An unexpected journey....

Wow! What a crazy three weeks it has been. My name is Lisa McLaren and I am an Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute youth delegate. The rest of our delegation and I found out that we were chosen to go to the COP 19 climate change conference in Warsaw less than three weeks ago and now I am sitting on a plane bound for Hong Kong, the half way stop on our journey to Poland!

It has been an intense three weeks of fundraising, learning, packing and finishing off my other jobs and Masters thesis. We attended a training weekend last weekend up in Auckland, where we meet Rachel who will lead our delegation and show us the ropes. We also met her partner, David, who is traveling to COP with the Adopt a Negotiator team. Their knowledge of previous COPs they have attended will be invaluable!

Earlier today, before we departed for Hong Kong, we attended the Auckland stakeholders meeting for those interested in meeting the NZ government negotiators and hearing their plans for the conference. It was really great to get an understanding of how the NZ negotiators were approaching COP 19, not that they gave too much away! It was great to meet them and I look forward to learning from them throughout the conference during the daily NZ stakeholder meetings.

I am extremely excited to get to Poland as I have never been to Eastern Europe, and it is somewhere that I do not know too much about. I am excited to meet both youth delegates and government negotiators from around the world. I am really interested in the venue for the conference (a stadium), which apparently needs its roof opened if it starts snowing! As we are heading to Poland in their winter we might just see this in action! I have lots of NZ Marino packed so hopefully that will keep the cold temperatures at bay.

We are lucky enough to be staying at an apartment close to the stadium which will be handy as we are expecting to be having many early mornings and late nights at the conference- networking, joining in on meetings, tweeting and blogging updates!

I am in no doubt that the conference will be frustrating, exciting, infuriating, soul destroying, inspiring, intense, and life changing all at once. And I am so ready for it!! Bring on COP 19!!!!!! 

All posts by Institute delegates reflect their own thoughts, opinions and experiences, and do not reflect those of the Institute.

For official Institute updates, take a look here.

UN Climate Change Conference Training Weekend

This weekend we had a great time meeting our COP 19 delegates Natalie, Saskia, Lisa and Jerome for their Training Weekend at AUT Business School in Auckland.  

The delegates were fortunate enough to hear from experts Jim Salinger, an Auckland-based climate scientist and author of the new book Living in a Warmer World, Barry Coates, Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand, and Geoff Keey, Global Campaign Coordinator for Climate Action Network International, about the policy outcomes they should expect from the Conference.

Delegates also learned more about the logistics of the Conference, which will host 9,000 people in Warsaw over the course of two weeks, and about what to expect from the annual Conference of Youth which will take place in the final days before the negotiations commence.

Another highlight was Skyping fellow Kiwi youth from the New Zealand Youth Delegation (NZYD) at their training session in Wellington.  NZYD sends a delegation of young New Zealanders to COP each year. 

Our delegates will leave in exactly one week, after a morning briefing with the Government’s climate change negotiators on Monday.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Sarah Trotman and AUT Business School for allowing us to use the beautiful Sir Paul Reeves building for our training.

Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute holds official launch

Last night, the Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute held its official launch event in Auckland.  The audience, hosted by AUT Business School, heard from members of each of this year’s delegations.  

Korey Te Hira shared his experience of attending the World Trade Organisation Public Forum in Geneva in October, and Charlie Lin spoke about meeting his fellow delegates to the upcoming Pacific Youth and Sports Conference in Noumea at their training weekend last month.  While he couldn’t come to Auckland for the event, Jerome Cameron, from our UN Climate Change Conference delegation, also shared his reaction to being chosen this week to join the Institute in Warsaw this December:

 The Institute extends its thanks to the AUT Business School and Dr Geoff Perry for their support in hosting this event, and to Sarah Trotman for her key role in making it possible.

Take a look here for more photos from the night.

Departing Geneva

 Geneva is a city that has much to offer to travellers, so I tried to fit in as much as I could into the three days I had before leaving.  I learnt about some of the history of Old Geneva, particularly its important role in the Reformation through the likes of Martin Luther and John Calvin.  Its bohemian district Carouge had plenty of patisseries and cafes for me to eat at, and was only a short train ride from the city centre.  Also, there was an exhibition about the pharaoh Tutankhamen in town which included exact replicas of his entire tomb and the possessions within it.  Before I knew it I was on my way to the airport for my flight back home.  I had a truly wonderful time in Switzerland and learnt a lot about the main issues and topics in international trade circles.  I want to thank AYLI for selecting me to attend the 2013 WTO Public Forum and for all their help in organising what was a fantastic experience.  Also I want to thank Fonterra who generously sponsored me to attend the forum, as without them none of this would have been possible.

 

All posts by Institute delegates reflect their own thoughts, opinions and experiences, and do not reflect those of the Institute.

For official Institute updates, take a look here.