Citizens from all walks of life throughout the world have long felt an urge to get involved in environmental politics. Every year, throngs converge in environmental meetings in a way that doesn’t happen for say, peace talks or trade negotiations.
Maybe it’s the interaction among people and their surroundings. Maybe it’s that travel is a lot cheaper and easier than it used to be. And maybe it’s because environmental justice nomads are well-off financially and use activism to justify their display of mobility.
I recently became aware of something called the “Climate Youth Negotiators Program.” Under the umbrella of the United Nations, it seeks to engage youth in the morass of reaching international agreements on climate change action, or, more specifically, for countries to nominate a youth representative as part of their delegation to engage in climate change negotiations. It probably goes without saying that the grand prize for being a youth negotiator is to attend the Framework Convention on Climate Change annual Conference of the Parties.
I admit it. I’m a bit jealous. In my youth, my school didn’t even have a Model U.N. club.
Then again, I call the Conference of the Parties the Climate Change Olympics.
Spectacle for the sake of spectacle. Climate theatre under the guise of statecraft.
What better laboratory for climate activist-as-negotiator than the vast expanse of Micronesia? The FSM, for instance, produces .003 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet gets to fret over taro salinization.
For decades, FSM diplomats have lectured continent dwellers that traditional land titles make internal relocation impossible.
There’s no denying the very real threat and the need for action. But will there be concrete results or opportunism?
Or will climate negotiators become legislators, and will constant trips to train on legislative capacity-building get in the way of legislating? Will donors first shuttle them off to a law school on distant shores to embrace a species of advocacy that does not involve clients? International Court of Justice advisory opinions with no method to enforce them comes to mind.
And we’ve seen what the international development industrial complex can do in Big Ocean Developing States: the agenda for climate mitigation funding proposes seawalls but not passable roads, clean energy but no reliable electricity, and panic over rising seas but no safe drinking water.
Of course, we need to engage youth in understanding the world. And the world needs to take climate change more seriously. But what the world does not need is another program that becomes a spectacle when it anoints a select few to bolster NGO ideals of pretending to build a better world, while physical reality never changes on the ground.
During what turned out to be the height of the pandemic, I modestly proposed that the islands start training some recent high school graduates to be emergency medical technicians. My thinking was to take a very small step to fix some very big problems, namely health care, education and employment. Use basic medical education to serve the needs of a population overrun with diabetes and heart disease, help students bridge the gap between theory and practice and, hopefully, bring some economic benefit along the way.
A simple idea, really. Right-size education both for the student and for the workplace.
My proposal is not limited to EMT training. There have always been gaps between what a workforce needs and what students want to study—
I was no exception — but I continue to wonder why such gaps as accessible drinking water, adequate roads and reliable electricity continue to plague so many places where the citizens are required to attend school, and where foreign assistance is the mainstay of the economy.
When your schools are full of sociologists but not a single citizen can or will string electric lines, and foreign labor is the solution to all of a nation’s needs, I present a mismatched public policy.
Mismatched is too gentle.
Failed public policy.
I have no doubt that the students selected for climate negotiators will be very impressive, even exuberant, youths. I also have no doubt their families will be properly connected and their stories will be a welcome addition to a website put out by an organization that counts itself as a proud member of the international community, whatever that may be.
I’m happy for the youth negotiators. I just hope they see through the glitter and see negotiation for the hard slog that it is: small changes that your strongest supporters will call a betrayal. I hope that they’ll critically evaluate and learn from themselves.
I may not have had a model U.N., but my school did have the World Affairs Council. I remember it mostly as a way for honor students to skip school after telling the teacher they were being worldly.
Gabriel McCoard is an attorney who previously worked in Palau and Chuuk State. Send feedback to gabrieljmccoard@hotmail.com.
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