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Humans of Duke Sanford

Highlights of my experience at the 2021 UN climate change summit (COP26): I spoke to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, got to shake Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s hand, and met Sanford alum Robin Millican – who works for Breakthrough Energy. I went to the Indigenous pavilion, EU pavilion, and the tech pavilion, where they talked about AI and machine learning in the intersection of climate change, which is right up my alley. 

Some takeaways: 1) To work on the climate crisis, sometimes you have to put yourself in uncomfortable spaces and negotiate with people you don’t necessarily agree with. If you’re not going to meet people in the middle, we’re going to end up at the worst-case scenario. 2) A lot of COP is still very performative. Most decision-makers are male and white. Some just come for representation and don’t want to have real conversations with different people. I learned to figure out who/what was performative. 3) loomed large. Protocols and resource disparities prevented key voices from participating, but since it was two years removed from the last conference, there was more urgency. There was more extreme business commitment, media presence, and surrounding protests. If COVID hadn’t happened, I’m not sure there would have been that urgency. 

On the future: I would love to go one day as a negotiator… It’s such an interesting job and really summarized what I was learning at Sanford – you have to not just to negotiate and navigate a problem, but really get people on your side, win them over in a feasible and believable way. 

Overall, it was a really exhausting experience but really fun, and I learned so much.

-Jacob Wilentz, first-year MPP on his experience at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Scotland last October.

Highlights of my experience at the 2021 UN climate change summit (COP26): I spoke to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, got to shake Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s hand, and met Sanford alum Robin Millican – who works for Breakthrough Energy. I went to the Indigenous pavilion, EU pavilion, and the tech pavilion, where they talked about AI and machine learning in the intersection of climate change, which is right up my alley.

Some takeaways: 1) To work on the climate crisis, sometimes you have to put yourself in uncomfortable spaces and negotiate with people you don’t necessarily agree with. If you’re not going to meet people in the middle, we’re going to end up at the worst-case scenario. 2) A lot of COP is still very performative. Most decision-makers are male and white. Some just come for representation and don’t want to have real conversations with different people. I learned to figure out who/what was performative. 3) #COVID loomed large. Protocols and resource disparities prevented key voices from participating, but since it was two years removed from the last conference, there was more urgency. There was more extreme business commitment, media presence, and surrounding protests. If COVID hadn’t happened, I’m not sure there would have been that urgency.

On the future: I would love to go one day as a negotiator… It’s such an interesting job and really summarized what I was learning at Sanford – you have to not just to negotiate and navigate a problem, but really get people on your side, win them over in a feasible and believable way.

Overall, it was a really exhausting experience but really fun, and I learned so much.

-Jacob Wilentz, first-year MPP on his experience at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Scotland last October. #HumansofDukeSanford #MPP #COP26 #climatechange