Adopt A Negotiator continues to grow
Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by Cara Bevington in Australia
As the negotiations continue to heat up AND move at a glacial pace all at once, we are working extra hard to continue to put pressure on all the right places at all the right times to ensure that we get the fair, ambitious and binding global climate change deal that the citizens of the World want!
How do we plan on doing that?
By ensuring that the Australian delegation know they are being tracked globally throughout the various International meetings as well as at home.
Joining me on the Adopt A Negotiator team as the lead Australian tracker, is the young, inspiring and very talented Phil Ireland from Newcastle, NSW.
Phil will be our on ground tracker for Australia at both the upcoming Barcelona and Copenhagen UNFCCC meetings, while I will take on a slightly different role organising on ground campaigning here in Australia to put extra pressure on our Government.
While there is a bit of change within the Australian tracker team, one thing remains the same, and that’s YOU.
We couldn’t do any of this without your support. We are working hard to open up the UN climate talks, so that you can monitor what the Australian delegation are up to, put pressure on them, and hopefully influence our Government’s position. We need you to keep up your fantastic work, leaving comments, sharing your questions, re-posting the blogs, inviting your friends to sign up. Without you, we’re simply two people writing for ourselves!
So, who is Phil?
Not many of you would know, but Phil has been working with me on this project from day dot (as have many AMAZING people) . Phil’s been taking a more behind the scenes role, doing outreach and awareness raising about this project, as well as climate change lobbying more broadly.
Phil and I with Louise Hand (in centre) Ambassador for Climate Change and Australia's lead negotiator.
In the recent months, Phil and I have made a number of trips to Canberra together where I’ve been able to introduce him to key members of the Australian delegation.
Not only is Phil up on who’s who of the delegation, and the Australian government positions, Phil has been actively involved in climate change campaigning for many years now.
His passion for justice for the poor, those who stand to suffer most from climate change, has lead him to do such things as, participate in the non-violent blockades of the world’s largest coal port to meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia to advocate for stronger political action on climate change.
In his spare time, Phil works for the non-government organisation TEAR Australia as the policy and campaigns officer and is also a Ph.D. candidate researching how new frameworks and financing for adaptation to climate change can reduce social and environmental vulnerability for poor communities in South Asia. Phil has so much to offer to this project and I am really excited see it continue to grow and go from strength to strength!!
Phil and I are going to do everything we possibly can to continue to track the Australian negotiators and hold the Australian Government to account. We have a long way to go, but by all of us working together, in our varying ways and in our different pockets of the world, we can contribute to a movement with ever growing momentum to ensure a safe future climate for all humanity and all life on earth.
PS. Phil will also be blogging on one of our partner sites, A Climate for Change