![MYD 2018 Retreat Reflection – Pouvalen Seeneevassin]()
by admin | Jul 1, 2018 | #MYD, Blog, MYD2018
The Malaysian Youth Delegation hosted the annual Retreat at EPIC Collective over the weekend of the 28th and 29th April 2018. New members were asked to reflect the activities they took part in, what they learned along the way, and what they took away from the experience. Here’s what our new members had to say:
Pouvalen Seeneevassin
By: Pouvalen Seeneevassin
The Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD) was an organisation that I had heard of since last year through Azam. I kept hearing about it from other friends who were involved in MYD from campus. It was intriguing, and I wanted to learn more. However, I was hesitant at first because I had never been part of this type of organisation. When I got to know the 2018 applications were opened, I thought I should give it a try.
MYD being actively involved in highlighting climate change got me curious because I have been focusing more towards work involving wildlife conservation. I believe it is good to help out NGOs but ultimately, policies are important on getting action pushed forward on a global scale. UNFCCC has a huge influence and learning about how it functions and delivers is an engaging topic to me.
Coming into the retreat, I was excited to meet new like-minded people. The varying backgrounds and ages that I came across got me perplexed but optimistic in the sense that being from an Environmental Science background, I tend to think people from engineering or business do not pay as much attention to issues like climate change because they would have other issues to tackle. So, right from the start during the introduction I was happy about the cluster of people who were there.
Hearing details about how policies come to be written and how tedious negotiations that sometimes go on overnight can be, I now understand how hard it is to achieve positive change. The MYD retreat helped me get to know the timeline of how UNFCCC has worked to come up with the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and many more through the workshops. Thomas’ timeline was useful to get a grasp of how things have gone down over the years. It was the perfect summary.
As for the activities. I enjoyed the toilet agreement. It probably is not as simple as it is at COP, but at least we got a small avant-gout as to what negotiations can be like. The insight I got was so much more than I thought, especially when Thomas later on pointed out the positives and negatives of each of the agreements we came up with. Hence, when negotiating, we need to look at all possible perspectives even if it gets tedious.
The retreat was a good experience and I learned so much. I still feel doubtful about whether MYD is right for me, but I want to stick around and find out more.
![MYD 2018 Retreat Reflection – Eudora Yee]()
by admin | Jul 1, 2018 | #MYD, Blog, MYD2018
The Malaysian Youth Delegation hosted the annual Retreat at EPIC Collective over the weekend of the 28th and 29th April 2018. New members were asked to reflect the activities they took part in, what they learned along the way, and what they took away from the experience. Here’s what our new members had to say:
Eudora Yee
By: Eudora Yee
As Adrian has once came to the University of Nottingham to speak about #PowerShiftMsia, a brief knowledge in regards to the Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD) organisation as well as their main purpose was available. However, this retreat provided more information about the policies that are currently in place in Malaysia, the historical timeline of environmental related policies in an international scale and the work that MYD contributes in the effort to raise awareness and make a change.
The talk given by Ms Lakshmi Lavanya Rama regarding Malaysia and the International Climate Change Policies was especially eye-opening. It not only gave us information as to how policies were constructed, it also provides us some insights into the catalyst that brought about their construction. She gave us an insight into the political power play that exist between the different countries in coming to an agreement on the type and scale of policies to be implemented. It was shown that more often than not, those that are have a more favourable position are often the ones that makes the decisions for everyone regardless of those in less favourable positions such as small developing countries and non-governmental organisations.
The brief on the history of various agreements and policies drawn up by the international community provided by Thomas was also very informative. While difficult to remember all the exact date of construction and implementation and all the different type of policies, the brief did provide a more detailed explanation as to the purpose of each and every policy or agreement and their effects so far in the international effort to mitigate climate change. It was shocking to see that a considerably huge amount of policies and agreements have already been drawn up over the years with varying degrees of success.
Although, the information provided by MYD members with their experiences of participating in COP was the most memorable. It give better insight to the actual type of work that MYD does as well as the hard work that goes into it. It is also great that some members of the home team also spoke about their work here which is equally as significant despite not being there physically in COP.
![MYD 2018 Retreat Reflection – Megat O. Denney]()
by admin | Jul 1, 2018 | #MYD, Blog, MYD2018
The Malaysian Youth Delegation hosted the annual Retreat at EPIC Collective over the weekend of the 28th and 29th April 2018. New members were asked to reflect the activities they took part in, what they learned along the way, and what they took away from the experience. Here’s what our new members had to say:
Megat O. Denney
By Megat O. Denney
When I first arrived at the Malaysian Youth Delegation Retreat, I was not too sure of what to expect. My first experience with the Malaysian Youth Delegation was when I attended one of their workshops in 2017 at Nottingham University, Malaysia prior to COP23 in Bonn, Germany. The workshop gave me a brief overview of the history of the UNFCCC, the treaties, accords and protocols signed, and the concept of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The tone of it all was relatively dry and academic, something I expected of a workshop.
The retreat covered this material above and beyond, going into greater detail about the circumstances and impacts certain accords and protocols had on the UNFCCC’s trajectory, and the role that the Malaysian Youth Delegation played in the scheme of it all.
It was surprising yet refreshing to meet a diverse set of people attending the retreat, as not everyone had a background in either international policy or environmental sciences. Instead, there were people from all walks of life. There were artists and business consultants, there were those starting their undergraduate degrees, and those already in the workforce having finished their graduate degrees, but coming together for just one purpose: to participate in climate change action.
Initially I was expecting the retreat to be all about learning the ropes in a corporate setting: what a member of a youth NGO needed to know and what would be required of them to be effective members. I expected a steep learning curve and hours of technical jargon and bureaucratic processes. What I got was the complete opposite. Instead I got a carefully paced out event with ice-breakers and bonding sessions in between sessions of learning. I got a chance to learn the motivations, histories and skillsets of the other members. The anecdotes of the more experienced members gave me an insight into the inner working of the Conference of Parties, an insight I would not have gained by attending the workshops alone.
Overall, the retreat exceeded my own expectations in terms of tone and content. The retreat was far more relaxed than I thought it would be, while simultaneously teaching more than I had expected to learn. I am grateful for the opportunity to attend it, and for my friends at Nottingham University, Malaysia for providing that opportunity.
![MYD 2018 Retreat Reflection – Sharun Beream Nasir]()
by admin | Jul 1, 2018 | #MYD, Blog, MYD2018
The Malaysian Youth Delegation hosted the annual Retreat at EPIC Collective over the weekend of the 28th and 29th April 2018. New members were asked to reflect the activities they took part in, what they learned along the way, and what they took away from the experience. Here’s what our new members had to say:
Sharun Beream Nasir
By Sharun Beream Nasir
The retreat event began with some introduction on what the Malaysian Youth Delegation stands and strives for. Then, we were filled in with more information on the other organisations that were striving for the similar aim as well such as YOUNGO and CAN. Through this session I was exposed to the efforts that were being put in order to achieve climate justice globally and especially through the voice of youths.
Moving on, we had a talk by a WWF representative who briefed us on the current state of Malaysia’s environmental policies and shared her experience when she attended the UNFCCC conference. The talk was an insightful session for me, as I learned a lot of information and had the opportunity to understand the perspectives of different stakeholders regarding the climate issues and negotiations. Throughout the talk, some of the key issues that act as barriers in achieving the solution to mitigate climate change were discussed. The barriers include having too many policies, but less framework that results into a less effective implementation of those policies. Other than that, setting the wrong parameters such as the GDP to measure the progress of climate change mitigation in a country is of yet another flaw.
After that, we had a talk from a representative of the CETDEM company. The talk introduced efforts that are being taken in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in Malaysia by providing the required technology to the TENAGA Berhad company. Last but not least, the day was ended with a great documentary that spurred the spirit in us to make this Malaysian Youth Delegation journey more meaningful and successful.
On the next day, we had a long talk on the history of UNFCCC where I gained new knowledge on the happenings at a global scale when it comes to negotiations between countries. Here we were introduced to the role of global north and global south countries and the progress of climate policies that were either ratified or have failed to be ratified. After that, we had several talks on the experiences of the MYD youth delegators at the last UNFCCC conference. Through the talk I learnt of the hardships and endurance that many individuals had to go through in making the conference a beneficial and productive meeting in the end.
Till this date, we still do not have a strong commitment to combat climate change be it at global or regional scale although the threshold of not exceeding a further 1.5°C of global warming is now approaching us at an alarming state. According to what I have learned, climate change is believed to be a wicked problem as the issue is acknowledged by almost everyone, but the response toward it being rather dim because it is not considered to be as alarming as other natural disasters such as tsunamis or hurricanes. The ‘short-sightedness’ in people to foresee this now approaching calamity is to be blamed on our society. Regardless of all the available information that keep reminding the human nation to act towards the combat against climate change, many of us are unfortunately, choosing to stay heedless.
Since the anthropogenic activities in 1800s, we are now left with a tight carbon budget that will certainly not sustain for any longer with the current greenhouse gas emission that we are putting out. However, by looking at the efforts being put in by nowadays youth by taking part in major conferences such as the UNFCCC, it has really proved to me that we are determined to make a change by taking part in the climate justice journey.
![MYD 2018 Retreat Reflection – Weng Dee]()
by admin | Jul 1, 2018 | #MYD, Blog, MYD2018
The Malaysian Youth Delegation hosted the annual Retreat at EPIC Collective over the weekend of the 28th and 29th April 2018. New members were asked to reflect the activities they took part in, what they learned along the way, and what they took away from the experience. Here’s what our new members had to say:
Weng Dee
By Weng Dee
Making the decision to send in my application for MYD was a last minute decision which I’ve not come to regret. Attending the retreat was eye-opening in terms of gaining new knowledge about policies, and of myself. I’ve come a long way from the person I was a year or two ago in terms of my ability to interact with people and speak up but counterintuitively, when surrounded in a room full of people with the similar drive to tackle the same cause I find myself nervous? Intimidated?
I don’t know. What I know after the retreat is that I still feel very reserved when it comes to speaking strongly on a view I hold, partly due to the fact that I know that we are very rarely objectively right about something and also because I’m an awkward turtle. But it was amazing to meet so many amazing new people with at least one commonality between us all.
This sounds a little bit pessimistic perhaps, but my interest in learning about policy and being involved in making change happen on a higher organizational level is in part due to a strong belief (subject to change) that individuals are not able to change at a pace quick enough to solve the urgent environmental (and other) issues we face.
I fully support grassroots activism and taking individual action in response to these problems. I know the common words of encouragement is that “every person makes a difference” and I myself say these words in effort to convince others to pick up a greener habit. However I think that the value of taking personal action is in living more aligned with our personal values and the causes we believe in, as well as the cascading effect of influencing others when we inadvertently or otherwise convince others to follow in our footsteps; rather than the actual contribution of that one less plastic straw or how much water you saved by choosing to consume chicken rather than beef (it’s actually quite a large amount).
With that said, I understand that not everyone is willing or able to contribute to conceptually difficult and large-scale issues like climate change. So the empowerment I feel in making small contributions to a bigger movement is certainly not the same in someone who either does not feel strongly about these issues, have other personally more important things to worry about, or people who outright deny the existence of these issues. In such cases, sustainable living needs to become something more of a default rather than something that requires a deliberate and conscious opt-in.
This becomes a problem even when looking at the large picture and at higher levels. As mentioned at some point in the retreat, one of the problems that has developed over the many years of environmental policy-making is the increasing degree of voluntary contributions by countries rather than legally binding requirements declared by an external party. The often trivial “personally more important things to worry about” that manifests on an individual scale becomes things like prioritizing economic growth and other short-term gains when the situation is flipped to that of governing a country.
Anyway, I suppose MYD then is kind of a balance between these two ends of the spectrum of taking personal action vs. governmental action. In the retreat, we were taught about how MYD is part of a larger constituency which comprises many other similar groups of youths with the same drive to tackle climate change. On the other hand, we can also see how MYD is unique as we work more closely with the government and thus have a more direct role in instigating top-down change on a national level. This actually still blows my mind a little bit and it’s a little overwhelming to think of taking on such a responsibility.
Seeing the work and experiences that the facilitators have gone through running MYD including, but certainly not limited to, liaising with the government, coordinating MYD activities, attending COP (and actually doing important things), attending workshops, giving talks – in all honesty – is incredibly intimidating to me and it’s difficult for me to remember that I’m attending this retreat and joining MYD not only just to help you guys out in doing these things, but to eventually have the ability and confidence to also do these very same things. The sharing sessions of trivial things like Mike googling how to pronounce Kiribati minutes before delivering his intervention then has been incredibly important in bringing all of you amazing people back to earth and realising we’re all not too different and that you guys are like actually humans.
Once again in all honesty, I’ve signed up to be a part of MYD not fully knowing what the responsibilities and requirements are. At the moment, I’m excited to immerse myself in taking meaningful action ever since my interest in the environment grew recently but I understand that one person cannot do everything (and shouldn’t?). So I’m still exploring and contemplating about my place within this larger movement; is it behind a laptop planning for MYD activities and completing my homework, meeting with government officials or is it out on an island planting corals and in a remote jungle building water pipes and infrastructure? With this excitement and feeling of urgency to do something I may admittedly have taken on more than I can chew, but I look forward to seeing and taking part in what’s in store on this journey while I decide on where my place is within this larger movement and whether it’s possible to juggle all these things at once.
![MYD 2018 Retreat Reflection – Yuen Zhao (YZ)]()
by admin | Jul 1, 2018 | #MYD, Blog, MYD2018
The Malaysian Youth Delegation hosted the annual Retreat at EPIC Collective over the weekend of the 28th and 29th April 2018. New members were asked to reflect the activities they took part in, what they learned along the way, and what they took away from the experience. Here’s what our new members had to say:
Yuen Zhao (YZ)
By Yuen Zhao (YZ)
Personally, what motivated my participation in the Malaysian Youth Delegation was a self-conflict of how change can be made in society towards the appreciation of the environment and the importance of conservation. Coming from a conservation biology background that is pretty much like pure biology in relation to conservation paradigms, we learnt a bit about climate change which I then noticed cuts across many issues. It is intersectional, and there is a dire need of mainstreaming it into other issues as well.
From my level as an individual and a researcher/biologist/conservationist in training, I want to learn how I can make an impact and contribute to that, thus, helping to solve the problems in different contexts. I want to learn about the balance between different approaches and strategies in different contexts and their effectiveness as well as efficiencies in directing changes towards our future aims (i.e. science, roles of people as stakeholders, interest groups, government representatives, civil society organizations, citizens, policies, awareness and et cetera). Having mentioned that, I have so much to learn and the Malaysian Youth Delegation will facilitate and enhance my learning process while bringing me forward with a new knowledge set.
The retreat was a great introduction to beginners. Content wise, I agree that it was well planned except for the sharing sessions between participants and facilitators. We were reminded that COP24 is a means to an end rather than being the end goal. However, we spent quite a lot of time discussing about COP24. I agree that facilitating a discussion is difficult but I wished it was more personal and process-driven i.e. learning about each others’ background and trying to find our roles in achieving an impact on climate change education and awareness in where we live/currently reside. I hope anyone reading can understand this.
Nevertheless, it was awesome and I look forward to learning more with the Malaysian Youth Delegation in 2018!
