December 16th

You are looking at Governor Gregoire, 14 Washingtonians an two staff of the Governor in Washington D.C.

Obviously it is unnecessary to point out that I met Governor Gregiore of WA. You should be able to spot me out. I was invited by Mark Rupp to met a group of Washingtonians at Kagehuset in the Fields shopping mall, not far from the Bella Center. Kagehuset was a little bakery/café. He had arranged specifically because of me since I was not accredited to get in the Bella Center. Everyone met around 11:30 AM. There were employees from Microsoft, a micro-finance group, Department of Ecology, and Climate Solutions. I was the only student present. As the governor walked into the reserved section of the room, I was amazed by the fact I was standing 5 ft away from the WA Governor. Most people hope for the opportunity to be in the proximity of the governor, but I got to engage in a conversation with her. I was happy to see how friendly, warm, and inviting she was. We sat down around a small rectangular table and the governor asked two questions.

The first was for us to go around the table introduce ourselves.
The second was 'what has been our impression from the neogiations that have taken place?'

I want to focus on the second question in respect to three responses. One was on the presentation from Steven Chu, the Secretary of Energy, at the Bright Green Forum. The comment was that the presentation by Steven Chu made it seem that clean technological development will eventually happen and will require more research rather than harnessing the opportunities currently available. For instance, the response was to consider the European Union and their efforts. Another response was that there was a disconnect between policy and businesses. For instance, his remark from his observations was that policy needs to be comprehensive and explicit, otherwise it is difficult for businesses to make concrete strategies. I brought up the disconnect between China and the US in regards to emission targets and financial aid. I said it concerned me greatly that we are still at the point of criticizing each other such as calling names of 'irresponsible' and 'lack of common sense'. I felt the time had well gone beyond this point to act and work closely together. I want to see more collaboration and understanding between the two countries. I explained that I had attended a China-US Youth Workshop last week, which was geared towards bridging the gap between our two cultures and in turn we can work together as partners to solve the climate crisis. I wanted to see at least the same efforts by the Obama Administration and especially Special Envoy for Climate Change, Tood Speth. I said we need to put our egos aside and demonstrate global leadership. The stake are enormous. We need focus on being partners.

The rest of the afternoon, I sat in on the 'Environmental Defense Fund/The Pew Chartable Trusts/IETA: US Congressional Update' at the IETA side event.