I wrote this earlier this afternoon, on paper. Anna’s already blogged about the intervention, but here are my thoughts:
I’m sitting in the new youth convergence space, a huge bright white hall near the central station and the Klimafoum called Oskerhalle. A young climate activist from London is standing on the stage with his guitar, doing a sound-check which has turned into a short impromptu concert.
Music is just what I need right now – I’ve just heard the last youth ‘intervention’ or speech of the COP, given by Juan Carlos Soriano, from Peru. His eloquent, empassionned words were recieved by a crowd of cheering, watching here over video link. But my tears were of anger because they were delivered to a huge empty plenary room, while all of the powerful people who should have been listening and being moved are making the important decisions somewhere else, in a closed room.
Juan Carlos is one of the few young people to have been allowed into the Bella centre today, the last day of the negotiations, but this ‘privilege’, which should have been a right, is hollow – he and the other youth and NGOs and other members of civil society inside are not allowed to witness the real decisions being made.