Have you ever wondered, who are the negotiators who have been trying to make international climate agreements since the 1990s? I am always curious about people who are working away on important matters, away from spotlight. The climate change negotiators who will be gathering in Glasgow in November for the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have long intrigued me.
After over a year of shooting portraits on Zoom because of the COVID19 pandemic, I realised that I had a way making portraits of the negotiators without flying around the world, and adding to the problem that they are trying to resolve. Next, I had to convince them to be photographed. Negotiators are usually civil servants who are not accustomed to the public eye. I hunted around for a good connection until I came across a little organisation in my own city, called Oxford Climate Policy. They run courses for climate negotiators from developing countries in Oxford every year. Their managing director is Benito Muller, who was extremely generous with his network of contacts. Benito has a lot of negotiator friends and great persuasive powers!
With Benito’s help I was able to connect with negotiators around the world. From Estonia to Malawi, Norway to Bhutan, I was able to use video chat to connect with climate negotiators in their homes. Their experiences varied widely, from people who were already involved in climate negotiations prior to the establishment of the UNFCCC, to those who are leading negotiations today.
It was interesting to note the ease or difficulty of connecting with people. From those with super high speed broadband in Northern Europe, to those connecting by phone, on the roadside in Sub-Saharan Africa. I had people who could hear me while I couldn’t hear them, others who could only hear me faintly as I yelled at my computer screen. I realised how our new reality excludes some people with a wealth of knowledge and experience because their broadband or IT may not be the most up to date. This affected my ability to make a picture too, sometimes I had literally seconds to snap the screen, but these challenges and inequalities are surely reflected on the negotiating floor as well.
Many of the negotiators described their community as resembling a family. One person described it as a village, where the relationships ebb and flow, feuds arise, priorities differ and where the atmosphere can sour for years if a big argument brews. I was intrigued by the talk of compromises worked out late at night over coffee or dinner and about how difficult it is to transfer these processes on line.
After talking to over 20 negotiators and making their portraits, my overwhelming emotion was one of gratitude of how much time an intellect these people had devoted to creating a workable agreement to the climate crisis. I just hope we can take their plan and run with it, extremely fast, from Glasgow in November.
As for the Zoom photography experience, I still love popping up all over the world and making people’s pictures. Sometimes it is extremely frustrating not being able to control the light, bandwidth or technology, but the joy of making connections so far and wide, outweighs that every time.