Background & summary of the Kyoto Protocol. Nuclear activities at COP3. Conclusions & things to remind

Transcription

1 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 1 The third Conference of the Parties (COP3) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 1-10 December 1997, Kyoto, Japan Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation Network activities at COP3 Gaston Meskens Astrid Gisbertz Content Introduction Background & summary of the Kyoto Protocol 2.1 Background 2.2 Summary of the adopted Kyoto Protocol 2.3 Nuclear in the Protocol 2.4 Kyoto facts and figures Nuclear activities at COP3 3.1 General overview of nuclear side bar events and activities 3.2 EYGN : Position Paper related activities 3.3 EYGN contacts with the press 3.4 EYGN contacts with pressure groups 3.5 EYGN contacts with other nuclear Young Generation Networks Conclusions & things to remind 4.1 The visibility of nuclear 4.2 The acceptance of nuclear Future ENS Young Generation activities in the framework of the general nuclear debate

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3 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 3 Introduction From December 1 to 12, 1997, Astrid Gisbertz and Gaston Meskens represented the ENSYG at the Climate Change Meeting in Kyoto. FORATOM (together with British Energy and the ENSYG), the Uranium Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute (US) and the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum formed, as four Non Governmental Organisations (NGO's), a joined nuclear observer group at UNFCCC COP3. This group organised side bar activities and attended the open COP3 meetings during the whole conference. The main objective (as for all NGO's) was to observe and report on the meeting and, in the mean time, to try to influence negotiations and decisions by organising side bar activities, maintaining exhibit stands, handing out documents, statements and press releases and talking to delegates, press people and other attendants. The overall effect of such activities should be a raise of the 'visibility' of nuclear (in a positive way) on a conference like COP3 - a conference of world-scale importance and attended by thousands of actors, all with different backgrounds (politicians, scientists, pressure groups, press). To a certain extent, we can say that the 'nuclear' NGO's had a clear impact on the daily life in the conference rooms and corridors and raised successfully the visibility of nuclear on the conference and in the international press during that time. The next major challenge will be to raise this visibility from 'down on the shop floor' up to 'corporate level' (official speeches and documents). The fact that it is not there at the moment is mostly due to the politicians' fear of being identified with nuclear. This became more than clear during the official speeches of the politicians during the High Level Segment of COP3. The YG believes that, only by continuing the communication with the public and the media together with a new approach of politicians and pressure groups, we can break through the vicious circle ; a circle which is initiated by 'the public's fear inspiring political careers' and closes with 'narrow minded views feeding national energy strategies'. This document reports on the activities of the European Nuclear Society Young Generation at COP3 (1 to 10 December 1997) in Kyoto. Given the fact that the EYGN wrote a position paper on the YG's view on the future need for nuclear energy, ENS, together with FORATOM, gave us the chance to join the nuclear delegation at the 3rd conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Climate change science is complicated stuff, not only due to the huge amount of information that is available, but also because of the different opinions that are nowadays still in the running. United Nations conference procedures, habits and tricks are even more difficult, especially if one is dropped in it as a complete greenhorn. So, apart from a short summary of the Protocol, you will not find a critical review of the Kyoto Protocol itself in this report. As scientists, we find this topic nevertheless very interesting. Therefore we

4 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 4 are writing a more technical report now, which shall be published in another YG document later. OK, a lot of texts are already written on this topic after Kyoto and - as non-specialists - we are writing this text for ourselves in the first place, but if we can please someone with the EYGN's view on the Kyoto Protocol,... why not?

5 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 5 Background & summary of the Kyoto Protocol Kyoto Dec 97, a plenary session in the mail hall 2.1. Background The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was initiated by the UN General Assembly in 1990, was finally adopted in May 1992 in New York. Since then, the Convention is already signed by 170 States. Discussions on greenhouse gases (GHG) emission targets started in June 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit. The negotiations over there dealt with issues at the very heart of development, such as energy and new technologies. The First Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP1) was held in Berlin in The most important outcome was the establishment of the Ad Hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate. The AGBM had to draft "a protocol or another legal instrument" for adoption at COP3 in Kyoto. The conference was followed by COP2 (July 1996, Geneva). COP2 dealt with discussions on the AGBM draft and on procedural and organising issues. The Third Conference of the Parties was held in Kyoto, Japan, in December Up till now, COP3 was the most important environmental conference since the Rio conference. It had to translate the vague commitments made in the past into : Ψ a clear agreement on emission cuts ; Ψ the necessary 'policies and measures' to fulfil the different reduction targets ; Ψ a framework for emissions trading ; Ψ an outline for a follow-up and survey program ; Ψ agreements on penalties for countries not succeeding in fulfilling their cut targets Summary of the adopted Kyoto protocol main points The adopted Protocol in 4 headlines :! Industrialised nations agree to a legally binding target of 5.2 percent on average for reduction of their aggregate anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 ;! Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride are subject to mandatory cutbacks ;

6 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 6! Removal of greenhouse gases from atmosphere by 'sinks' (natural absorption mechanisms) resulting from newly planted trees to be taken into account in limited manner when calculating emission reduction data ;! Developed nations are allowed to trade emission reduction units with each other as a means to attain targets.

7 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 7 summary The following is a summary of the Protocol adopted at the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.! Industrialised economies agree to legally binding targets for cutting their aggregate anthropogenic emissions of six greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 ;! The gases to he subject to mandatory cutbacks are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons perfluorocarhons and sulphur hexafluoride ;! Developed economies may use 1990 or 1995 as their base year for reduction of hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride ;! Japan is obliged to curtail emissions of the six gases by 6 percent over the stated period, with cuts of 8 percent for the European Union, 7 percent for the United States, and rises of 10 percent for Iceland and 8 percent for Australia ;! Developing countries are exempt from new commitments to mitigation of global warming ;! A "clean development mechanism" (CDM) is to be introduced for developing economies to arrange funding of project activities aimed at mitigating climate change ;! To help developing countries combat global warming, key developed economies will include in their national programs details of measures to promote, facilitate and finance the transfer of technology and provide new and additional financial resources ;! Industrialised economies will be allowed to take a 'net approach' taking into account the drop in gas emissions due to deforestation and the absorption of gases by 'sinks' resulting from afforestation and reforestation ;! Among developed nations, trading of emission reduction units will be permitted to add to assigned amounts as a means to attain gas reduction goals ;! If a developed country's emission in a commitment period exceeds its assigned amount, the nation will be allowed to 'borrow' the difference for subsequent commitment periods. Conference participants gather around conference chairman Raoul Estrada- Oyuela (Argentina) after the protocol was adopted on Thursday, December 11, in the morning. Negotiations went on through the night. Estrada stressed the

8 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 8 importance of bringing the United States on board, saying "The US did move. This is significant". Source : The Daily Yomiuri, Friday, Dec 12, 1997

9 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto Nuclear in the protocol Article 2 of the adopted Kyoto Protocol deals with policies and measures Parties should elaborate and implement in order to achieve its quantified emission limitations and reduction commitments. However, in the Protocol, alternatives for GHG emitting sources for the production of electricity are not mentioned in detail. Article 2, 1, (a), (iv) reads : [...] Each Party [...] shall [...](a) implement and/or further elaborate policies and measures in accordance with its national circumstances, such as [...](iv) promotion, research, development and increased use of new and renewable forms of energy, of carbon dioxide sequestration technologies and of advanced and innovative environmentally sound technologies. Despite the fact that the whole Article 2 presents rather loose statements and guidelines, it is of great importance. Nuclear - taken as an advanced environmentally sound technology - can be fit in the agreed policies and measures. It is obvious that not everybody reads the article in the same way, but at least there is room for interpretation Kyoto facts and figures It is impossible to give an impression of the COP3 atmosphere in a written report like this. So, let this list speak for itself : COP3 was participants (delegates, NGO members, press people and UN conference staff) identified with pink, orange, green and blue badges : (pink badges) 2200 delegates from 161 member countries (155 Parties and 6 Observer States) ; (orange badges) 3712 journalists ; (green badges) 15 Intergovernmental Organisations (IGO's) and 236 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's) ; the fact that pressure groups as well as the nuclear NGO's wore badges of the same colour was sometimes embarrassing, sometimes funny ; (blue badges) United Nations officials, staff, secretariat and assistants ; (no badges) people wearing no badges where often the most important ones... playing their role as by gathering in Ad Hoc Groups, annex 1 Parties, Annex 2 Parties, AOSIS, the Bureau, the Committee of the Whole, Friends of the Chair, G77+China, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the JUSSCANNZ, national delegations, non-parties, Observer Parties, regional groups, Non Governmental and Intergovernmental Organisations, Economies in Transition, subsidiary bodies,... working groups, open or closed meetings, open or closed non-meetings, plenaries, side bar events, informals, informal informals, drafting groups, nongroups, protest actions, press conferences, corridors, receptions, restaurants and bars... and discussing on amendments, documents, declarations, decisions, ratifications, reports, recommendations, miscellaneous documents, nonpapers, pre-session

10 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 10 documents, reservations, resolutions, rules of procedures, square brackets, targets and timetables,... COP3 on line The Climate Change Secretariat, GEIC and the Kansai-based Conference on Demand group maintained perhaps the most interactive web site in UN conference history. The page received over 2.5 million hits during the ten days of COP3. An important amount of these hits came from the conference participants themselves : the local organising committee filled about every free square meter of the conference rooms with on-line computers, free of use by all participants.

11 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 11 US vice-president Al Gore at COP3 Dec 97 Kyoto underground Gaston Meskens (EYGN), Astrid Gisbertz (EYGN), Dr. Wolf J. Schmidt-Küster (FORATOM) and Sarah Hopper (EYGN) : a Nuclear Delegation in the Kyoto underground at night, coming back from another exhausting COP3 day... But wait! Isn't that Al Gore pointing at the Young Generation? Is he saying "I want you to join the follow up discussions after the UNFCCC negotiations at COP3, because it's your future and I believe nuclear is part of the solution "? Who knows... Anyway, read on, because this is what already happened :

12 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 12 Nuclear activities at COP3 Nuclear Forum business room FORATOM (together with British Energy (BE) and the ENSYGN), the Uranium Institute (UI), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI, US) and the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) formed a joined nuclear observer group at UNFCCC COP3. It was for the first time that they worked together as an 'International Nuclear Forum' General overview of nuclear side bar events and activities COP3 daily life : EYGN, FORATOM, BE, UI, NEI, JAIF together followed as much as possible open UN meetings & side bar events ; organised 2 evening conferences, 1 symposium & 1 press conference (see annexes) ; talked to people who visited the two nuclear stands ; discussed with delegates & media people in the conference hall corridors ; wrote and released statements and press articles, informed the home office and handed out (a lot of) technical paperwork. Each morning, based on the COP3 daily program, the team decided which meetings should be attended and reported on. A COP3 daily program ran roughly from 9.00 AM to 8.00 or PM and consisted sometimes of up to 10 parallel meetings and activities, of which about 60% were open. Each day at 5.00 PM, there was a meeting in the nuclear NGO business centre, where everybody gave feedback on attended meetings or other activities. Also during these briefings negotiations' progress, press articles and other publications as well as corridor news and other rumours were discussed within the team. Together with the 'daily work', the International Nuclear Forum organised technical side bar events. These side bar events were announced in the event list of the COP3 daily programme (see list on next page). As there were, together with the delegates meetings, a lot of side bar events scheduled every day, it was of course very important to attract as much 'outsiders' as possible. Therefore a lot of special publicity had to be made in the days before the

13 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 13 event. F.i. flyers were handed out in the press hall and in front of the main hall at the moment participants were arriving.

14 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 14 International Nuclear Forum presentations at COP3 at the Prince Hotel, Gold Room Dec 1 : Evening Conference "Clearing the Air : Nuclear Power and Climate Change" Organiser : The Uranium Institute Dec 4 : Evening Conference "Nuclear Energy & Sustainability" Organiser : FORATOM Dec 5 : Symposium "Countering Climate Change and Non-Fossil Fuel's Future" Organisers : JAIF, FORATOM, NEI and UI The EYGN presented the YG Position Paper "On the Future Need for Nuclear Energy" during the evening conference "Nuclear Energy & Sustainability" (see annex and following 's). A little story about Greenpeace - by Gaston Meskens During the first evening conference, a guy from Greenpeace International asked questions and started a discussion with us at the backrow of the room during the final 'questions and answers'. After a certain time, Astrid took him out

15 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 15 of the room for a cup of coffee. They disappeared for hours. When she finally came back alone, she said - with a mystic glance in her eyes : "they talk differently when you approach them separately..." (the last thing we heard from him, a few weeks ago, was that he intended to leave Greenpeace)

16 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto ENS YG : Position paper related activities background pre- COP3 activities at COP3 When the ENS YG defined strategies and priorities in their first meetings, it became obvious that especially young professionals have concerns about the future of nuclear in general. The ENS Young Generation is concerned that any future for the nuclear industry will be strongly opposed by generations who have preconceived ideas and a lack of understanding of the real issues and facts. In the frame of that, it was decided on the 5th Core meeting in Amsterdam (June 97) to write a position paper on "The Future Need for Nuclear Energy". With this text the ENS YG wanted to highlight the role nuclear energy has in the future world energy mix and, in addition, wanted to stress on the importance of decision making based on rational arguments - but with an emotional intelligence. A draft text was prepared during the summer of 1997 and discussed by the EYGN Core through during the following months. The final text was approved during the 6th Core meeting in October 97 in Cologne (see annex). In Cologne, some actions in connection with the position paper and Kyoto were defined. In November 97, the text was translated into the different languages of the members and contacts with the press were made in order to publish the position paper (or a text based on the position paper) in national quality newspapers. The intention is to have as much publications in the press as possible untill ENC'98. In the mean time, the position paper is already published in quality newspapers in Belgium, Spain, Slovakia, Germany and the US. The YG position paper was presented the first time during the Bonn meeting of the UN Subsidiary Bodies in October 97. In November 97, Astrid Gisbertz represented ENSYG at a pre-kyoto round table discussion with EU politicians and industry representatives in Brussels. The EYGN Position Paper was presented by Astrid Gisbertz on Thursday December 4, during the second evening conference "Nuclear energy and Sustainiability", organised by the nuclear forum. The first week, an eye-catcher with the main ideas was made and attached to the position paper text. (see annex). The last day, we wrote a "YG End of COP3 Statement'", recalling some of the ideas of the position paper, but presented in the light of the progress of the negotiations (see annex). During the conference we handed out about 500 copies of the position paper to people we met at the two exhibit stands. At the end, also 1000 copies of the EYGN End-of-COP3 Statement were distributed to press people and delegates.

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18 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto EYGN contacts with the press Kyoto Dec 97 press working area A lot of journalists talked to us during COP3. Sometimes the talk was just informal, the journalist just taking some notes ; other times the interview (television, radio or newspaper) was well prepared and documented with shots of the exhibit or copies of our technical papers. The EYGN had interviews with : Ψ The Daily Yomiuri, The Ashahi Evening News, The Kyodo News : 3 Japanese national newspapers which followed COP3 in detail ; Ψ The Financial Times, The International Herald Tribune, The San Diego Union Tribune, the Washington Times, Bloomberg Business News ; Ψ CBS Television, CNN International, the German national television ARD ; Ψ Washington Public Radio, Deutsche Welle Radio ; Ψ 2 film producers : one from Vancouver who wants to produce a film on environmental issues (non-fiction) and another from Atlanta who was very interested in our ideas for a 'global warming' fiction story ; Ψ freelance journalists from Canada, US, UK, Belgium, Finland, Philippines & Kuwait (we agreed with the last one that Kuwait will not build nuclear as long as they have oil beneath their feet). Contacts with the press learned us that journalists do not have prejudices when they are talking to young people ; are really curious about those young people's view on the facts and figures and about what drives them 'to be in nuclear' ; are surprised when we tell them we are the first to say that nuclear has inherent risks, but that they are manageable ; are surprised that we say we need all available energy sources - including renewables - and not only nuclear ; are only interested in shows (colour, noise, action, humour) ; are very much interested in stories and gossip ; are afraid of big 'chique' press conference rooms, too clean and with a gap between audience and speakers ; are too busy (or too lazy) to cross the street to come and listen to you ; still take "NGO" as a synonym for "green pressure groups", but we don't think they mean 'nuclear groups' with that (not yet...).

19 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto EYGN contacts with pressure groups COP3 Dec 97 Greenpeace demonstration near a temple in Kyoto EYGN talked to (and discussed with) people of Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth & WWF in sessions and side bar events, outside the conference halls, in corridors and during coffee breaks. Confrontations with pressure groups learned us that greens became confused seeing people of their age, dressed the same way and being pro-nuclear ; didn't expect us stressing on the importance of all sources including renewables ; were surprised we communicated our message without defensive or offensive attitude, calling for more empathy in the debate ; did not let us into their press conferences (f.i. to hand out papers), while, on the other hand, they were always welcome at ours Contacts with other Nuclear Young Generation Networks During the conference, the EYGN established contacts with the Japanese Nuclear Society Young Generation. Our new contact is a young Japanese scientist who lived in Europe for a long time (her English and French is perfect!). We didn't meet young professionals from the US in Kyoto. However, with the help of the colleagues of the US Nuclear Energy Institute, it will be possible to contact representatives of the American Nuclear Society Young Generation in the future. We think it is possible to set up some joined activities. A first face-to-face contact is always essential. After that, useful work can be done through and internet.

20 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 20 Conclusion & things to remind 4.1. The visibility of nuclear Looking back to the International Nuclear Forums' pre-kyoto work, the activities over there and the echoes during and after the Conference, we can say that the 'nuclear' NGO's had a clear impact on the daily life in the COP3 conference rooms and corridors and that they raised successfully the visibility of nuclear during the side bar events and in the international press during that time. The next major challenge will be to raise this visibility 'out of the corridors' right into the politicians' meeting rooms. The fact that it is not there at the moment is due to a lot of things The acceptance of nuclear at COP3 Public and politicians have to be approached by the nuclear world in a different way. It is obvious that the public will never 'officially start to accept' nuclear from a specific moment on. It has to be introduced in their daily life in a neutral way - and with clear benefits. Politicians can officially express their interest in nuclear. However, not all of them have - at the same time - an in depth long term view on energy needs and the courage to defend this view in public. The "End-of-COP3 Statement" the YG wrote at the end of the conference focused on the efforts participants were making, trying to avoid to speak about "nuclear" during the ten days in Kyoto. In fact, this says everything about the real acceptance of nuclear at COP3 : politicians pressure groups Many delegates with a broad view of the problem know that, when it comes to meeting our planet's growing energy needs without increasing carbon emissions, nuclear has to be a part of the solution, but no-one dares to be the first to mention the 'N-word' in public. This is of course mostly due to the politicians' fear of being identified with nuclear (which became more than clear during the official speeches of the politicians during the High Level Segment of COP3). Some pressure groups say that making a choice between nuclear and fossil fuels is like choosing between typhoid and malaria. However, they never add what should be the alternative. We all know that, even taking into account projected technology evolution, renewables cannot fulfil base load energy needs and greater energy efficiency can only have a minor impact on future consumption. In addition, programs presenting posibilities for a significant reduction of the overall energy consumption are not always realistic.

21 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 21 general public, press A lot of people are anti-nuclear - but they don't actually know why. Apparently, sympathy for nuclear technology is not possible without a curiosity for - and an understanding of - the real facts and figures (?). United Nations The word "nuclear" in the next UN protocol? We still have a long way to go...

22 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 22 Future ENS Young Generation activities in the framework of the general nuclear debate René Magritte "The art of Conversation" Back home from Kyoto, we realised that the work we did was just a start. The fact that we were there at COP3 confused pressure groups and made journalists curious. This is of course not the objective. It should be a first step towards a more effective communication. The YG believes that only a continuity in the communication with the public, the politicians and media, together with a new attitude towards pressure groups, can lead to an overall acceptance of nuclear. Taken into account the lessons learned in Kyoto, it is clear that there is a task for the YG in conferences and debates on energy issues. We do not have the intention to go our own way by 'starting all over again'. It is the synergy of young and older generations' ideas, believes and experiences together that will make the difference. Most of the young people in nuclear have the same age, clothes and haircut as pressure group people, but there the likeness ends. The YG shall continue the debate, saying that nuclear is a part of the solution, but we will do it 'in style' : without a defensive attitude and with a little bit more pop art and philosophy added to its scientific background. We are proud to hear that ENS, together with FORATOM, expressed their appreciation for our contribution in Kyoto - so, a warm "thanks" to Stig Sandklef (president FORATOM) and Ger Küpers (96-97 president ENS) and to Pat Upson (98-99 president ENS) for their encouraging words in the Jan/Feb98 NEW issue. We are (of course) very glad to accept their invitation to go along with our 'nuclear' work in the framework of the climate change debate and, in particular, to join them on the way to UNFCCC COP4 in Argentina.

23 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 23 The EYGN made "communication on nuclear" one of their major priorities on the last core meeting in February in Maastricht. The following is a brief summary (in 'telegram style') of the activities we intend to do regarding to that. Some of them are already well on the way, others are still in early conceptual dream phase... COP4 preparatory activities (on national level) Continuing the efforts with regard to the publication of the position paper in national newspapers until all EYGN member countries are covered ; active participating in - or organising - nuclear debates ; mailings of position paper to selected people ; Registering ENS(YG) as NGO for the Meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies in Bonn and for COP4 in Buenos Aires ; Further establishing of a global YG network through contacts with American, Japanese and Australian Nuclear Society's YG representatives ; (based on the position paper) Writing texts (calls for reflection and communication), signed YG, addressed to specific groups of people (greens, young people, politicians, industry,...), containing the same arguments as in the pp, but with an adapted Y-style ; Writing and studiing additional background material (for ourselves in the first place) ; Writing a new text (position paper) : YG's view on Climate Change and the role of nuclear, together with our Japanese, American & Australian friends ; informing the press about the text and about our presence at COP4 ; Participating to the UNFCCC Meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies, Bonn, June 1998 : giving a presentation containing feedback on COP3 and new ideas and visions (see previous point) ; Preparing visual stuff and gadgets for the EYGN exhibit stand at ENC'98. The same things can be used at COP4 ; Organising - and participating in - the YG Workshops "Public Perception and Communication with the public" and "Know-how Transfer" at ENC'98. activities at COP4 Working together with FORATOM, JAIF, NEI, UI, just like at COP3 (talking to people, handing out paperwork, maintaining the exhibit stand(s), attending open meetings,... ) ; Maintaining a ENSYG stand at COP4 (YG paperwork, YG gadgets) ; Organising a YG side bar event : Presentation on YG's view on climate change and the role of nuclear + special YG press conference (preferably together with our Japanese, American and Australian friends as a Global YG activity) ; Organising a YG 'off site' side bar event to attract press attention (sketch, show or performance... ) ; Trying to come closer to some pressure group people and maybe organising something together (you never know...).

24 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 24 Kyoto, Dec 97 delegates try to get some sleep during COP3 marathon talks The story of the visibility of ENS Young Generation (by Gaston Meskens) Kyoto, Thursday Dec 11, about AM ; the official United Nations COP3 clock stopped ten hours before (at midnight). Delegate negotiations went on through the night, the final plenary session would start in a few hours... Right in the middle of a chaotic mess of furniture, full ashtrays, documents, left-over food, exhausted delegates, empty cans & bottles, newspapers, laptops & sleeping journalists all over the place, I was sitting together with a UI colleague, drinking coffee. I just picked up one of the 1000 copies of our EYGN end-of-cop3 statement out of a heap of rubbish on the table when, suddenly, a man with a pink badge (a delegate) came to me and said : "good morning sir, I know you are one of the nuclear guys, and I want to take the opportunity now to ask you a question : do you think it was worthwhile for you guys to be here, promoting nuclear on such a meeting?" I answered that of course every start is difficult, but that I certainly had the impression we successfully raised the visibility of nuclear energy - in a positive way - as a part of the solution to the climate change problem.

25 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 25 He smiled and replied "You have to know : I am from Friends of The Earth, but I am here as an Irish delegate. And I can tell you" - and he pointed at our EYGN logo on the paper I had in my hands - "you can be sure of one thing : everybody noticed you were here..."

26 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 26 and finally... Astrid Gisbertz (ENSYG), Ger Küpers (ENS President 96/97), Pat Upson (ENS President 98/99) and Wolf J. Schmidt-Küster (FORATOM Secretary General) at the FORATOM exhibit stand in Kyoto, Dec The best thing you can do, dear reader, before putting this text aside after reading, is ending with taking a look at this picture. In fact, there is only one person on it who is actually younger than 36 (guess who?), thus - according to our 'by-laws' - belonging to the Young Generation. But we think you agree with us this picture illustrates very well the statement "being young has nothing to do with age, but everything with what's in the mind and in the heart". So, the least thing one can say is that - even with tie and suit - these guys are cool! March, 1998 for the European Nuclear Society Young Generation, Astrid Gisbertz & Gaston Meskens

27 ENS YGN Report on the European Nuclear Society Young Generation activities at UNFCCC-COP3, Kyoto 27 annexes EYGN Position Paper on "The Future Need for Nuclear Energy" EYGN's "Critical Path to a Clean Solution" EYGN's "End of COP3 Statement" If you would like to have extra colour copy's of this report or if you want to give feedback, please contact Gaston Meskens SCK!CEN, The Belgian Nuclear Research Centre B-2400 Mol, Belgium gmeskens@sckcen.be (t) (f) Astrid Gisbertz Justus-Liebig-Universitaet Giessen, I.Physikalisches Institut Heinrich-Buff-Ring 16, D Giessen, Germany astrid.gisbertz@exp1.physik.uni-giessen.de (t) (t) (mobile) (f)