Half of 350 Barcelona team arrived in Barcelona, a bit bleary eyed but ready to go. We met with the incredible team of organizers from Barcelona, who put together this Timbalada for October 24. They’ve been helping to identify volunteers to help with next week’s photo deliveries.
We’re here for the final week of UN climate negotiations before Copenhagen, to bring the message from barely a week ago, on October 24, directly to the delegates who are preparing an agreement. We’re here to show that there is broad and widespread civil society pressure for 350–and that October 24 represented a turning point. Negotiators looking at the photos can’t look at them and say, well, we’d like to support this, but there just isn’t the political pressure to support 350.
We’re very happy to be here, with the energy from October 24 still very much fueling us. Within a few hours of arriving, cell phones, training guides, and photos in hand, we headed off to a political coop/cafe in Northern Barcelona and met the first group of "350 lobbyists"–15 fantastic volunteers from throughout the world, all of whom currently live in Barcelona.
We spent three hours together, going over the story of October 24, the science and political background of 350, and the plan for delivering photos, with Will speaking in English and Teresa interpreting in Spanish. We performed role plays, with Will and Teresa playing the roles of negotiators, and the volunteers practicing for their meetings.