TU Delft Student at 10th Int. Clean Energy Ministerial/ 4th Mission Innovation Ministerial

Sukanya Prabhudesai, former chair of the Energy Club, represented the TU Delft students at the CEM/MI annual event in Vancouver. Read about her impressions and encounters (DG Energy Sandor Gaastra) on her blog.

Her personal takeaways from CEM10/MI4:

-Inclusivity is key if we want to make it through this transition. The best decisions can only come up from a diverse group of decision makers which includes diversity in gender, age, economic levels of society, urban and rural society. Technical portions of the solution are no doubt important but social portions on acceptance and implementation of these solutions deserves nearly twice as much weightage

-As was stated by one of the speakers at the conference, each policy dialog must be commenced with the thought of a 16-year-old being present in the room who is looking at us and asking if these policies will ensure a safe future for her/him? In this context lets make sure we don’t make the same mistakes as before. Lets thing of the big picture this time- such as where is the electricity for my electric vehicle coming from, before going on a massive replacement drive for all existing vehicles? Or is it logical to opt for a multi MW solar power plant over nuclear when I don’t have storage options figured out or am using expensive and rare mined Lithium for battery storage which is just shifting the crisis to a later date?

-As youth, it is important for us to be persistent with our governments to have a louder voice in climate policy and planning since this directly affects our future. Don’t let one sour interaction with a policy maker bog you down. Be tenacious, this is OUR future at stake. Also, as the youth, it is our duty to inspire more youth that is currently not motivated towards clean energy, to start thinking about it. Now’s the time to start spreading the message if you aren’t doing so already.