Reaction to Steven Chu's Talk at the COP16

I am grateful for the access to high government officials here in Cancun, and I am glad that Steven Chu chose to end his speech with a quotation that called for inter-generational equity.

I showed up to hear the Secretary of Energy for the United States government come to talk to a knowledgeable audience at the climate change negotiations about energy policy in the U.S. Instead we got an earful of praise of the wonders of science, a twenty minute explanation of how climate change was happening, a harangue upon the minutia of future battery technology, and speculations bringing scientists together to invent new technology to combat climate change. The irrelevance of Steven Chu's words to an audience hungry to hear more might have been made up by some real engagement with people through a question and answer session, but, oh no, look at the time, sorry, we just couldn't have predicted that if we have Steven talk now then he would have to leave immediately afterwards to catch a plane. Really it is just a huge logistical failure on our part...I wish I could argue with the airlines (said the handler), but, you know, this guy is only in charge of a major government department and so he couldn't possibly have been put on another flight. D


Taking a wider view, are these irrelevant presentations and lack of engagement strategic messaging? Nothing new or significant has been said, and ideas about climate change have been tossed around completely apart from the ground of U.S. climate and energy policy. This is certainly relective of what is happening in the negotiations (what the U.S. are doing in the negotiations), but the State Department does a lot better about communicating the reality and the feasible possibilities of policies that could be adopted to mitigate climate change.

I can't help but take a swipe at the DOE communications team and say this: if you're listening, get some training from Ben Kobren (Pershing's communication guy) about how to better do your job. It was definitely a big waste of time for anyone informed and interested in climate change and energy issue.