In April, Laurin Liu wasn’t expecting to go to Ottawa. In May, she wasn’t expecting to go to South Africa.
But on election night, Liu was elected as the New Democrat MP for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles. She joined four other McGill students in the House of Commons.
And now, as deputy critic on the Environment, Liu is in Durban, South Africa for the most recent round of climate change negotiations.
“I hit the ground running when I got here,” Liu said in an interview with OpenFile over Skype.
The 21-year-old has met with NGOs, climate scientists, Canadian youth activists and foreign politicians. She’s also spent some of her time chasing Environment Minister Peter Kent around the South African city.
The world is in Durban to try and strike an agreement that will replace the soon-to-expire Kyoto Accord. Stephen Harper and Peter Kent have stuck to the line that Canada will not join an agreement unless all the major players are signatories – specifically, China and the United States.
Kent has used his pulpit at the talks to say that a deal needs to be reached. He’s also announced a new fund to encourage private development of green energy in the Global South. The Conservative government has trumpeted the Copenhagen Accord, struck at a similar meeting in 2009. The accord is not legally binding and only applies to five countries – it supports the continuation, but not the extension of the Kyoto Protocols.
But with China now signaling that it wants in on an agreement, Canada hasn’t budged. Kent is looking to sign an agreement by 2015, to take effect in 2020 and has ruled out extending Kyoto.
That’s not popular with all the delegates at the conference. Liu said that the “recent shift in tone has really just been a smokescreen for Canadian inaction,” adding that an eight year gap is too long to go without an accord.
“Canada is obviously getting a very bad rap here,” says Liu.
Environmental groups have taken aim, organizing daily actions and awarding Canada the dubious honour of being the “Colossal Fossil” for obstructing a deal, say the presenters of the mock award.
The Canadian Youth Delegation
One of the groups that Liu is working with while in Durban is the Canadian Youth Delegation (CYD.) The organization is there to try and pressure the Canadian government to sign a strong accord while in Durban.
The CYD probably grabbed the most attention this week when they stood up during one of the Environment Minister’s speeches.
“They all turned their backs on Peter Kent,” said Liu. “They got a lot more applause than Peter Kent did.” The protesters were eventually removed by security.
Many of the youth delegates in Durban have taken to Twitter to relay information about where to find Peter Kent’s press conferences, and to document some of the actions and the anti-Canadian sentiment they’ve experienced.
A new accord?
In Copenhagen, a deal wasn’t reached until the conference went into overtime.
That doesn’t appear to be a likely outcome this time, however, as Kent seems rigid on ending the talks on schedule. He pointed out that many of the delegations have already booked their flights home.
While a new, legally-binding, accord doesn’t seem to be likely, it also appears that the old, “legally-binding” agreement might also be dead in the water.
Canada has indicated it will to pull out of Kyoto, which isn’t supposed to end until 2012, sometime before the end of the year. Some reports had said that Peter Kent might do it during his visit to Durban, which he denied.
CTV has reported that Canada will pull out of Kyoto by the end of the month, however Peter Kent hasn’t signaled one way or the other.
Negotiations are set to wrap up tomorrow morning. Keep checking this space for updates from Durban.
For the full interview with Laurin Liu, check out Justin Ling's blog.
