Happy Birthday Kyoto!

[Simon]

Temperature Gauge - the Greenpeace climate blog[/url:kgslik92]

From http://weblog.greenpeace.org/climate/20 ... arked.html

By Wun, Solar Generation delegate from Thailand

Today should be marked for a few reasons. It was today ten years ago that the most essential legally binding agreement to address climate change received its name from where it was founded: Kyoto. It is today that the Kyoto protocol celebrates its birthday for the first time. It is today that one of the Greenpeace International members mentioned to me, "I have never seen so many press at an inside Greenpeace event before." Thus, today is truly a remarkable day for us all.

By 1pm., the SolarGeneration delegates were already preparing a huge birthday cake behind the booth area. Indeed, it was the biggest cake I have ever seen in my entire life: comparable to a height of a person! Soon, it was time to move the cake to the side entrance of the auditorium. Three people were required to move the cake although it was already on a movable plate. Thus, it was striking enough to draw public attention and automatically invite them to join our special event at 2pm.

In particular, the presses were very excited about the cake; in a few minutes, we were surrounded by cameras and news reporters. Yet, the excitement peaked when we entered the auditorium and invited the Environment minister of Japan to cut the cake. The media on the ground and on the stage formed a circle embracing us. At the moment, if the Kyoto protocol was to have feelings, it must have felt a warm welcome mankind has for its existence. We all came to honour and cherish it as I addressed in my speech after we moved out and settled at the side entrance once again.

"I stand before you today as a representative of SolarGeneration, an international youth group initiated by Greenpeace, embracing renewable energies in addressing climate change. We all gather here today to celebrate the Kyoto protocol's birthday.

Ten years ago, the protocol was agreed upon to battle the most dangerous threat to our planet: climate change. Today, we challenge government to honour the Kyoto protocol. It has passed its childhood years and is now entering its teen years. Thus, it is our responsibility to ensure its mature growth. Industrialized nations must take a deeper commitment now while developing countries should decarbonize their growth in the 2 nd commitment period.

The youth expects nothing less than leadership from Japan, as the host country ten yeas before, in honouring the protocol. Thus, on this occasion, I would like to invite the Environment minister of Japanese to sing a birthday song to the Kyoto protocol with us."

Ministers, delegates, youth, media, and other participants joined in singing such a lovely birthday song. The cake was then distributed to everyone on a plate made of leaves with a little flag of SolarGeneration-Greenpeace on it; the queue kept continuing for more than an hour. From this event, I came to realize that cutting and distributing cakes could be a tiring task when the cake was so huge and the queue was so long. Nevertheless, we were so happy about people's participation that we forgot that we needed a rest. All we hope is that people will stand by side of the Kyoto protocol, what they came to celebrate and honour today.