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Here goes my personal favorite highlights of my Doha trip.
1) Momentum for change (Solar sisters and LEVA)
In the hustle bustle and crazy parallel sessions schedule of COP18, I am glad I made time for attending side events related to this initiative called 'Momentum for Change'. Launched in COP17 Durban last year. This initiative recognises and rewards key environmental initiatives (focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation) that strives to bring change at the grassroot level. This year 9 winners were selected among thousands of entries.
The list of winners can be found here:
http://unfccc.int/secretariat/momentum_for_change/items/7159.php
My personal favorite winners were: The solar sisters and Lanka Electric Vehicle Association.
Solar Sisters is an inspiring story of how solar technology was adopted by rural women in Uganda through the principle of entrepreneurship. Watch their story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nymr2Nbxow0
The reason I like this initiative so much is, because two of my closest friends took up a similar initiative this year. But their target audience is urban poor. I made a short movie on their work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvZV2tXyy00&feature=youtube_gdata
The struggle and efforts behind establishing Lanka Electric Vehicle Association is also very inspiring.
This initiative has led to their national government (Sri Lanka) introducing conducive policies for electric vehicles.
I got a chance to interact with the sweet couple behind this (Mr. Dhatusena and his better half who supported him throughout his journey):
2) Knowledge cafe sessions
I was first introduced to the 'World Cafe' format of dialogue and discussions, during the Asia Pacific youth forum in Kathmandu in September. (http://www.theworldcafe.com/method.html)
Ever since, I have adopted this as an important tool for enabling discussions.
I got a chance to participate in a World Cafe style discussion (We called it Knowledge Cafe) twice during COP. One was on Mountain Day 2 event (December 3) and the other was during an Asian youth gathering (which we had pre-planned before arriving in Doha).
It is a very effective way of facilitating discussions and I recommend this method to everyone!
During the Asian youth cafe, I hosted the discussion on 'Green economy' and the results from the session are uploaded here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5ou-4sv4VO_RDNhMC1KT2ZzVTQ
I asked the participants: What do you know about Green economy (Listing down all the words, phrases and meanings they are aware of); If given a chance, how will you re-define green economy (According to you what all should it include?); What can youth do for green economy?
3) World Climate Summit (December 2)
I would call this the most fruitful day of my trip! Networked like crazy here (ran out of my business cards ;)) Met top climate business leaders from across the globe and discussed about green entrepreneurship with them! Also presented our declaration to everyone we met on this day. Though, this was held outside the COP venue, this side event was very prominent and had good level of participation. It is here that we met the IPCC vice chair Professor Jean Pascal, managed to pass the declaration to Christiana Figueres (UNFCCC general secretary) and H.E Minister of Energy, Qatar. As a working professional working on urban climate change adaptation, I also networked professionally on behalf of my organisation.
4) Interaction with school kids through British Council (December 4)
I was selected as an International Climate Change Champion in 2009 (By British Council and TERI).
Ever since, I have been involved in several local environment initiatives and activities designated for this youth climate group. As part of this programme, I got an opportunity to interact with kids from local Qatar schools.
And what was my session on? Composting and Waste management :D (My love!)
Sareka, a fellow climate champion from Bangladesh began with an interactive session on understanding Climate Change. She used visuals and simple words to make the kids understand the 'complex' nuances of the concept of climate change. This gave a perfect backdrop and I joined in later to tell them what they can do in response to this global phenomenon. I told them about the general concept of waste and how segregating our kitchen waste (wet waste) from our dry waste (recyclable waste) can reduce the pressure on landfills and by composting at home, we can do our bit for the environment!
The kids were enthusiastic and very receptive to our session. We thoroughly enjoyed interacting with them and in the end they came up with a list of activities that they were inspired to take up after our small session!
It was heartening to know how some of them were considering to start composting their school waste!
Wherever I go, I like speaking about composting, so this one goes down to my memory box. Thank you BC :)
5) Asian youth climate network
This is something that I am really excited about. Throughout COP18 and even before arriving in Doha, one of our agenda was to collaborate with other Asian youth delegates for sustaining meaningful activities after COP ends! It is very important to be environmentally active and committed all the year round and not only during the annual COP meeting!
With this common goal in mind, around 25-30 of us made it a point to meet regularly, share ideas and frame a strategy for continuing our association.
So while we are back to our home towns, we are still in touch and plan to regularly skype every month through a 'steering committee' comprising of 2 representatives from each country.
We pledged to disseminate our learnings and work with other young people in our countries and also with each other.
We hope (fingers crossed) to revive the Asian Youth Climate Network (haven't decided on an official name yet!) and make the under-represented Asian youth voices heard at the global platform.
I am very positive on the future of this cause and I will make sure that each one of us, is in the same boat and there is no space for politics. Only love and unity for the environment :-)
6) This blog is getting too long, I hope I don't lose you as a reader, so here goes my final sixth highlight from my trip!
During those 7 days I was constantly worrying whether I am making the most of what I have got? Whether I am utilising my time meaningfully. There were times, when even though we were youth representatives, we had to indulge in 'grown-up' tasks like speaking about our declaration responsibly and approach as many policy makers for this! We really wanted our document to be taken seriously and not like a piece of paper!
And I am more relieved than proud to say that : Yes, we did it! :D
We succeeded in what we had set out for. We gave our declaration successfully to a diverse set of people and there was a moment when we encountered few people who already knew about it through a person we might have interacted previously! And that was the most fulfilling moment for us, to know that we did our job decently! (Read our declaration here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5ou-4sv4VO_b2QyckdwVy1GWFE/edit)
A lot of thought, hard work and BELIEF went into our declaration and it was received well. We learnt a lot from this entire process and I can say this with full conviction that we represented 'Responsible youth!'. We networked, enjoyed, participated, worked, partied :D and in the end, atleast satisfied our inner self (which is more important than impressing others!)
Wow I have so much to say. Ok, ending this quickly now.
Some of the other highlights were:
Desert Safari Ride (The best 'tourist' experience ever as our jeep travelled through sand dunes)
My article featured in Outreach magazine article (The official daily magazine: http://www.stakeholderforum.org/sf/outreach/index.php/component/content/article/163-cop18day9-cities/1257-improving-urban-governance-through-ict-a-game-changer-for-climate-change-adaptation)
Met Composting people- A session by ISWA and other passionate composting people
Met Lord Nicholas Stern (again thanks to British Council!)
My flight back home was equally eventful, as I sat next to Erik Curren, author of 'Buddha's not smiling!' and had a non-stop 3 hour long conversation with him! It was the best ever conversation I had with a stranger whom I connected with instantly! (Check out: www.transitionvoice.com)
Doha you will be missed....will relive those 7 days through the pictures and through my new friends :-)
(Phew! So glad I wrote this in 2012 itself! :p)
1) Momentum for change (Solar sisters and LEVA)
In the hustle bustle and crazy parallel sessions schedule of COP18, I am glad I made time for attending side events related to this initiative called 'Momentum for Change'. Launched in COP17 Durban last year. This initiative recognises and rewards key environmental initiatives (focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation) that strives to bring change at the grassroot level. This year 9 winners were selected among thousands of entries.
The list of winners can be found here:
http://unfccc.int/secretariat/momentum_for_change/items/7159.php
My personal favorite winners were: The solar sisters and Lanka Electric Vehicle Association.
Solar Sisters is an inspiring story of how solar technology was adopted by rural women in Uganda through the principle of entrepreneurship. Watch their story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nymr2Nbxow0
The reason I like this initiative so much is, because two of my closest friends took up a similar initiative this year. But their target audience is urban poor. I made a short movie on their work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvZV2tXyy00&feature=youtube_gdata
The struggle and efforts behind establishing Lanka Electric Vehicle Association is also very inspiring.
This initiative has led to their national government (Sri Lanka) introducing conducive policies for electric vehicles.
I got a chance to interact with the sweet couple behind this (Mr. Dhatusena and his better half who supported him throughout his journey):
2) Knowledge cafe sessions
I was first introduced to the 'World Cafe' format of dialogue and discussions, during the Asia Pacific youth forum in Kathmandu in September. (http://www.theworldcafe.com/method.html)
Ever since, I have adopted this as an important tool for enabling discussions.
I got a chance to participate in a World Cafe style discussion (We called it Knowledge Cafe) twice during COP. One was on Mountain Day 2 event (December 3) and the other was during an Asian youth gathering (which we had pre-planned before arriving in Doha).
It is a very effective way of facilitating discussions and I recommend this method to everyone!
During the Asian youth cafe, I hosted the discussion on 'Green economy' and the results from the session are uploaded here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5ou-4sv4VO_RDNhMC1KT2ZzVTQ
I asked the participants: What do you know about Green economy (Listing down all the words, phrases and meanings they are aware of); If given a chance, how will you re-define green economy (According to you what all should it include?); What can youth do for green economy?
3) World Climate Summit (December 2)
I would call this the most fruitful day of my trip! Networked like crazy here (ran out of my business cards ;)) Met top climate business leaders from across the globe and discussed about green entrepreneurship with them! Also presented our declaration to everyone we met on this day. Though, this was held outside the COP venue, this side event was very prominent and had good level of participation. It is here that we met the IPCC vice chair Professor Jean Pascal, managed to pass the declaration to Christiana Figueres (UNFCCC general secretary) and H.E Minister of Energy, Qatar. As a working professional working on urban climate change adaptation, I also networked professionally on behalf of my organisation.
IPCC Vice chair with our declaration
4) Interaction with school kids through British Council (December 4)
I was selected as an International Climate Change Champion in 2009 (By British Council and TERI).
Ever since, I have been involved in several local environment initiatives and activities designated for this youth climate group. As part of this programme, I got an opportunity to interact with kids from local Qatar schools.
And what was my session on? Composting and Waste management :D (My love!)
Sareka, a fellow climate champion from Bangladesh began with an interactive session on understanding Climate Change. She used visuals and simple words to make the kids understand the 'complex' nuances of the concept of climate change. This gave a perfect backdrop and I joined in later to tell them what they can do in response to this global phenomenon. I told them about the general concept of waste and how segregating our kitchen waste (wet waste) from our dry waste (recyclable waste) can reduce the pressure on landfills and by composting at home, we can do our bit for the environment!
The kids were enthusiastic and very receptive to our session. We thoroughly enjoyed interacting with them and in the end they came up with a list of activities that they were inspired to take up after our small session!
It was heartening to know how some of them were considering to start composting their school waste!
Wherever I go, I like speaking about composting, so this one goes down to my memory box. Thank you BC :)
5) Asian youth climate network
This is something that I am really excited about. Throughout COP18 and even before arriving in Doha, one of our agenda was to collaborate with other Asian youth delegates for sustaining meaningful activities after COP ends! It is very important to be environmentally active and committed all the year round and not only during the annual COP meeting!
With this common goal in mind, around 25-30 of us made it a point to meet regularly, share ideas and frame a strategy for continuing our association.
So while we are back to our home towns, we are still in touch and plan to regularly skype every month through a 'steering committee' comprising of 2 representatives from each country.
We pledged to disseminate our learnings and work with other young people in our countries and also with each other.
We hope (fingers crossed) to revive the Asian Youth Climate Network (haven't decided on an official name yet!) and make the under-represented Asian youth voices heard at the global platform.
I am very positive on the future of this cause and I will make sure that each one of us, is in the same boat and there is no space for politics. Only love and unity for the environment :-)
6) This blog is getting too long, I hope I don't lose you as a reader, so here goes my final sixth highlight from my trip!
During those 7 days I was constantly worrying whether I am making the most of what I have got? Whether I am utilising my time meaningfully. There were times, when even though we were youth representatives, we had to indulge in 'grown-up' tasks like speaking about our declaration responsibly and approach as many policy makers for this! We really wanted our document to be taken seriously and not like a piece of paper!
And I am more relieved than proud to say that : Yes, we did it! :D
We succeeded in what we had set out for. We gave our declaration successfully to a diverse set of people and there was a moment when we encountered few people who already knew about it through a person we might have interacted previously! And that was the most fulfilling moment for us, to know that we did our job decently! (Read our declaration here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5ou-4sv4VO_b2QyckdwVy1GWFE/edit)
A lot of thought, hard work and BELIEF went into our declaration and it was received well. We learnt a lot from this entire process and I can say this with full conviction that we represented 'Responsible youth!'. We networked, enjoyed, participated, worked, partied :D and in the end, atleast satisfied our inner self (which is more important than impressing others!)
Wow I have so much to say. Ok, ending this quickly now.
Some of the other highlights were:
Desert Safari Ride (The best 'tourist' experience ever as our jeep travelled through sand dunes)
My article featured in Outreach magazine article (The official daily magazine: http://www.stakeholderforum.org/sf/outreach/index.php/component/content/article/163-cop18day9-cities/1257-improving-urban-governance-through-ict-a-game-changer-for-climate-change-adaptation)
Met Composting people- A session by ISWA and other passionate composting people
Met Lord Nicholas Stern (again thanks to British Council!)
My flight back home was equally eventful, as I sat next to Erik Curren, author of 'Buddha's not smiling!' and had a non-stop 3 hour long conversation with him! It was the best ever conversation I had with a stranger whom I connected with instantly! (Check out: www.transitionvoice.com)
Doha you will be missed....will relive those 7 days through the pictures and through my new friends :-)
(Phew! So glad I wrote this in 2012 itself! :p)
3 comments:
Well honestly,Doha was something very close to what you may have thought of when you kicked of the journey being a climate champion,the sheer perseverance and commitment was something that actually lent you an opportunity,one you truly deserve.From ICMOD Nepal to Doha each leap has been a a feather in your cap and wish many more to come in the year 2K13. I hope many such opportunities/platform await you so as you can spread more awareness,mores strength to your voice.cheers!
Thank you for those lovely words of encouragement :) Happy New Year to you too!
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