This treaty – the only treaty ever to commit nations to legally binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions – provides essential stability for continued action on climate change. A void in international agreements could prove fatal for people and communities across the planet. Young people are calling for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to be implemented immediately to provide a bridge to a new, more comprehensive climate treaty by 2015.

A second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is essential. The leaders of polluting nations have run out of excuses. We are running out of time too. We need a legally binding agreement now to ensure a safe future for us and future generations. The Durban Package signals recognition that the world’s governments will purposely and comprehensively address the causes of climate change.

The final agreement that will involve all countries have to ensure that climate change mitigation measures are sufficient to meet the goal of keeping global temperature rise below 2°C.

In a word, they aren’t. The flood and its survivors are being given almost no attention by the UN and delegates at the conference, and the people have received next to no assistance from the municipal government.

Now, in the final hours of negotiations, as COP17 draws to a close, it is unlikely that any sort of climate treaty will be agreed upon that meets the needs of the most impacted. In addition, it remains to be seen whether the Green Climate Fund, the singular high hope of many most impacted countries in desperate need of funding for adaptation measures, will be approved and launched.

Despite this incredible disappointment, many youth, NGO’s, and members of civil society are dedicated to offering what relief they can – and have launched a campaign facilitated through 350.org, with all funds going directly to the KwaMashu community. They hope to show the victims of the flash floods that despite the appearance of being ignored, there are people at these negotiations who truly understand that for many, climate change means survival or death.

This is also, as it happens, a unique opportunity to shine a light on developed countries’ inaction on pledging tangible resources for immediate adaptation, and that the United States and Saudi Arabia are holding up the one measure with potential to truly help peoples most impacted the world over (The Green Climate Fund).

As the global climate continues to warm, sudden, heavy downpours are expected to increase across South Africa, adding to the growing global tally of climate casualties. This isn’t the first not-so-funny coincidence of a climate-related “natural” disaster striking during a climate conference, and it certainly won’t be the last.

There are very many ways to kill a rat. There are even more ways to pass a message. There are no rats in this story, but there are countries in the world which need to receive a certain message.  That was according to Sierra Club the oldest environmental club in the USA. According to these activists, some leaders just have their heads in the sand. They dug holes in the sandy shore of North Beach, Durban and put their heads inside the holes to show how leaders seemed to be behaving.

These young and old activists caused quite a scene with a lot of media covering the whole ordeal. These countries have been lagging behind in actualizing the recommendations set out in the Kyoto Protocol or have not ratified the protocol at all since its inception ten years ago. The activists from sierra wore blazers with the names of the corporations and tagged flags of such countries on their backs and put their heads in the sand.

USA, China, Russia, England, Indonesia, Venezuela, World Bank, Shell limited and Canada all got their heads in the Sand. Canada had a special hole with a black plastic bag, representing the dirty fuel ‘tar sands’ that is being mined there. The other part of the Sierra activists had masks of wildlife holding models of solar panels and wind mills showing the need to turn to renewable sources of energy for these countries and corporations.

These photographs by Project Survival Media Photographer Joe Lukhovi do a great job capturing the many voices calling for climate justice and a fair, and binding agreement from the United Nations.

For HI RES, No Watermark Image, contact psm@projectsurvivalmedia.org

#Occupy Cop 17 General Assembly – Images by Robert van Waarden

His poignant words fired up young people who had come from all over the world to participate in the UN Climate Negotiations, “We have to ask our governments on finance. How is it possible that you were able to overnight not millions of dollars, not billions of dollars, but trillions of dollars to bail out the banks, the bankers, and the bonuses. Why can’t you find a fraction of that money to bail out the climate, to bail out the poor, and bail out our children’s future.”

I will tell you of Goblins, elves, fairies, giants and gnomes just like you all were told as you grew up. Most of you always ended in a toothy (or not so toothy) grin, or with a drool of saliva on your pillow. I hope this story of one Pablo Solon leaves you grinning but there is one catch to this story.

You must perceive the characters like a seven year old. There is Pablo, a mice turned to horse, the polluters the evil step mother and sisters, the least developed countries (LDC’s) and the AOSIS are the Cinderellas. We really want to see them go to the ball and hopefully at one time in future dance with her prince (which represent a better deal at the end of COP 17 talks).

Say you were mandated with voicing the opinions and fears of a small nation, say Bolivia, that doesn’t hold as much ground when it comes to world super powers like the USA, European countries, Canada, China and Australia. This was the job for Pablo Solon who was the UN ambassador for UNFCCC negotiations for the last two and a half years.

At COP 15 in Copenhagen, Pablo arose out of the monotony of the negotiations when he so passionately disapproved of the Copenhagen Accord. The Accord is a legally non-binding agreement that suggests that the US cut emissions by only 17% starting 1990. What does this actually mean? The US is one of the biggest emitters of fossil fuels. A 17% decrease in emissions would do almost nothing to combat global climate chaos. Naturally the Bolivian ambassador objected to The Accord. Following the objection, the USA cut aid to Bolivia by $3 million.

In Mexico, Ambassador Pablo vehemently opposed the Cancun Agreement. In these negotiations on the last Friday, a document was brought in and the negotiators were given two hours to read it through. After the two hours, negotiators were set to adopt this document for the next ten years, until Pablo took a stand. He pointed out loopholes in the Cancun Accord to allow for carbon trading and schemes such as REDD that reduce the responsibilities of developed countries. Pablo said, ‘We were accused of being obstructionist, obstinate and unrealistic. But we feel an enormous obligation to set aside diplomacy and tell the truth.’ After his term was over this April, he still shows up in Durban, South Africa for the COP17 negotiations and he joins the people outside at the General Assembly.

When asked why he is here, Pablo says, ‘the Cancun Agreement was a bad deal, but here we can have an agreement that can be even worse than that. Why? Because the level of reduction of the carbon emissions is still going to cause an increase of the world temperature by 4 degrees Celsius and that means 9 degrees Celsius for Africa. They are going to cook Africa.’

Is there any hope for Cinderella to dance at COP 17? The people are our hope according to Pablo. The only way to change the course of the talks could be by social pressure not only here in South Africa but all over the world. The population that makes up less than 1% should not define the conditions under which the other 99% of the population lives.

‘For 350,000 people to die from climate change associated disasters is an ecocide and everyone has a role to play in mitigating this. The scenarios are three. The good being the number of emission reduction increases by the biggest polluters. The bad, the negotiations are extended for one year as the governments refuse to lock the Cancun Agreement. And the ugly is that they lock down the Cancun Agreement and temperatures continue to rise at a rate of 4 degrees per year, and more than double that for Africa.’

As Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol, it is clear that economic power is valued over ecological power. The pressure is on. As we venture further into this climate catastrophe experiment, we must amplify voices of those most impacted by climate change and those who fight for climate justice. Bring their experience straight to the negotiators and get dirty corporations out of the UN process.

In the next two weeks, the evil step mothers and step sisters must work through their issues, or at least try to. The mice of the world must grow up and if they turn to horses, they become drivers of change and help Cinderella get to the ball. Hopefully one day soon, Cinderella will dance with her prince.

This year, COP17 is taking place in Durban, South Africa and tens of thousands are descending on the city to talk about saving our planet. In our experience, all to often the participants of the UNFCCC just talk. Here at Project Survival Media we have found that some of the most amazing action on solving the climate crisis comes from the youth organizers around the world. These faces are some of those young people that are and will continue to move the world towards a just, safe and sustainable future.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Project Survival Media team in Durban, we are just getting started.

Portraits of COY7 in Durban South Africa – Images by Robert van Waarden