Hey Everybody! My name is Lia Johnson. I`m a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation (CYD) and my blog posts will serve as an description of my adventures as a new and inexperienced member of the CYD in Poznan, Poland for COP-14. The whole process, from selection in August to writing my first blog post ever (your currently reading it), has been a new experience for me.
As many of you already know, yesterday was the opening of COP-14. The total number of participants –10,671- makes this event the largest I’ve ever been involved in. A rookie to UN negotiations and a positive person by nature, I couldn’t help but feel hopeful during the open ceremonies.
So far I’ve been spending the majority of my time working with the International Youth Outreach team. Since Saturday it has been ongoing meetings with the working group. From what I can tell, meetings are a common theme among bureaucrats, ministers, youth, NGO’s and other participants. The outreach group has been spending its time trying to plan, strategize, liaison, and organize daily actions. The whole process has been really interesting as we try to make decisions under time constraints and differing opinions. Working in such a large group has been a learning experience for me and is an area I hope to continue to improve in. One thing that has been great is learning all the different techniques that are used for group facilitation, such as: twinkle waves for showing support, straw polls for voting, and triangles for process point. I`m having way too much fun with them and I have a sneaky suspicion that these techniques will probably follow me home...and I`ll definitely use them out of context.
Besides trying to keep on top of my outreach responsibilities, I’ve also been able to experience some of the legendary events that occur annually at COP. Last night was the opening reception hosted by the Polish government. It appears that besides attending lots of meetings, being in Poznan, and focusing on climate change everyone -parties and non-governmental participants- unite together for free food and booze. Unfortunately, I sense that lack of sleep is another common thread among everyone in attendance.
I`m going to be writing regularly so make sure you check back to see what is going on! I`d also like to thank everyone that is supporting and following the Canadian Youth Delegation during the negotiations. I heard a rumour that we were featured on The Weather Network yesterday!...