Equity Issues Generate Interest in COP 16

Climate change interests me because I’m interested in issues around equity.  Native/Indigenous communities experience a disproportionate amount of climate change’s effects, but these communities usually aren’t represented on decision making bodies, at regional, national and international levels.

My participation in this year’s conference stems from a conversation I had with Sheila Watt-Cloutier.  Sheila is an Inuit activist who spoke at Dartmouth in February about her work on climate change issues.   I had lunch with her and had an opportunity to pick her brain while she was on campus.  I asked her how I might use my background in business to address some of these inequities, and after a long discussion, she recommended I attend COP 16.

I’ve had an opportunity to meet some Indigenous representatives here in Cancun, and I’ll write more about that shortly.  It’s been pretty interesting.  There’s a lot of work to be done.