There’s no I in team but there’s a me in movement…

Today we have been shut out of most of the negotiations, everyone is in drafting groups working on text and so observers are not allowed in. I hope you don’t mind if rather than rant about that, or wax lyrical on the texts they are likely to come out with, I take today’s blog to muse on something I’ve been thinking about this week.

People who know me know I don’t really like people telling me what to do. I find it difficult changing who I am to fit in somewhere and I’m likely to rebel quite dramatically if forced to. You will never find me wearing a suit at the UN, you will quite often find me barefoot and from time to time you will find me dancing around like a bit of a loon. There’s nothing saying you can’t do any of these things here, so I don’t see the problem.

My sense of me, as an individual, as the way I present to the world and in what I choose to do, the way I choose to act, is important to me and I’ll rarely change it for anyone.

But why is this important in the context of being here at the UNFCCC? Well to help solve climate change, as civil society, we need to act together. We need to show a united front, that we are a unified movement working for change and demanding action from our leaders. One of my biggest hates is squabbling within the movement, people putting down other people’s way of doing things or claiming they care more because of the way they choose to do things. I also hate over branding, where NGOs are so brand conscious it effects the work they are doing and how they will work together to the detriment of doing something bigger.

But in my asserting myself as an individual I also hate being defined by this bigger thing, by the movement. Being forced to wear the same t shirt, use the same message, speak as one voice.

At the minute I’m struggling with this, with how to reconcile these two things. I love our movement, I’ve put my whole life into it. I think its beauty is in it’s diversity, we need all kinds of people and we need to monopolise every approach we have, and I think generally we do allow the space for that.

But I also know to win this we need to show how big we are. And we do that by getting some form of unity, some form of common message and dare I say it some form of common branding.

It’s this part where it gets hard for me, and I’m sure for many others. I just don’t want to go with the group all the time. My soul violently objects to becoming what someone else dictates it should be.

But thinking about this makes me shiver a little. Because that’s exactly the problem negotiators have here at the UNFCCC all the time. To solve this problem we need an agreement that everyone can sign up to and play their part in. We need a common message. We need, in some ways, a common brand.

The UNFCCC is being stalled by countries who don’t want to sign up to this because of national interests. Who can’t or won’t change their position, or work for a treaty that gets the best deal for our world as a whole, because of something going on in their country. Be that producing oil, mass consumerism or relying on coal for all their energy. Some countries don’t want to change and therefore aren’t productively taking part in these negotiations.

So where does that leave me?

Should I change who I am to work for the good of the movement? Should I go along, take part in things I don’t necessarily support or think are not doing things in the right way. Should I conform to the brand of the movement, speak the common message?

(fyi I wrote the rest of the blog several times, each time changing what I thought!)

But the answer I have finally come to, is…

Inherently no, but sometimes yes I should. And so should everyone else.

Working for the good of a group takes compromise. We need room for all types of people and all ways of doing things in our movement and we should all be able to do things the way we want to. But within this we also need to support each other, and that may sometimes mean taking a back seat and letting things be done in a different way. A way you may not choose. And working for the good of a group means we support all these ways even if that means changing something we may not want to.

To do this without loosing who we are though, the biggest thing we need is respect.

I expect to be respected at the UN whether I wear a suit or shoes or not. And I’m glad to say mostly I am. I’m respected for what I know and what I bring not what I wear.

We need respect because with it comes a willingness to work together. The one thing I’m sure of is that we can’t solve climate change alone. But that doesn’t mean we all have to be the same.

If we respect our differences the rest will start to come.

That’s true for me, for you, for everyone in the movement, and for the countries here at the UN.

And thankfully it means I won’t need to put my shoes on any time soon…