Tarsh Pixie Turner : Forget the UNFCCC – Write your own story of change!

IMG_0121Well. As the world swarms around Paris for the latest round of climate negotiations – COP21 – here I am in a New Zealand backcountry hut, sitting by candlelight with paper and pen, trying to come to grips with why I feel that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is not the answer to our climate justice prayers.

I headed to COP20 in Lima with the NZ Youth Delegation, with a belly full of fire, a head full of facts and figures, and a solid six weeks of street campaigning for Greenpeace under my belt – I felt confident, articulate, and ready to tackle the UN. I knew that COP would be a challenging experience for me, I knew that it would be frustrating, and tough, and I looked forward to all of that. What I underestimated was how much of an impersonal, almost detached, experience it would be. What I found was that I spent most of my time within COP listening to speeches laden with such vague language that it was impossible to criticise or argue with, simply because nothing of any substance was actually said. I found myself in meeting after meeting where the majority of the people in the room were more connected with their laptops than each other. I found that everything happened so DAMN FAST, until I tried to explain to people back home what was going on, and I realised it was bugger all.

Out there I felt the struggle, but I also felt hope, I felt passion, I felt change in the air… While inside I felt like a tourist

This was all such an intense contrast to my experience outside the security-heavy gates. Out there I heard moving, personal accounts of oil exploration’s destruction of swaths of Amazon rainforest. Out there I painted banners with climate justice advocates, asking each other, “why are you here? What moves you to work on this issue?” Out there I felt the struggle, but I also felt hope, I felt passion, I felt change in the air… While inside I felt like a tourist witnessing a wildly self-indulgent gathering fuelled by its own self importance.

Ok, but so what? So what if I, a young woman from a small country in the South Pacific, felt disenfranchised by the UNFCCC? Well, for me, this was the emotional suckerpunch that drove home the shortcomings of the UN system and it’s approach to the issue of anthropogenic climate change. As everyone gets caught up arguing over minute wording changes and debating reduction targets, what so quickly falls by the wayside is the human element. It is all too easy to forget that this is not a theoretical discussion, a numbers game to be ‘won’, but in fact a very real problem that will impact every person on this planet in varying ways.

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So if not at COP, then where should we focus our attention?

So if not at COP, then where should we focus our attention? I believe that that best place is wherever you are! Embrace the personal. What we need is systemic change – ‘change everything’ – and this simply must come from the grassroots. Should a high level organisation such as the UNFCCC try to bring forth such change, there would inevitably be huge pushback and it would be difficult to truly do it fairly. The change needs to come from us, and we all need to have a say in how it will unfold. 

To be completely honest, I am still grappling with what all this means for myself. I find it hard to talk about climate change, let alone major systemic change, while living on the South Island’s West Coast. But I also believe that that which feels so uncomfortable is in fact what is needed. I believe that real change begins with getting to know your neighbours, building community, finding common ground, and having the courage to share your truth with them – your fears, your hopes, your visions for the future. Embrace the personal, for while it can be scary, it can also be so empowering, and it is our point of difference. Humans are moved by stories, by feelings and personal connection.

At the end of the day, there is only one force capable of changing everything – he tangata, he tangata, he tangata – It is people.

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