The meeting in Finland
The first meeting was held at the North South Exchange Seminar in Finland autumn 2007. Here the agreement on Nordic cooperation was reached, and the countries represented were Norway (Changemaker), Finland (Changemaker), Sweden (The Youth of the Swedish Church) and Iceland (Changemaker).
The meeting in Sweden
The next meeting was held in Sweden, January 2008. The Swedish Church, the mother organisation of the Swedish Church’s Youth, had a seminar that weekend at a Folk High School, at the outskirts of Stockholm..
At the meeting we discussed which themes might be appropriate for a Nordic campaign. We tried to take the wishes of all the different movements and their mother organisations into consideration, as well as considering which themes that could be interesting for the media the next couple of years.
To begin with we had a so-called green phase where we wrote down different suggestions on a board. Then we had a red phase where we eliminated themes, and ended up with climate refugees.
We agreed that two representatives from each country (we were eight all together) that participated at the meeting, and from that point there should be regular representatives at the next meetings so that we could keep continuity both socially and in our work.
We agreed that until next meeting we should try to find out which decision makers within each country, and which common decision makers, we should direct our campaign towards. Finally we decided that the next meeting should be held in Oslo.
The meeting in Oslo
The third meeting was held in Oslo, April 2008, at the Norwegian Church Aid office. This time it was not in connection with another seminar, and the representatives from the other countries beecame house guests at the Norwegian participants's homes. This is keeping such meetings affordable as well as being a good way to maintain the social relations between the different movements.
At the meeting that was held on the Saturday, we had guest speakers.
One of them was from the Norwegian Church Aid who talked about their climate campaign they were planning for the following couple of years. They had earlier expressed a wish that we should combine the Nordic cooperation with their climate campaign. We were not that positive towards such cooperation as we feared Changemaker Norway would become too dominant in the campaign. Especially since we were the most established movement, and because this was the first time that we had a Nordic cooperation of this level.
The other speaker, a Dane who had studied at the University of Oslo, came to talk about the paper he had written on climate and conflicts. He liked the concept for the campaign and wished to be a Danish representative after he returned to his home country. He wanted to establish a Changemaker group in Denmark.
We therefore now have five countries represented in the campaign.
We discovered that we all have umbrella organisations like the Norwegian Children and Youth Council (LNU) in our home countries. We thought it was natural to use our seats in such organisations to influence the Nordic Council of Youth.
We wish to work towards the Climate Conference in Copenhagen 2009, not to influence the decision makers there, but to exploit its media focus.
When it came down to the actual campaign we decided to divide it into an internet campaign and a campaign where all members of the five organisations should actively participate. We also had a green and a red phase. We wanted to give the local groups free space when they will carry out the campaign. The goal of the campaign is threefold:
1. We want a juridical definition of climate refugees at a national level.
2. We want the UN to recognize such a definition.
3. We want the UN to establish a group that works with issues regarding climate refugees.
When it comes to the internet campaign we want it to be in the lines of “Where’s Willy?” as for example, can you find the climate refugee in the refugee camp? We envision it as a drawing of a refugee camp and many refugees published on the web sites.
The other campaign we want members of Changemaker to illustrate different situations in areas that are in danger of being hit by floods. We imagine these situations taking place in fountains or children’s swimming pool, where someone will pour water into the pool to illustrate rising sea levels.
To hand out popsicle sticks without ice is also an idea. When it comes to the written message, we will try to write it on for example the wrapping. We seek to launch the campaign around April 18 2009.
At the end of the meeting we assigned different tasks. Our task will be the internet campaign. We sought to arrange a meeting this autumn, but could not set a date when the time schedules for autumn where not clear. We think that it should take place in Finland.