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The TRUMPet shall sound!
Posted on November 10, 2016
Pre interview with rtcc
Well, well just like Brexit –all against the odds! And his statement regarding climate change has sent a chill through the corridors of the Green and Blue Zones here in Marrakech. See this for example:
So do we all pack up and go home – absolutely not. The determination to resist his statement is palpable.
So from one Head of State to another – in this case someone rather more sympathetic to the issue of climate change and whose predecessor appears at the beginning and end of the excellent film by Sara Penrhyn Jones that I am showing on a loop at our stand and will have shown at all 4 side events. He is Taneti Mamau, the President of Kiribati – the group of islands in the South Pacific in the front line of the effects of sea level rise. The film raises many of the issues being faced by our members.
He will be arriving early next week and has almost agreed (final confirmation yet to be received) to address our side event on ‘Climate Change: What it means for the Natural and Cultural Heritage and the Cultures of the World’, to be held in the British Embassy Pavilion.
I awoke in the middle of last night with the terrible thought that I had failed to notify the FCO of the President’s visit having confirmed it with his staff. I had earlier organised a meeting with the Embassy staff on site at the Pavilion, for 9 am this morning. Happily they were overjoyed at the prospect and in discussing protocol suggested that the two UK Government Ministers who may be here by then and certainly the Moroccan Ambassador should be invited. There is no doubt that President Tong will himself arrive with a large entourage so the event could be populous!
a solar powered car for the future.
Or maybe something more affordable!
Yesterday was relatively calm following Tuesday’s side event at the UNESCO pavilion, an all morning event which went well. I met a number of staff from different sections of UNESCO, including their Rabat based cultural programme officer and have been invited to participate in an intangible cultural heritage workshop next year.
Two familiar faces passed by our stand during the day; Fabrice Bernard from the Conservatoire du Littoral, who has also invited me to speak at an event they are organising for Mediterranean countries faced with rising sea levels and coastal erosion. He wants a worldwide perspective; the other was Ian Lumley from An Taisce!
I was interviewed by RTCC one of the official Climate Change TV stations at the COPs and that should appear on YouTube in the next 24 hours
I attended the side event entitled, World Heritage and Water after Paris, at which Andrew Potts and Adam Markham were speaking. Adam is a familiar name to me as he works for the Union of Concerned Scientists and was a fellow delegate with Bill Turner at the Pocantico event a year or so ago. I have received regular emails from him ever since
My route through the gate in the city walls
a mineret at sunset
Today, Thursday 10, as I finish this blog I will be heading off to the Bab Ighli Conference Centre having prepared for a hectic day with our own side event taking place in 2 venues one straight after the other – the second in the British Embassy pavilion followed by a networking cocktail party at the UNESCO Pavilion hosted by UNESCO, ICOMOS and the Union of Concerned Scientists for anyone interested in cultural and natural heritage conservation. It will be interesting to see who turns up!Oliver Maurice 10 Nov 2016
