Before I started my graduate studies in August, I was campaigning incessantly with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to drive the Rio+20 Earth Summit process towards real actions and accountability. I am carrying on the same mission to the UN Climate Conference in Doha with fellow students from Yale, but with a new tool at hand – a smartphone and web app called DecisionMakr – to crowdsource accountability.
Why am I obsessed with accountability?
We have had exactly 20 years of negotiations since the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992, out of which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was officially born. We have had a plethora of summits, conferences, intersesssionals, “informal informals”, and…
Naazia Ebrahim (FES '12), Karlynn McIlwain (FES '13), First Lady Loeak, President Loeak, Angela Yeh (FES '12)
For Rio+20, I have the privilege of being a member of the delegation of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands, though considered a small island State in global terms, is really a ‘large ocean’ nation: its total land coverage of 181 km2 is far outstripped by a staggering EEZ of over 2,000,000 km2. Its atolls sit approximately two meters above water, making it one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise. The Marshall Islands’ waters are also home to one of the few remaining sustainable tuna stocks in the world. As…
