Day 2: A breakthrough over beer & pizza

A briefing from day 2:

The International youth delegation started off with an action on day 2 that included flags from all 50 countries we have delegates from. The group was loud and positive. check it!



I wanted to note that I wont be posting that many photos on the blog itself, but that every single picture I've taken in Poland can be found at this website:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33006023@N06/

On Day 2 the SustainUS delegation really started thinking strategically about how we can make the biggest impact in terms of our countries' international climate action. As most of you have heard from the past couple of days our official US delegation still represents the policies of the Bush Administration and will do very little here in Poznan.

This could be a really good thing because if they were doing a lot it would be probably be to stall talks and delay significant action. One of our strategic goals here in Poland is to marginalize our official delegation and to portray them as irrelevant, lame duck, or even dead duck. Most of this will be done by ignoring them completely, although we have requested to meet with them as a delegation because Obama may keep on some of them on, so far they have declined the offer. This may be happening due to a little incident with the US official delegation from last year. You can see a awkward exchange here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u41CpRhoYUI

A really incredible story out of last years COP in Bali - the official Canadian delegation wouldn't meet with the Canadian youth delegation after repeated requests. Some photos were taken of the youth upset, tearing up, etc that were published in a number of news sources in Canada. The result was a 7 percent drop in approval ratings for the Stephen Harper administration.

Anyway, last night I was privileged to meet with leaders from other US youth delegations here in Poznan including, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, 350.org, and Fired Up Media over a beer and pizza in Poznan's Old Square. We were discussing our strategy in approaching the US delegation, and how we as US youth move forward with Obama. We think we came up with a pretty sweet idea. The idea is to not wait for Obama's promise to re-engage with the world on climate change but to act now by reaching out to other countries and by emphasizing Obama's call to service.



Meeting requests will be sent to every country represented here in Poznan to discuss with US youth the exciting climate progress opportunities that will come with an Obama administration. Special emphasis will be placed on meeting requests with India and China. We have been in talks with youth delegations from those countries to join us in those meetings. We hope the result will be great press both internationally and at home. We cannot leave Poznan without the world knowing that the growing domestic demand for a clean energy economy and green jobs paired and an Obama administration waiting and willing to take action will change the face of US climate policy. We're basically acting as the REAL US delegates while our "official" delegates sink into dead duck oblivion.

Anyway, heading into a plenery where we'll be hearing from countries on emissions reductions targets for Annex 1 (industrialized countries)

Another note: I appreciate many of you contacting me while I'm in Poland and hope to hear from more of you, but in addition I would love to answer your questions on the blog or if you want to hear about any specific part of my experience here in Poznan. Let me know!

Check back soon for a Day 3 post, hopefully with VIDEO!!!