(fot. Rowan Farrell)
I was 17 years old when I got invited to my first UN climate conference, COP27. It was absolutely wonderful. I remember the insane feeling of meeting ministers and business leaders in what to me felt like their home. Everyone of any importance attends COP to show that they care about the climate. It is a swindling feeling and about the only two weeks of the year in which saying “I stumbled into the foreign affairs minister for Sweden talking about cats with the founder of a Namibian clean water NGO in the food queue” isn’t entirely insane and improbable. With this as the backdrop it can often feel that as a lone activist without the money or governmental backing of these tops doesn’t have a chance to change the all important plan that comes out of every COP conference. I certainly was mostly there to enjoy myself and get to know the people. As one of the youngest attendees I was far from feeling qualified to deal with the people I was suddenly meeting, and I was lacking even in the network and following of other activists there.
I could however read, which it seems was enough to achieve more than I ever thought possible. In the last hours of the conference as I was heading home I found the last draft of the plan and noticed a glaring problem, the document said renewable energy, not clean energy, effectively excluding nuclear power from green financing. I was quick to leap into action and contacted everyone I knew, writing in pro-nuclear group chats and contacting my state secretary of energy. Then I jumped on an airplane, and could do nothing but hope I had alerted enough people in the negotiation chambers to get it changed. I landed for transit in London and thought nothing much of the glaring headlines saying “COP27 negotiations delayed by three hours”. It wasn’t until I landed in Stockholm and had internet again that it was all becoming clear, everyone in my pro-nuclear group was cheering, the final release of the plan said “renewable and clean energy”, I had delayed a UN negotiation session by three hours, I had changed a UN document. From the white house to the negotiators that had been at COP27 the message was clear, “we hadn’t even noticed that”, but I had. So sometimes, remember, that it is the smallest of things that make the biggest difference, and that as long as you read and engage with society around you, slowly but surely, society will change. Together we are strong, but only if everyone does a small thing. None of us there did a massive task, I read a document and sent two text messages, the next person forwarded the message, and then the next, and the next, and then eventually reaching one person that could stand up in that negotiation chamber and say “hey, we have a problem”, and then everyone in that room that voted for the change, well they just pressed a button. But together, we changed a UN document that governs where a large part of green financing goes. You are never too young or too small to make a difference, because a lot of the time, the adults just need someone to light the spark.
Ia Aanstoot, Sweden.
