A Brush With Fame

We are happy to share the unique experience of Naomi Quispe, a delegate from our partner school, Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  

Life occasionally gives you opportunities that are unique, some of which are quite unexpected, therefore it is hard to be prepared for them. One such opportunity came on Saturday, when my classmate Yosuke and myself were wandering around the venue searching for talks to attend to after lunch. We were looking for an event in Zone C when a friend of mine (a volunteer at COP20) told us that there was going to be a talk in room C7 with the Peruvian Minister for the Environment Mr. Pulgar-Vidal and perhaps Ms. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, because he knew I had missed the talk with her the day before.

Naomi and the Peruvian Minister of the Environment

We went into the room and Yosuke convinced me to sit all the way in the front row! I was really nervous; I could not believe that we would be basically face-to-face with the Minister. Also, we did not really know what the talk would be about, so we just waited until Mr. Pulgar-Vidal arrived.

When the talk began, we realized that this would be a direct Q & A with the observers of the conference in order to discuss the events and how they were run in the first week, or just general questions about certain points considered in terms of environmental sustainability. We were taken very much by surprise, and while we rushed to think of relevant questions for the Minister, as this was a very rare opportunity, we thought of asking our peers and teachers through Whatsapp, the messaging system we are using to stay connected at the COP. We received an almost immediate answer from Yoca Arditi-Rocha, sustainability consultant for No Planeta B, who told us to ask about the implementation of net metering in Peru, the system that allows people to produce their own energy in their houses and if able to produce surplus, then it can be released back to the energy grid and receive remuneration. This system is in place in various countries such as the US, but has not been pursued here, and Yoca’s question was as to when it would be available in Peru. 

Yosuke and I finally decided that he would ask the question (I was way too nervous) and he did so in the calmest way possible! When he first said, “net metering”, the Minister did not know what Yosuke was referring to, so he explained what it meant. In the end, the Minister was not able to answer the question.

It was very interesting that Mr. Pulgar-Vidal could not give us an answer, and as Yoca and our teacher Ms. Rumble both said, it was a wake-up call for the Ministry of Environment that there are people that do know about these systems and that they should be implemented here in our country.

Overall, I believe it was a very positive experience (we took pictures with him afterwards!) and we were able to catch the Minister off guard. This opportunity was very valuable for both Yosuke and myself, and we feel quite fortunate to have been able to experience it.  

-Naomi Quispe, Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt