Date: 28 November 2015
Time: 9am-4pm
Title: Day 3 in Conference of Youth (COY), TOKYO
After much more anticipated, it is now DAY 3 in Conference of Youth (COY), Tokyo. The day starts with an important sharing session on Day 2 activities. I have shared my reflection on the Planetary Health Flim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2tctLlNycI Mamtaz’s Story” – The fight for climate justice in the Bay of Bengal. Click on the link to watch the video. After watching the video, you may start thinking how am I blessed with what I have today and owning a sense of appreciation. Most of the people never thought about how others are suffering while we are constantly exploring our resources. Nowadays, generation do not even know or care about how the water, food and basic necessity come from. The answer might be water come from the tap, food come from supermarket and electricity come from turning on the switch. From this video, each of every individual can do our parts to save those countries suffering from climate change. It can always be a simple action – Monday Veggie Day, Drive Less and Walk, Save every drop of water, etc. After that, we slowly spread it to friends, family and local community. When there is a change in local community, it will be much more effective to urge government moving toward climate actions.
We continued the Youth of East Asia Action Agenda (YEAAA). It was the final round discussion to adopt the YEAAA Declaration. We managed to reach a consensus between participants on the topics discussed in the earlier YEAAA Session. There is also plan to submit the declaration to ASEAN youth, ASEAN and translate to different languages to have a better understanding. Since COY11 in Japan is the fastest team to come out with a declaration, the final text of declaration is not announced because other local COY are still working on the manifesto. However, the final manifesto will be compiled by COY team in Paris and submit to COP21.
The most exciting moment for COY 11, Tokyo is finally here. EARTH PARADE 2015 in TOKYO! This is the kind of parade which we usually saw it in the news, newspaper and TV especially in developed countries. Now, I have a chance to experience it myself. I am simply amazed by the number of crowds who joined the parade because this is the first year an Earth Parade is happening in Tokyo. http://climate-action-now.jp/parade2015/ . The event started with several stage performances at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Two representatives from COY 11 have given a speech to the audience. It is an honour that youth is given an opportunity to voice up their concern about climate change in public. After listened to the theme song of “Earth-Parade 2015 in Tokyo, we started the march in TOKYO areas. I hold the bunting of Power Shift Malaysia during the march. This comes along with EARTH PARADE CHANT as below:
I say SOLAR you say POWER
I say WIND you say POWER
I say PEOPLE you say POWER
Save the Planet, Protect the Climate!
Climate Action Now!
No more coal No more oil,
Keep your carbon in the soil.
I say climate…you say justice!
I say No…you say COAL / Nuclear
Many Japanese are standing at the side lane and looking at US. We managed to catch the attention of people and most importantly raise awareness. I am motivated, inspired and looking for continuity of such events in future. May be we can have an EARTH PARADE in Malaysia! Lastly, I hope to see more movement from local communities and pushing pressure for world leaders to act against climate change. Think about your children, grandchildren, learnt from history and CHANGE for a better tomorrow.
Written by:
Ginger Ooi May Chen
