Climate Change blog
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Michelle Levinson:
In Cancun, talk can build founding trust

Michelle Levinson ’11 writes about the potential for progress represented by thousands of personal connections made at international gatherings. She is among 10 Brown students attending the conference with J. Timmons Roberts, director of the Center for Environmental Studies and professor of sociology.
By Michelle Levinson  |  December 1, 2010  |  Email to a friend

Today we learned that an overcrowded café can be quite a blessing. The particular café we found to be so worthwhile is located in the Cancun Messe, one of the conference centers hosting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Messe contains the “side events,” which are supporting presentations to the plenary negotiations that occur in the Moon Palace, and also has booths set up by NGOS, IGOs, universities, and even some countries.

This morning Spencer Lawrence and I headed to a computer cluster while a luckier Cecilia Pineda enjoyed the public WiFi at the aforementioned café. About to give up on my attempts to print a document, I saw an intriguing “G-chat” from Ceci: “I am sitting next to a delegate from the Dominican Republic!” Needless to say, I hurried over to meet her new acquaintance. Omar Ramirez Tejada, secretary of state and executive vice president of the Dominican Republic, was sharing her table. Not only did he treat Cecilia to a coffee and eagerly answer our interview questions, but he even connected us to Acción Climática as a potential partner for the organization we are working with, the Latin American Platform on Climate Change.

This amazing interview and Ramirez’s open, engaging attitude typify the unique potential and positive atmosphere that pervade the negotiations. Before we arrived, I had been intimidated by the prospect of interacting with the important, informed, high-level people attending the conference. However, most observers and participants in the conference are eager to share their opinions and stories — and beyond this, they are interested in learning about us and our own roles. I like to think that most participants really value the contributions and perspectives of other attendees. This demonstrates a commitment to coordination and cooperation; while this principle may still be missing from some of the more technical negotiations going on in the Moon Palace, it is encouraging that so many experts, policymakers, stakeholders, and decisionmakers are interacting and building connections.

Ultimately, these negotiations, and all agreements made at the international level, require a huge amount of trust on the part of the member states. Sometimes, this trust seems nonexistent; after hearing yet another round of apocalyptic data and despairing analyses at every side event, it is easy to lose hope that a new, proactive, and inclusive agreement for climate can be attained. In these moments, I advise hopeless witnesses of the sometimes snail-paced progress on climate change to step back and observe: These negotiations are elementally huge positive steps simply because they bring together members of the world community to build personal connections and create trust on the individual level. Ramirez’s parting advice to Cecilia and me was to keep up hope. My hope is founded in the thousands of connections between individuals that are being made every day at this conference.