Presidents and Mexico on Climate Change

Ed. note:  The delegates from SES are at the COP16 with student delegates from our partner school, the International American School of Cancun.  IAS is serving as our host institution during our time in Mexico and we are extremely appreciative of both their generosity and the contributions of their student delegates to our efforts here, including blog entries like this one.

It was an eventful day today: turns out COP 16 is full of surprises! We started off by walking around the NGO booths. Even after a day of conference, I still feel overwhelmed at the fact that I'm surrounded by every important organization in the world. I found the courage to go to the Yale booth and talk to them; turns out the guy was Mexican! He told me all about the Latino community at the University and how great an experience it is to study there. It feels good to dream.

After lining up to get free t-shirts, we went to an exclusive question and answer session with Patricia Espinosa, the President of COP 16. It felt oddly pleasant to be right in front of such an important figure and being able to hear what she had to say to the Youth; the generation who's feeling the strongest impact of Climate Change. After the session, I went up to her, to meet a fellow Mexican woman, and ask her about renewable energy in Cancun. Of course I didn't forget to get a picture, too!

I wrapped up the day beautifully by going to a side-event led by Mexico to talk about how Climate Change affects Latin America. It was extremely interesting to learn thoroughly about where we stand as a country and region. The panel was full of strong Mexican women who are basically in charge of taking over, and pushing for a greener Mexico. They're the heads of all those organizations that are trying to steer our environment in a smarter direction. However, after listening to all those issues, mistakes, and urgent needs we have, I don't know if I feel wiser, or utterly confused. It seems we have a huge load of work to do, and it is difficult to know where to start.

Camilla Rodriguez
International American School of Cancun