A full version of this article appears in the magazine.

 

There we were, mums, dads and toddlers from Wales, walking in a huddle through the cathedrals of power in Brussels. The European Parliament is glassy, spacious and fast moving. Intelligent trendy-looking people swirl in and out of meetings with a glittery subdued intensity.

 

We had prepared for weeks. We wanted to stop runaway climate change and this seemed our best chance to influence events before it was too late, before the December world summit in Copenhagen.

 

What we brought to the table was simplicity and common-sense: if we don't stop climate change, with the likelihood of it being unstoppable after four degrees of warming, we can expect an almost uninhabitable earth. This then has to be the overwhelming priority of all our efforts at this time. We have made it ours: we asked how it ranked in the priorities of those we met.

 

Of course this was not enough to bring to the table; we had spent the lead up to our visit researching what was being done, what was being proposed, what the barriers and blockages were, and what were the choices. For our group this meant snatching time when children were asleep or when the thesis had been posted, or between organising meetings with community groups. It was a big ask to be ready to talk to European government. We were anxious.

 

A hectic schedule

Jill Evans, Plaid MEP, had organised the meetings in Brussels to iron out all the clashes, and was sponsoring us. Over three days we met with her, the other three Welsh MEPs, UK's Green MEP Caroline Lucas, the Scottish nationalist MEPs - as they and Plaid are part of Europe's green alliance - and the European Environment Agency. We finished with two meetings with powerful EU commissioners. One meeting was with members of Europe's climate strategy and negotiating team for a world agreement – the highest level meeting we had.

 

We also attended a video conference with Yvo de Boer, secretary of UNFCCC (the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). We did not talk to him but were sitting with the people asking him questions. I took part in the European Greens’ discussion and we were guests at a conference of the regions, chaired by Welsh minister Jane Davidson. Everything we went to was addressing the one subject facing the world – stopping climate change destroying our planet.

 

We got a lot of encouragement and appreciation for our stand from those we met. I emphasised the need to stop extracting fossil fuels for burning. Without doing this we would fail, no matter what else we did. If we did this we would be 60% of the way there. This is a simple, if crude proposal. We had with us a detailed treatise on how this could be achieved, Oliver Tickell's Kyoto 2. We explained that we were not there to promote this method, but to offer it as an example of a worked up proposal to wean us from fossil fuels within the time necessary to save the planet. People took his book.

 

We noted the influence of commercial lobbyists on those we met. One fallacy we found prevalent was the assumption that we need to live in more or less the same way as we do now, just a bit more efficiently, and had to find technologies that allowed this to happen before reducing fossil fuel use. We did our best to explain the rewards and popularity of powering down, of living on less stuff. Rewards like reliance on one's community instead of the global economy to meet basic needs for food, trade, entertainment, wellbeing, energy. Maybe people would only believe this if they experienced it, or saw a corporate powerpoint presentation on it.

 

Switched on and switched off

The most encouraging and challenging meetings were with the commissioners. It was a revelation to find such highly intelligent motivated people, parents of young children themselves, utterly dedicated to stopping climate change through the methods at their disposal. We might not agree that these were the best methods, but we were in no doubt of the level of commitment and ability in these people. The two negotiators were particularly switched on and determined. They showed admiration for the way we lived a low carbon life at home as they felt it was at local level that the breakthroughs would come.

 

Rather different was the meeting with the Welsh MEPs who were Labour, Tory and UKIP. We felt their points were not relevant to the subject, or very marginal to it, and the contrast with the switched on commissioners made us distinctly embarrassed by our native country's representatives.

 

'A race to the bottom'

Throughout our meetings some themes emerged. The blockage in world agreement is to do with psychology: countries allergic to being told what to do, or It's your fault, you fix it versus We all share responsibility. This is a We won't if you won't mentality which was described by Yvo de Boer and others as "a race to the bottom". The chinks of light and hope came most strongly from the regions and individual nations taking independent action, and forming themselves into alliances and networks without the baggage of the blocs. This fitted well with our dream of Wales taking the initiative. Jane Davidson (Welsh Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing) made powerful speeches at the conference of the regions extolling this sort of approach.

 

We were praised and mentioned and filmed for ITV Wales and BBC Wales. This and the fact that we got all the meetings we had asked for, and more, made us feel that what we had done was rare and important. Having some of our children there made us memorable.

 

Are we any less likely to avert catastrophe?

Our views were mixed but in general more positive than when we set off. Yvo de Boer said: "China has become the biggest polluter and is making the biggest efforts to mitigate. I feel they will come to the table with the figures and commitments we need. I think they will surprise us." He felt strongly that the Copenhagen meeting should be seen to succeed in order to encourage the next steps. "Otherwise we will be left with nothing." But "Negotiations for further cuts should start almost the next day ... We need a different architecture for world government," he said meaningfully.

 

Vicky Moller, a regular past contributor, brought up five children on a smallholding and is active in local ‘green’ politics in Pembrokeshire.