by Ali Damji & Amy Jiang, University of Toronto Schools Roots & Shoots

You probably heard of the conferences that happened in Copenhagen last December, but what were they really all about?

Let's start with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or the UNFCCC. The UNFCCC was created in 1992 by the United Nations in response to the increasing threat of climate change. The signatories of the UNFCCC began meeting at an annual Conference of Parties (COP for short) starting in 1995, to negotiate reduction targets for each country. In 1997, at COP 3 in Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto Protocol was created.

COP 15 took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from December 7 to December 18, 2009. With almost all nations far from reaching their Kyoto targets, this was, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said, "...a defining moment in history. Seldom in history has a choice been so clear. We can move toward to a future of sustainable green growth, or we can continue down the road to ruin."

But sadly, at present, the Copenhagen conference seems like it has been forgotten, reduced to an almost nonexistent memory, and definitely not the dramatic and revolutionary conference that it was hyped up to be. Despite great intentions, ultimately the negotiations failed to create a lasting and powerful solution for our planet. The Accord has no clear emissions targets for countries, but instead there is a commitment to reduce global temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius by 2020. While this is a good start, the Accord is not legally-binding, so countries are not obligated in any way to meet these targets. Is this really a solution? Or was it really a step backwards?

We believe it's a mixture of both. Although the Copenhagen Accord does not set firm targets for greenhouse gas reduction, it has the support of the United States and China, the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters. This is considerable progress, given that the US refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol back in 2005. However, even more inspirational was the extraordinary level of popular pressure and momentum going into COP 15. Non-governmental organizations, such as 350.org and Avaaz, organized events around the world for months leading up to Copenhagen, sending a strong message to world leaders and raising public awareness on climate change. The conference also had an unprecedented amount of media coverage that brought many environmental issues to light, including the present Canadian government's failings to take active initiative in contributing to a solution, and to negotiate at the talks.

The greatest success of Copenhagen was the level of youth participation during the twelve days of negotiations. Canada sent a group of 34 youth to Copenhagen as the Canadian Youth Delegation. There, they lobbied government negotiators to sign a legally binding treaty calling for an emissions reduction of 25 – 40% below 1990 levels, and protested against the Canadian Tar Sands.

So, while Copenhagen didn't give us the great comprehensive solution to climate change that we were hoping for, the active role young people took definitely has given us hope for the future.

The question is: What will you do? Our country needs its youth to not only speak up to policy decision-makers, but to become a part of the solution and move us towards a better future. So let's follow the example of the Canadian youth at Copenhagen, and take our passions for environmental justice to make wise decisions and use them to make a difference.