Road to Copenhagen

[Oleg Izyumenko]

Hello everybody!

I start a new initiative to help young people get aboard the international climate negotiation process and get astatus of an official participant in the UN Conferences on Climate Change in Poznañ in Dec. 2008 (COP14) and Copenhagen in Dec. 2009 (COP15), as well as in any other climate-related events ahead of and in between (and maybe even beyond) those two conferences.

This aim will be pursued by means of:

* sharing information about upcoming events like seminars, summer camps, climate actions and meetings that might serve as training sessions for the future participants of the COPs;

* sharing resources on the web (platforms, information portals, climate projects and relevant organisations' websites) that might help you to prepare for the COPs;

* sharing contacts and tips on those NGOs (mostly youth and environmental organisations) that might include youth in their delegations to Poznañ and/or Copenhagen;

* organising common trips to climate-related events (seminars, camps, courses), including COPs.

The organisational form of this initiative will be a webgroup/mailing list on Google Groups (to be created soon), where everybody can get access to and exchange information on the activities mentioned above.

The language of the group will be exclusively English, the current language of the international climate negotiations.

This project is aimed primarily at young people in Scania (Skåne) due to their proximity to Copenhagen (host of COP15), Malmö (host of the European Social Forum 2008), and because of a good opportunity for them to meet in real once in a while; but is not exclusive only for residents of that region (that means that other Swedes, Europeans, non-Swedes and non-Europeans are very welcome to join as well!).

To join this initiative you have to reply to me with names and emails of interested young people (those be yours and your friends', but ask them first), and after a few days they will be added to a new mailing list (working title Youth to COP).

So please let me know if you and/or your friends are interested in becoming representatives of the new generation of humanity in the official climate negotiations that will shape a future climate deal after Kyoto Protocol and a climate regime of the next decade and beyond.

Sincerely yours,

Oleg Izyumenko

international youth delegate to COP11/MOP1 in Montréal 2005

"Beyond Kyoto – It's Us!"