Climate Action Figures
A safe place for youth to share steps they are taking to mitigate climate change.
Climate Action Figures
Season 2, Episode 8: Tanvi
Join host John Whidden as he chats with Tanvi, reporting from COP 29 in Baku. They discuss innovative recycling practices, challenges faced by youth delegates, high food prices, and encounters with prominent figures. Tune in for unique insights and stories from the event.
00:00 Introduction to Climate Action Figures
00:39 QuickFix: Innovative Recycling Solution
01:31 Tanvi's Experience at COP 29
01:56 Challenges and Community at COP 29
02:28 High Costs and Food Struggles
03:17 Navigating the Blue Zone
04:16 Meeting Influential Figures
05:22 Youth Representation Issues
06:43 Censorship and Political Dynamics
09:20 Progress and Deadlocks at COP 29
10:06 Climate Mitigation Insights
11:13 Bangkok's Climate Concerns
13:45 Tanvi's Climate Action and Hope
15:02 Conclusion and Farewell
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my name is Tanvi and I'm here at COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and you're tuned into Climate Action Figures.
John:Well hello and welcome to an exciting new edition of Climate Action Figures. My name is John Whidden, and this week on the show, you get to meet Tanvi, who, as we record, is in Baku at COP 29, and she is going to tell us all about that. But first, this week's QuickFix. If you're not watching us on YouTube, I'll describe what you're seeing, what you would be seeing. it's a garbage can, like you might find in a park, but this one particularly has little cup holders around the edge. So I suppose if you finish your pop or your beer. You can put the empty in the cup holder around the edge of the bin. So it doesn't go in the garbage. And then someone coming around later would pick up the cans or the bottles and take them to the recycling station. So that's kind of cool that, that they set up their recycling that way. let's welcome Tanvi. And what do you think about that QuickFix, Tanvi?
Tanvi:That's pretty cool. Yeah, I think it'd be, um, it should be standard practice in a lot more cities.
John:Yeah, it makes a lot of sense to, to do that, especially when people are needing money from recycling fees that they can collect. Now let's talk about your experience. You are actually in Baku at COP 29 right now, correct?
Tanvi:That's right.
John:Tell us a little bit about what that experience has been like for you.
Tanvi:um, this is my first COP and it is a lot more tiring than I would have thought. The venue is massive and running from, you know, one reading or one session to another. is extraordinarily tiring. I think during the second week, most of the participants have been a bit under the weather just because it's been cold. We're all hungry. We're all starving. but apart from that, there's also a really nice sense of community over here, especially amongst all the youth delegates. So it's, I guess it's nice to know you're not alone in your suffering.
John:Right. Now, so thank you very much for taking time out of your busy and tired schedule to, to meet with us here today. But also you said starving, tell us about that. What, how come you're hungry all the time?
Tanvi:the, the price of the food inside of the COP venue. is extremely high. And I mean, I lived in Europe, so this is like, this is way more expensive than you'd find meals in London or Paris or something. Like, I think I had a slice of lasagna the other day that was like 50 euros.
John:Wow. Okay, so, uh, it's just hard to afford food. Can you get out to a grocery store and buy some things and bring them back?
Tanvi:You're allowed to bring food in, so I've been bringing like, yogurt and some other snacks in. But also, if your, if your session starts super early in the morning, you might be Simply not have time to, you know, run to a grocery store. So, what I usually do is I just have a very big dinner at the end of the day.
John:right. Fill up for the next day.
Tanvi:Exactly.
John:Now, uh, do you have a concept of how many people are actually there on the ground?
Tanvi:Well, I heard it's somewhere around 75, 000, but I believe that number is split between the green and the blue zones. I've only been working in the blue zone.
John:Okay, what does that
Tanvi:absolutely packed.
John:Interesting. What does that mean, the green zone and the blue zone?
Tanvi:the blue zone is where all of the actual negotiations happen, and it's also where you will find other high level events happening on the bylines of the negotiations, as well as the very famous delegation pavilions. So, that's sort of like a large room where different countries and organizations have a booth. And they talk about the work they have done, they are doing, and they will be doing, and you get to meet some pretty cool people face to face. It's an interesting space because you'll just be walking around and you'll run into like the president of some country giving a speech over there. So
John:do you want to give us an example of, uh, some interesting person you've met?
Tanvi:just a few hours ago I met the um, the director of the UN's environmental program. And she's a personal hero of mine. And she was just, just walking along. So that was pretty cool. Um, I think John Podesta was there as well last week, walking around the U. S. center. let's see, who else have I met? I met one of my climate heroes. I met a Thai landscape architect. somebody from the Chinese government was there as well today.
John:Does running into these people Tanvi, give you inspiration to carry on with the work you've, moved into in your life?
Tanvi:me, It's not that inspiring to meet people that I don't really know, personally, or if I don't know of their work, but if it's somebody whose work I've looked up to for many years, for example, the landscape architect I met, that feels super cool. It's like an out of body moment. But if it's just a random politician whose work I'm unfamiliar with, then it's just like, oh yeah, cool, bye bye.
John:You are in your twenties, correct Tanvi?
Tanvi:That's right.
John:Do you feel like the youth voice is truly represented in these negotiations and this meeting at Baku?
Tanvi:I think it's represented at COP. But I don't think we're represented properly in the right spaces. So especially in the negotiations, in the high level events, I don't think our voices are being conveyed, correctly. I think even if you have young people sitting there, if they're not able to freely express their views, it, can you really call that youth representation?
John:Right. Do you have any examples of, your your voice or the youth voice not being heard specifically there?
Tanvi:First of all, um, Most of the youth interventions at high level events here in the Blue Zone have been cancelled, by the Azeri Presidency. And the way that it has happened is that, young people or young representatives are told that they have to come to, whatever meeting, and they have to give an intervention. And they show up, script in hand, ready to speak, and then they're told that the meeting, um, has to be cut short. if it happens once or twice, sure, but it has happened so pervasively, it has to be systemic. And it's not just youth, it's also, representatives from other observer, um, constituencies, like farmers, researchers,
John:can I, can I just pause you for a second there? Because that is really interesting. It seems to me, this is what COP 29 is all about, do you get a sense of why that might be? Why would they, derail those, opportunities?
Tanvi:with other member states, Well, this is completely my view, by the way. It seems to me that with, with other member states, they have some sort of relationship with the Azeri government, right? You have to work with them, regardless of what your personal opinions are. But observer organizations like, like youth or farmers or researchers, they don't really care that much. They don't have that, that direct relationship with them. they're more likely to be critical directly of the presidency. That's the only reason I can think as to why almost every single intervention has been stopped.
John:Okay. And your other example,
Tanvi:we have these high level events called the Youth Climate Forums. what it is, is um, is a high level roundtable where young people get to talk directly to different countries negotiators on a specific topic. so I moderated the session on food and agriculture. And we were actually asked to remove certain words from our scripts, including mentions of the phrase phase out fossil fuels. We were asked to remove intergenerational equity. I was asked to remove climate change from my session.
John:again.
Tanvi:Climate Migrant.
John:Wow. So climate migrant, I mean, this is going to be a massive problem in the coming decades. So, do you get a sense of who would be behind that? What, what political motivation would be behind trying to excise those types of words out of the scripts?
Tanvi:one of the biggest problems in the last two COPs has been that there's been the creation of the youth arm of the COP Presidency called the PYCC, Presidency Youth Climate Champion, and even though they are composed of youth, they don't really represent or toe the youth line or the youth voice. They kind of just are a youth face for the presidency's agenda. so they are the ones who've been asking us to, to omit these phrases. I
John:guess there's going to be a whole political layer that we probably don't even understand, but does, does this kind of incident sour you in terms of, the whole experience of COP 29, or do you still have some hope in what will be accomplished there?
Tanvi:don't think much will be accomplished at this COP, but these experiences don't disuade me from the idea of COPs in general, because I feel like if we weren't doing something, right, they wouldn't be trying to silence all of our
John:Hmm. Good point.
Tanvi:So, so at least we know we're on the Right. track.
John:And in, in your time at COP 29 where do you feel the most progress has been made, even if it's small progress, and where would much more progress be required?
Tanvi:The mechanisms for carbon credits have been decided. Even though most of the work was already done at previous COPs. So that's the one win we have from this COP, hopefully maybe we'll see some progress in the adaptation negotiations, but otherwise most of the other tracks they're at a deadlock.
John:You, if I recall correctly, you have a soft spot for mitigation, is that correct? Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Tanvi:Well, there's not much to tell on the negotiation part because, it's, it's at a deadlock. It was, haven't been able to make progress since like four or five days ago. Mitigation as a topic is, is interesting because I think that there are opportunities. from both state and non state actors to make serious benefits um, what we call co benefits for people. So I think sometimes we look at climate mitigation as this super expensive and very idealistic goal to have, but the truth is, a lot of the changes that we can implement, not only are they good for the planet, but they're also good for us. They give us cleaner air, they give us more livable cities, You know, if we, if we add things like green and blue infrastructure in our living spaces, it's better for our mental health. So I think a lot of the principles in climate mitigation, they're easy to sell is, is why I'm, I'm, I would say positive about it.
John:Now, you are from Bangkok, correct?
Tanvi:Yes.
John:have to ask you, you're getting a bit tired. You've been there a long time. are you anxious to get home?
Tanvi:Oh my God. I cannot wait for warm weather and good food.
John:And, uh, thinking about home, we have never interviewed someone from Bangkok on the show. What is the general feeling in Bangkok about climate change? Let's start with the youth and then maybe move to the adults.
Tanvi:Bangkok is one of the most vulnerable cities to climate change. It lies under sea level and, um, if it were not for continuous human intervention, it would be underwater right now. So, I think there's this understanding amongst everybody that it will, it will drown eventually. It's just a question of, of time. You know, and of speed, when and how is it going to happen? I think younger people are definitely more concerned about it because they don't, they don't seem to be enough plans in place to protect people, especially poor people. and so if I had to rate their anxiety from a scale of one to 10, I would give it about a seven just because Thai people, we're not a very, Worrying type of people. I would say we're very laid back, even in the face of emergencies. So I would give it a seven.
John:so that would be a seven amongst the youth. Uh, where would you place the average adult in Bangkok society?
Tanvi:probably a five.
John:because there's always in North America, Most science scientists agree that climate change is happening and we need to do something about it, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the people, uh, moving in that direction very quickly. Is that a similar case in Bangkok?
Tanvi:It's not that, I think it's because when we look at our history, we used to live in flooded marshes and flooded plains. So a lot of early time history is us building our house on long bamboo sticks, you know, tree houses. So I think there's this, there's this feeling that if, if. Things change and it turns into a flooded place again. People just adapt the way that we have in the past.
John:And your thoughts about that?
Tanvi:I like the spirit, but I think that there are certain dangers that you cannot adapt from. I think what concerns me particularly as a biologist is, um, zoonotic diseases, So diseases that are spread by animals, they're especially prevalent from floodwaters. you know, I mean, I hope our government starts taking this a little bit more seriously. I think it's time to seriously start considering maybe moving our capital city like Indonesia is.
John:Moving it to a new location.
Tanvi:Yes.
John:and I should ask you before we leave that topic, you said the average youth might be at a seven. How about yourself?
Tanvi:I wouldn't say it's very different. I think about 7, 7.5
John:Before we let you go today Tanvi, we need to ask what your climate action is. Have you picked something?
Tanvi:Yes, I think people should eat more local produce, especially, legumes.
John:Okay. Why legumes in particular?
Tanvi:when you grow legumes, it actually doesn't deplete nutrients from the soil, it increases it. Because, the family of plants that, we take legumes from, they're called, um, nitrogen fixers and what they do is they introduce more nitrogenous compounds into the soil. So it makes it healthier for future generations.
John:Very good advice to all of us. what gives you hope in these days?
Tanvi:looking at recent scientific publications, like across different, climate change fields, adaptation, mitigation, you know, physical science. I'm seeing a lot of creativity in those, articles. For example, I'm seeing people use AI in new ways to create climate models. I'm looking at people trying to integrate the role of ecosystems more strongly in how we look at, uh, wind and weather patterns, on Earth. And I think it's this kind of really interconnected thinking that we need to solve the climate crisis, and that's what gives me hope.
John:Now Tanvi, you are hungry, you are tired, it sounds like you're getting a cold, you're dying to get home, and we just thank you very much for taking the time out of your evening to be with us here and share your experience.
Tanvi:Oh my god, yes, I cannot wait to get home and have a long nap.
John:all the best as you travel home and in your last few days at COP29, and thank you, dear listener, for being with us. Hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you have, please share it with someone who you think would be interested. We will be back again next week, same time, same place, to hear from another climate action figure. Until then...
Tanvi:Go figures!