History from COP 15 to COP 16:
The idea for Sino-American collaboration was initiated by Holly Chang, Founder of Golden Bridges, at the United Nation Framework Convention in Copenhagen in December 2009 (COP 15) . Holly Chang and Shane Zhao, leader of the first China Youth Delegation, were the two key leaders that set the initiative in motion. They organized the “China-US Youth Workshop: Our Shared Future”. The goal was to create a platform to create new relationships that transcended language and cultural differences, and pioneer a new generation of China-US diplomacy.
Joint China-US efforts continued after COP 15 under the umbrella of Golden Bridges. Golden Bridges was instrumental in providing opportunity and capacity for Chinese youth engagement. Here are some of the project highlights.
1. COP15 Reflections Book - Collected 40 essays from US and Chinese youth after COP15 on their reflections of COP15 and published for the first China Youth delegation "reflections book".
2. REWORK - Secured sponsorship for Chinese youth to attend the Global REWORK summit in Sweden, including several youth who attended COP15, and also someone that we hired later to do China-US collaboration full-time at Golden Bridges
3. 350 China - Coordinated all of the China actions and events for 350.org for 2010, including The Great Power Race, 10/10/10 and the EARTH Art project.
4. Helped to facilitate with around 200 universities in China organizing around 500 events and actions within 2 months across China, in unison with over 500 events and hundreds of universities in the US.
In September 2010, a new development began. A COP 16 delegation member of the Cascade Climate Network (CCN), Kevin Osborne, who had attended the COP 15 workshop, proposed the initiative to work with both Chinese and US youth organizers to build upon the successes of last year. Jared Schy and Karyn Smoot were big supporters and visionaries for creating a new bi-language, bi-cultural platform for youth.
Over the next three months, many Skype calls and emails were made with individuals from Chinese and US youth-run organizations. There was a significant amount of interest in the subject, and as a result we had individuals representing 8 organizations involved: CCN, Sierra Student Coalition (SSC), Washington University Students for International Collaboration on the Environment (WUSICE), SustainUS, China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN), Peking University CDM Club, Tsinghua Green Student Association, and Golden Bridges Foundation.
In November 2010, we formalized a team, our name, and created a two-week plan with specific workshops, shared action, arranged appointments with key climate negotiators, and diplomacy dinner.
For COP15, the most important outcome was building relationships for the long-term. It can easily be said that we exceeded that with a big impact. Below is our impact.
Nov. 28 – CUYCE Core Team of 12 people first meeting in Cancun, Mexico
Nov. 30 – CUYCE Workshop 1: Nihao and Hello
Dec. 2 – CUYCE meets Jonathon Pershing, Chief U.S Climate Negotiator
Dec. 3 – CUYCE Press Release Conference
Dec. 4 – CUYCE Member Dinner
Dec. 5 – CUYCE Workshop 1.5: Open Space on climate, culture, religion, and energy topics
Dec. 7 – CUYCE Shared Action: Race to Clean Energy Future
Dec. 9 – CUYCE Workshop 2: Reflections and Moving Forward
Dec. 10 – CUYCE Core Team initial planning session for organizational development
Joint China-US efforts continued after COP 15 under the umbrella of Golden Bridges. Golden Bridges was instrumental in providing opportunity and capacity for Chinese youth engagement. Here are some of the project highlights.
1. COP15 Reflections Book - Collected 40 essays from US and Chinese youth after COP15 on their reflections of COP15 and published for the first China Youth delegation "reflections book".
2. REWORK - Secured sponsorship for Chinese youth to attend the Global REWORK summit in Sweden, including several youth who attended COP15, and also someone that we hired later to do China-US collaboration full-time at Golden Bridges
3. 350 China - Coordinated all of the China actions and events for 350.org for 2010, including The Great Power Race, 10/10/10 and the EARTH Art project.
4. Helped to facilitate with around 200 universities in China organizing around 500 events and actions within 2 months across China, in unison with over 500 events and hundreds of universities in the US.
In September 2010, a new development began. A COP 16 delegation member of the Cascade Climate Network (CCN), Kevin Osborne, who had attended the COP 15 workshop, proposed the initiative to work with both Chinese and US youth organizers to build upon the successes of last year. Jared Schy and Karyn Smoot were big supporters and visionaries for creating a new bi-language, bi-cultural platform for youth.
Over the next three months, many Skype calls and emails were made with individuals from Chinese and US youth-run organizations. There was a significant amount of interest in the subject, and as a result we had individuals representing 8 organizations involved: CCN, Sierra Student Coalition (SSC), Washington University Students for International Collaboration on the Environment (WUSICE), SustainUS, China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN), Peking University CDM Club, Tsinghua Green Student Association, and Golden Bridges Foundation.
In November 2010, we formalized a team, our name, and created a two-week plan with specific workshops, shared action, arranged appointments with key climate negotiators, and diplomacy dinner.
For COP15, the most important outcome was building relationships for the long-term. It can easily be said that we exceeded that with a big impact. Below is our impact.
Nov. 28 – CUYCE Core Team of 12 people first meeting in Cancun, Mexico
Nov. 30 – CUYCE Workshop 1: Nihao and Hello
Dec. 2 – CUYCE meets Jonathon Pershing, Chief U.S Climate Negotiator
Dec. 3 – CUYCE Press Release Conference
Dec. 4 – CUYCE Member Dinner
Dec. 5 – CUYCE Workshop 1.5: Open Space on climate, culture, religion, and energy topics
Dec. 7 – CUYCE Shared Action: Race to Clean Energy Future
Dec. 9 – CUYCE Workshop 2: Reflections and Moving Forward
Dec. 10 – CUYCE Core Team initial planning session for organizational development