PLEASE NOTE:
This is a confidential doc that has been leaked, with the Annex 1 countries’ pledges…when added up they amount to 550ppm and a 3 degree temp rise.
Before the sun hit the streets today, thousands opened their e-mail here in Copenhagen and around the world to read a leaked document from the Secretariat’s office. The document outlines draft text from late night meetings at the Bella Center — text that reflects a dramatically higher number of parts per million (ppm) than the IPCC and hundrescientists around the world agree to be safe for our survival.
Numbers have been a part of near every conversation in and outside the Bella Center: 1.5: the amount of inches in sea level rise that are tolerable for human survival in island nations 350: the ppm of carbon we need to stabilize the atmosphere 280: the highest number of ppm in the atmosphere PRE-industrial revolution 390: the ppm currently in the atmosphere 12 million: the number of global citizens for climate action; this number is continuously rising
“I was disgusted that after all the discussion around no more than 2 degrees, this comes out,” Danielle Ostafinski states in response to the document. “Two degrees is even too high.” Danielle is one of 500 youth from the United States and over 2000 youth from around the world. Over the last two weeks, youth have taken a stand behind the numbers 350 and 1.5 online, on the streets and in the Bella Center.
One of the leaders of the number campaigns is 350.org’s Bill McKibben. His name was scrawled across the top of the leaked document leading many skeptics to believe that there is a conspiracy. They are using this to discredit his powerful global movement. Read McKibben’s response to skeptics here.
Whatever the intentions of the unknown person that leaked the document (or conspiracy theories behind it), the fact remains that we are in the last 24 hours of the Copenhagen conference; we are down to crunch time and heads of state have flown in from all over the world to make their statements.
Hope is lined with anxiety throughout conversations across the city and world today as President Obama arrives. Though hope is focused on him to take strong political action and to do the right thing, the decision(s) he makes today or doesn’t make will reflect the round-the-clock work of his negotiators over the past two weeks.
As youth, we hope that our voices will continue to ring through the halls and plenary sessions despite our exclusion from the process.
See the complete leaked document here.