December 13th

Hi Everyone,

It seems that everyday here builds upon itself. I returned to the Bright Green Forum for the final day in the late morning and reconnected with some great companies I met yesterday and met some others as well. I found Bright Green to truly a gold mine of opportunities even if there was just learning about new, innovative technology. For instance, I met companies who are developing technology to harness wave energy to the Masdar Initiative of the world's first carbon-zero city in the United Emirates. I have attached a youtube video to view it for those interested.



The main event I want to highlight is the reception that took place the First Hotel sponsored by the US Climate Action Partnership. The Pew Center for Climate Change was a partner. This was invitation only event with two prominent politicians Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and the Executive of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changed Yvo de Boer attending. You might be asking how did I manage this. Simply by networking. Through several I got in touch with Mark Rupp, the Director for Christine Gregoire in Washington D.C a couple weeks ago. He has invited me to several events outside the Bella Center for this coming week. He had sent me e-mail invitation last Thursday about attending this specific reception and added my name to the list. The event had about 70 business leaders who were mostly vice presidents and senior directors of their company as well as a few reporters and journalist. I was the only student present. The first question was how I got invited to this event and just had to mention Mark Rupp's name.

If you want to talk about an unbelievable networking opportunity this was it!!! For instance, I met Jennifer Mattes, the Director of Global Public Affairs, from Johnson Controls. Her company builds the interior materials for automobiles for almost every car company known such as Toyota, Honda, Ford, Chevy, Mercury, etc. It even develops the batteries for the hybrid cars. I met Harry Verhaar, the Senior Director of Energy & Climate for PHILIPS lighting. His branch develops and sell high energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs for consumers. I had a unique question to ask him about mercury usage within the bulbs. This was a major subject matter at the Seattle University Sustainability Conference among business elites. Harry's response was to consider the amount of mercury produced through coal fired plants that produce the energy for lighting. Using an incandescent light bulbs results in more production of mercury than these high-efficiency light bulb. The amount of mercury used in those are far less. He did say that they do currently offer mercury-free bulbs called the MASTER LED lamps. So there is no excuse not to go green with lighting. You can visit there website:

http://www.lighting.philips.com/in_en/global_sites/led_lighting/products/master_led/index.php?main=gb_en&parent=1&id=in_en_led_lighting&lang=en

I met Jonathan Hiskes, a staff writer for Grist. He is from Seattle, Washington and was surprised to learn that he knew Richard Young, a professor of Political Science at Seattle University, and Samantha, a colleague of the Professor Young. This is all by coincidence. I met Robert G. Hilton, Vice President for Power Technologies for Government Affairs from ALSTOM. The compan develops, constructs, markets and provides systems, components and customer support to the world's infrastructure markets in the fields of power generation, transmission and distribution and transport. It turned out that the generators were produced by two ventures. One of which was ALSTOM. It was the prime turbine contractor, with work worth $212m. He said he would be more than happy to get my in contact with their offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan. I met Mark A. Proegler, the Director of Climate & Transport Energy Policy from BP, and Howard J. Chase, Director of the European Government Affairs from BP. Yes, this is one of world's largest energy companies with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products. As an environmentalist, I certainly have a very biased view against any oil companies. Nonetheless, I put my bias away and just talked and keep an open mind. It turned that BP has a long-term partnership program with Tsinghua University in Beijing, the university I hope to attend after graduation, to understand and develop clean energy technologies to support China's growth and needs for energy security, environmental improvement and sustainable, competitive energy supply. QInghua University is apparently the center part of BP's clean energy research and education center. You can read more on this at the following link.

http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9011369&contentId=7025853


I could go on and on with people I met that night. If I total it up, I believe I networked with about 24 people in 3 hours. It was a powerful experience. I was the youngest one there and coming on my own certainly demonstrated initiative and passion.

I have one last story to share. At the evening came down to an end, I noticed there was person still present, Yvo De Boer. He is the Executive Secretary for the UNFCCC. He was still crowded by business men, but I wanted to get a word in and shake his hand. He was right next to the escalators so I decided to meet him outside the entrance where he car was waiting. I gave a brief elevator speech (thanks to the Student Alumni Ambassodors) and he asked me directly about 'what I thought of the negotiations.'

The following is a recap of what I said.

"I feel that developing nations are underrepresented because they are the most vulnerable and have done the least to cause climate change. I think this is an ethical issue. I think the negotiations should be considered much more closely when considering financial aid to the developing world and $10B annually is not even close to being sufficient. I think it should be substantially more. It is not as if the U.S can't afford it. Consider the financial crisis. The US invested about $700 billion dollar in three months irresponsibly, why can't we invest at least 100 billion responsibly the betterment of man kind. Lastly, I feel financial aid should not be temporary; we need to think long-term commitments."

His reaction is that the U.S only wants to go as far as it creates new jobs. That is the focus of the U.S administration.

I asked for his card and shook his hand and he wished me the best in pursuits here in Copenhagen.

With this said, it was a defining movement for me. I had given my two-cents to global leaders. I was speaking up on behalf of the developing world and making a difference in our global community and living for a greater purpose. For me, this is about making a difference for the generations today and the future to come.