The road to COPENHAGEN

8/9/2019 The road to COPENHAGEN

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The road to COPENHAGEN

for young people · by young people · about young people

The UNEP Magazine for Youth

Clear andpresent danger

President Mohamed Nasheed

Clean revolution

Loud and clear

Seal the deal!

Concerted effort

Last resorts



UNEP promotes

environmentally sound practicesglobally and in its own activities. This

magazine is printed on 100% recycled paper,using vegetable-based inks and other eco-

friendly practices. Our distribution policy aimsto reduce UNEP’s carbon footprint.

TUNZA the UNEP magazinefor youth. To view currentand past issues of thispublication online,please visit www.unep.org

United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP)PO Box 30552, Nairobi, KenyaTel (254 20) 7621 234Fax (254 20) 7623 927Telex 22068 UNEP KEE-mail [email protected]

ISSN 1727-8902

Director of Publication Satinder BindraEditor Geoffrey LeanSpecial Contributor Wondwosen Asnake Youth Editors Karen Eng, Joseph LaceyNairobi Coordinator Naomi PoultonHead, UNEP’s Children and Youth Unit

Theodore ObenCirculation Manager Manyahleshal Kebede

Design Edward Cooper, Ecuador Production BansonFront cover photo Robert vanWaarden

Youth Contributors Devin Aviugana, Canada;Veni Sevia Febrianti, Indonesia; Kyle Gracey,United States of America; Ruchi Jain, India; Whit

Jones, United States of America; Ely Katembo,Democratic Republic of the Congo; Anna Keenan,Australia; Simon Sizwe Mayson, South Africa;Martin Metz, United States of America; Wendy

Miller, Australia; Desideria Murti, Indonesia;Gerard Penecilla, Philippines; Michael Plesner,Denmark; Alexander Readford, Australia; DanScott, New Zealand; Sho Scott, Japan; JuanCarlos Soriano, Peru; Gemma Tillack, Australia;

Jake Voelcker, United Kingdom.

Other Contributors Franny Armstrong; JaneBowbrick; Mark Lynas; William Malpass, Bayer;Mohamed Nasheed; Fred Pearce; Radiohead;Rosey Simonds and David Woollcombe, PeaceChild International.

Printed in the United Kingdom

The contents of this magazine do not necessarilyreect the views or policies of UNEP or the editors,nor are they an ofcial record. The designationsemployed and the presentation do not imply theexpression of any opinion whatsoever on the partof UNEP concerning the legal status of any country,territory or city or its authority, or concerning thedelimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

CONTENTS Editorial 3

A warming world – for real 4

Seal the deal! 5

Clear and present danger 6

Concerted effort 8

What can wedge analysis do for us? 8

Facing extinction 10

Loud and clear 12

TUNZA answers your questions 14

Plastiki 15

Beyond learning 16

REDD for go! 16

All change 17

Clean revolution 18

Last resorts 20

Six degrees 22

UNEP and Bayer, the German-basedinternational enterprise involvedin health care, crop science andmaterials science, are working together to strengthen young people’senvironmental awareness and engagechildren and youth in environmentalissues worldwide.

The partnership agreement, renewedto run through 2010, lays down abasis for UNEP and Bayer to enlargetheir long standing collaboration tobring successful initiatives to countries

around the world and develop newyouth programmes. Projects include:TUNZA Magazine, the InternationalChildren’s Painting Competition onthe Environment, the Bayer YoungEnvironmental Envoy in Partner shipwith UNEP, the UNEP TunzaInternational Youth/Children’sConference, youth environmentalnetworks in Africa, Asia Pacic,Europe, Latin America, North Americaand West Asia, the Asia-Pacic Eco-Minds forum, and a photo competition,‘Ecology in Focus’, in Eastern Europe.

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Just three short months are left of what may wellprove to be the most important year in history,culminating in what is probably the most crucial

international meeting to date. For the CopenhagenClimate Change Conference, which takes place inDecember, and the negotiations that are preceding it allyear, will decide the future both of humanity and of theplanet itself. Reaching an ambitious and comprehensiveagreement there on reducing global emissions of carbondioxide (CO 2) and other greenhouse gases may well bethe last chance that the world has of avoiding not justdangerous, but catastrophic, climate change.

The world nancial crisis has made reaching agreementharder, as national leaders think of their economies rst.

But in fact it should make it easier, for the answers to thenancial and climate crises – and to the energy crisis fastcoming up behind them – lie in the same direction. Cleantechnology, and particularly renewable energy, offers themost promising prospect for producing a sustainableand growing world economy. It already constitutes a $4.5trillion market, while last year investments in renewableenergy for the rst time exceeded those in fossil fuelsand nuclear power worldwide. Green technologies arealso labour-intensive, providing plenty of good em ploy-ment, much more than is offered by more tradi tionaltechnologies. The International Labour Organisation saysthat projected investments in renewable energy alonecould create another 20 million jobs by 2030, with another12 million arising from producing biomass for energy andrelated industries.

For the last year UNEP has been calling for a GlobalGreen New Deal, where stimulus packages are targeted atproviding jobs and sustainable growth through greeningthe world economy. Some countries, most notably theRepublic of Korea, have wholeheartedly embraced theconcept and others have devoted varying proportions oftheir recovery packages to it. But much more needs tobe done, and a strong enough agreement in Copenhagen

could itself provide an enormous stimulus by pointingcountries and economies towards a new, low-carbonfuture. Governments must ‘seal the deal’ on climate inDecember, and then move on to building a prosperousgreen future.

We all agree that recycling is a good thing. But whiletransforming, say, a newspaper into an egg carton saveson pollution, landll and raw materials – not to mentioncarbon emissions – recycling processes still gobble upprecious resources like energy and water. And no matterhow diligently we recycle, it’s still just a dent in the mountainof waste we’re constantly generating.

The concept of precycling helps tackle the problem of over-

consumption before it begins, avoiding the need to recyclein the rst place. Precycling means stopping to think, beforeyou buy: Do I really need this item? What effect did/will itsproduction have on Earth? What do I already have that mightbe altered? And so on. Eventually, if enough people stopbuying stuff, other people will have no incentive to make it.

Here are a few ideas to start with:

• Try to buy products with minimal packaging, and opt forrecyclable packaging – paper and glass rather than plastic,for example. Let manufacturers and shops know you prefer

less packaging.• Carry reusable shopping bags and smaller cloth bags forweighing produce.

• Try mending or buying second-hand items beforepurchasing a new product. If you must buy new, go for highquality, so that it lasts longer.

• Rent or lease products, especially appliances and elec-tronics, rather than buying them. Research has shown thatwhen responsibility for products ends with the manufacturers,they have an incentive to make them more sustainable.

• Carry a kit with utensils, cloth napkins, and a drinks bottleand/or cup when going out to avoid producing waste wheneating out.

• A borrower be: pool some tools, toys or books with yourneighbours and start a community lending library.

• Buy food in large sizes or in bulk to decant into smallerreusable containers as needed. This saves on individualpackaging and money.

• Grow your own vegetables and herbs.

Need inspiration? Watch the 20-minute animated lm The Story of Stuff (www.storyofstuff.com) , a look at the realitiesof the production, consumption and waste cycle.

Justsay

no! S e a l

t h e d e a l !

EDITORIAL

3The road to Copenhagen



Alex Webb/Magnum PhotosBanson

Last year was one of the 10 warmest worldwide sincemodern records began more than 150 years ago. TheArctic sea ice shrank to its second lowest extent on

record, only just failing to beat the previous year.

South America suffered its worst weather disaster of recenttimes, with ooding affecting 1.5 million people in Brazil.Heavy rains drove some 10 million people in India fromtheir homes. The United States was hit by Hurricane Ike, itsthird most destructive one after Katrina in 2005 and Andrewin 1992. And Cyclone Nargis, which devastated Myanmar,was the worst to hit Asia for 17 years.

By contrast, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Portugal andUruguay all experienced their worst droughts in decades.And Australia has now been gripped by one for an un-precedented 12 years.

In other words, it was a pretty normal year in what is nowa rapidly warming world. We are already getting more of the same this year, and can expect it next year and for allthe years thereafter, as climate change brings more storms,droughts and oods and changes the face of the Earth.

It is all happening faster than anyone expected. Take that seaice, for example. Professor Mark Serreze of the US NationalSnow and Ice Data Center – one of the world’s leadingauthorities – says that if you had asked him just two years ago

how long the ice would last before it all melted in summer,he would have said 2070 or 2100. Now he estimates that theArctic will be ice-free in September as early as 2030, andsome expects reckon it could happen by 2013.

It was 2007 that changed his mind. That year the ice capabruptly shrank 25 per cent more than its previous recordlow, taking it down to levels that had not been expected tooccur before 2050. And, as we have seen, last year was notmuch better.

The Greenland ice sheet is also melting much faster thanexpected as its glaciers have started racing towards the sea.So are mountain glaciers worldwide – their average rate of melting and thinning doubled in just two years between 2004and 2006. The ice shelves that border the Antarctic Peninsularare rapidly disappearing, and the massive ice sheets thatcover the ‘frozen continent’ are also beginning to melt. Partlyas a result of all this, the world’s seas are now rising twice asfast as they did, on average, during the 20th century.

And disturbing changes are beginning to take place in thehottest parts of the world as well as in the coldest ones. The

tropics, for example, are expanding, having widened byabout 220 kilometres since 1970. This is threatening to drivedeserts into fertile ground in more temperate areas. There aresigns, for example, that the northern edge of the Sahara mayleap across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.

A warming world for real

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C O P E N H A G E N U NC l i m a t e C h a n

g e C o n f e r e n c e

2 0 0 9

S E A LT H E

D E A L !

P o w e r G r e e n

G r o w t h , P r o t e

c t t h e P l a n e t

SEAL THE DEAL!THERE’S NO TIME TO WASTEPlanet Earth needs our attention

CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS US ALL.Rising temperaturesand more frequent oods, droughts and storms are im-pacting millions of people’s lives. Nine out of every tensuch disasters are now related to global warming. Thoseare scary facts.

On 7 December 2009, world leaders will gather in

Copenhagen, Denmark, to respond to one of the greatestchallenges facing humanity: climate change and sus-tainable economic growth. But how to protect the planetand create a green economy that will lead to long-termprosperity?

The negotiations in Copenhagen must answer thisquestion. Our existence depends on it.

Reaching a deal by the time the meeting ends on 18December will depend not only on political negotiationsbut also on public pressure from around the globe. Publicsupport must be galvanized.

The UN-led Seal the Deal campaign aims to motivate pol-itical will and public support for a comprehensive globalclimate agreement in Copenhagen in December.

YOU can join the Seal the Deal campaign. Sign an online,global petition which will be presented to world leaders,reminding them that they MUST negotiate a fair, balancedand effective agreement in Copenhagen, and that they mustseal a deal to power green growth, protect our planet andbuild a more sustainable, prosperous global economy forthe benet all nations and all people.

Find out more and make YOUR voice heard at

www.sealthedeal2009.org

S t u

ar t F r ank l i n

/ M a gn

um P h

ot o

s

Banson

All this is happening after comparatively modest increasesin temperature from global warming. So far these have onlyrisen by about 0.7ºC. But we are already committed to muchmore warming because the greenhouse gases that we havealready released require decades to take full effect. In fact, ourpast emissions have already committed us to another 0.5ºCof warming, even if we stopped all emissions of greenhousegases tomorrow. That, some experts believe, would be enoughto bring severe drought to the US grain belt, which helps feedmore than 100 countries around the world.

Indeed, Britain’s prestigious Hadley Centre for ClimatePrediction and Research has forecast that drought will spreadacross half the Earth during the 21st century, with extremedrought affecting a third of the planet, and agriculture be-coming impossible in many currently productive areas.

Of course, an immediate halt in emissions is impossible,and so temperatures are bound to go on rising, bringingus perilously close to the 2ºC that scientists estimate is theabsolute maximum that should be permitted if the world isto have a ghting chance of avoiding catastrophic climatechange (for projections of the possible consequences of each

degree of temperature rise see pages 22-23).

Whether the world succeeds in limiting the increase to thiscrucial maximum will largely depend on the outcome of vital negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.




U l l s t e i n b i l d / T o p f o t o

Clear and present danger

R e i n h a r d D i r s c h e r l / W a t e r F r a m e

/ S t i l l P i c t u r e s

You’ve had positive reactions to yourannouncement worldwide. How havepeople back home received the news?

President Nasheed: Since announc-ing the carbon neutrality goal alittle over two months ago, theMaldives has witnessed somethingof an environmental enlightenment.Maldivians are discussing and de bat-ing the environment far more than theyused to. The media fea tures environ-mental stories more regu larly thanbefore and civil society groups are rais-ing awareness about the importanceof protecting the environment.

For World Environment Day on 5

June, the Maldives held a children’sfestival in which children could voicetheir concerns over the environment.This is just one example of the manypublic activities that are now taking

place in the Maldives. These sorts of events are important because onlywith the help of local people canthe country make a success of itsenvironmental policies.

Why does the Maldives want to bethe world’s rst country to go carbonneutral when the islands will beamong the rst to be affected by sea-level rise? Why aren’t you devotingyour efforts toward adaptation orevacuation instead?

President Nasheed: The average heightof the Maldives is a mere 1.5 metresabove sea level. And so we are very

vulnerable to climate change andrising sea levels. Scientists warn thatsea levels could rise by a metre thiscentury. For the Maldives, climatechange is no vague or distant irritation,

but a clear and present danger to ourexistence.

Maldivians have lived in theMaldives for thousands of years. Andwe don’t want to trade in paradise foran environmental refugee camp. Forthese reasons, we are investing moneyin improving the sea defences aroundour islands – building water breakers,sea walls and revetments as well asensuring we protect our coral reefsas best we can. Last year, the Govern-ment warned that future generationsof Maldivians may have to seek a newhomeland if nothing is done to stopthe carbon pollution that is drivingglobal warming.

It is not too late to save the Maldives.If the world wakes up to the climatecrisis and makes a real commitmentto combating carbon emissions, theMaldives can enjoy a future in the

The Maldives emits so little CO 2 that it rounds down to ‘0 per cent’ of the world’s total, but this low-lying archipelago of1,190 coral islands is among the world’s nations most vulnerable to global warming: it would become uninhabitable if sealevels rose by less than a single metre. Faced with such an impending crisis, many would start looking for somewhereto run.

MALDIVES PRESIDENT MOHAMED NASHEED– who, at 42, is one of the world’s youngest leaders – is not just standinghis ground, but challenging nations around the world by pledging to make his country carbon neutral by 2019.

The Maldives is not the rst country to announce such an ambition: Costa Rica, Iceland, Monaco, New Zealand, Niue andNorway also have plans. But, if successful, it will be the rst to achieve it. Its strategy requires a combination of 1551.5-megawatt wind turbines, half a square kilometre of solar panels and a biomass plant that will burn coconut husks.Extra power will be stored in batteries for back-up. This renewable electricity will also power all the islands’ vehicles,including watercraft, while the nation aims to offset emissions from aviation by purchasing European Union emissionstrading certicates and destroying them. It will cost the Maldives $110 million a year to implement its plan, but the islandnation will start recouping its investment within 10 years.

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I hope the Maldives’ carbon-neutralexample will help persuade othercountries to follow suit. By successfullydecarbonizing our local economy, theMaldives can demonstrate that goinggreen is not only possible but alsoprotable.

I also hope our example caninspire concerned citizens and acti-vists in other countries to lobbytheir governments for greater cuts ingreenhouse gas emissions. If a rela-tively poor developing country likethe Maldives can go carbon neutral,what excuse can wealthy nations havefor refusing to do the same?

You are hoping that a carbon-neutralMaldives will draw more eco-touriststo the islands, but won’t that cause

more carbon emissions?

President Nasheed: Our carbon-neutral plan envisages the totaldecarboni zation of the Maldivianeconomy. We will stop burning fossilfuels and instead generate powerwith the raw materials the Maldiveshas in abundance: the sun, the seaand the wind. We are harnessingpyrolysis technology to dispose of our waste in environmentally friendly

ways. And we hope to graduallyreplace petrol and diesel boat and carengines with green technology.

Aviation is trickier. Wide-bodiedcommercial aeroplanes need kero-sene to y. Until someone inventsbio-kerosene, aircrafts will continueto burn fossil fuels. The Maldivianeconomy is, and will continue to be,heavily dependent on tourism. Thevast majority of holiday-makers comefrom Europe and East Asia, so reduc-ing the number of ights to and fromthe Maldives would be devastating forour economy and our people.

Going carbon neutral does notmean your country never producesany CO 2 emissions. What it meansis that you are not a net contributorto global emissions. In effect, thecountry does not emit more CO 2 than it absorbs. In order to ensurethat the Maldives becomes carbonneutral, we’ll need to offset thegreenhouse gas emissions produced

by aircraft ying here. One optionunder con sideration is for theMaldives to enter the Europeancarbon trading certicates marketand buy permits to pollute. If we buy

these permits, this means that Europeanpolluters, such as factories and cementworks, will have to pollute less. Byentering into this scheme, the pollu-tion caused by tourists travelling to theMaldives can be offset by Europeanpolluters emitting fewer greenhousegas emissions.

What are your rst practical stepstowards going carbon neutral? Howlong will it be before you achieve yourrst milestones?

President Nasheed: We have set outa vision for the country, based on aninitial eco-plan drawn up by climateand energy experts Mark Lynas andChris Goodall. We need to turn thatvision into a carbon-neutral reality.

In April, we established a PresidentialAdvisory Council on Climate Change,made up of 15 environment andenergy experts, who will providethe Government with advice on howto reach the carbon-neutral target.This expertise will help us draw up adetailed roadmap for reaching carbonneutrality in 10 years.

The Maldives is also pressingahead with numerous environmentalpro jects and reforms. For instance,

the Government intends to privatizethe state-run electricity rm STELCO,and we are looking for internationalcompanies with experience in renew-able energy production to bid for thecontract. A $10 million photovoltaicsolar panel pro ject is currently beingimplemented in and around the capi-tal city of Malé and a local rm isdevelop ing concentrated solar powerin island communities. Technologycompanies are research ing the potentialuse of wind power, and investors areexperimenting with biochar to helpdispose of waste and allow Maldiviansto grow more local produce.

We are also working hard toprotect our marine life. In March, theGovernment banned shark hunting.Earlier this month, we created threemarine protected areas to preservewhale sharks and manta rays.

We are determined to reach ourcarbon-neutrality target. Some peoplemight say, because the Maldives is

a small country, that our efforts are amere drop in the ocean. But I hope ourexample creates a ripple of hope thatforms a current of change, to protectthis planet for all our grandchildren.

22nd century. Nations must agree toa tough, binding agreement drasticallyto cut greenhouse gas emissions at theUnited Nations Climate Conference inCopenhagen this December. Nothingcould be more important becauseclimate change not only threatensthe Maldives, it threatens us all. TheMaldives is a front-line country inthe climate change battle. But historyshows us that if you can’t protect thefront line, the battle will soon be lost.If the world can’t save the Maldives,tipping points might push climatechange beyond man’s control.

How can the efforts of a tiny countrylike yours be adapted to large, richcountries?

President Nasheed: The Maldives is asmall country. And our contributionto global greenhouse gas emissionsis negligible, at less than 0.1 percent. We have not been part of theclimate change problem. But we aredetermined to be part of the solution.

We believe that the Maldives canlead the world by example. That is whythe Government announced in Marchthis year that the Maldives will becomethe world’s rst carbon-neutral countrywithin a decade.

It will not be easy to make theMaldives carbon neutral. Generatingrenewable energy through solar andwind doesn’t come cheap, particularly

in a country where the population isscattered across far-ung islands. Butgoing carbon neutral is possible andwhere there is political will, there isa way.




Travelling the world playing concerts is anessential, if gruelling, aspect of being a big-name band. And the environmental impact is high– something the UK megaband Radiohead bothacknowledges and seriously tries to tackle.

With its big, textured, moody sounds, Radiohead hasbecome one of the world’s best known and criticallyacclaimed acts – with seven albums, three Grammy winsand countless accolades. But popularity has its price: a

newspaper-sponsored audit found that the 2003 albumHail to the Thief – including CD production and a world tourthat played to 545,000 fans in Europe, Japan, Australia andthe United States of America – emitted 7,500 tonnes of CO 2,which is equivalent to a year’s emissions from 1,400 cars.And that’s before taking the band’s road travel or entourage

into account. While such gures aren’t unusual for a such a high-calibreact, they shocked Radiohead’s front man Thom Yorke, whohas long been concerned with environmental issues. Hethreatened to quit touring if it couldn’t be made greener. ‘The

Scientists say humanity will have to cut its CO 2 emissionsby 80 per cent by 2050 if the world is to have any hopeof avoiding dangerous climate change. But how is thisdramatic change – perhaps the most challenging in thewhole of human history – to be achieved?

Experts agree that there is no silver bullet, that no singlesource of energy can be pressed into service to replace thefossil fuels that give rise to the emissions. Instead, the jobcan only be done by employing a whole range of solutions– including using energy more efciently wherever it isneeded. Ecologist Stephen Pacala and physicist RobertSocolow have come up with a simple way of describing this,

known as ‘wedge analysis’.

Key to wedge analysis is the ‘stabilization triangle’. Thetriangle is formed by drawing a line on a graph representinghow CO 2 emissions will rise if the world continues on its

present path, and another one showing the track they willneed to take if emissions are to be stabilized at a relativelysafe level. A ‘business-as-usual’ scenario could see CO 2 emissions doubling to reach more than 60 billion tonnesa year by 2050, whereas they need to fall and stabilize atunder 15 billion tonnes annually. This establishes the size of the triangle, which is then split into different-sized ‘energywedges’, each representing a partial contribution to meetingthe target.

Organizations and governments are increasingly usingwedge analysis to address the CO 2 emissions problem. The‘Climate Solutions Model’ is an example developed by WWF,

the global conservation organization, and based on existinglow-carbon technologies. It recognizes that some will beable to expand faster than others: by the time hydrogenstarts to make a difference in 2040, for instance, wind andgeothermal energy would already be rmly established.

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What can wedge analysis do for us?

Concerted effort



Wedge analysis: a simplied diagram based on WWF’sClimate Solutions Model

In this model, around 40 per cent of the task to 2050 will haveto be achieved through improvements in energy efciencyacross industry, buildings and transport – for example byheavily insulating all new and existing buildings, upgradingpower plants with energy-saving technologies and increasingthe number of kilometres that vehicles, including aeroplanesand ships, get from each litre of fuel.

WWF reckons another 43 per cent could come from renew-able technologies. Producing hydrogen this way could provide11 per cent, while 10 per cent could come from wind, andsolar technologies could contribute 8 per cent. Geothermal,biomass and hydroelectricity could also have a signicantrole, with ocean power making a much smaller contribution.

Fossil fuels continue to be the single largest source of energy

in 2050 in the WWF model – with a wedge one-sixth of the stabilization triangle. But the fossil-fuelled power plantsincluded are assumed to be tted with carbon capture andstorage (CCS) – which, it is expected, will reduce their CO 2 emissions by 90 per cent.

9

way that tours are structured now is a ridiculous consumptionof energy,’ he said. ‘I think touring is a necessary part of whatI do, but I nd the consequences unacceptable.’

The band took up the challenge. Before embarkingon a tour supporting the 2008 album In Rainbows , it

commissioned Oxford company Best Foot Forward toperform a carbon audit on two past tours. It turned outthat more than 80 per cent of Radiohead’s emissionsresulted not from its own travel, but from the thousandsof fans ying and driving (and idling in trafc) to and fromshows. So Radiohead took the tour mainly to city-centre

venues with easy access to public transport. On its website,it asked audiences to avoid ying, to carpool or take publictransport where possible. And it went so far as to post anonline carbon calculator allowing fans to enter the startingpoint of their journey, the concert date and venue, and thenexplore different transport options – car, bus, bike, plane,train, underground railway, walking, even ship – to ndthose with the lowest impact.

The worst offender for the band’s own emissions wasshown to be international air travel and air-freighting their20 tonnes of gear – sound equipment, lighting and so on –between countries. So Radiohead set itself a ‘no air-freight’policy, but then discovered that shipping – while 93 per centmore energy-efcient than air freighting – meant it wouldtake too long for crucial equipment to reach its destination.So they hit on the idea of assembling two identical sets of

equipment on either side of the Atlantic and planned thetour so that the US equipment could be shipped to Japanwhile the band toured Europe.

Radiohead has also pledged to use rail and road when-ever possible and to avoid unnecessary ights. Insteadof making a live television appearance on the popular USshow Late Night with Conan O’Brien , for example, it sent apre-recorded clip from London. Even the light show usesenergy-saving LEDs, and on the band’s social networkingsite, a crew member reports to fans on each tour venuefrom a green perspective, including recycling facilities,

transport links and so on.The results of all this have not yet been assessed, butRadiohead says it will continue to keep its operation aslow-carbon as possible, and hopes that the investment ingreener touring will inspire and pave the way for others.

The road to Copenhagen

So l a r po w e r

Wind po wer

H ydrogen

G e o th e r m a l a n d b io m a s s

Hy d r oe le c t r i c i t y & oc e an pow e r

F o s s i l f u e l s w i t h C C S

A n n u a l

C O 2 e m

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s r i s i n

g a s p r e

d i c t e d

b y b u

s i n e s s

a s u s

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STABILIZATIONTRIANGLE

An n u a l C O 2 e m i s s i o n s f a l l i n g a s m o r e ‘ w e d g e s ’ c o m e i n t o p l a y

2009 2050

60 billion tonnes

15 billion tonnes

E n e r g y

e f f i c i e

n c y i n b u

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n s p o r t

E n e r g y e f f i c

i e n c y i n i n d u

s t r y

Katie Friesema



10 TUNZA Vol 7 No 2

It’s a question from the future thatis on-screen today, asked by abewildered lone survivor (played

by Oscar-nominated actor PetePostlethwaite) in a tower high abovea scorched Earth in 2055, as he ipsthrough archival footage from 2008:news reports about freak stormsand heat waves, melting Arctic ice,oods, droughts – the all-too-familiarevidence of global warming.

In The Age of Stupid , lm makerFranny Armstrong explores thehuman side of climate changethrough the stories of real people– among them a mountaineer inthe Alps who has watched the icereceding over decades, and an oilpalaeontologist in New Orleans wholost everything to Hurricane Katrina.But despite its bleak view of thefuture, the lm shows that humanitystill has a choice. The world now

has the science and technology toavoid the lm’s apocalyptic scenario– but seems to lack the will. It isthis, as Armstong explains to TUNZA,that the lm sets out to galvanizeas the world approaches December’scrucial climate change negotiations inCopenhagen.

TUNZA:Who does The Age of Stupid try to reach?

Franny: Our ultimate aim is to keep theplanet habitable for future generations– for ourselves, even – and to be partof that massive change. To do that,we need to inuence policy makersand concerned citizens – intelligentpeople who can see what’s happening,and want to be part of turning the shiparound before it’s too late. We don’tcare about the sceptics.

TUNZA: What would success looklike?

Franny: Success to me is that we, thespecies, come together, make the rightdeal in Copenhagen, and then startmaking massive emissions cuts so that

we can continue to live on our planet.Nothing else counts.

TUNZA: What do you think is the mosteffective thing for young people to do?

Franny: Politicians are the peoplecharged with making the right dealat Copenhagen, which will decide allour futures. So it’s very importantthat all people put pressure on theirgovernments – however they are ableor feel inspired to do so – and let themknow that unless they make the rightdeal, we won’t vote for them anymore.

At the moment, the best deal on theCopenhagen table – that proposedby the European Union – would giveus only about a 50 per cent chance ofaverting runaway climate change, butwe could give ourselves a much higherchance. We’re not waiting for any newtechnology or greater understandingor anything – the only thing holdingus back is ourselves. Surely our elec-ted leaders should be maximizing ourchances of survival? What else are theythere for?

TUNZA: What about efforts to planttrees, or reduce personal emissions?

Franny: There are a million solutions.Obviously we need people plantingtrees, designing new wind turbines,campaigning, walking their kids toschool rather than driving them, andso on. Everybody needs to rearrangetheir lives to deal with this new reality.

But in these months leading up to

Copenhagen, the number one priorityis to pressurize the politicians, be-cause this is our last chance to makean international deal. If we don’t,it’s going to be much more about

adaptation, because it basically meanswe are committed to runaway climatechange. And we will all be facing those

horrors together.

TUNZA: Some say the lm isn’t posi-tive enough to encourage action.

Franny: They might be right. But we’vebeen seeing hundreds of emails, if notthousands, from people inspired intoaction – everything from cancellingights to insulating houses to changing jobs. Lots of people sit around, don’tthey, being negative about everything,

saying: ‘This won’t work, that won’twork...’ But we did our best to makeour lm as inspiring as we could.Somebody said the other day, ‘It’s alm that makes you ask: “What is myrole on this planet?”’ I think that’s agood way of looking at it.

TUNZA: Can you tell us about the NotStupid campaign?

Franny: We want the lm to reachmillions who wouldn’t otherwise bereached, inspiring them to becomeactive citizens and involved in theCopenhagen process. So, in answerto the question ‘What can I do?’, we’reproviding information, tools, ideas andstrategies on our Not Stupid website(www.notstupid.org) – everything fromreading lists to how to talk to climatesceptics, from direct-action protest torethinking consumerist behaviour, andspreading the word on the internet. Theaim is to turn 250 million viewers into

activists, all focused on Copenhagen.

TUNZA: The Age of Stupid cites suc-cessful direct action campaigns – civilrights, votes for women – asking for

Facing extinction‘We could have saved ourselves, but we didn’t… Whatstate of mind were we in, to face extinction and simplyshrug it off?’

S p ann

er F i l m

s




Missed The Age of Stupid at thecinema? In May 2009, Team Stupidlaunched Indie Screenings. Individualsand groups anywhere can purchase aninexpensive one-time licence to screenthe lm (subtitled in 32 languages)in any venue – even their own livingrooms – giving everyone the oppor-tunity to spread the word.

www.indiescreenings.net

Distributionrevolution

In January 2008, Jake Voelcker gave uphis job as a web designer and starteda business refurbishing and sellingsecond-hand bikes. It wasn’t just hislifelong love of cycling that promptedhim to open his shop Jake’s Bikes inthe British city of Bristol. Once avolunteer at the Centre for AlternativeTechnology in Wales, Jake is fulll-ing his passion for energy efciency,recycling, low-carbon transport andraising environmental awareness. Even

the shop is low-carbon: staff workmainly with hand tools, use low-energy light and no heat, reuse andrecycle materials, and move thingsaround using bike trailers, not vans.

NOTstupid!

‘Because of deforestation, oods andlandslides were killing people in myregion of Bondowoso, East Java. SoI asked myself, what can I do? First Ibought seeds, prepared and plantedthem. Then I wrote to the Government,who sent money for more seeds andto develop an education programme.I partnered with the Governmentand social organizations to helpraise environmental awareness in thecommunity, including teaching chil-

dren and young people how to planttrees. Since 2005, I’ve initiated theplanting of 30,000 of them, with helpfrom family, social organizations andowners of unproductive lands. Witheducation and help, people can learnto change their attitudes.’Veni Sevia Febrianti, Indonesia

ACTION!

‘While researching sustainable trans-port for the Green Campus Initiativeat the University of Capetown, Idiscovered that 52 per cent of the resources used in the city arespent on transport – and that manystudents commute alone in cars. So Icoordinated RideLink, a secure, web-based carpooling tool, for studentsand staff. They simply log on andenter details of where they’re goingand when, and RideLink hooks themup with a lift. We launched the site in

January 2009, and it’s been a success,with more than 600 users. However,many still haven’t signed up, so wecontinue to promote it. We alsopromote cycling with ads that canbe attached to bikes, saying things

like ‘Petrol price hike? Ride a bike!’Offering practical alternatives whileraising awareness seems to be a goodstrategy.’Simon Sizwe Mayson, South Africa

ACTION!

something positive. What positive out-come does the Not Stupid campaignseek?

Franny: I think the wasteful consumersociety we’ve ended up with is veryunhappy. One where we share theworld’s resources fairly and don’toverconsume – but live within theecological limits of the planet – wouldbe happier and much more fullling.Aspire to happiness and less sufferingfor more people – you can’t get morepositive than that!

TUNZA: But life needs to go on, andpeople want to enjoy it…

Franny: Does it? If you are aware thatthis is the only thing that counts, I thinkit’s quite depressing to feel you’re doingsomething completely pointless – orcontributing negatively. If, basically,we’re all running over a cliff, what’s thepoint of spending these last few years,when we can still act, doing anythingexcept helping us to stop? Obviouslyyour response will vary depending onwhether you’re 15 in Mumbai or 60in London, and who you are and whatresources you have. It’s up to everybodyto reassess their own lives. But all thehappiest people I know are working onclimate change. Personally, I feel veryoptimistic. I think these months lead-ing up to Copenhagen will dene ourgeneration, the way other generationswere dened by ending slavery, gettingthe vote for women, or civil rights. Inthe West, our generation has grown up

in a time of plenty, with no world wars.Earlier generations had bigger thingsthan we did to overcome. But now we’vegot the biggest of them all. This is ourmoment. We can still turn it around.

The Age of Stupid/Spanner Films



12 TUNZA Vol 7 No 2

Loud and clearImagine the cacophony if the world’s 3 billion people under 25 years old – nearly half its population – spoke uptogether. Young people all over the world are preparing to do just that as momentum builds towards the 15thConference of the Parties (COP-15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009. At COP-15, world leaders will meet to negotiate the successor tothe Kyoto Protocol, with the goal of agreeing to new binding agreements to prevent runaway climate change. Asthose with the most to lose, youth are gathering forces to let their leaders know that their future – and that ofEarth – must not be compromised.

In March 2009, 12,000 young people from each of the50 United States as well as other countries oodedinto Washington, DC, for Power Shift ’09, demand-ing green jobs, a rapid transition away from dirty

energy, and climate legislation in line with scientic

requirements that we could bring to Copenhagen.The gathering, organized by Energy Action Coalition,included a 3,000-person rally on the Capitol Lawn

and the largest climate change lobby day in US history.Since Power Shift, the participants have returned home tocontinue organizing activities around climate legislationand green jobs. In the months leading to COP-15, EnergyAction Coalition will keep urging youth to push for a bold,equitable, science-based international climate treaty, bothwith a delegation in Copenhagen and at home. We feela distinct obligation as US youth to take responsibility forclimate change at home and on the international stage.

WHIT JONES, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ENERGYACTION COALITION

I am working together with East African youth to secure better representation at COP-15 by taking a team of African youth leaders to Copenhagen

as part of the Energy Crossroads network (www.energycrossroads.org). Our goals are to spread

awareness, develop solutions and empower youth to take the lead on implementing mitigation and adaptation measures in local communities.

MICHAEL PLESNER, DENMARK, ENERGY CROSSROADS

British rower and UNEP Climate Change Ambassador Roz Savage is rowing solo across the Pacic to inspire people to walk more and drive less. The campaign,

called Pull Together, challenges supporters to match her daily 10,000 oar strokes with 10,000 steps, logging them online.Then, on 24 October, Roz and thousands of supporters will

start marching the more than 967 kilometres from Londonto Copenhagen to deliver the results, a symbol of their commitment to reducing global CO 2 levels.

www.rozsavage.com

W ith a group of youth activists belongingto different organizations – such asGEO-TUNZA Ecuador, Energy Ethics,

CAJU Peru and others – I am working to engage acommitted group of South American young peoplein the months leading to COP-15. We aim to gather aLatin American youth delegation to attend COP-15,and exchange information and skills needed to makea difference there. Before and up to COP-15, we alsoplan to reach out to the public in South America to helpincrease general understanding about the internationalclimate change process.

JUAN CARLOS SORIANO, PERU

In the summer of 2009, my father CharlesScott and I are riding connected bikesthe length of mainland Japan, from the

northernmost point of Cape Souya to thesouthern tip at Cape Sata, a 4,700-kilometre,two-month journey. Working with UNEP, theaim is to generate publicity to encourage awareness andaction on climate change, especially in these months leadingto COP-15. Along the way we’re also raising money to supportthe Billion Tree Campaign – UNEP’s effort to plant 7 billiontrees by the end of 2009, one for each person on the planet.

SHO SCOTT (8), JAPAN

SustainUS – a non-prot organization of young people advancing sustainable development and youthempowerment in the United States – is sending

a delegation of 24 US youth to Copenhagen, as well as help ing Arctic explorer Will Steger take another dozen.

To encou rage other international youth, we have written atraining manual (www.sustainus.org/docs/Youth%20Guide.pdf) to help prepare young people from any developing countries who have not yet been able to send a delegation

to the climate change negotiations, especially important because some of the negotiation is about adaptation funding for their countries.We try to raise money to fund youth delegations from developing countries, and offer support to them both in Copenhagen and beforehand.

KYLE GRACEY, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

SUSTAINUS




In 2008, ve members of the Australian Youth ClimateCoalition (AYCC) – including me – travelled 23,500kilometres from Australia to Poznan, Poland, and we did it

by land rather than ying. We crossed 11 countries in 40 daysby train, bus, taxi, tuk-tuk and boat, eventually joining 500other international youth climate activists at COP-14.

It wasn’t just a stunt to save carbon emissions– though we did save about 40 per cent by notying. We wanted to demonstrate that not y-ing is difcult, time-consuming and expensive,emphasizing the need to improve our low-carbon infrastructure.

For COP-15, we’re mobilizing for 5,000 youth and othersfrom all over the globe to travel overland to Copenhagen – anaction we’re calling Convergence. To start, there’s a zero-carbonbicycle caravan (www.zerocarboncaravan.net) from the UnitedKingdom, and youth from Japan catching the trans-Siberianrailway. We’re also seeking funding for youth from Africa andSouth America, discussing free transport with rail organizations,

and investigating cargo ships. Youth from Togo to Canada toCosta Rica to Sweden and beyond are volunteering.

Once in Copenhagen, we will as usual be involved in theConference – meeting with government delegates and report-ing on progress via blogs and social networking – as wellas participating in external social-movement mobilizations,such as Friends of the Earth International’s ‘Flood for Climate

Justice’ (www.foei.org/en/what-we-do/un-climate-talks/global/ the-ood-is-coming).

Copenhagen will be the greatest convergence of young

people on any political issue in history. As we ask our leadersto make decisions that reshape our way of life, let’s take thisopportunity to prove youth really care.

ANNA KEENAN, AUSTRALIA, AYCC/[email protected]

With the goal of doing somethingconcrete – and FAST – the IndianYouth Climate Network has

organ ized Agents of Change to get studentsand young professionals involved in seriouslobbying, campaigning and direct action toinuence political decisions leading up to Copenhagen.

Right now, in partnership with UNEP’s South Asian YouthEnvironmental Network, we’re also assembling delegatesto join the Asian subcontinent youth delegation to COP-15,which will have representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan,India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Once chosen,delegates will learn how to develop policy priorities, lobby,and engage others in international climate policy. We’realso assembling a team in India to keep local and nationalmedia outlets informed, run constant campaigns in schools

and communities, and organize regional and national daysof action and a petition campaign, generally creating agroundswell of awareness and urgency around COP-15.

RUCHI JAIN, INDIA, INDIAN YOUTH CLIMATE NETWORK

The African continent is the one most vulnerable to climate change. Yet of 500 youth delegates in Poznan, just four

– including me – were African, a noticeable gap at high-level meetings to which youth representatives were invited. So I have started

to work with 350.org to help get more African youth involved in the international climate process.

350.org is hosting a worldwide series of summits where youth climate organizers can learn all they need to know to

mobilize their own communities and hold their politicians accountable. Within this, it has made a special commitment to empower young Africans to work as climate advocates and activists, and to send a strong African delegation to Copenhagen. Efforts have included a summit in Johannesburg in June 2009, attended by hundreds of sub-Saharan African youth, followed in Turkey by a three-week Climate Advocacy Institute, attended by hundreds more from North Africa and the Middle East.

We hope this work helps build capacity and allows African youth to spread the word that climate change is not just arich countries’ issue.

ELY KATEMBO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO,350.org

UNEPis organizing 1 million young people to marchthrough 100 capitals in September 2009 to

deliver a petition to global leaders. The petition asks – on behalf of the world’s 3 billion young people – for a denitive climatedeal in Copenhagen. The petition was developed online andnalized in August 2009 at UNEP’s Global Townhall, whichconvened 750 children and 250 youth in Daejeon, Republic

of Korea, to discuss climate change problems and solutions.The Townhall also saw the launch of Unite for Climate (www.uniteforclimate.org), a social networking plat form whereyoung people can learn and share thoughts about climatechange and the action needed to combat it.

At COP-14 in Poland, the Alliance Of Small IslandStates (AOSIS) proposed strong emissions reductiontargets and called for serious action. When this show of

leadership went largely unheard, the 500-strong internationalyouth delegation developed Project Survival, a major campaignthat added our voices to theirs and supported these oftenunder-resourced government delegations. We shared theplight of these nations with the media, engaged withthe negotiations and offered policy and administrativesupport. As we worked, we learnt more about the diresituation faced by these countries.

The project continues around the world. In thePacic, Australian youth are working from Pacicislands like the Solomons, especially focusing on climate-change policy. Our work is bringing greater equality tothe Copenhagen negotiations and a greater chance for astrong agreement on climate change.

WENDY MILLER, AUSTRALIA, AYCC



Q Why is the involvement of young people in theCopenhagen meeting important, and how can they beinvolved in its decision-making process?

A Copenhagen is the last government-level meeting inthe calendar before the world climate agreement must berenewed and the strength of worldwide measures to tackleglobal warming will be determined. Young people and futuregenerations are the ones who will either suffer or benetfrom the decisions made, and it is crucial that their voicesare heard. Though they will not make the nal call, youthwill play a role and will become involved by sharing theirthoughts and ideas with the ministers and delegates present.We can only hope that the governments will listen to theseopinions, will take them into consideration when negotiatingand will make sincere and meaningful decisions.

Q What concrete actions should young people be taking toshow the world that they want a deal in Copenhagen? Whatshould they press governments to do?

A It is important that the young people participating inthe Copenhagen meetings show that they are committed:if they aren’t, they won’t be taken seriously. They mustshow that they are actively involved by getting acquaintedwith the negotiations and preparing for them. They shoulddiscuss their points of view with each other and withintheir communities to raise awareness and mobilize others

at school, in clubs, and at religious or community centres,etc. Once they have shown that they want a deal in theDecember meetings, they should become part of governmentdelegations and press them to reduce carbon emissions byagreeing to strong measures on tackling climate change.

Q What is the relationship between poverty and globalwarming, especially in developing countries, and how willthe Copenhagen negotiations address this?

A Although climate change does not directly cause poverty,it will impact the poorest disproportionately. Most of theworld’s poorest people rely on their environment to survive.But as extreme weather, changing temperatures, oodsand droughts increase, crops will fail: in some Africancountries yields could fall by 50 per cent by 2020. So survival,particularly for the poorest, will become more difcultand more urgent. This extremely important topic will bediscussed in Copenhagen and, it is hoped, will be addressedby setting strict targets for emissions cuts to reduce climatechange and introducing measures to promote economicdevelopment through adapting to it.

Q Taking care of our beautiful planet starts with individualaction. So, what actions should individuals take to make it

a better place?

A Individual action is the starting point for reducing ournegative effects on the environment, and if everyone doestheir share, it will be easier to mitigate climate change.

People can do small things to reduce their carbon footprint,to save energy, and also to save money, such as buyingorganic and local food products, unplugging ‘stand-by’appliances, recycling, choosing to use public transport orbiking or walking, and nally, energy-proong their homeby insulating it well, closing windows, shades and curtainswhen it’s cold, turning off lights and heating when they arenot needed, and switching to energy-efcient light bulbs.Indeed, personal action can reduce up to half humanity’semissions.

Q What will be the consequences for today’s young peopleif strong measures on tackling climate change are notagreed this year?

A Today’s young people, along with future generations, willbe those most affected. Even if strong measures are taken tosubstantially reduce emissions, the greenhouse gases thathave already been released will remain in the atmospherefor long periods, and some global warming is now inevitable.So what will happen if strong measures are not taken? Theconsequences of global warming cover a broad spectrum,

including extreme weather, rising sea levels, diminishedharvests, spreading diseases, disruption of water supplies,loss of biodiversity and much more. The longer we wait toestablish strong measures, the harder it will be to tackleclimate change.

Q&A

14 TUNZA Vol 7 No 2

TUNZA answers your questions



Photos: Luca Babini

Plastiki

I rst heard of the Plastiki in 2008 when David pitched the idea to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom,for whom I was working as an intern. The conversation made me ask: ‘When I throw something away,what am I really throwing away?’ I immediately volunteered for the Plastiki team.

UpcyclingWe built the Plastiki ’s rigid skeleton, ribs and bulkheads using a fully recyclable material called self-reinforced polyethylene terephthalate (srPET), which is made from virgin plastic (something we hopeto soon change). But, as srPET isn’t buoyant, we also lled reclaimed 2-litre plastic bottles, collectedfrom San Francisco recycling agencies, with dry ice, sealed them to make them seaworthy andfastened them to the hull.

The Plastiki interrupts the typical life cycle of a productthat ends up in landll, creating a new role for one-time-use items by ‘upcycling’ them as valuableresources. With innovation and creativity, upcyclingcan be as simple and beautiful as making a kite fromsewn-together crisp packets (an art piece conceivedby a fellow student), or as complex as the break-down and recomposition of chemical compoundsfor reuse in what David calls ‘smart products’, thosethat can be either indenitely recycled or returnedto nature without harm.

Whirlpool of rubbishSeeing ‘waste‘ as a resource is only commonsense at a time when we are drowning in ourown garbage. Increased production, efcientdistribution and high consumption have ledto the Great Pacic Garbage Patch, an areaof oating trash in the middle of the Oceanestimated to be twice the size of Texas.

The Plastiki will visit this patch, which is just one of the world’s many concentrationsof marine debris. The waste – 80 per centof which has been washed into the sea fromland – is trapped by strong ocean currents,and ranges from plastic bags and bottlesto refrigerators. Once in the water, plasticsharden in the sun and eventually shatterinto microscopic bits. In some areas, these‘blooms’ of plastic particles are denser than thenatural ones made up of plankton. The particlesare eaten by sea creatures, so chemicals fromplastics also end up in our food.

Creative reusePart of my job is to take the Plastiki ’s ideals into the community. At the University of San Francisco, my professors, fellow

students and I founded a group called Help the Plastiki Set Sail. Community design and architecture students are buildingtheir own miniature one-man Plastiki to race in San Francisco Bay. Environmental studies students are researchingecological and environmental issues for each of the islands along the vessel’s route. And we hosted an exhibition on the

‘Art of Reuse’ to showcase projects exemplifying waste as a resource. I hope the project will help lead to people valuingnatural resources and becoming thoughtful and creative about the waste they create.

Explorer and environmentalist DAVID DE ROTHSCHILD (pictured) – the youngestBriton to have traversed both poles – thought up the Plastiki after reading a UNEPreport on the problem of marine waste. Recently named a UNEP Climate Hero, heplans to sail this 20-metre catamaran, made of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and

recyclable plastic, approximately 10,000 nautical miles from San Francisco, California, to Sydney, Australia. He wants todemonstrate how rubbish can be a resource, draw attention to ocean ecology and help people rethink how we currentlyuse, reuse and ultimately dispose of plastics. MARTIN METZ, a university student from San Francisco, has spent a yearhelping to construct the craft and spreading the project’s message to his peers.




D a v i d L a r s e n

/ a f r i c a n p i c t u r e s . n e t / S t i l l P i c t u r e s

16 TUNZA Vol 7 No 2

Beyond learning

What forests take from the air,they can also put back. As trees

grow, they absorb CO 2 and store it ascarbon. But when felled and burnedor allowed to rot, they release it backinto the atmosphere: some 20 percent of all CO 2 emissions result fromforest degradation and destruction. Soreducing these twin perils is a vital partof combating climate change.

And there are some signs that this isbeing addressed. Paraguay has slashed

deforestation by more than 80 per centsince the 1980s and is committed tozero net deforestation by 2020. Brazilsays it will cut deforestation rates inAmazonia by 70 per cent by 2020,

while Indonesia has promised to stopturning virgin forest into plantations inSumatra.

Many of the world’s forested countriesare poor. They need to generate wealthand reduce rural poverty, and nd ithard to police conservation laws. ButCosta Rica points a way forward. Itwas once a deforestation hotspot: itsforest cover fell from 80 per cent inthe 1950s to just 21 per cent in 1987.But it has reversed the trend – and

got it back to 50 per cent – by payingfarmers to protect the forests, andgenerating income from the millionsof tourists who come to see the forestsand their wildlife.

International negotiators are now work -ing on a mechanism to ‘reduce emis-sions from deforestation and forestdegradation in developing countries’(REDD) – to be included in a newinternational climate treaty – whichwould involve developed nations pay-ing developing ones to conserve forestsand the services they provide.

Youth involvement in REDDGemma Tillack (Australia) and KyleGracey (United States of America) are

members of the Inter national YouthDelegation, a grow ing coalition of young people from around the worldwho participate in international climatenegotiations. ‘The next climate treaty

‘Generating energy sustainably is critical intoday’s world of increasing population andclimate change,’ said Hans-Dieter Hausner,Bayer Australia/New Zealand Senior CountryRepresentative, to the 25 students (fromAustralia, China, India, Indonesia, New Zealand,Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singaporeand Thailand) gathered at the University ofAuckland, New Zealand, for the UNEP-BayerEco-Minds Youth Forum 2009.

REDDfor go!

Eco-Minds 2009 Pathnder Award recipients, from left:Gerard Penecilla, Alex Readford, Cindy Marattanachai,Desideria Murti and Daniel Scott.

UNEP’s Regional Director, Dr Young-Woo Park, agreed:‘Sustainable energy use represents perhaps the greatestchallenge to the world right now for two reasons: climatechange and the fact that 2 billion people still don’t have accessto electricity. Both, left unresolved, represent a serious hurdleto the UN’s poverty-related Millennium Development Goals.’

The Eco-Minds Youth Forum, as Mr Hausner pointed out,‘is not just about learning’. Participants were divided intomultiple-country groups to come up with sustainable energysolutions, not just for their own countries but for the Asia-Pacic region as a whole.

Pathnder Award-winning team member Dan Scott fromNew Zealand told TUNZA how his group’s strategy ‘consistsof three components: diversifying energy sources to includemore renewable technologies; moving to a long-term mixof them; and pushing for increased energy efciency.’ He

added: ‘Although very conceptual, our strategy would ensurethe minimum environmental impact from energy supply inthe future.’

Gerard Penecilla from the Philippines takes up the story: ‘Wehad to develop a strategy for a low-carbon future based onsustainable technologies, while thinking about the economic,social, environ mental, technological and political challengesand opportunities.’ ‘I learnt a lot from Eco-Minds,’ said Desideria Murti fromIndonesia, another member of the winning team. ‘I’ll stay in

touch with my fellow participants. Through networking andfriendship we can help foster a spirit of sustainability.’

‘This requires a coordinated effort across the internationalcommunity,’ added Australian Alexander Readford, ‘so it’scritical that we understand the concerns of other countries.’

E c o - M i n d s / B a y e r




must help developing countries reducetheir emissions from deforestation andforest degradation while also helping in-digenous peoples and other communi-ties who live in and depend on forests,’they explained. ‘A REDD mechanismcould make this happen. So in April,our Youth Forests Group – whose mem-bers work on forest protection at homeor have studied forest issues – submitteda position paper on REDD.

‘We said that REDD won’t work if it

is just used as a way for developedcountries to offset their emissions, orif it subsidizes logging operations andthe conversion of forests to tree crops.Instead, it must ensure that developed

countries give nancial support to dev-eloping ones to protect their healthyforests and allow their degraded onesto recover, while also making deep,early and long-lasting cuts in their ownemissions. REDD should also protectthe integrity of ecosystems and therights of indigenous peoples and forestcommunities – especially in preventingthem from being displaced from theirforest homes. ‘We hope our statement will help

guide our countries as they createplans to conserve forests. Our visionis that an international deal on climatecan also improve the well-being of forest creatures and communities.’

As temperatures rise, life is changing for all theArctic’s indigenous peoples, including the 150,000Inuit who live in Alaska, Greenland and Canada. DevinAviugana, a 17-year-old Inuk who grew up in the Canadianterritory of Nunavut, describes what it means to him.

REPULSE BAY, a small northern community of about 900 people on the Arctic Circle, was a great place to grow up. Childrenwander the town freely and the view is spectacular – no trees in the way. The tundra and ice is where my traditions and heritagecome from. I appreciate all the land gives me, be it food, shelter or clothing.

But climate change is affecting the Inuit lifestyle. This is very traditional: our main means of survival are shing and huntingcaribou, seal, and whale for food and clothing. About three years ago, I noticed the ice taking longer to form and melting faster.Only a few years ago, when hunting, we never worried about the ice being too thin, but now we have to be careful, whether we’rewalking or travelling by snow mobiles. Then, last summer, the ice in the Bay, which usually breaks up and oats away, meltedbefore the currents could take it.

Our community is being affected by these changes. No one can trust their knowledge about ice or weather conditions,making hunting, shing and travelling to other communities difcult. Only the most experienced elders can tell when the windwill pick up or that a storm is coming.

I’ve talked to two of our elders about this: Semi Malliki, who teaches us survival skills and how to make traditional Inuit tools,and Cecilia Angontialuk, who teaches Inuit singing and is also a good storyteller. ‘In my youth, the seasons were different,’ saidCecilia. ‘Today, the land does not smell the same because of the oil and gas.’ Semi told me how Inuit were more environmentallyfriendly when he was younger. ‘We hunted more instead of buying expensive imported food. We used dog teams, not pollutingsnow mobiles. We didn’t waste anything. Dog teams don’t need oil or gas. You just feed them, and they reproduce – you don’thave to buy a new one.’

The elders nd the concept of climate change difcult, but they do know that it’s different from when they were young,especially the changes in ice and temperature. They worry that Inuit will someday not be able to hunt on the ice.My generation worries about the future. We understand that, for our people, climate change doesn’t just mean physical

change to the environment. Everything changes with time, of course – but while the people of Repulse Bay may now work inofces or garages, our traditions are so culturally and emotionally signicant that without them, we would not survive. If carbonemissions are not controlled, the landscape and wildlife will continue to be affected, and the Inuit culture could die.

ALLCHANGE



Clean revolutionLast year, for the rst time ever, more money wasinvested worldwide in renewable sources of energythan in the fossil fuels that have powered economicgrowth for more than 200 years.

No one would have predicted this development a fewyears ago. But the investment has soared more thanfourfold in just ve years, from around $35 billionin 2004 to $155 billion in 2008, with a further $35billion spent on big hydroelectric dams.

‘Recent growth has surpassed all predictions, eventhose made by the industry itself,’ says Mohamed

El-Ashry, Chairman of the Renewable Energy PolicyNetwork for the 21st Century.

‘Remember the internet? Green tech is bigger,’adds John Doerr, probably the world’s leading ven-ture capitalist. ‘This could be the biggest economicopportunity of the 21st century.’

Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, which turn solar energy directlyinto electricity, are the fastest growing of all the renewabletechnologies. Over the past ve years, annual production hassoared sevenfold. In China the rise has been more dramatic:in 2005 PV cells with a capacity of less than 100 MW wereproduced. Just two years later this jumped to 1,088 MW,making China the world’s largest manufacturer. And it isexpected to multiply tenfold again by 2015.

Costs are tumbling, halving in Germany between 1997 and2007 and continuing downwards. Solar PV already produces1 per cent of the country’s electricity; some experts predictthat it could provide 12 per cent of Europe’s total by 2020.

New technologies offer enormous promise. New ‘thin lm’panels are expected to produce 100 times as much power asconventional ones at a fraction of the cost. Flisom, a Swissrm making them, claims that within a decade the sunwill be producing electricity at half the price of coal, gas ornuclear power.

Solar water heaters are already economic. In China, 10 percent of households have them. In Israel this rises to 90 percent and they have recently been made compulsory for newhomes in Hawaii.

Dammed difcultHydroelectric power is much the largest source of re-newable energy; it already produces about a fth of the

world’s electricity. But the big dams used to generate mostof it have often caused social and environmental problems,while failing to be economically viable. People have beendisplaced and not properly resettled. River ows are altered,causing erosion and damage to wildlife; sediments thatused to nourish downstream ecosystems pile up behind thedams, shortening their useful lives; and they often releasegreenhouse gases as vegetation rots under water.

In 2000, the World Commission on Dams proposed a com-prehensive series of guidelines, but too many projectsdisregard them in favour of the quickest and cheapestapproaches. Small community-scale dams are often muchmore benecial than large ones, and the World Bank estimatesthat 70 per cent of their global potential remains unexploited.

Time for tideTides have been producing power for more than 40 years atLa Rance in Brittany, where the world’s largest tidal barragehas been supplying around 200,000 homes with electricitysince 1966. Another, much smaller, barrage generatespower in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, which has the biggest tidal

range in the world.

The United Kingdom is considering building a giant barrageacross the mouth of the River Severn to generate 5 per centof the country’s electricity, but some environmental groups

Wind gets upOn average, the world’s wind power capacity has doubled since2005. In China it has done so every year for the past ve years:by next year it should have 30,000 MW capacity up and running– the target it had set itself to meet in 2020. Germany alreadygets almost 15 per cent of its electricity from the wind: itsnorthern state of Schleswig Holstein expects to generate all itselectricity from wind by 2020.

Texas, traditionally the home of big oil, is now the wind capitalof the United States of America, with 30 per cent of thecountry’s total wind capacity; six states now have more than1,000 MW of installed capacity.

Britain already has the world’s largest amount of offshore windfarms and aims to add enough to supply every home in thecountry. And Unst, its most northerly island, has successfullyused wind energy to produce hydrogen, which supplies energywhen the wind is not blowing.

Rising sunEvery year the equivalent of 90,000 billion tonnes of coallands on the Earth’s surface in the form of solar energy. It isdistributed free; you can tap into it wherever you are withoutthe need for costly transmission lines – though you have to payfor the installations that capture it.

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are resisting the plans because of their effect on wildlife.Less intrusive options include building a series of lagoonsin the estuary. In fact the country is already generatingpower from the tides, using a totally different technologythat, instead of trapping water in a lagoon and letting it passthrough turbines, draws its energy directly from the tidalstream. Sea Gen, operating in Northern Ireland’s StrangfordLough, is a bit like an upside down windmill with its bladesturning under water in the tidal currents. It is the rst deviceof its kind anywhere in the world, but such tidal power couldprovide at least a fth of the United Kingdom’s electricity;some experts reckon that Scotland’s Pentland Firth alonecould generate enough for a quarter of UK needs.

Other installations are being developed to harness thepower of the waves, but with mixed results. The world’s rstcommercial-scale wave-power station – the Pelamis Projectoff the coast of Portugal – used three exible hydraulic ‘sea-snakes’ which bob up and down on the waves to drive anelectricity generator. But after just two months, it had to be

taken out of service and dismantled because of technicalproblems.

Reecting gloryIn 212 BC, when Roman ships besieged Archi medes’hometown of Syracuse, he used mirrors to concentrate thesun’s rays on the ships’ sails and set re to them. The sameprinciple is now being used to superheat water to producesteam that drives electric turbines.

The rst plants were built in California’s Mojave desert 20years ago, but cheap oil killed off their development. Now60 plants are being built, or are on the drawing board,worldwide. Spain opened a plant in the Andalusian desertin 2007 and plans to nish another two by 2011. Another isoperating in Nevada, United States of America.

More ambitiously, plans have been laid for a chain of con-centrated solar thermal plants across the deserts of NorthAfrica that could be in operation by 2019, providing Europewith 15 per cent of its energy. Unlike PV cells, however, suchplants need to be in bright sunshine, and some people warnagainst dependence on other countries for energy.

Super smartSome renewable energy – especially wind power – isvariable, and this is often raised as a major objection to it.But electricity grids can help to compensate for this. ‘Smartgrids’ can adjust and even out demand by varying the amountof electricity required, for example, by electric appliances.And high-voltage direct-current transmission lines – which

lose only 3 per cent of energy per 1,000 kilometres – can helpcreate ‘super grids’ linking up different renewable sourcesacross a continent, compensating, for example, when the sungoes down on Spanish solar installations, with tidal powerfrom Britain or wave energy from the Atlantic. B

a n s o n

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Sunshades in space; man-made volcanoes; giant eggwhisks cruising the oceans; windmills that clean the

air… Welcome to the wacky world of geo-engineering.Much of it sounds nuts. But one day, say scientists, we mayneed all these technologies to save the planet. Think of theplanet as your home: the sensible thing is not to set it on rein the rst place. But if does go up in ames one day, youmust be able to call the re brigade.

The atmosphere is heating up as we ll it with gases thattrap the sun’s heat – gases we create as we generate energy.We know how to generate energy in other ways, but 20 yearsafter scientists sounded the alarm, we are still adding moreof the heat-trapping gases every year, and the warming isgetting dangerous.

Nature already soaks up about half of our CO 2 (if it didn’t,we would all have fried long ago), and the quickest and mostobvious way to help nature full its role is to stop destroyingthe world’s forests and plant more trees. Trees are madeof carbon sucked from the air, so every tree that grows iscooling the planet.

Clever thinkingAnother smart idea is to make biochar. If we grow plants tosuck up carbon, then harvest them and heat them to make akind of charcoal, that ‘biochar’ could be buried, keeping the

carbon out of harm’s way and helping new plants to grow byimproving the soil.

At the more extreme end, we could shade ourselves fromsome of the sun’s energy by putting a giant sunshade in

space. But this interplanetary parasol would have to behundreds of kilometres across, so it might be easier to send

up billions of small super-light sunshades (A), each aboutthe size of a newspaper. But the bad news, says Roger Angelof the University of Arizona who proposed the idea lastyear, is that accomplishing Operation Sunshade would takethousands of space launches and trillions of dollars.

Or how about Operation Volcano? Sometimes, when volca-noes erupt, they throw so much dust and other particles intothe stratosphere (the top of the atmosphere) that the sunis partly blotted out and the world cools down. After MountTambora erupted in Indonesia, 1815 became known as ‘theyear without a summer’.

The equivalent of a Pinatubo eruption every couple of yearscould cool us by around half a degree, calculates TomWigley at the US National Center for Atmospheric Researchin Boulder, Colorado. Nobel prize-winning chemist PaulCrutzen says tiny sulphate particles scatter the sunlight best.Every commercial aircraft could be equipped with a sulphatesprayer, and Operation Volcano would make a permanent veilof dust in the stratosphere.

A neater idea is to make the planet’s surface whiter so that itreects more of the sun’s rays right back into space. One wayof doing that is to make more clouds – or even just whiter

clouds. Clouds are nature’s shades, and they get whiterand more reective if they have more water droplets inthem. Could that be arranged? Stephen Salter of EdinburghUniversity says yes, we should make eets of ships equippedto send ocean spray high into the air (B). He has built a

20 TUNZA Vol 7 No 2

Last resorts

By Fred Pearce



A B

C

D

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prototype that looks like a giant egg whisk – the real thingswould be 70 metres high.

Wigley’s colleague John Latham calculates that wereOperation Sea-spray to put 50 cubic metres of water intothe air every second of every day, doubling the number ofdroplets in the world’s clouds, the planet might cool by2 or 3ºC.

But there are some potentially big problems. First,shading the Earth would change a lot of things apart fromtemperature. Past volcanic eruptions, for instance, havestopped the Asian monsoon, the annual rains that growthe crops that feed more than 2 billion people in India andChina. Repeating that would not be clever.

Then, you would have to keep spraying for hundreds of years.If you stopped, the world would warm by several degreeswithin a few months. ‘It would be far more dangerous thanthe warming it was designed to stop,’ says geo-engineering

expert Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia.

And third, any amount of shading would only buy us afew years. One day we would have to stop the emissionsregardless.

So why not just get on and do it now?

As well as stopping the heat-trapping gases getting into theair in the rst place, it might also be a good idea to try andsuck more of them out of the air.

Some scientists think the oceans, where plants like planktonsoak up at least as much CO 2 as forests, can be persuadedto capture more carbon. There is talk of fertilizing theoceans so that more plankton grows and the water soaksup more gas from the atmosphere. In some parts of theoceans, iron is a good fertilizer: when scientists sprayediron into the water (C), plants quickly grew. But so far theevidence is that it is only a temporary effect.

Step forward Klaus Lackner of Columbia University inNew York. He says that for every power station lling theair with CO2 we need another factory sucking the gas outagain (D). He has designed a kind of windmill that couldclean the air by blowing it across a chemical like sodiumhydroxide that absorbs CO 2.

The technology is being developed to reduce emissionsfrom power stations before they go up the chimney. Sowhy not clean the ordinary air, too? One answer is that CO 2 concentrations in ordinary air are about a thousand timeslower than in waste gases, so the technology is not so easy.But it could be done.

Like most of the ‘geo-engineering’ technologies, cleaningup the air is likely to cost more than preventing the

pollution in the rst place. But the bottom line is that if oneday the world gets into a real jam, we are going to needto reverse global warming fast. Very fast. So maybe wedo need to train up the geo-engineers as an emergencyservice for the planet.

K e n B u

e s s e l e r / W o o d s H o l e O c e a n o g r a p h i c I n s t i t u t i o n

R A n g e l / T C o n n o r s / J L C o d o n a , U n i v . o f A r i z o n a

/ A r i z o n a B o a r d o f R e g e n t s

G l o b a l R e s e a r c h

T e c h n o l o g i e s




Roslyn Goodman/UNEP/Topham

Damrong Juntawonsup/UNEP/Topham

Vu Danh Viet/UNEP/Topham

The United Nations sets +2ºC as theupper limit, and crossing it couldlead to the Earth’s carbon cyclesbeginning to break down, locking theglobe into runaway global warming,and moving the world towards +3ºC

by 2050. A rise of 3ºC is predicted tobring about intolerable drought andsearing temperatures in Amazonia,resulting in forest res, arid soils andultimately its complete destruction.Worldwide, up to half of existingplant and animal species could be-come extinct. Rice, maize and wheatyields throughout the tropics couldfall sharply. The vital Asian summermonsoons could become more ir-regu lar – failing to arrive one year,and causing devastating oods thenext. Mountain glaciers feeding thecontinent’s key rivers – the Indus,Ganges and Brahmaputra – are un-likely to survive, putting many areasat risk of serious water shortages.Melting from Greenland’s glaciersand Antarctic ice caps could raisesea levels by up to 1 metre, makingextreme ooding around the worldmuch more likely. The Earth’s soilscontain more than twice the carbonnow in the atmosphere (about 1.6

trillion tonnes) in the form of slowlyrotting vegetation. A 3ºC increasecould speed up this decay enough tocause the soils to release more CO 2

than they absorb.

As we move towards the +1ºC world,rising temperatures are already ser-iously affecting sensitive eco systems,including the Amazon, while warmerwaters are causing corals to eject themicroscopic algae that live in theirtissues and keep them alive. Over thelast 40 years the Arctic has lost 400cubic kilometres of ice: replacing itssun-reecting whiteness with darksea which absorbs heat and increaseswarming. Many experts believe thatthe Arctic has tipped into irreversibledecline: some predict that it will befree of ice in summer within thenext decade. Sea-level rise threatens

half a million people in small islandstates, like the Maldives. And just 1ºCof warming could cause droughts thatwould devastate the US Mid-West, theworld’s food basket.

Many animal and plant species willnot be able to adapt to a rise of thismagnitude: the humid tropics alonecould lose up to a third of species. The

oceans, which absorb half of all ourCO2 emissions, are becoming moreacidic – endangering the survival ofspecies at every level of the marinefood chain. Warmer temperaturesshould increase agricultural produc-tion around well-watered northernregions – as opposed to the dry Mid-West – but would mainly hit foodproduction in many of the world’spoorest countries. Some areas couldexperience constant water shortages:Peru’s capital Lima, for instance,depends on natural meltwater fromthe glaciers of the surrounding moun-tains for its supplies, and these areunlikely to survive. In Europe, waterand agricultural problems could growin the summer months as the proba-bility of extreme heat waves sharplyincreases, reducing river ow, damag-ing crops and causing forest res.Global warming approaching +2ºCcould push Greenland’s glaciers intounstoppable melting, leading to their

complete disappearance within 140years, which would commit the worldto a sea-level rise of up to 7 metresand cause the inundation of some ofthe world’s major coastal cities.

+0-1 degree +1-2 degrees +2-3 degrees

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WILDLIFE/H Schweiger/Still Pictures

Paul S Masaka/UNEP/Topham

Tim Alipalo/UNEP/Topham

Scorching heat waves and massivehurricanes are likely to be familiar at+5ºC and beyond. Regions that sawagricultural production rise at theearlier stages of warm ing would seeit fall heavily. Warmer oceans wouldmake further outbursts of methanemore likely, continuing to push globalwarm ing to great heights. If a largequantity of this gas were to somehowignite, it would explode with a forcemany times greater than the world’sentire supply of nuclear weapons.This is very unlikely, but events of

this kind are thought to have occurred251 million years ago at temperaturessimilar to a +6ºC world, leading to thedestruction of all but 5 per cent of thespecies roaming the Earth.

Runaway greenhouse gas releasesfrom the Earth’s soils could force4ºC of warming by 2075. Starvationcould threaten the majority of Earth’spopulation as droughts dominatesouth western North America, CentralAmerica, South Africa, West Africa,the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia,Siberia and Australia. Warmer oceanwaters would rapidly melt the Antarcticice sheets, raising sea levels by up to1 metre every 20 years, threateningcoastal communities ac ross the world.At +4ºC, the Arctic’s ice may fail toform even during the polar winter.Ninety per cent of the 9 million squarekilometres of permafrost – perma-

nently frozen soil – in the far northmay gradually thaw, releasing around500 billion tonnes of carbon into theatmosphere and forcing a fur therdegree of warming.

At +5ºC, the Earth would change be-yond recognition. Rainforests wouldhave dried up and burned down. Theseas would rise by more than 5 metres,inundating vast areas and continuingto do so as Antarctica melts and anyremaining ice sheets vanish from thepoles. With the tropics far too hot tosupport most food crops or marine life,and the subtropics suffering perennialdrought, the ‘belt of habitability’ wouldrecede towards the poles. Most peopleon Earth would nd the struggle forfood, water and living space becomingvery serious indeed. The oceans couldbegin to release methane – 20 timesmore powerful as a greenhouse gasthan CO2. Stored deep in the ocean atvery cold temperatures, this methanemay be expelled from the sea bedby the warming waters: just a smalldisturbance on the sea oor could

set it racing for the ocean surfacewith explosive force. Regular methanereleases of this kind could easily forcethe planet towards another degree ofglobal warming.

+5-6 degrees+3-4 degrees +4-5 degrees

Stable weather patterns, reliable water sources, healthy rainforests and seas, and a diversity of plants and animals

have allowed our species to ourish. Now, all are threatened as our greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet

far faster than ever before: we have raised average global temperatures by 0.7ºC, mostly since the 1970s. The

United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that at this rate, global warming of

up to 6ºC is possible by the end of the century. Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet ,

uses the latest climate science to show what each step on the way would mean.




In February 2009 the City of Copenhagen became the 100th

participant in UNEP’s Climate Neutral Network, a growing body

of countries, cities, organizations and corporations publicly

committed to creating a carbon-neutral future.

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference draws near,

it’s time to get involved by pressurizing governments and

authorities to join the City of Copenhagen in making their ownpledges for carbon neutrality. But individual lifestyle choices are

also critical if we are to shrink our collective carbon footprint.

What YOU can do

The clock is ticking….

Environmentally friendly homes, with good insulation and efcient

appliances, cut energy use by at least 75 per cent – and using small-scale renewable sources like solar panels, ground-source heat pumps

and even wood-burning stoves can make them zero carbon.

The best way of reducing transport emissions is to travel less. When

travel is necessary, public transport is best: petrol-driven cars are up

to ve times less energy efcient than buses and trains. And avoiding

air travel as well could bring total reductions of as much as 80 per cent

in the average carbon footprint from transport.

It is also possible to make big, if less direct, cuts in the carbon used

to make goods – mainly by buying less ‘stuff’, reducing food waste and

basing a healthy diet on locally produced, seasonal food.

The road to COPENHAGEN

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