December 9th

At the conference, we met with Paul and Mindy from CCL’s midwest faction and had an interview with them that will be posted on their website within the next day or two. Next I attended a high level meeting with several ministers and bank owners on “Climate Change and the Role of Markets and Trade: Leveraging Co-Benefits”, giving me an idea of how this will actually be applied in our global markets. Essentially it said that we need to open up the global markets and take away subsidies, a common theme among presentations on finance and climate change. It also touched on the idea that policy and business must compliment each other. An idea that must be taken into consideration when any policy is drafted. If this were successfully achieved, then you could ensure a healthy market. An interesting note from one of the speakers, the only environmentalist on stage during this presentation was that these policies must support agriculture specifically at all times. Even during times of drought or poor growing conditions. Agriculture was touched on quite a bit due to the fact that they are going be the most adversely affected in a world where the temperature has risen above 2 degrees celsius. Sustainable standards are being put in place, although smaller farmers can’t live up to these on their own. Private land buyers won’t want to buy land that will not ensure a strong level of growth, so climate change very adversely affects this business. The next “meating” I sat in on dealt with policy surrounding meat, a subject that is very important as it alone contributes 15% of the world’s GHG output. It involves a push to eat less meat, something I see as a very unlikely proposition for America but people can surprise you sometimes. They covered the idea that we need more vegetarian options, something supported by the health care industry as it’s been said many times that we as Americans don’t eat enough vegetables. We also skyped with SES today, a very fun experience as I do miss home a little bit and it was very encouraging to see that people were taking interest in what we are over here learning.

- Robbie Proebstle