But don't trains, buses and freight ships also emit CO2?

As the weekend comes to an end, so does the international Conference of Youth (COY). We’ve spent the past two days at a local university called Wyższa Szkoła Nauk Humanistycznych i Dziennikarstwa (good luck trying to say that)! Organized solely by youth, the COY was an opportunity for youth delegates to mobilize before the beginning of the UNFCCC. The conference began with a presentation from the Australian Overland Team. They told us of their journey to Poznan traveling by surface - train, bus and freight ship. Beginning in Darwin, Australia, their forty day trip passed through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus and Poland. Their decision to travel without flying was prompted by Gandhi’s message - “be the change you wish to see in the world.” As UNFCCC youth delegates, we have a responsibility to promote not only political action, but personal action such as sustainable transportation. Not in keeping with this message, each year when youth fly from around the world to attend these conferences we emit tones of CO2 - literally. By traveling overland these Australian youth were able to drastically reduce their carbon footprint and further spread their message of climate action.

How much public money is being spent to send 30 CO2-hysteric Canadian youths to Poland?

The British Council Canada has sponsored 2 Canadian students, Taryn and Caleb, to be apart of the Canadian Youth Delegation (CYD) at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan, Poland, December 1-12, 2008. The CYD is made up of 30 youth from across Canada who will seek to give a voice to their generational concern about the risks of ignoring climate change.