We are three quarters through and like staring too close at the brush strokes of a painting, is just to blurry to make any sense of it just yet. Yet there have been some amazing bits and pieces which I can hopefully capture!

This week some of us have had a couple of encounters with the Minister for the Environment, both of which were generally …disheartening? On Monday we had a round-table between the Environmental NGO's and the Minister. We told Garrett MP that the Labor party has yet to commit to serious and immediate action on lowering GHG emissions (as the Indonesian President SBY stated at the High Level Ceremony 'the Kyoto Protocol is a quick start but not enough'). Garrett returned the question framed in a comparison that is all too familiar; we are doing and will do far better then the opposition party.

This comparison should no longer resonate after the election and has no place in the face of the consequences that hang in the balance here in Bali .

I just watched the IPCC Synthesis at the High Level Opening Ceremony and it sent an actual chill sliver through my back noticing the lowest scenario predicted was a 2- 2.4 degrees Celsius rise which would create 0.4 -1.4 meter sea rise. That is the lowest parameter! This is putting us on a course that could slip into what my friend, Adrian Whitehead would call death-melt! Pacific Island States, just 2 metres above sea level will be all but gone with the loss of most land mass and fresh water reserves (due to the increased salinity.) Many of these countries already live at subsistence levels let alone with the climate change consequences. This gets us to the second encounter with Garrett.

The Minister also attended a side event yesterday on the Millennium Development Goals and Climate Change. A Bangladeshi scientist with the IPCC talked about the existing poverty faced by most of these nations on the front line and the further hindrance that the climate crisis poses. The way to overcome poverty, he stated is to provide choice, but the choice between dying from poverty and dying from the consequences of dangerous climate change is no choice at all. On the same note the 'benefits' between the policies of the opposition party (that our economy will be hurt by any strong action) and at the current government (token commitment by Garrett of 150 Million to climate change adaptation) is no choice at all. There is a baseline, there is an absolute need and constantly framing the argument in comparative politics is at the very least drowning the future of our Pacific neighbours.

We need strong action that reflects the science not the politics. The laws of physics and chemistry do not negotiate; the needs of our neighbours can not wait.

- Richie Merzian, Chair of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition