“On the Road of Paris”, an international learning project held by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Berlin and Planpolitik is one of the thousands meeting held to prepare for this year United Nations Conference on Climate Change – Conference of Parties (UNFCCC-COP) 21 in Paris. With the on-going multilateral negotiating going on currently, I would like to share my experiences on that event.
In September, I was selected as one of the participants among 25 people from the entire globe. These participants came from Asia, Middle Eastern, Europe, America, and Africa. These 25 people are young professional with the working field and passion in climate change related disciplines. The event took place in Berlin from October 18th to 24th. The international learning project focused on UNFCCC Simulation and also ideas lab on climate change solutions.
The event was held as learning tools on the multilateral negotiations of UNFCCC-COP currently going on in Paris. The topic is climate change related regulations, which will determine the future of our planet. Similar to Model United Nations, the participants was playing a simulation of UNFCCC-COP with a role as negotiators representing countries position to be included in the final agreement of UNFCCC-COP 21. The countries represented here was from the developed nations, the emerging countries, and the least developed countries.
This simulation games used an online platform created by Planpolitik to really immerse in the game. Before we got to meet face to face, we begun the negotiation process through this online platform. This platform did so well in connecting the participants who lived in different time zones and continent. Then, after the online phase, we all finally met in Berlin to start the “real” negotiating. Of course because this is a simulation of the negotiations, we only get to cover so little from the whole complexity of the negotiations happening in UNFCCC, but it does cover what was most highlighted on UNFCCC which is mitigation and climate finance.
The result of the game might be unsatisfying for some, as we couldn’t come up with any agreement in the end. But the learning process does make us appreciate what our real negotiators are doing currently in Paris and it taught us on what is currently happening right now. Let’s all hope that the disagreement like in the simulation didn’t happen in Paris, as we hope that the countries are focusing on the earth’s needs rather than their own political gain. This is our prayer from #earthtoparis.
MK
Photo Credit: Danny Prusseit
P.S. Here’s a video link on the program overview. Enjoy!
Indonesian Youth Climate Society 