Day 3

COY 6 leading to COP 16

The three-day long conference of youth (COY) preceeding COP 16 was a great success and got the youth NGOs (YOUNGO) ready for the Conference! WAGGGS delegates networked with other youth organizations and run workshops and policy working groups on our four topics:

• The ‘girls and young women’ working group has been established as an official YOUNGO policy group. The group has agreed on objectives for their lobbying activities based on the WAGGGS key messages. They are reaching out to the gender constituency and the SRHR group, building the important bridge between gender and youth.
• The article 6 policy group on climate change education has put together a policy paper and will start approaching the negotiators. WAGGGS ensured that the mentioning of equal access to education and non-formal education stays as strong points in this YOUNGO policy brief. You can download the policy paper.
• The action group produced a fantastic video with the call to action inviting all WAGGGS members to join them for the YoFuGe day on 2 December!
• Blogger central is up and running! At the UNICEF booth the "WAGGGS blogger chiefs" are creating and distributing content to: Unite for climate and Voices of youth and youthink.

During the COP opening ceremony, Bronwyn and Miriam were among the five youth representatives selected to attend.

Side event -Women and climate change

The WAGGGS delegates attended a side event which had Margarita Zavala, the first lady of Mexico and the President of the Consultative Council of Integral Family Development, as a keynote speaker. The aim of the event was to highlight the role that women in Mexico have already taken in climate change and mitigation actions. The speakers stressed that gender needs to be mainstreamed in all international negotiations regarding climate change, in order to guarantee a fair, differentiated, democratic and inclusive process.

We had a very good intervention there and she was grateful to see the Girl Guides support her efforts. Margarita Zavala has been a Girl Guide herself and she said that this is the reason why she is so interested in taking care of the environment today. How great to hear!  Her final words were powerful and clear:

We have to go through many paths to fight climate change; the diplomatic, scientific and human path. Women should be included in the all! Margarita Zavala

Fossil of the Day presentation

The fossil of the day award is organised by the Climate Action Network (CAN). CAN regularly judge three ‘Fossil of The Day’ awards to the countries who perform the worst each day at negotiations for UN climate change conferences. The slightly sarcastic yet highly prestigious awards are accepted by youth representatives from that country. The Fossil of the Day award was first presented at the climate talks in 1999 in Bonn.

Girl Guides were part of the opening ceremony of the fossil of the day presentation for 2010. We performed a song and dance number to the Jurassic Park theme. The lyrics of the song were:

The dance was organised by the UK youth climate change council! There were flags and spirit fingers – it was really fun!!  Check out the website to see who the award was given to on the first day of COP16.

This award is going to be awarded everyday so keep an eye on the website and see who get named and shamed everyday!