Author: Marko Macura
The message from the representatives of the US Congress from Florida, Arizona and California was: “We apologize for Trump”. This was the secondary theme of the panel in the American Pavilion “America is all in”, and the main message for the international allies of the US after the victory of the Democrats in the midterm elections.
They reminded the audience that the Biden administration made great strides in the fight against climate change and that Trump’s has wiped it all out. Now that the Democrats have control over the state coffers, representatives of Floirda pointed out, allies from the international community can expect major changes in the green policy of this North American country. The representative from Arizona pointed out that at the beginning of his campaign, the current president Donald Trump met with leaders in the field of fossil fuels and promised them big profits if they financially supported his campaign. The representative from California reminded that his state is one of the leaders in sustainable business and climate change mitigation projects.
Daniel Esty, professor from Yale, spoke on the panel that discussed turning evidence into action from the point of view of a representative of parliament. He presented a study of his department that deals with the problems of 180 countries in the field of ecology. He pointed out that representatives of other countries could learn more about the problems of others and investigate whether the solutions to those problems are usable in their countries. Members of the IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) Congress talked about their latest project on a smaller scale language model. It offers members of parliament of all countries all the information that may be of importance to them in combating climate change. All panel participants point out that they are representatives of the people and that they cannot automatically know everything about climate change, but that they certainly try to learn as much as possible. This IPU project will help members of parliament save their time and gather all possible information relevant to their climate action.
In the Bulgaria pavilion, the focus was on how the topic of climate change can be brought closer to young people. The deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria listed several plans that are already in the process of implementation. These include a special week dedicated to climate change, changing the content of relevant subjects to include this topic and many others. The Director of the Department of Education of UNICEF also spoke and pointed out that today’s youth are more active than previous generations and that the examples of Serbian and French young are a good sign for the times ahead. Viara Trifonova, the young delegate of Bulgaria to the UN, also spoke about the awareness of young people in Bulgaria. She tells us that it is at a high level, but that they are still trying to reach all parts of society. She points out that only when that happens will their action become more effective than it is now. Teodora, a young delegate from Romania, who is only 14 years old, was also a guest. She is the youngest official participant of COP31, and she gave a short speech about the state of consciousness among second-degree students in Romania. She mentioned that the awareness of climate change is at a good level, but points out that this subject must be approached even better in education.
We ended today’s last report from the scene with good news about the return of the USA to the international scene of climate action and youth activities regarding this current and future problem of our Earth. The atmosphere in the pavilion area of the delegates’ countries was excellent as always and therefore we are even more sorry to leave this place. A lot of smart and active people in the field of climate change attended this event (about 90,000) and everyone we approached was eager to talk to us. We leave the conference with the hope that these people will take this energy home and apply it to the fight ahead.
Photo credits: Marko Macura and Perun Prodanović
