The Swarming of Youth in Copenhagen

Monday, 7 December 2009 | posted by lmdo
Climate change, Environment, Global Youth Summit 2009, Politics

Imagine the Global Youth Summit. Only instead of sixty people there are at least five hundred. And instead of a room full of people from different areas of activism, picture a room full of people who were all environmentalists in their own way. This, ladies and gentlemen, was the Fifth Conference of Youth (COY).

The COY serves many purposes and in many ways is very similar to all of the meetings that countries have prior to departing for Copenhagen. Occurring the weekend before the commencement of the official United Nations Climate Change Negotiations (COP15 in Copenhagen this time around), young people from all over the world gather to prepare for what is expected to be a historic moment.

A hybrid creation that draws inspiration from both formal conference procedures (which are surely put in place so that we can get prepared for the COP15 itself!) and unconferences (where there are no agendas until all of the participants arrive), the COY manages to cater to all. Through a mixture of wisdom sharing from COP veterans to COP virgins, workshops, plenaries and open spaces, all participants end the weekend feeling ready and rejuvenated to tackle what is often a life changing two week experience.

In many ways, with a total of over eight hundred people coming through the conference, it was no surprise that there were a few familiar faces. One of my personal highlights of the COY was probably being able to catchup with people who are also from Melbourne (where I live), in another country having not seen them in a year. Events like this prove that the world can be a really small place yet, one that is still so divided.

One of the most important, albeit being slightly tedious at times, aspects of the COY is the chance to meet that person who you had been emailing for the last three months intensely about the strategy for the next two weeks. The majority of all young people at the COP15 will be involved with at least one working group whereby they unite forces with other young people doing similar things in order to improve productive rates and not feel alone.

One of the groups I am working with is youth produced media which will be the reason why you will hopefully get daily updates about the COP15 from an insider who is probably just as equally lost!

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Linh Do, 18, is an Australian doubling as an Arts student at the University of Melbourne and Director of Change&Switch. She is currently at the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen navigating her way around the Bella Centre trying not to get lost whilst making the most of her experiences by attending a variety of different sessions. You can keep up to date on her activities by following her on Twitter or her blog An Attempt at [A]professionalism or just continue to revisit the Global Changemakers website!