Can you cut 1 Tonne of carbon pollution out of your life?
Take the challengeChristiana Figueres spoke at two 1 Million Women events yesterday, and it was truly inspiring. I remember seeing her at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Warsaw in 2013. I remember witnessing my mother, 1 Million Women Founder Natalie Isaacs, chase Christiana down the hall trying to get her attention. She eventually did, Christiana linked arms with my frantic and wild haired mother and they walked together. While all of us collected Natalie's bags and scarves from the ground that she frivolously chucked everywhere on her mission to get to Christiana.
At the morning event Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, spoke to St Catherine's girls school in Sydney. The second she reached the podium to speak to these young girls ranging from primary school to high school, she began to weep. It is so evident how important this topic is for her, and how her heart breaks for the young people who have this problem thrust upon them.
She spoke about how it is her generation and the generation of my parents that caused this for the younger generations. Figueres said to the audience, "This generation that I represent, has done something amazing, we have diminished the quality of your planet." She admits this to be a great injustice.
She states that her generation are "stuck in our ways" and it is up to the younger generations, the very girls in that room, to teach the adults, to teach the teachers. She told the girls, "You are the generation that is going to make the behavioural difference."
My generation and the generations below me are the ones who are going to be living through the harsh effects of climate change. Christiana is aware of this, and it breaks her heart as it does many others that awareness has come so late on this topic.
This is a morning I expect these girls will never forget, I know I won't. What stuck with me the most was when Christiana said,
"It is not quite important that you have ALL the information on climate change,
What is important is how do you alter behaviour, how do you make a change?"
And it's true, you can't know everything, and you don't have to be some expert on climate change or high up in power to make change. All that is important is that you do create change, in whatever way you can!
The night event was a different and just as powerful. Christiana admits to us as Australians the commitment we have to make, especially us. Every person alive in Australia is the highest emitting person in the developed world, so have a huge responsibility.
However, in terms of the rest of the world Christiana made me realise that people are actually doing a lot! Not one country has backed out of the negotiations that are happening in Paris this December, every country is actually announcing emission reduction plans that are ahead of schedule! This shows that countries ARE committed to mitigating climate change. Which puts even more responsibility on Australia to act accordingly.
Her solution for the problem we face in Australia was so simple you almost imagined hands creating a glowing halo above Christiana's head with a high-pitched "Laaaaa" in the background. She said why can't it be bipartisan! Which of course it should be!
While governments from other countries deserve recognition, that they are acting on climate change. It is also not up to them entirely. We cannot blame people, Christiana Figueres asks everyone in the audience, "When has blaming someone ever actually worked out positively for you?" Can you actually think of a time when it has... no, because it is not about blaming the government for a problem that individuals don't act on either. In the end, if the demand is in the right place then governments and big corporations will have to deliver.
So, there are so many things you can take from Figueres's visit to Sydney. Be it that Australians are in deep turmoil and have a huge responsibility to change this. Be it that we should not blame governments and big corporations, but take it as an individual issue. Be it that we need to both mitigate and adapt to climate change at the same time. Or that a bipartisan agreement is all we should expect from governments.
All these things I'm sure were already known by everyone in those rooms, but when someone like Christiana Figueres explains them to you, it's like being hit in the face with the proverbial cream pie of realisations that can only result in an influx of "Oooo" and "Ahhh".
The girls at St Catherine's School will never forger their visit from Christiana, and they can make such a difference as the youth of today. And everyone in that room last night I'm sure will have been just as inspired as I am.
