International communications coordination | Strategic communications | Media strategy | Press centre set-up | Liaison with Presidential team/diplomatic corps
In December 2009, the UN climate talks at Copenhagen collapsed amidst considerable acrimony due to the failure of the largest polluting nations to commit to take action to prevent a worsening climate crisis. As a result, Bolivia, one of the countries most affected by climate change impacts, proposed a World People’s Climate Conference in which popular organisations worldwide would define an agenda for climate justice. I was hired in January 2010 to coordinate international outreach and communications. The conference was held only four months later.
The timeline and resources were extremely limited, but over that time, I reached out to climate activists on every continent, organised international webinars, built a website and newsletter to disseminate information, organised wifi coverage for the whole summit in a remote rural region, coordinated an international communications team that produced blogs, videos and photographs from the summit, and organised international media outreach including running a media centre during the summit.
Throughout the whole process, I worked closely with Bolivian government officials and ministers as well as international diplomatic corps.
Results
- 30,000 people attended the conference from 150 countries
- Declaration agreed with detailed proposals developed by 17 working groups
- International press coverage including by The Guardian, Time magazine, Financial Times
- Placed op-ed by President Morales in the LA Times
- Daily coverage of the conference by Democracy Now radio/TV show
