Last night, I had a dream that I went to the conference center where COP19 is taking place this year in Warsaw, Poland and they let me in without checking my credentials. I floated through security after getting my bag checked. I was able to go to all of the meetings I wanted to go to, participate in a solidarity action for the Philippines, and get a lot of meaningful work done with the women and gender caucus… but that was just a dream.
In reality: climate change induced Typhoon Haiyan has torn the Philippines apart, the negotiations are opening with false promises, and the entire conference being hosted to halt climate change is being sponsored by coal. Am I living a nightmare instead?
It’s a very odd thing to be sitting in my hostel, working on homework and blog posts while the rest of my friends, it seems, are inside of the National Stadium in Warsaw watching the COP open. Due to what the convention center is claiming as a limit in capacity, only 9,000 people were allowed into the negotiating venue this year. These cut backs have severely limited many delegations, especially from civil society. This has left many people wondering: is the UN trying to limit the voices of civil society as we head towards a 2015 deal in Paris?
My own delegation started off with a little over a dozen people planning on attending the conference. As the accreditation situation became more and more restricted, we saw one member at a time drop, drop, drop from our delegation. Yesterday, my delegation (who is now a group of 8 people; with only 4 of us going in each week), heard the news that the Polish government refused visas to 50 accredited people from Nigeria. Why? (Alleged) reasons varied from “accreditation was not reason enough to enter the country” to “no proof of sufficient funds to leave the country after the conference ends”. This is very upsetting to me personally for the blatant racism, classism, and overall injustice involved in why they didn’t receive visas. Why is Poland trying to keep more participants from African countries out? Where is the justice in keeping people from countries who are not among the top polluters out of the conference, hell- out of the host country?!
As long and tiring as the process of COP is, I’m glad that myself and other people who are just that- people– are still attending the conference to remind our negotiators that climate change is a matter of life or death. It seems, however, that the powers that be don’t want those of us who are most affected by climate change (women, youth, developing countries) to speak out and to remind negotiators that we are human not just a list of technical terms and statistics.
But we won’t be silent. We’re going to fight to be heard. Justice will be had.
More than ever, we need to make it obvious that we aren’t going to stand for corrupt governments driving the negotiations away from progress. We need to make it know that we are not okay with the intermingling between our environmental agencies and governments with the fossil fuel industry (cough- coal funded COP19- cough). We need to make it known that prejudice should not and cannot be a reason why people are kept from sharing their experiences, knowledge, and opinions at the international level.
Don’t just make a wish- let’s make it happen.
Climate Feminist 
You are so right! I love your article. I was among those that were rejected visa by Polish government despite the fact that I have UN accreditation. We contacted their embassy in Ethiopia and they asked us to come. But on getting there it was another thing entirely. They gave other African countries but Nigeria. what could be the cause?