The Bella Conference is quite a busy, noisy scene. Throughout last week you could observe all the buzz of policy wonks stepping in and out of presentations and press conferences, the negotiators attending plenary sessions and side meetings, and the conglomeration of voices chattering discussing delegation specific strategies. Yet amidst all the noise of the people that comprise the conference, the excitement is evident throughout the city, and evident through an overarching theme of Hope.

The city square has a large stage set up for the events for Hopenhagen, which originally started just as the website. During the last months prior to the conference, people regularly updated statuses of messages of hope in their daily lives, and their overall hopes of the U.N. Climate Conference. This week, the messages have been live streamed over a large globe in the city square, illustrating the unique perspectives coming in from all over the globe, a unifying message of hope.

It is also evident through p messages also. Archbishop Desmond Tutu delivers a message on his inspiration at the conference, link to video.

In Michigan also, people united their voices with messages of hope of supporting an international climate bill. Last Saturday we connected to a group of youth activists through a conference call in back to Lansing, MI inspiring messages linking the actions at home to the relevance of passing an international treaty in Copenhagen.

Additionally, President Obama delivered much of his campaign last fall on a message of hope, coining the phrase, “Yes, we can”.

While messages such as these are incredibly inspiring, it is obvious that significant decisions are still need to be made. In the meanwhile, awaiting President Obama’s arrival, the negotiations are lagging.

What’s important to recognize above and beyond all the chaos associated within Copenhagen, inside and outside of the Bella Center, is that there still seems to be an underlying tone of hope. The youth voice is omnipresent, both inside the walls of the conference center as well as throughout the city. While the future of the negotiations are still undetermined, hopefully the youth can stand strong as the moral imperative of the conference.

For the past week I have been attending the COP15, or 15^th Convention of Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference, hearing from and meeting with people and a variety of perspectives and solutions. While we each came with our own intentions and expectations for the conference, it had been clear that end of this conference could have various outcomes. Despite the speculation of expectations for the outcome, one thing has been overwhelmingly clear.

This is a moment in which the entire world is watching, and really, the entire world is watching the United States in particular. At this conference, a wide array of fascinating people from various spectrums, have joined. Representatives from non-governmental organizations, students, academic professionals, scientists, politicians, generally portraying the same consensus, that action on confronting climate change has to be taken now. The world has high expectations of us, and we hold a uniquely influential role on the rest of the countries.

After working hard over the last six months through domestic grassroots efforts organizing members of Congress to develop and pass a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill, I must admit that I was disappointed at their inability to pass a bill before the COP. I had expected it would be almost embarrassing to indentify as being American, considering our historical inability to take responsibilities for our disproportionate contribution to this global issue. Yet, I am joined with a movement of fellow Americans through the incredibly powerful Youth delegation. Hopefully, our solidarity and persistence will be inspirational to leaders here, and to those back home.

We have been working long days to make sure that all ends are covered with our participation in the activity. Our delegates have been involved with media- both traditional and social by doing video recording of interviews of notable attendees, our local actions, and writing to various journals. Through social media you can follow our twitter accounts, blogs, youtube, and flickr videos all through this website. Also, we have each taken on specific policy focuses and have formed position statements on each of the main tracks of the negotiations. Additionally, we’ve been a part of incredible partnership building through forging relations within the youth delegation, we are officially accredited as the YOUNGOS, and also honing in on our domestic relations with other partners organizations. Looking forward to

There are certain topics on climate change adaptation in which we have likely read about or seen a presentation on, water scarcity, agricultural impacts, and associated gender issues, but have not yet really ever felt the effects of. In the US we understand these impacts to some extent, but are more generally unexposed to the drastic situations that people of the developing world have become so accustomed to. Last night, at a welcome reception hosted by the Mayor of Copenhagen, global representatives attended the various reasons of why they are attending the conference. A Kenyan delegate I interacted with helped shed a new light on the reality of climate change on his country.

Kevin is a student at the University of Nairobi, and a local community organizer connecting his home village. He explained the drastic effects of water shortage and how it is affecting people in his community. Kevin recounted how the faucets at his school had been dried up for two years. People have become accustomed to actually scooping up water from muddy puddles. What is more, then people would even fight each other for this limited resource.

The discussion we shared about daily life was remarkably touching, and helped to localize the issue in a way I hadn’t truly felt it before. The struggles that his people have had to endure literally brought tears to my eyes while listening.

When asked what type of science or policy is needed to help assist the people of Kenya or those of the developing world to combating issues of water and sanitation, he indicated neither. “We just need rain collection buckets,” was the best reasonable solution he decided, and then added “well then of course, also the rain”.

It then became clear that the issues framing the UN Climate Conference has so many separate socio-cultural factors are involved, it began to make more sense that the world has such a difficult negotiation process in determining climate change solutions. It seems almost impossible for anyone in the global north to truly feel the effects of water shortage. Personally, I have never been in any situation that water doesn’t run out from the tap freely, or rain wasn’t something you could continually count on.. The land I come from and have always known is blessed with plentiful freshwater literally everywhere you look. We have over 10,000 freshwater lakes in Michigan, enough to categorize us as “The Great Lakes State”. In fact, through the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement between eight states and two Canadian provinces, we have taken additional steps to ensure this basin is protects that water cannot become a commodity.

There is no doubt that climate change will affect the Great Lakes. The Union of Concerned Scientists have already pointed out the threats of climate change, including decreasing lake levels and the threatening risks to biodiversity are evident through raised levels of invasive species. However, at when considering the larger context of the rest of the world’s concerns of risks of water shortage on account of increased CO2 content, my region could very well turn into a safe place for climate refugees. There is tremendous disparity between the equity of the habitats residing in the global north compared to the global south. Let us take into account the severity of issues in the developing world could having a major impact on us at home and thus, adjust our global plans for adaptation.

Throughout college, I have been deeply engrossed within the youth movement, as an activist for climate justice. I have played a leadership role in helping to establish the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition, organized a youth lobby day at the state capital, arranged the logistics for sending Michigan State University students to Powershift 2007, and assisted with several retreats and summits pertaining to youth climate movements. During these efforts, the majority of my partners have been college age peers.More recently, my current employment has been as Michigan Campaigns Coordinator for Clean Water Action. Through this work, I engage our members and the general Michigan public on taking action on a variety of issues ranging from promoting renewable energy legislation to promoting environmental health safety standards. The online and field actions from our members stretches across a broad constituency of residents, where age is not a factor.

This weekend’s Conference of Youth, a precursor to the UN Climate Conference, has emulated the modeled the strengths of the youths talents within organizing. One particular workshop I attended was a sub-group breakout out of the US breakout group. We’ve established amongst ourselves that reaching out and connecting with our networks back home to specific outbreaking news and relevant ways to react is just as important as us being at the actual conference. Within the group we discussed strategic planning for messaging our outreach to our communities through strategic rapid response. While the conversation originated just at stretching the messaging back to youth in the US , we realized that our contingency is actually much larger and age diverse.

Immediately following that strategy session, I got to sit in on a USCAN meeting, a larger collection of US NGOs attending the conference. I was impressed to learn that their tactics practically mirrored the strategy of the youth- by engaging larger networks in the US to take action on particular issue. Being a part of back to back discussions on the same topic reinstated the fact the activism truly is transgererational.

The UN Climate Change Conference COP 15 will offer innumerable chances for many to connect the policy towards relevant legislative domestic campaigns at home. Some of these will be directed towards specific US strategy, and others sending a message to our entire world leadership. While I am representing the youth constituency, I encourage people of all ages to continue to practice civic duty, and take specific actions articulating to our leaders our expectations from our leadership. For starters, why not sign a global petition stating, “I am ready for our leaders to sign a global climate deal in Copenhagen that is ambitious, fair and binding.” Whether it will be your first experience taking action, or your thousandth, there will be plentiful opportunities to get involved. Stay tuned for more local ways to stay engaged at home!

Exactly two weeks from now, eleven of my fellow youth climate engaged friends and I will be traveling to Copenhagen for the 15^th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change.

Throughout the fall, our anticipation has been brewing as to what to expect of the negotiations. There has been uncertainty to if this year’s negotiations will actually result in a binding agreement, or just another step along the way. Analysts have predicted four options that could occur: no agreement, a decision or set of decisions, a politically implementing agreement, or a new legally binding protocol. Get the PDF.

Despite ongoing speculative domestic legislation and other unreliable politics, our youth delegation stands strong with our stance of demanding a strong, just, binding agreement to come be agreed upon this December.

This past weekend we learned of disheartening news from President’ Obama’s administration, admitting that a comprehensive climate deal was beyond reaches this year. Check it out.

Considering this, I thought back to one year ago, when this man became elected President of the United States, running by a platform promoting change. 2008 was the largest youth voter turn out in history, and for many of my peers, it was the first Presidential election we had voted on. In fact, many of my peers worked specifically on election work last year running a campaign, Powervote worked tirelessly to demand that the American public elected leaders that would commit to making clean energy a top priority in the election.

Maintaining this priority, we now have the responsibility to demand our elected officials accountability on such issues on a clean energy economy to secure the protection of our climate.

President Obama could have a tremendous influence on affecting our domestic legislation by attending the UN Conference, as our policy choices influence the rest of the worlds decisions. It is quite possible that the president will not make any progression towards an international climate treaty. As youth, we have the moral responsibility to hold our president accountable. There is no longer time for business as usual, we demand that the time for change is now!

School: Michigan State University, James Madison College (alumna)
Area of Study: International Relations with a specialization environmental policy

Sarah is currently working as the Michigan Campaigns Coordinator for Clean Water Action in Lansing. During her undergraduate program, Sarah played a leadership role in the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition, served as a student assistant in the State Energy Office, and spent her last semester doing HIV/AIDS public health work in Northern Thailand. Sarah first joined Clean Water Action in the Summer of 2007 and worked on legislation to protect Michigan's waters and keep them in the hands of the public. She is a proud native of Michigan and is pleased to be working to protect our Great Lakes State, while extremely excited to be involved in the international youth movement.

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