ health limits their opportunities at full development, their ability to live healthy lives and contribute and benefit fully in society.

That climate change is intensifying and increasing such trends presents an important rationale for action on climate change – in the form of adaptation to help protect children and emissions reduction to stop such trends getting worse.

Children displaced by flooding in Pakistan were placed at heightened risk to a number of diseases (Source: UN Photo/UNICEF/ZAK)

The interrelationship between climate change and child health can be seen through two sets of impacts – direct and indirect.

Direct impacts refer specifically to climate impacts on health events- such as the increased prevalence of diseases like malaria or water borne diseases, of which children are the most vulnerable.

Indirect impacts refer more to the way that climatic changes can indirectly affect child health. For example, changing rainfall patterns is already limiting crop production in sub-Saharan Africa which in turn is leading to increased malnutrition in children.

This has a range of knock on effects on health – causing stunted growth and weak immune systems in children, as well as longer term development impacts on children such as poor concentration in school.

It is estimated that by 2050, 25 million more children will be malnourished due to climate change.

Direct impact 

Looking at some of the direct impacts of climate change on health, specific trends can already be seen that are affecting children, trends which will only get worse and more intense as climatic changes continue.

UNICEF research in East Asia highlighted that the changing climate is leading to increased rates of communicable and non-communicable disease which is affecting children.

Organisations such as the WHO and World Food Programme have also recently started research that highlights some of the risks that climate change is posing through diseases and ‘health events’ that hit children hardest.

One of the most concerning impacts that climate change can have on child health in vulnerable countries is the potential to change the presence of malaria vectors.

Changing weather patterns lead to new areas that are wetter and more hospitable to malaria carrying mosquitoes have the potential to take malaria to new areas where there is no built up immunity, and where children are highly at risk.

UNICEF research in Kenya in 2010 showed that an estimated that 660,000 deaths occur each year due to malaria, 86% of these are children. The challenge that climate change presents for malaria, therefore presents an urgent challenge for children as well.

Indirect

Looking more at the indirect impacts of climate change on child health, a range of worrying trends can be seen.

The role of climate change in increasing the frequency and intensity of natural hazards such as cyclones and extreme flooding can increase the risk faced by children to water borne diseases, and health risks such as contaminated food and water supplies.

In Mongolia, UNICEF research in 2011 showed that although 14% of deaths of children younger than five years are already caused by diarrhoeal disease, the highest rates of incidence of dysentery and salmonella in recent years occurred between 2001 and 2003. This coincides with a severe drought in which springs and small rivers dried, likely linked to climate change.

Justus, a 14 year old boy from Northern Kenya highlighted the impact that climate change driven water scarcity is having on child health in Kenya:

“Water is also scarce because of lack of rain. Those living far from the lakes walk so far in search of water. The water is dirty and contaminated and people get bilharzia.”

RTCC Video: UNICEF’s Stephanie Hodge on the role education can play in helping children cope with climate change

Similarly, changing rainfall patterns that cause extreme droughts, such as those seen in recent years in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, will intensify and increase malnutrition rates in children.

UNDP states that children aged two or under who were born during a drought year and were affected by it, are 72% more likely to be stunted.

At the recent Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva, a strong focus was placed on the increasing impact that climate driven disasters are having on health trends in regards to children. This includes increased diseases and illness that often affect children worse due to their weaker physiology.

Emissions 

Finally, it is worth noting that emissions themselves, which contribute to climate change, can also have specific impacts on child health.

It is here that it becomes clear that climate change is affecting the health and well-being of children in both developed and developing countries.

Heavy pollution can cause higher rates of asthma amongst children, as well as other respiratory diseases, particularly in urban areas. Research by the University of Southern California has indicated that children living in heavily polluted areas can see an 80% decrease in their lung capacity.

This shows that a transition to a low carbon economy and further action on emission reduction can also deliver health and well-being benefits to children everywhere.

The impacts of climate change on child health highlight yet another way in which children are and will continue to bear the brunt of climate change now and in the future.

There is an urgent need to take action on climate to ensure that children are protected from its impacts and that emissions are reduced, so that today’s children and future generations do not see their health and well-being sacrificed as a result of climatic changes.

Jazmin Burgess is UNICEF UK’s Climate Change Policy and Research Officer, working on building the case for action to protect children from climate change.

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By Julie Jowitt, the Guardian

Debate about climate change has been cut out of the national curriculum for children under 14, prompting claims of political interference in the syllabus by the government that has failed “our duty to future generations”.

The latest draft guidelines for children in key stages 1 to 3 have no mention of climate change under geography teaching and a single reference to how carbon dioxide produced by humans impacts on the climate in the chemistry section. There is also no reference to sustainable development, only to the “efficacy of recycling”, again as a chemistry subject.

The move has caused alarm among climate campaigners and scientists who say teaching about climate change in schools has helped mobilise young people to be the most vociferous advocates of action by governments, business and society to tackle the issue.

“What you seem to have is a major political interference with the geography syllabus,” said the government’s former science adviser Prof Sir David King. He said climate change should be taught alongside the history of – successful – past attempts to curb chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), which is blamed for the depletion of the ozone layer, and air pollution caused by coal fires and cars.

“If all of these aren’t issues for geography classes, then where should they be taught?” asked King. “It would be absurd if the issues around environmental pollution weren’t core to the curriculum.I think we would be abdicating our duty to future generations if we didn’t teach these things in the curriculum.”

UK Education Secretary of State Michael Gove’s department is accused of trying to wipe out references to climate change (Pic: Flickr/educationgovuk)

The draft contrasts with the existing curriculum: under the heading of geography, there are several mentions of the interdependence of humans and their environment and the impact of that on change, including “environmental change”. The current syllabus explicitly discusses sustainable development and “its impact on environmental interaction and climate change”.

“It’s just hollowed out argument,” said John Ashton, the government’s climate change envoy until last summer, and a founder of the independent not-for-profit group E3G. “Climate change should have as much prominence as anything in teaching geography in schools.”

The shift of any mention of climate change from geography to chemistry “makes me more concerned, not less”, said Ashton. “What’s important is not so much the chemistry as the impact on the lives of human beings, and the right place for that is geography.”

The proposed changes, which are still under consultation by the Department for Education (DfE), were broadly welcomed by other groups, including the Geographical Association which represents more than 6,000 geography teachers, and the Royal Geographical Society.

“In the past, in some instances, young people were going to start on climate change without really knowing about climate,” said Rita Gardner, the RGS director, who does, however, want climate change taught at GCSE and A-level. “What we have got [in the new draft] is a much better grounding in geography, and it has the building blocks for a much better understanding of climate change and sustainability.”

A DfE spokesman said the idea that climate change was being excised from the national curriculum was nonsense: “All children will learn about climate change. It is specifically mentioned in the science curriculum and both climate and weather feature throughout the geography curriculum.”

Supporters of the government’s move pointed out that geography teachers could still teach specific issues such as “how human and physical processes interact to have an impact on and form distinctive landscapes”.

Other potential lead-ins to climate change include specified teaching about ecosystems, the accumulation of toxic materials in natural life, and the difficulty for some species in adapting to changes in their environment.

A source at the Liberal Democrat-led Department for Energy and Climate Change said they were relaxed about the changes: “There’s nothing from the DfE that says climate change is off the agenda or will never be taught. Sensible teachers will look at that as the broadest of signposting.”

However, the UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) said climate change was too important to be left to the whim of individual teachers.

“It appears climate change is being systematically removed from the curriculum, which is not acceptable when this is the biggest challenge our generation is going to face, the biggest challenge future generations are going to focus on,” said Camilla Born, an international expert at UKYCC.

Critics also point out that the danger of waiting until GCSE courses to teach about climate change in any depth is that only a minority of pupils study geography at that level.

Sarah Lester, a policy researcher specialising in climate change education at the Grantham Institute of Climate Change at Imperial College, London, said also rejected the argument that pupils first needed to learn the “building blocks” before they were taught about climate change.

Such issues were already taught in the three sciences, even religious education and citizenship – and “all come together in geography”, said Lester. “I don’t think that’s what’s being done: I think it [climate change] is just being stripped out of the curriculum.”

This article first appeared in the Guardian

RTCC is part of the Guardian Environment Network

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Climate change wasn’t mentioned in the third and final Presidential debate, making it the first time in nearly 25 years it was missed off the agenda.

In a year where the US saw a once-in-a-generation drought and the world watched Arctic summer sea ice reach its lowest extent since records began, it seems strange that the issue has not come up at all in the debates and very little in the whole election.

In the US environmental campaigners have been calling for the candidates to end the ‘climate silence’ and make their stance of the issue known to voters. The League of Conservation Voters launched a petition to put pressure on the moderators of the debates to ask a climate question.

But while the words climate change may have been missing from the debate, related topics have been dealt with in depth. We’ve selected five topics where climate change was mentioned – indirectly or otherwise.

The two candidates head to the poll on November 6 (Pic: WACP/Flickr & White House)

1) The Arab Spring

What was said: Romney – “With the Arab Spring, came a great deal of hope that there would be a change towards more moderation, and opportunity for greater participation on the part of women in public life, and in economic life in the Middle East. But instead, we’ve seen in nation after nation, a number of disturbing events.”

Link to climate: Researchers are become ever more aware of the role of climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’ and while climate change itself was not responsible for the Arab Spring, the consequences of climate change. These include rising food and fuel prices and are expected to have had some impact on the uprisings, and are expected to continue to exacerbate political conflicts in the future.

2) Overseas Aid

What was said: Romney – “One, more economic development. We should key our foreign aid, our direct foreign investment, and that of our friends, we should coordinate it to make sure that we – we push back and give them more economic development. Number two, better education. Number three, gender equality. Number four, the rule of law. We have to help these nations create civil societies.”

Link to climate: Experts predict that, globally, climate change financial aid for developing countries will need between $37 and 50 billion per year to 2030 and could reach $75 to 100 per year by 2050. In President Obama’s 2013 fiscal year budget, $469.5 million of foreign aid was pledged directly for climate change projects. It has also been a controversial topic in the US, with the US Senate calling for all funding to climate change and food security programmes to be cut in 2012.

3) Energy independence

What was said: Obama – “Doing everything we can to control our own energy. We’ve cut our oil imports to the lowest level in two decades because we’ve developed oil and natural gas. But we also have to develop clean energy technologies that will allow us to cut our exports in half by 2020. That’s the kind of leadership that we need to show.”

Link to climate: Choices of energy will be crucial for countries meeting their carbon reduction targets worldwide and energy has been a huge issue this election. Each candidate promised an ‘all of the above’ strategy. They both say that the US must continue to invest in oil and gas exploration, as well as modern renewables. Obama has also made several mentions in the three presidential debates calling for better energy efficiency, while Romney has attacked what he has referred to as ‘Obama’s war on coal’. He claims EPA efficiency measures are leaving new coal powers stations impossible to operate.

4) The rise of China

What was said: Romney – “I look around the world; I don’t see our influence growing around the world. I see our influence receding, in part because of the failure of the president to deal with our economic challenges at home; in part because of our withdrawal from our commitment to our military in the way I think it ought to be; in part because of the turmoil with Israel.”

Obama – “Well, I think it will continue to be terrorist networks. We have to remain vigilant as I just said. But with respect to China, China is both an adversary, but also a potential partner in the international community if it’s following the rules. So my attitude coming into office was that we are going to insist that China plays by the same rules as everybody else.”

Link to climate: Over the last few years the US and China have emerged as the main protagonists of the international climate debate, involved in a stand off where each country has waited for the other to make the first move. Last year in Durban, China made that move as they showed willingness to be included in a new global climate agreement. Head of the UNFCCC Christiana Figueres has warned the US that they risk being left behind on the global stage.

On the other side of this issue is trade. The two countries are involved in a heated battle over solar technologies. Last year US solar-panel manufacturers filed a petition against the Chinese solar industry for providing billions of dollars in subsidies as well as cash grants and tax breaks to the industry. These subsidies have meant Chinese manufacturers have been able to export their products into the US and the EU at competitive prices, squeezing the domestic markets.

This is all part of a wider trade dispute between the two countries.

5) Support for cleantech

What was said: Romney – “I have the kind of commitment to ensure that our industries in this country can compete and be successful. We in this country can compete successfully with anyone in the world, and we’re going on. We’re going to have to have a president, however, that doesn’t think that somehow the government investing in car companies like Tesla and Fisker, making electric battery cars. This is not research, Mr President; these are the government investing in companies. Investing in Solyndra. This is a company, this isn’t basic research. I want to invest in research. Research is great. Providing funding to universities and think tanks is great. But investing in companies? Absolutely not.”

Link to climate: Investing in clean-tech will be vital if the world is to wean itself off fossil fuels. Over the period of the three debates, this issue has come up in many different forms. Obama called for an end to the $4 billion per year given to oil companies in the form of subsidies, while Romney accused the President of ‘picking the losers’ with the government’s investment in renewable companies – particularly Solyndra.

The Obama Campaign has defended his stance on climate change telling The Hill website “Whether it’s on the stump or at the White House, President Obama has long focused on ways to develop clean energy as a core economic pillar. By advocating for the growth of renewable energy, as he did in Tuesday’s debate, President Obama has continually called for action that will address the sources of climate change.”

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Children are not only most vulnerable to climate change and disasters but a big part of the solutions (© EDV Media Director/Creative Commons)

Half of the urban population are children – below the age of 18 – and therefore will be some of the most vulnerable people to climate change and disasters.

It is expected that as many as 175 million children could soon be impacted by disasters every year.

But with the right engagement of children, who make up 50% of city-based populations, Antony Spalton from UNICEF believes they could also be a huge part of the solution.

Speaking to RTCC at the ICLEI Resilient Cities conference 2012 he said: “I think the key issue is that half of the population in urban centres are children and I think typically people tend to think of children as vulnerable victims who live with high levels of disaster risk, but in actual fact children have intrinsic values on risk and have a lot to offer reducing risk in cities.”

With the world expecting to see huge moves of populations towards urban areas – with around 50-60% more people living in cities by 2050 – NGOs and aid agencies working with children will have to find new ways to engage.

“The experience coming out of the last 30 years in aid and development and humanitarian work has been in the rural areas and I do believe we are not as well equipped as we should be in dealing with what are going to be huge huge disasters in urban areas,” he explained.

“We need to revisit some of the methodologies and tools we use on how we reach out to children in urban areas.”

One of the most vital tools for groups such as UNICEF is school safety and information programmes – not only ensuring the schools themselves are safe from disasters but that the classroom is used a place to engage children in risk reduction.

“Hazards such as earthquakes interrupt education. Not only does that have an impact in terms of mortality, for example if a school collapses – and we know that many schools do collapse – but it also means that children drop out of school and out off their educations.

“Education itself can also engage children in taking steps to reduce their risks and to better understand the environment they are working in and come up with simple measures that will make all the difference if there is a flood, when there is early warning or knowing what to do if there is an earthquake, where to crouch in the building so it doesn’t collapse on you.

“Those messages are not only retained by children but they are communicated back to their homes.”

While admitting that there is still some way to go before the perspective of children is considered widely and acted upon, there are some areas where Spalton believe important work has been done.

For example, in Brazil, UNICEF works with the government in Rio to encourage children to work with local government’s to map the risks in communities – for example the risks from flash floods.

And the Children’s Charter on disaster risk reduction that was developed by UNICEF in partnership with PLAN, Save the Children and World Vision, was put together by children for children in a consultation across 21 countries from across the world.

With 600 decision makers, including mayors and UN offices, having signed up to the Charter there are many places – for example in cities in Mozambique, towns in the Philippines and in Brazil – where at local level real action is taking place to listen to what children do have to say.

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The 2010 floods in Pakistan displaced 14 million people, 60% were children. (Source: UN/UNICEF/ZAK)

Children have a key role to play in climate change adaptation and disaster relief work, according to a new study.

As one of the groups of society most severely affected by disasters and the consequences of climate change, the report calls for children to be placed front and centre in both policy making and in community projects on the ground.

The paper by the Institute of Development Studies stresses however that this work must be done under the right conditions.

“We have to start putting children at the heart of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation work,” Tom Tanner, IDS Research Fellow and co-author of the report.

“Programmes need to recognise that children are especially vulnerable to disasters and need protection. But more than that, children themselves have a critical role to play in tackling extreme events and climate change. They have the right to participate in decision-making, as citizens and active agents of change,” said Tanner.

The paper reviews two case studies in the Philippines and El Salvador.

In the Philippines a youth group took part in a mangrove re-planting exercise in conjunction with an NGO. The children combined knowledge gained at school with additional skills learned from the project. The mangroves improved biodiversity, provided storm protection, boosted fishing and sequestered carbon dioxide.

“Our research has shown the variety of ways that children can be involved – whether through designing and implementing projects, analysing risk, or mobilising others to take action,” said Tanner.

“At a local level, these include facilitating youth groups, identifying community champions and creating safe spaces to build trust.”

Projects such as those detailed in the IDS paper are in sharp contrast to climate change attitudes in parts of the developed world.

Recent legislation in the US seeks to protect teachers that choose to teach climate change denial and creationism in schools.

RTCC Climate Change Children’s Musical: All the materials required to put on your own performance are available to download here free of charge.

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Canada’s reputation as a country that cares for the environment took a pasting at the Durban climate talks.

Environment minister Peter Kent made few friends before he had even arrived in South Africa, having promised to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.

This stance, allied to statements calling climate financing ‘guilt payments’ saw the Canadians finish as joint winners of the ‘colossal fossil’ with the USA.

The prize is awarded by the Climate Action Network to countries who have made the least effort to help the talks progress.

And yet while their government appear content to disengage from the UN negotiations, Canadian youth groups in Durban were vociferous in their condemnation of that policy.

The Canadian Youth Delegation at COP17 played an important role in reminding delegates that despite their government’s hostility to the talks – there was still a strong seam of green in Canada.

They took their campaign into the main plenary hall, wearing ‘Turn your back on Canada’ T-shirts. One protest, which coincided with a speech from Kent, saw them ejected from the Conference Centre.

It also ensured that their message spread from Durban back to the streets of Canada, where the campaign continued weeks after the negotiations had ended.

It was for this reason that RTCC has decided to award our inaugural ‘climate campaign of the year’ medal (it’s still being minted) to the Canadian Youth Delegation at COP17.

Proof of their impact could be seen in continued protests against the government’s stance leading up to Christmas.

“Just because we are unable to vote, it doesn’t mean we don’t have a voice”

That was the message of a group of Canadian climate campaigners, as they put together a flash mob in Vancouver just before Christmas.

To the tune of ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ the children stopped festive shoppers in their tracks with their tune about Climate Change.

With lyrics including ‘Climate Change sucks,’ and ‘It’s better to work together to change earth for future days’, the Kids for Climate Action group said they wanted to speak out about their government’s actions in the wake of COP17.

Speaking to local news outlet News 1130 one participant Alice Paul said: “Basically with what happened in Durban in South Africa at the recent climate talks, youth are really disappointed with the decision made by Canada and other countries to delay action to stop climate change. We felt we needed to do as much as we can. Youth do care.”

Changing political climate

Following the elections in May 2011, the Conservative government – which had already been leading a minority government since 2006 – took the majority with 40% of the vote.

Canada’s previous Liberal administration signed the Kyoto Protocol, but current Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government have never embraced it.

The latest announcement may not have come a surprise for many, as the government had already announced four years ago that it would not be meeting its commitments – and Canada’s emissions have risen by about a third since 1990.

But scratch the surface and a complex picture starts to emerge.

Peter Kent was called a 'piece of sh*t' by a fellow MP on his return from COP17

Former Canadian Green Party Campaign manager David Lewis told RTCC that federal policy masked progress on renewable energy and mitigation efforts at provincial level.

“While the federal Conservatives oppose key climate change legislation, largely due to their desire to protect Alberta’s tar sands production, there is significant progress to be found at the provincial level,” he said.

“This is important because the provinces wield considerable power to enact their own mitigation and adaptation measures.

“Quebec and British Columbia have had carbon taxes in place for several years, Ontario is eliminating its coal-fired plants and provides feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, and Nova Scotia is capping emissions from its power plants.

“Four provinces are active in the Western Climate Initiative, which along with several American states, seeks to create a carbon market.

“So while on the surface things look bleak, a closer inspection reveals that political will exists to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the great white north.”

Warm words

Anger at government policy came to a head a week after COP17, during in a heated exchange between Peter Kent and Liberal MP Justin Trudeau, who called the Environment Minister a “piece of sh*t” in Parliament.

Kent had suggested MPs questioning him over Canada’s position in Durban should have come to the conference – despite the government having banned opposition MPs from joining the delegation to South Africa.

Some found a way around these restrictions: Green Party MP Elizabeth May paid her own way to the conference and became a delegate of Papua New Guinea.

The Harper government has accused their predecessors of never making real attempts to comply with the commitments laid down by the Kyoto Protocol, and has criticised the agreement for only including developed nations – leaving  countries like China and India without any emission restrictions.

The Canadian government did, however, add their support for the Durban Platform, that would see a new legally binding agreement come into force by 2020.

Grassroots leadership

Across Canada young people are stepping up to the challenge of living a greener more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

For grade 8 student Harnoor Gill, from Georgetown, Ontario, this means volunteering on local environmental projects.

He was recently voted one of Canada’s Top Fifteen under Fifteen by national magazine Canadian Family. He told RTCC that he believes youth can make changes for the better in the environment, despite their young age.

“I have been involved in volunteering with the community at a very young age,” he said.

“This is important to me because I tell youth that age is not a barrier to volunteering. We can speak up for ourselves, for what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong.”

“We can make changes in the world by stopping the footprint of pollution on the Earth. We should go green in every aspect of our lives; this is how I believe youth can make a change in the world. ”

Harnoor worked on environmental causes from being in the Kindergarten and has now worked on his schools green team, volunteered for two environmental organisations in his local area.

He has also written for multiple publications across the country spreading his story and encouraging other youth to get involved.

And he was joined in the top fifteen by others working on similar projects – including a 12-year-old girl who makes films about the environment and a 14-year-old boy who runs his school’s environmental team and helped clean up his local beach.

Proof perhaps that while the government in Ottawa is more concerned about the billions of dollars that lie in the Alberta Tar Sands, below the surface Canada’s green streak remains alive, if hidden from view.

We’ll be sending copies of the UN’s Exclusive Rio Conventions Calendar to Harnoor Gill and members of Canada’s Youth Climate Committee in recognition of their outstanding work in 2011.

RTCC VIDEO: The Sierra Club’s Heather Hatzenbuhler and Toby Davine from Canada’s Youth Climate Committee explain how they are  attempting to change their governments’ climate policy.

Heather Haltzenbuhler and Toby Davine from Responding to Climate Change on Vimeo.

The post Stars of 2011: Canada’s youth climate delegates appeared first on Climate Home News.

Have you thought about buying someone an elephant this Christmas?

Last week I brought you my top ten eco-Christmas gifts, but what if you are considering not buying presents at all, but making some form of gesture in a partner, sibling or parents name.

Today I am bringing you the gifts that keep giving.

I first got the idea when a couple of Christmases ago, my brother – always leaving things to the last minute – got to Christmas Eve evening before realising that he had not brought me a present.

In a final panic he adopted me a tiger online – and as a huge animal lover, it was my favourite gift of the year and I have been hooked on the concept ever since.

If you like the idea of adopting an animal, providing a little help for a family or investing in some renewable energy – or if like my brother you are looking for that last minute gift – here are a few handy tips for you.

1) Adopt an Animal

Do you have a leopard mad sister or an elephant mad mum, well why not get them one for Christmas with the WWF adopt an animal programme. Not only will be helping to protect an endangered species – including penguins, dolphins, tigers and rhinos – but you will make someone’s year when they receive regular updates about their animal, interesting facts about your chosen animal, pictures and even a stuffed toy.

Head over to WWF’s website more information.

2) Helping save a child

For many young children – particularly in regions hit by disasters, the first few weeks of life can be hard. With a ‘No Child Born to Die’ survival kit gift, you could help a children survive those crucial first few days. The kit includes a measles vaccine, plus treatments for diarrhoea and pneumonia.

The Save the Children site has more details, along with a selection of other gifts for this Christmas.

3) Invest in solar panels for a school

And if technology and energy are your interest, why not help schools raise money to put solar panels on their roof. A new Solar Schools project started this year by carbon cutting group 10:10 sees eight schools in the UK attempt to community fundraise to get renewable energy in their school, and you can give them a helping hand this Christmas by donating anything from one cell to a whole panel to them for the festive season.

Check out the Solar Schools website to find out what schools are involved.

4) Help an activist

If you know a secret green activist – or a not so secret one – why not make a donation on their behalf to the Greenpeace campaign and suit and boot their activists. My personal favourite is the Orangutan costumes. While it is a little fun for the season, there is a serious meaning behind the gift as these suits are used to protest at headquarters of companies which are driving deforestation.

For more ideas head to the Greenpeace website.

5) The gift of water

Many of the things which we take for granted in our homes are a luxury for people living in poor communities across the world, so why not give a loved on the gift of water this Christmas. This gift will help to maintain a safe water supply, with pumps, tanks, taps, purification systems or pipes in a community, restore supplies to a disaster stuck town or provide a clean supply to a school or village.

More details on this and a variety of other gifts can be found on the Oxfam website.

Conact the author at ts@rtcc.org or @rtcc_tierney.

The post Last minute Christmas gifts with a lasting impact appeared first on Climate Home News.