GYG in Empirial Vienna

The European Green Party is holding its bi-annual Council meeting and GYG are of course present. After having fought so hard for speaking times, it seems we have now a standing arrangement to get 5min at each Council. Eric from Senegal is also in town, participating in an NGO event (PANAFEST) where he is talking about his fights against the the Economic Partnership Agreements. So hopefully, he will join me tomorrow in our speech in the impressive Congress hall of the parliament of Austria, richly decorated reflecting Austria´s past as Empire. Andi and Ogy from our board are also present, as well as several other young greens.

After a day full of fringe meetings, the Congress starts off with a debate called: " For a thriving economy, combat climate change". Vandana Shiva holds a very stimulating programmatic debate. She criticizes the narrowing down of the current climate change debate on Carbon emissions and the CO2 trading schemes as induced by the Stern report. The dangerous conclusions are, according to her, that ecological sustainable ways of doing business and living which do not create emissions are not rewarded and even endangered by off-setting projects which do not fit to local circumstances. In addition, nuclear energy becomes popular again as it is supposed to be "carbon free". But: " Nuclear winter is no alternative to greenhouse summer" as she rightly emphasizes. So-called "biofuels" are promoted as alternatives, not taking into account their often negative impact on the ozon layer and other environmental and social risks caused by them. Some of them need for instance fertilizers which are up to 300 times more dangerous to the ozon layer than Co2, not to talk about the dangers to food security caused when "biofuel" plants consume the arable land. The question is also pertinent in Brazil as Marco Antonio and José Paulo Toffano from the Brazilian Greens confirm and should definitely be debated at our Global Greens and Young Greens Congress in Sao Paulo.

Ralf Fücks from the German Greens strongly disagreed with Vandana Shiva as far as the carbons trading scheme is concerned, calling the potentially most powerful tool for combatting climate change, if adapted.

Another interesting debate unfolded around the issue of life-style change. Do we need to change our life-styles. Alexander van der Bellen from the Austrian Greens seemed not very confirmed of life-style changes and asserted he liked to work more than 6h a day. Carl Schlyter, Swedish Member of the European Parliament on the other hand advocated to focus more on quality of life. He was accompanied by Vandana Shiva who demanded to "power down in fossil fuels and power up in good life."

A special guest to the discussion was Christian Jourquin, CEO of the Chemicals company Solvay. He was arguing that the chemical industry, and in particular his company, played a crucial role in finding technical solutions to challenges such as climate change and pollution. Vandana Shiva provided a clear-cut reply in which she expanded on the debts crisis caused by industrialization and use of chemicals in agriculture, which has led 200, 000 Indian farmers to commit suicide. Comparing the "free seeds movement" of exploited farmers to the free software movement, she stressed the link between social human rights and climate change.