Dear Jan…

Before she leaves to catch her train our UK tracker has taken the time to write to her lead negotiator, reflecting on the last 6 months and looking forward to Copenhagen and beyond.

Dear Jan

It’s been 6 months now since I ‘adopted you’ and today I set off for Copenhagen. I can hardly believe time has passed so quickly.

Before I start my journey, before we all return to the UN, and before the craziness and seemingly inevitable frustration sets in I wanted to take this time to write to you.

Over the last 6 months I have developed a much deeper understanding of the way the UNFCCC works. 6 months ago in Bonn I was fresh to this, eager and if the truth be known probably a little naive. As time has passed and we have been through Bangkok and Barcelona, as the process has developed and Copenhagen drawn ever closer, you know, I have often become frustrated. I have grown weary of the process, tired and often overwhelmed by it all. I’m sure at points you have felt all these things too. At times it maybe seemed you did.

Often when we meet at the UN the intensity of the situation, the long hours we are all working and the simple hugeness of the task in hand brings all these emotions to the surface for me. I know that’s true for my friends at the UN as well, and I’m pretty sure you could say the same for you and many of the other delegates.

That’s why I wanted to take this time to write to you now, before Copenhagen.

I wish sometimes we could meet away from the process, away from the UN, because then you would experience a very different me.

Away from the UN I am laid back and calm. I like to laugh and joke around, most of all I am optimistic, hopeful and happy. I see climate change not just as a challenge but also as the greatest opportunity our generation has ever had.

An opportunity to create a future that is clean and just. A future that is amazing and beautiful. A future that we would all be proud to leave for our children. A future where we can all laugh and be happy (and a future where none if us have to go through the pain of the UNFCCC anymore!).

When I’m away from the UN I do believe this can happen.

That’s not naivety, it’s hope!

I believe you and the team want this too, and I believe in the power of us all working together to make it happen.

It’s sad that the UNFCCC has the ability to suck this out of us.

But after 6 months following this process I am definately not naive about the ability of the UN to offer false solutions. As we hit Copenhagen please know that we do not want a deal at any cost. The UNFCCC process will only have worked if a deal prioritises those in our world being hit first and worst by climate change. Will only have worked, if the winners in the process are not politics and money, but our beautiful world and the amazing people who live here. Amazing people, who for the vast majority, have done nothing to contribute to the problem. These are the people the next two weeks are really about.

It must be weird for you though, because these next two weeks are also focused on you. Suddenly the eyes of the UK are on you.

6 months ago you probably got an inkling of this when I approached you for the first time in Bonn and told you about the Adopt A Negotiator project. Now it’s not just me and all the people that follow my blog who know who you are, but thousands and thousands of people all around the UK. And we are all looking to you and the team, because for the next two weeks you are the ones speaking on behalf of us all.

You are the ones making decisions in our name.

So as I leave to go get my train and my ferry I want to remind you of something I said to you 6 months ago in Bonn.

I want to remind you to think of me when you are negotiating.

And remember that each line of text you negotiate, is not just a line of text…

…but a moment in my life that changes because of the decision you make.

Please remember just how much you hold in your hands over the next two weeks.

Please remember that beautiful, amazing future I know is possible.

Have a safe trip to Copenhagen and I look forward to meeting with you there.

Love and best wishes

Anna