Local observer goes international at UN Climate Change Conference
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Summary by Jeff Noedel
Video Directed by Jeremy Tyler
A SanJuans.Today VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
Necia Quast is a resident of San Juan Island. She is a member of the League of Women’s Voters of the San Juans, as well as the local Soroptimist chapter. She is also a retired diplomat.
From a young age, she wanted to be a foreign service officer. She was schooled in international relations and economics. She succeeded in a very competitive selection process to land a job with the U.S. State Department.
Over her impressive career, Necia represented America in eight different countries all over the globe.
In recent years, Necia has had a deep interest in international efforts to help smaller nations mitigate climate change that has been chiefly caused by larger nations, to adapt to climate change, and to finance harm reductions.
The negotiations between nations occurred at an annual conference called COP29 in November. The conference was held in Baku, Azerbaijan — 12 time zones away, on the other side of the planet.
Experts said the biggest polluting nations at COP29 needed to pony up $1.3 trillion for climate change mitigation. For much of the conference, the total commitment was topping out at $100 billion. But negotiations were extended and they agreed on $300 billion.
Listen to Necia explain it more thoroughly.
Necia also volunteers with the League of Women Voters as a member of the “Observer Corps,” a service in which League members attend local government meetings and take notes of key presentations, deliberations, and votes of government bodies. SanJuans.Today publishes and credits many of the Observer Corps’ written reports.
This video is approximately 30-1/2 minutes in duration.
