Late in 2010 I remember being asked what the best outcome for the climate summit in Cancun could be. The obvious answer – and the one I would have given without a second thought less than a year earlier was simple, a fair, ambitious and legally binding international climate treaty. Yet this time something was different, the climate had changed, politically and physically. We were at the tail end of the warmest decade on record, all while being told the best we were being told to hope for from the political arena was a rebuilding of trust.

I hesitated, took a deep breath and told my friend the most honest answer I could. I said that we couldn’t hope for much in Cancun, but that we shouldn’t really worry about it because what really mattered was where we stood in 2011, and how we planned to change things.

And that is where we are today.

I am honoured to take over the position of National Director at the CYCC, and I am excited by the chance to work with, connect and grow with the ever growing dedicated, diverse and vibrant youth that are building this movement.

While we are facing down a triple crisis of climate, energy and the economy, we are also presented with a chance for real change. We have the opportunity to shift and redefine the political, economic and social structures that created this crisis. Change that makes the future, our future, not just cleaner and greener, but more just and equitable for people around the globe.

In Canada politicians either cannot or simply refuse to, take real action when it comes to the climate. Instead of funding accessible post-secondary education, or job training programs for a new green economy, they are mortgaging our generation to defend dirty energy, keeping Canada at the starting line while other nations start to lap us in the race to a clean energy future.

So how do we change this?

We need to get back to basics. The solutions we need exist, solutions that reflect exactly what our generation is great at – innovation, creativity and thinking outside of the box. But, in order to make these solutions into reality we need to organize, we need to teach one another and we need to learn from each other and from those people living on the front-lines of this crisis. In short, we need to come together like never before and build this movement.

The solution never has and never will lie with the politicians, political parties or corporations. It lies in us, we are the force that will create this change. What happens this December in Durban depends on what we do over the coming months, but my money is on us. Dirty energy, money and politics don’t stand a chance against the power of an entire generation.

This is our future that we’re talking about, and its time to start acting like it.

- Cameron Fenton, National Director

More details about the CYCC’s 2011 plans, campaigns and how you can get involved are coming soon. Stay tuned to www.ourclimate.ca for updates and more info. If you have questions, comments, or just can’t wait to get involved email me at cycc.director@gmail.com

Did you know that every minute of every day, the federal government is providing hundreds of dollars in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry? They do, but a new campaign launched by our friends at Climate Action Network is taking action against these subsidies that are flushing our chances at a green economy down the drain.

This (frighteningly) mesmerizing counter clicks up second by second, showing just how much taxpayer money is funding some of the dirtiest and most destructive fossil fuel energy extraction on the planet. Each dollar that clicks up on this counter is one that isn't going into making post-secondary education affordable, it is a dollar that isn't going towards creating good, green jobs, it is another dollar taken out of public services like health care and education, and it definitely is another step away from the clean energy revolution we need.

Take action today, read the open letter to Canadian politicians, and then send it to your M.P. to let them know that subsidizing dirty energy is funding climate crisis and fueling injustice.

To find out even more about about the impacts of this drain you can download the Climate Action Network report Fueling the Problem.

For two weeks starting in late November  2010, thirty youth from across Canada took up residence in Cancun for the 16th Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Working with allies from across Canada and around the globe, they worked to hold the Canadian government to account for its actions, and to push for real actions, strong comittments and climate justice. Meanwhile a team of dedicated youth across Canada fired up the Home Team to make sure that people in communities across Canada knew what was going down in Cancun. 

You can check out all their blogs, photos, podcasts and newsletters CYD website.

Also, take a look at this great video by Allan Lissner taken from his work Indigenous Environmental Network (an organizational member of the CYCC) in Cancun.