COP Day 9

Meeting with USA lead negotiator on Capacity Building,

Barbara DeRosa-Joynt

This morning I met with Barbara DeRosa-Joynt who is the US lead negotiator on capacity building.  She is a powerful leader for the US and a former Girl Scout!  We spoke about the success of the contact group on Article 6 and the gold stars that the Article 6 contact group negotiators earned.   We discussed the impact of Article 6 and its unprecedented success in reaching an agreement in a 90-minute contact group.  In the remainder of the COP, nations will negotiate and the COP will hopefully end with a climate change agreement. 

Girls and Young Women Policy Working Group Meeting with Tracy (Unifem)

Katy, Bronwyn, and I met with Tracy from Unifem about next steps for the YOUNGO girls and young women policy working group.  We discussed organizing an intergenerational event with the gender constituency to connect older and younger women on gender issues and to discuss our perspectives on feminism, personal responsibility to impact climate change, and the relevance of social media in the climate change discussions. 

Tracy suggested that we focus our efforts in capacity building and strongly recommended sending more youth to intercessional climate conferences throughout the year. 

High-Level Briefing with LCA Chair

Mrs. Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe

Bronwyn Hughes, WAGGGS youth delegate, asked a question about the likelihood of 1.5 being included in the shared vision text.  The LCA Chair responded that the shared vision is limited and is going to be transparent.  Margaret wants to resolve the balance of issues in debate.  1.5 degrees is included in brackets still, but she hopes that the compromise to have below 2 degrees is agreed upon. 

Civil society is concerned about the shrinking of the mention of human rights in the text as well as the shift of the mention of “Mother Earth” from the shared vision to a footnote of an Annex.  On issue of human rights and “Mother Earth,” we need to streamline the concepts relevant to stakeholders.  Margaret encouraged countries to push forward in the process and stated that we need a decision in Cancun.