Greetings from Paris! I have had major connectivity issues. Now that I have the opportunity to write, I am taking full advantage of it!
The picture above is the entrance to the Green Zone where the public is welcome. The diplomats, credentialed journalists, and observers have access to the Blue Zone where the negotiations take place. Not only are there formal, plenary sessions in the Blue Zone, but guest speakers such as Richard Branson, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Leonardo di Caprio, and Al Gore have the opportunity to present to and talk with negotiators and 'lobbyists.' The Green Zone sees a lot of these people in the afternoons when, I suppose, they are getting a bite to eat and mingle with the public. Everyone needs a breather sometimes.
We arrived yesterday. 'We' are four University of Iowa students: two graduate journalism students, one graduate musicology student who also works for the Center for Human Rights, and me. We visited the venue yesterday to orient ourselves.
Today I spent time walking around. The exhibit halls, of which there are 3, were expected to host 100+ stands. However, I suspect the November 13 attacks left their mark here as well. there are many empty spaces. I also noticed that most of the groups attending are French. Many represent localities advertising their work for climate change such as electric buses and the use of water, wind, and sun for energy.
I picked up some Fact Sheets from the Rights and Resources Initiative, "a global coalition of 13 partners and over 150 international, regional, and community organizations advancing forest tenure, policy, and market reforms. RRI leverages the strategic collaboration and investments of its partners and collaborators around the world by working together on research, advocacy, and convening strategic actors to catalyze change on the ground." Right. The fact sheets cover land ownership in Asia and Latin America. I learned that 74% of land in Asia is owned by government and private individuals; 23% by indigenous peoples and communities; and 3% is designated for indigenous peoples and communities. Owning land means owning resources and the access and availibility of resources. Some time ago, I learned about a case in Peru where the government sold water rights to a San Francisco company (Bechtel) resulting in people having to pay a tax for the right to gather rainwater from their roofs. Restricting access like this affects economic development, human rights, and, in the end, the indignity of having one's very survival severely tested.
The ClimateNeutralNow sheet, a UNFCCC initiative, presents a 3-step program to "encourage people, companies and governments to meet the challenge of climate change and contribute to a climate-neutral future." Step 1 invites people to measure their climate footprint - although this requires you to go to their site, www.ClimateNeutralNow.org to understand how to do that. Step 2 encourages efforts to reduce emissions as much as possible. Finally, step 3 allows you to "offset some or all of the remaining unavoidable emissions with United Nations-certified climate credits." Fortunately, the next paragraph explains what offsetting is: "the process by which an individual or organization compensates for their greenhouse gas emissions by buying climate credits. Once all of our emissions have been offset, we can say we are climate neutral." To find out what purchasing climate credits means and how much they cost you must, again, go to the website. I did learn from the flyer that "when you purchase climate credits, you fund projects that reduce emissions in developing countries."
Perhaps you are like me and this kind of language, especially the assumptions it makes about my/our knowledge, is off-putting. I do know that companies can, and do, buy credits of some sort related to emissions so that a polluter looks environmentally friendly. How this works in the details I do not know. Like much of the information I picked up today, the language is for insiders; people more experienced than me. Yet the vast majority of people who are affected by climate change and who need to take action (or deserve the action taken by their governments) are not insiders. We are the most important stakeholders and it puzzles me that so little attention is paid to educating us properly. Which brings me to my last observation of the day: of the 50 or so stands that are here, only 2 use the term 'education.'
The picture above is the entrance to the Green Zone where the public is welcome. The diplomats, credentialed journalists, and observers have access to the Blue Zone where the negotiations take place. Not only are there formal, plenary sessions in the Blue Zone, but guest speakers such as Richard Branson, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Leonardo di Caprio, and Al Gore have the opportunity to present to and talk with negotiators and 'lobbyists.' The Green Zone sees a lot of these people in the afternoons when, I suppose, they are getting a bite to eat and mingle with the public. Everyone needs a breather sometimes.
We arrived yesterday. 'We' are four University of Iowa students: two graduate journalism students, one graduate musicology student who also works for the Center for Human Rights, and me. We visited the venue yesterday to orient ourselves.
Today I spent time walking around. The exhibit halls, of which there are 3, were expected to host 100+ stands. However, I suspect the November 13 attacks left their mark here as well. there are many empty spaces. I also noticed that most of the groups attending are French. Many represent localities advertising their work for climate change such as electric buses and the use of water, wind, and sun for energy.
I picked up some Fact Sheets from the Rights and Resources Initiative, "a global coalition of 13 partners and over 150 international, regional, and community organizations advancing forest tenure, policy, and market reforms. RRI leverages the strategic collaboration and investments of its partners and collaborators around the world by working together on research, advocacy, and convening strategic actors to catalyze change on the ground." Right. The fact sheets cover land ownership in Asia and Latin America. I learned that 74% of land in Asia is owned by government and private individuals; 23% by indigenous peoples and communities; and 3% is designated for indigenous peoples and communities. Owning land means owning resources and the access and availibility of resources. Some time ago, I learned about a case in Peru where the government sold water rights to a San Francisco company (Bechtel) resulting in people having to pay a tax for the right to gather rainwater from their roofs. Restricting access like this affects economic development, human rights, and, in the end, the indignity of having one's very survival severely tested.
The ClimateNeutralNow sheet, a UNFCCC initiative, presents a 3-step program to "encourage people, companies and governments to meet the challenge of climate change and contribute to a climate-neutral future." Step 1 invites people to measure their climate footprint - although this requires you to go to their site, www.ClimateNeutralNow.org to understand how to do that. Step 2 encourages efforts to reduce emissions as much as possible. Finally, step 3 allows you to "offset some or all of the remaining unavoidable emissions with United Nations-certified climate credits." Fortunately, the next paragraph explains what offsetting is: "the process by which an individual or organization compensates for their greenhouse gas emissions by buying climate credits. Once all of our emissions have been offset, we can say we are climate neutral." To find out what purchasing climate credits means and how much they cost you must, again, go to the website. I did learn from the flyer that "when you purchase climate credits, you fund projects that reduce emissions in developing countries."
Perhaps you are like me and this kind of language, especially the assumptions it makes about my/our knowledge, is off-putting. I do know that companies can, and do, buy credits of some sort related to emissions so that a polluter looks environmentally friendly. How this works in the details I do not know. Like much of the information I picked up today, the language is for insiders; people more experienced than me. Yet the vast majority of people who are affected by climate change and who need to take action (or deserve the action taken by their governments) are not insiders. We are the most important stakeholders and it puzzles me that so little attention is paid to educating us properly. Which brings me to my last observation of the day: of the 50 or so stands that are here, only 2 use the term 'education.'