UK Youth Climate Coalition: Activist Tom Smith tells of positive Copenhagen protest
Last updated 29/01/2010 21:05:04
UK Youth Climate Coalition - Activist Tom Smith tells of positive Copenhagen protest
A young environmental campaigner is reaching a huge global audience with his account of his positive experience at the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen.
Twenty-year-old Tom Smith has produced a video for YouTube recounting his trip and its effect on a new generation of climate activists.
The young member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, went to negotiations with high hopes. But he explains he was ultimately frustrated by being shut out of the proceedings and by what he describes as the summit's failure to produce a fair, ambitious,and binding treaty.
On the final day, after hours of protesting in the cold outside the talks, something that a Bolivian delegate said struck a chord with Tom: "It's not been a success on the inside of the Bella Center. But it has been a massive success on the outside."
In the video, Tom explains what it was like to be a part of that success, learning from the experiences of youth from around the world. "Copenhagen was never going to be the end," he says.
The UK Youth Climate Coalition is a non profit organisation that encourages youth to play an active role in climate change mobilisation.
See Tom's video here on Optimist TV
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