Date: 27 November 2015
Time: 9am-10pm
Title: Day 2 in Conference of Youth (COY), TOKYO
Welcome to day 2 of COY 11 in Tokyo. It’s great to see new participants coming in for today’s session. The program starts from 9am to 10pm. I get to mix around with different participants from Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Of course, thanks to the advancement of technology, I managed to say HI to my teammates in Paris: Emily and Thomas who are attending the COY11 at Paris during the session of “meet a local COY Session”. It is so happy to meet up with team members even though we are far apart. There are several round table discussions today. I learnt the importance of teamwork in finding a common solution. As we know, one voice can’t be heard but many voices make a huge impact.
I joined COP in My City session. The main objective of this session is to bridge the gap between youth and COP. We are given the chance to experience a Model COP in 3 hours. It is just like the real negotiations in COP with each of the participants representing different countries such as: China, India, US, EU and other developed countries. We are given confidential data as a reference. I represented other developed nations which comprised of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and other former Soviet Republics like South Korea, etc. Our main goal is to negotiate a global agreement to reduce green house emission (GHG) based on the current situation of economies and national interests. At the end of the session, we managed to reach a consensus. Each delegation signed on the World Climate Agreement. The organizer will submit the document to COY 11 Paris and COP21.
The first session of the day is Renewable Energy. Participants gained greater insights on what is sustainable energy and what’s Japan has learnt from Fukushima Disaster. It is a disappointment to know the fact that 26 out of 46 nuclear plants are applying for inspections to restart. Japan’s energy policy is not moving towards sustainable energy. Our team, Malaysian Youth Delegation, participated in the poster session where we presented the rice and PowerShift Malaysia bunting. It is a great platform to interact, exchange information and most importantly to inspire each other. If you read the day 1 blog post, we continued the discussion of Youth of East Asia Action Agenda (YEAAA). It can be pronounced as YEAH !!! Team members got together and provided a final solution to the topics mentioned earlier. This is a very crucial step as selected ideas will be included in declaration.
I joined an interaction session between Paris and Tokyo. We discussed about the necessities of nuclear power plants, individual actions to reduce CO2 and important aspects to combat climate change.
The last session of the day was the planetary health flim, “ Mamtaz’s Story” – The fight for climate justice in the Bay of Bengal. The people are leading a simple lifestyle depending on the available resources. They are least responsible towards climate change yet most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
We are getting closer to submitting a declaration to COP21. I am very excited about it and looking forward to get youth voices heard in COP21. This is the future we want and remember “YOU”th are the solutions. I’m counting down to Day 3 of COY11 at Tokyo.
