Background
First, what got us here – a youth constituency status as far as I can tell, was first discussed at COP10 in Buenos Aires, and was really pursued in Montreal at COP11. At that time a large proposal was drafted for youth organizing at the UNFCCC that included going after youth constituency. These conversations continued through COP12 at Nairobi and COP13 in Bali. At COP13 the UNFCCC Secretariat made it clear that now was the time to be pursuing constituency status as long as we could demonstrate our maturity and ability to organize as a group. We couldn’t get an application together in time, but Poznan really demonstrated that we were ready, and the rest is history – so thank you to the group that finally pulled it together, and to the dozens of others who helped get it to that point. There are more details than that, so if you want to see some of those old proposals, etc I have much of the info.

 

Constituency – in brief

In a paragraph - Constituency legitimizes us as a stakeholder in the UNFCCC process (and JUST the UNFCCC process). We are now formally seen as a voice that should be at the table on this issue. Most of the things it includes we already had access to at the UNFCCC, but they are now made much easier to access and are guaranteed. However, we are on a probationary period with this status, and it will be formalized prior to COP17 in 2011.

 

So what does it mean for Youth?

For the most part, the changes are all about logistics. The one major thing that is broader is that in the eyes of other stakeholders, such as Parties, the media, the Secretariat, hopefully funders, etc we are seen (or at least, hopefully will be seen) as a more legitimate player in the negotiations. We will gain greater access to meetings, resources and information, while we will likely see a positive change from some UNFCCC participants towards us. These elements are more difficult to measure and at this point remain unknown as to how much they will effect our work. Largely it should be positive though.

 

Specifics of what constituency status means:

• Direct channel of communication with the UNFCCC secretariat (that's why we Wilson and Lina as the focal points)
• Included in ongoing discussions with other civil society constituencies – Labour, Gender, Indigenous Peoples, ENGOs, BINGOs, etc
• Allowed time for plenary statements
• Permitted representation at workshops (IMPORTANT: they do not cover expenses)
• Meeting with the Executive Secretary (Yvo de Boer) and officials during sessions
• Assistance with representation at any restricted activity (things like high level VIP events)
• Booking rooms at COP for meetings, press conference, etc becomes much easier - for instance, we usually have difficulty getting a room for a daily ‘YOUNGO’ meeting. The UNFCCC is now asking us what time we want the meeting at :)
• Getting access to information: The secretariat now has to tell us about relevant things like deadlines, logsitics developments, etc that sometimes we didn't get before.

Many of these things we already had, but each year it required a lot of work to get them, often it was last minute and it was done as a ‘favour’ by the Secretariat as under UNFCCC rules and regulations they were not required to be provide to us. So, nothing groundbreaking. It will just make our lives easier, less stressful and will improve our ability to be effective within the UNFCCC process.

 

For some more in-depth UNFCCC lingo and other useful info: http://unfccc.int/parties_and_observers/ngo/items/2370.php

 

Single communications channel – this one is important as the UNFCCC receives a huge amount of communications traffic, especially this year. The focal points (Wilson and Lina) have been identified as the people who will work directly with the Secretariat. This will make communications with the Secretariat much more straight-forward, we won’t overwhelm them (we want to keep them happy!) and many questions you might have can likely be answered directly by Wilson/Lina without talking to the Secretariat. So, please speak to them first if you have anything you think you need to talk to the Secretariat about. Emails – Wilson (Wilson.ang@eco-singapore.org) and Lina (lilina.mun@gmail.com). The focal points will communicate anything coming from the Secretariat to us, and please send inquiries for the Secretariat through them.

 

What it isn’t

There are MANY things it is not. Here are the big ones that I’ve heard come up (that I can remember anyways). So, it IS NOT:

• An organization. A 'Youth constituency' cannot accredit youth to attend COP, it cannot have it’s own budget, it cannot have staff. It IS a status that grants us as YOUTH certain things.
• Status for all international climate events, negotiations, etc. We don’t have access to the G8/G20 any more than we did before. Same with the CBD, CSD, etc. This is just for the UNFCCC.
• Gain us new status within the UN as a whole. The UNFCCC is a convention, which is not even part of the UN system. (http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart_en.pdf).
• Putting us under new regulations at the UNFCCC – we were always required to work under the UNFCCC rules. We still are.
• Mandatory for all youth attending COP to work as part of the Youth Constituency. If an organization, individual, etc does not want to work under our constituency, they don’t have to. They are free to belong to any constituency they want – as a Party, ENGO, etc.
• Allow a ‘Youth Secretariat’ or whatever we form, the ability to tell all Youth organizations what to do. I hope we will want to always work together as a big team (perhaps a family?) but we must be clear that we can still operate as individuals and our own organizations. Just keep in mind that we still fall under the same constituency when it comes to talking with the Secretariat.

So, in short it is a status given to us that grants us certain formal permissions - we need to organize everything else that can best take advantage of this privilege. We can then attach that to our own internal processes that we decide to develop, such as a UNFCCC Youth Constituency, Working Groups, Steering Committee...or really whatever we want - an evil dictator ring, chaos central, etc - really that is all up to us.

Responsibilities

In short, as Youth we agree to abide by the Code of Conduct (attached) and to support the objectives of the Convention process. As participants at the UNFCCC already (just under other official constituencies such as the ENGOs), we already agree to abide by the Code of Conduct and support the Convention process objectives – this does not change with being granted a youth constituency. Instead, previously other organizations such as the ENGOs carried whatever risk could arise from inappropriate behaviour – generally meaning anything that breaks UNFCCC operating rules, the Code of Conduct, etc. For instance, an entire organization delegation, or arguably an entire cconstituency could be removed based on inappropriate behaviour. So, since we are now going to be much more cohesive under the UNFCCC and also on probation, there is a higher degree of responsibility to act under the rules as outlined by the UNFCCC Secretariat as a group we will be held to a ‘higher standard’. I would argue we already were held to that standard, but it will be an important consideration if groups are going to be planning activities ‘outside of the rules’. Since we are all on the same team, activities of one group can really impact everyone.

There will no doubt be challenges with this. We are a broad group with different beliefs, approaches, tactics and backgrounds. It will require cooperation, civility, compromise, communication, transparency and trust. To get that, this all requires a lot of maturity, honesty and relationship building. And we have 85 days. Let's keep this in mind as we look at strategies across delegations, inside vs. outside COP, north vs. south, planning actions, etc etc etc. There is much that can divide us, but this is an opportunity to work together. I strongly believe there is much more that brings us together.

So, to conclude - it is a great thing we have here and it has been a long time building. However, it is now up to us to figure out how to best use this new status. That's where the hard work is. So, we should celebrate this success, but now REALLY get going on what is needed to show the world why Youth are awesome.