“A People United, Will Never Be Defeated”

One week ago in the big march and rally through the streets of Durban those words were echoed over and over along with many other chants as 7,000 activists from all over the world made their statement.

Were the delegates and ministers from the 191 countries represented at COP 17 listening? I’m thinking not. Now that the COP has finally been gaveled until COP 18 in Qatar next year what are we left with?

COP 17 ends tomorrow, but for all the NGOs and Inter governmental organizations it only means that our work is just continuing.

The context of that work however may be slightly different depending on what happens inside the Baobab Plenary Room today and tomorrow.

A major discussion item is emission control and closing the gigaton gap so that a peak in global emissions by 2015 is still achievable. This will keep a credible 1.5 degree Celsius or 2 degree Celsius pathway in reach, instead of the 4 degrees Celsius (or more) rise predicted if a new agreement is not reached until 2020 which is what the US seems to be delaying negotiations around.

My trip to Durban and COP 17 began with a trip to Washington DC.

By now most of you have heard about the unusual reversal by the State Department and President Obama regarding approving the permit to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to carry Tar Sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, 1700 miles across some environmentally fragile land.

Jonathan Pershing’s secretary is from Eagan, MN and we had lots to chat about before Sharon said: “let me look at Jonathan’s schedule, can you come in Monday morning at 9 am?” We cleared security, got three latecomers approved and Sharon ushered us to the meeting room. A few minutes later Dr. Pershing (who received his PhD from the University of MN) greeted us. I reminded him of our meeting in Cancun at COP 16 last December. I started the meeting by confirming our 20 minute time allotment (he ended up giving us 40) and each of us gave 2-3 minutes of heartfelt testimony about why we were in D.C. for the Tar Sands action and that we were here to represent the ‘call to action’ from thousands of Minnesotans through our newly established MN350 network, including the Will Steger Foundation, Cool Planet, Citizens Climate Lobby, and MN Interfaith Power and Light.

Watching Zach, Taylor, Alec and Brock (from Stillwater High School) march down the National Mall holding the YEA! MN Banner and cheering “Clean Energy, Green Jobs” chants.

Gene standing in front of 200 Minnesota college students proposing an action group to oppose the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine in Arrowhead, Minnesota.

Where Does Inspiration Live?

I'm back in my country...it says so on my passport...this is where I belong.

The Amtrak train from Miami has been rolling for 8 hours and we're just leaving Florida. I'm re-reading EAARTH by my friend Bill McKibben, putting together my slide show and reflecting on my next steps.

Although I was only at COP 16 and in Mexico for 3 weeks it feels a little like when I returned from the Peace Corps after 5 years in Asia back in 1975 as a young man. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is to 'bring it back home"...says so right in the third goal statement in the brochure. What am I bringing home this time? Who's going to listen and what's the plan?

Dear Friends,

It's 2:10 am and I should be dead tired and crashing after another tiring, long day of COP 16, but something remarkable just happened and I'm wide awake and in awe of what I just witnessed. What just happened could just be that Bucky Fuller trimtab moment that all good RESULTS volunteers know about. Like the conversation, the relationship that shifted the way you saw something or the day that the world came together to focus on what needs to be done rather than continue to argue about what's wrong with everything and everybody.

I knew something was up when the entire plenary jumped to their feet when Patricia Espinosa, Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Chair of COP16 walked to the dais to start the evening session. The delegates applauded for at least 3 minutes with cheering and total admiration for this woman. I thought this was typical for a U.N. process. Are they just thanking Mexico for being the host country? I thought to myself. Hardly. This woman seems to have totally turned the Climate Conference on its head with her lovely energy, her inclusiveness of making sure that all the voices are heard and imparting the sense of what's important here is to set a framework that we can all get behind. The details can be worked out as part of the on going collaboration.

The session that I witnessed (really my first in all the 20 days of Copenhagen and Cancun that I've been at) was an informal session before the final plenary to agree (or not) on a Cancun Framework (or whatever they will choose to call it) that will be used in Durban, South Africa next December 2011 as the base for continuing negotiations towards a binding legal treaty on the keys areas of creating an array of climate solutions to the growing climate calamity.

Country after country (about 20, including China, the US, Australia, the EU, the African group, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Kenya, Tanzania, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, India and many more) piled praise on Senora Espinosa for her handling of the process, its' inclusiveness and transparency. They ALL said the document isn't perfect but that it was something they could live with as a framework to take the next steps forward. Only Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador called for more working group time to hammer out some of the details, and respecting their wishes, she granted the time urging quick resolutions so the COP could ratify the document.

I videoed every country's statement that was in English and some were so moving (India, calling the process "in the presence of God, and in this case, a Goddess," a scarfed woman from Kuwait, and a Bangladeshi gentleman who negotiated the very tricky financial agreement with his Australian counterpart) that the room burst into spontaneous cheers and applause. The space of partnership, lightness and workability was tangible. Perhaps the seriousness of a warming planet finally hit people that "we've got to get busy" but my hunch is that Senora Espinosa tapped into something that had been missing from the negotiations in Copenhagen and I dare say all COPs. This woman knows how to convene a group of disparate folks and does it with grace and ease and the response was overwhelming.

On my way home on my last COP bus ride from Cancun Messe to the Zona Hotelera I was sitting next to a French Canadian from Montreal who works with the Democratic Republic of Congo. I asked him, "what happened during the negotiations to make the crowd behave that way this evening?" He said that there was a period this afternoon when things just started to get lighter, people started working together and getting things done.

Sounds a little like "be the change you want to see in the world" to me. I remember back to my first email about being here in Cancun saying something like "expectations are low going into this conference and I'm looking for some unexpected outcome."

Leadership shows up in the strangest places.

Paul Thompson

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Paul Thompson is the Founder of Cool Planet and Volunteer Educator for Youth Environmental Activists Minnesota, a joint program of the Will Steger Foundation and the Alliance for Sustainability. Paul is participating in COP16 as a member of the 350 Solutions Revolution Team with accreditation sponsored by the Will Steger Foundation.

"The Solutions Revolution: Here's a team that's spreading the most important number in the world-350-one mile at a time across the middle of the nation. The ride is waking up a country that needs waking up, because our Congress holds one of the keys to solving the climate conundrum!"