After organizing a student-choreographed dance on top of Commons’ tables to inform Bates about the 350 International Day of Climate Change, Robert Friedman ‘11, avid environmental activist and co-president of Bates Energy Action Movement (BEAM), does not plan on curtailing his climate change advocacy. Friedman will ramp up his activism and act as a delegate for the Sierra Club’s Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 15, in Copenhagen, Denmark, in early December 2009.
Friedman is optimistic that delegates at COP 15 will ratify an international climate-change treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that expires 2012. “I remain hopeful that our goals can be accomplished at Copenhagen,” said Friedman. “You see pictures of the 350 day of action from around the world and you know this issue has global support. You see kids holding banners and you know its life or death for these kids.”
When SYC distributed an application to become a delegate in Copenhagen to its members, Friedman seized the opportunity to represent the organization and applied. “I’m very interested in climate policy,” he said. “It’s what I’m most passionate about. It speaks to me because you can bring it down to the local level.”
As representative of SYC at the conference, Friedman will work alongside 500 other “green” youths to lobby delegations to pass an international treaty that addresses particular policy memos.
“My goal is to pass what I refer to as a FAB Treaty: Fair, Ambitious and Binding,” said Friedman. “Kyoto is expiring in 2012 so a more ambitious treaty is needed since the effects of climate change are accelerating. If we don’t get a treaty passed in Copenhagen that resembles anything really ambitious, game over.”
Besides advocating the ratification of an effective global treaty, Friedman views his other role as youth delegate of the Sierra Club to inform Mainers about the conference’s caliber. “The most important piece of my role is brining the message in Copenhagen back to Maine, back to Bates,” he said.
Friedman stresses the significance of the U.S.’s role at COP 15 and is critical of President Obama’s national policies on climate change. “The U.S. has yet to pass climate change legislation in the Senate,” said Friedman, referring to the Kerry-Boxer bill passed in the House in June 2009 that will reduce carbon-dioxide emissions 17 percent by 2020.
“If the U.S. doesn’t pass this legislation by the conference, it will be going without balls,” he said. “It’s a mixed bag because the U.S. could champion this issue, but without the passage of its own bill, negotiators from the U.S. will have a hard time convincing other states to support climate change.”
With rumors disseminating that Obama has yet to confirm whether he will attend COP 15 or not, Friedman worries about the position of the U.S. at the conference and is increasingly critical of Obama’s tactics. “A lot rests on Obama’s shoulders,” he said. “Obama is all about change and he promised when he was running that he would support a FAB treaty but has failed to do so.”
Friedman attributes some of this failure to the U.S. government’s preoccupation with the recession and healthcare, but believes climate change should be a higher priority. “I don’t blame Obama because of the health care issue,” said Friedman. “But in my opinion, healthcare can wait for climate change. Ice is melting, sea temperatures are getting wacky and we only have one planet.”
Friedman, with his love of the outdoors and childhood experiences of growing up near a toxic waste site in Hastings, New York, is enthusiastic to bring about a new treaty that will help mend the planet. “I grew up with environmentalism all around me,” he said. “This is probably the most exciting thing I will do in my life. I want to advocate for an incredible treaty to be passed and to bring the message back home.”
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