Last Day of COY

A cool link for the politics of climate change

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2012/11/20121118131411899744.html

            Today I am sad to say was the last day of the Conference of the Youth. It was once again a fantastic day. I unfortunately had to miss the second day because I was sick, and I did nothing but sleep in the hotel room. However, today I woke up early, took a shower, and wrote a good chunk of my paper before I headed off to COY with Adriana and Ian. We took the bus to the convention center to get accredited for the Conference of the Parties, which starts tomorrow, Monday. It was a relatively quick process and we received fancy badges, officially allowing us into the convention center.

            After receiving our badges we trekked to the student center of the Qatar Foundation. It was a bit hot outside, which I thought I escaped once I left Arizona, not so. We made it to the student center, and then waited until the conference started. The rest of the delegation was figuring out hotel stuff because there was some confusion with the rooms. I worked on my homework and relaxed for awhile. Eventually a session started that went a little bit more into the structure of COP and the role that we would be playing in all of it. I was able to meet a few more people through this activity and was able to grasp what is going to happen a bit more.

            Once that activity was complete I met a new person, and he and I talked for about 45 minutes. He is a 19 year old from Sudan. He showed me his blog, and told me amazing things about his country. All I know about Sudan is the limited information I get from the American media about Darfur, and it does not cover anything. The student I was talking to is really passionate about his country and excited about the potential it has especially if the leader is replaced. He also described the process and what occurred when South Sudan and Sudan split last year. It is a little messy there, but in the village or town where he lives he feels relatively safe and gets to watch the stars as he goes to sleep at night. He was also incredibly knowledgeable about US politics and goings on, which astounded me because he was more knowledgeable then most US citizens. It was great being able to talk to him.

            I then was able to sit in the Climate Action Network strategizing session for awhile. It was interesting to see all the NGO perspectives from different countries, and what kind of issues they wanted to put forward or strike down based on their backgrounds. The conversation started to die down to a point where I could leave to find a working group to join in YOUNGO. I looked around the room at all the working groups I could join. There were some about finance, communication, human rights, gender and women, youth action, and things of that sort, but the group that stood out to me the most was the Forests and Agriculture Group. I have always been fascinated by forests and surrounded by them. I played in the forests as a child, went to forestry camp as a teenager, and was quizzed on forest knowledge as a high school student in Envirothon.

            I walked over to the group and it was composed of a very interesting collection of men. The facilitator was a tall New Zealand man, and the other 4 people included a man from Turkey, a man from Liberia, a man from Germany, and finally a man from my delegation from Puerto Rico. We had a very long conversation about forests and what needs to be done by the UN in order to protect them. This included the prevention of slash and burn methods, enabling communities in using forests effectively and framing the issue in such a way that shows the real impact to humans and their livelihoods. It was a great conversation, and it is obvious that I need to learn quite a bit more in order to really understand how to approach the problems. I am really excited to be able to work on this issue because of my background with them.

            We wrapped up the night with a couple speeches from delegates and youth leaders. After that we had an adventurous taxi ride back to the hotel, and then we came up to the hotel room to meet the rest of the delegation that had arrived today. I am really excited for tomorrow when the COP starts, and the delegates fill the convention center halls.