Musings from a REVA

WHAT A DAY!  I’m writing to you from the road somewhere between Vellore and Bangalore.  Sitting in a REVA, a small electric car manufactured by the Maini Group, based out of Bangalore, India.  The India Climate Solutions Road Tour kicked off today from Madras University at 11pm  as we were flagged off by the Vice Chancellor of the Univesity who highlighted the need for action on this issue.  Chennai and many other parts of Tamil Nadu having seen some very unsual and heavy flooding this year and with the memories of the 2005 tsunami fresh in the minds of locals (as far as the implications of the increased impact a tsunami could have in the advent of higher sea levels)–the urgency for the region is apparent.

Nine passionate individuals from across the country have come together under the banner of IYCN to launch this daring road tour.  And here we are:  after nearly 6 months of planning and a lot of sweat and tears, this dream has become a reality (I’m litterally on the road!).  Thanks in part to the vision of American scholars living and working in India in the field of climate change, the idea of the journey was spawned.  To think that a company would actually provide specially designed vehicles with the latest technology and provide it free of charge to some individuals who are wanting to launch a movement, is rather exciting.  We NEED more enlightened corporations to come forward and support such causes.  We need enlighted politicians such as the Minister of New & Renewable Energy to show the kind of leadership that is required to inspire millions to recognize the savings in green and the sanctity of greenliving.

In search of India’s climate solutions, we will be igniting a movement for change and a movement that will leave not only the lives of thousands transformed (through a vision of what India can be) but will leave the lives of the participating members transformed permanently as well.  It has already been quite a transformative day as I spent some quality time with students of the environment and enegy club at the Vellore Institute of Technology.  Listening to what the university has managed to do for campus sustainability was astonishing and the dreams and visions of the students left me inspired.  To summarise, they have developed a prototype vehicle that runs on CO2 and are cultivating a biofuel plant (name forgotten for the time being) that is native to India and is better in everyway by a factor of 10 than the highly regarded jatropha.  They even have their own battery operated vehicles so charging our REVA there was not a problem!  The students are working hard to spread awareness amongst the 14,000 strong student body population about how all of them can work to transform India’s energy economy into one that is green and clean.  Imagine nearly 14,000 engineers graduating every year and devoting themselves to such a cause!  Truly an Incredible !ndia that would be.

Bangalore awaits…. “WE ARE THE SOUTION!”

Poznan Diaries (December 2, 2008)

We reported to the COP 14 at 8:45 am for our participation in an international youth side action. Representatives from 50 countries stood at the entrance corridor in a disciplined queue showcasing different messages with their country flags. ‘Share our vision”, we called out in unison to the negotiators, UN observers, intergovernmental party members, journalists, NGO & business participants as they walked past us. We continued to echo our messages one by one till our time slot came to an end. “The youth of the world are cooperating, when are the political leaders going to join hands?”, “Fight disease, tech transfer funding, stop deforestation save our coral reefs, indigenous rights, adaptation fund, mitigation, save our forests, developed countries should take responsibility of their historical emissions.”

The youth movement had kick started with yet another powerful, energetic event which beckoned to the political leaders of the world. I felt charged up standing in the midst of the youth, voicing their slogans in a crescendo.

Another highlight of my personal experience in the conference was my role as the youth liaison to the UNFCCC Secretariat along with Line Kirk from Denmark. After the action in the morning, we went together to discuss with Maurice working under the UNFCCC Secretariat about the booking of meeting rooms for the youth. We were thrilled to know that the secretariat had agreed to give us a room (Aesculapian Snake) from 10am to 11am, everyday for us to assemble and have our youth meetings. This arrangement worked out very well for the youth as we all had a debrief in the morning before we launched our actions for the day as a youth movement. (more…)

Project Survival Summary COP14

Hi, below is a speech I gave at a press conference which outlines how the international youth started project survival, and documents our progress until the second last day. The outcomes to project survival can be seen in earlier posts (titled “survival is not negotiable”, and “youth had their voices heard at the UN Climate Negotiations”)

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An Overwhelming Experience: First Day at the COP14 (1st Dec’04)

1^st Dec, I took the tram number 9 to get to the venue at 8:45 am. The very idea of my first United Nations conference as a youth delegate made me nervous. Just outside the venue I was greeted by the Youth Welcome Banner, “Join us in saving our future” plus the word ‘welcome’ in 50 different languages written around the outside. Another action I found extremely interesting was the walnut given to me by the WWF team which symbolized “Crack the Climate Nut.”

I entered the COP venue and was greeted by a scene similar to the airport. Lots of queues, lots of security guards and lots of security checking.

Finally I managed to wade across to the stork plenary, where the main UN Negotiations were being held. We met with the official Indian delegation and fell back in the background while the UN Negotiations introduction started.

It was extremely overwhelming to watch the UN negotiations at such a large scale. There were representatives from more than 192 countries under the same roof. There was a welcoming speech by the participants which included the Prime Minister of Poland, Yve de Boer, the excecutive secretary general and a few others.

The Indian youth delegation decided to have their first debrief meeting to decide our political and action strategies. Our discussion led to our waiting outside Dr Pachuri’s office since we were to meet him to take a brief recording on the role of youth in the conference. (more…)

India is HOT at UN

The first time ever Indian youth delegation to the fourteenth session of the conference of the parties to the United Nations framework convention on climate change held at Poznan’ recently had a phenomenal exposure including a meeting and discussion with Yvo de boer , president of COP and Sir Nicholas Stern from UK. The conference had a lot of focus on India with the UN secretary general mentioning The national action plan on climate change from the PMO of GOI during his high level starting speech, some heads of states also applauded India’s efforts towards realising the seriousness of the issue of climate change and need to switch to cleaner development alternatives and renewable energy options. However one thing that really needs to be addressed at this point in time is actually putting the people in general as stakeholders and giving them more resources and connections to have their voices heard. Indian Youth Climate Network as an organisation works towards communicating the voices of India to the world and vice-versa. Over the past half an year, IYCN has got a lot of focus and applaud from the international scientific and political fraternity including the CAN international summit and the recent UNFCCC COP14 summit.