It was a really powerful experience to sit up on stage at our press conference this afternoon with Ambassador Dessima Williams from Grenada and Dr. Victor Fodeke, the head of the Nigerian delegation, and talk to the media about the growing 350 movement. I started getting into climate activism when I was a college student in Vermont, mostly working with other students from the US. To be here in Barcelona, just a few years later, talking with the international press side-by-side with ambassadors from Nigeria and Grenada is honestly a bit hard to comprehend.

 

Or at least until I exited the press room and caught another glance of all of our 350 photos lining the walls of the convention center (I put one of my favorite pictures from Barbados in the Caribbean below).

You’ve built an incredible, vibrant, and uplifting movement in mere months and opened up the doors to all sorts of new possibilities. At the press conference, both Ambassador Williams and Dr. Fodeke spoke passionately about how inspired they were by October 24. And they reminded all of us that it’s back at home where the real work gets done. That’s where we set the agenda and build the public pressure that will make a deal possible. The most important place this year isn’t Copenhagen — it’s your home town. 

There’s still plenty of work to be done, that’s for sure, but we’ve created powerful new alliances this week. Let’s keep this movement moving! 

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Check out the follow-up from May Boeve, with a photo of the speakers: More From Today’s Press Conference