About Adopt a Negotiator

Why do we leave the most important decision in the world to a few hundred people?

Climate change is the defining issue of our generation, and this year we have the greatest opportunity in human history. The opportunity, to change the way we live, and build a better world together. This year, in December the UN will meet for what is being described as the most important meeting in the history of the world, where an agreement will be reached on the world’s response to climate change.

So why doesn’t everyone know about it? Why aren’t we all having our say?

And what can we do about it? These are the questions we asked ourselves.

And we came up with an answer: Adopt a Negotiator.

The first Adopt a Negotiator Crew at the Bonn Climate Talks

We thought it was time to let our negotiators know we are here and we are watching them.

Representing 13 countries and speaking 9 different languages our mission is to change the way citizens from around the world engage in this process.

As young people who will live with the decisions that are being made at the UN for the rest of our lives the fact these negotiations were going on with very little scrutiny or public participation did not seem right. For years negotiations about our future have been happening in a bubble. We thought it was time to burst it!

One of the reasons engagement in the UN process is so hard is because it is complex, dry, and full of language that no one outside the system can understand.

That’s where we come in

By going to the UN and trying to translate this process into real life situations, we hope to make it open and understandable to many more.

By interacting in the process right at the UN we also hope to bring the voices of the many that can’t be here to the people who have our fate in their hands.

Representing only ourselves and with no organisational affiliations we are able to say it as we see it and really give a flavour of what is feels like to be involved in the process.

We tell it as it is with all the raw emotion the process evokes.

We bring a very human element to a very soulless process.

We hope that by following and becoming involved with our blogs, you too can start to understand what is being decided in your name and make your voice heard on the defining issue of ours, and perhaps all generations.

Adopt A Negotiator is a project supported by the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA). You can found out more about GCCA and it’s other activities at www.tcktcktck.org.