Veena's story: "The sharing and shifting of wisdom, power, resources and responsibilities."

An interview with Veena Balakrishnan, Co-Founder of the Youth Negotiators Academy

May 29, 2023

Dear friends,

Since we last met in this newsletter, I’ve been reaching out to some of the people I have encountered through my work, studies and volunteering who are pioneering work using intergenerational dialogue as a tool in tackling the climate crisis.

This edition of the newsletter will feature an interview with the plucky, creative and tenacious Veena Balakrishnan. Veena is one of the four amazing women behind the Youth Negotiators Academy The organisation describes itself as relying heavily on intergenerational learning. I first met the women involved in setting up the Youth Negotiators Academy in Glasgow at COP26, I was impressed with their ambition to speed up the much needed process of more young people playing a meaningful role in climate negotiations.

I will be running this interview series semi-regularly as part of my newsletter offering. These questions are not designed to elicit answers that go into the technical solutions to the climate crisis. Rather, these questions are designed to get to the heart of what motivates and moves people to use intergenerational dialogue as a tool for action.

Thank you as ever for following this humble, little newsletter,

Laura

Veena’s Story

What is your favourite place on Earth? Is it currently thriving or is it under threat?

My favourite place on earth is not one, but many. But I find myself the happiest when I am by the water, in the forest or in the mountains. In fact, I try to add one of these to my week, every week, quite consciously. The ecosystems that I love the most and spend most of my time in are threatened by the climate crisis, by the way humans interact in those environments, and because of other capitalistic and economic decisions.

When I am hiking, I spot forests destroyed due to bark beetle infestation. I see sign posts showcasing the height of glaciers a couple of centuries ago versus today. These changes are both directly related to the climate crisis. These are signs that my home, the places I love, are at the verge of extinction unless we do something to reverse things.

“The fundamental question that drives me every day is: What is my purpose in life, and are my actions today aligning with my purpose?”

Tell us about someone from another generation, living or no longer living, who has changed the way you think about the world.

There are a few that come to my mind.

I want to start with my mum and my dad. As much as I believe that we are so different from each other (sometimes, we can’t even be around each other!), I believe my core strengths and core character must be attributed to both of them.

My mum is gentle and kind at heart, I cannot think of a single soul in this world she has ever wanted to harm. She always gave me the courage to try whatever I wanted to do growing up. She changed the way I drew boundaries to dreaming, and made me believe in myself. She also is one of those people who shaped the way I think about being compassionate - always bee there for another person, especially the ones you love, even if you are unfairly dealt with sometimes - she would demonstrate this through acts of love no matter what else was going on. My dad, on the other hand, showed me that hard work coupled with courage can take you anywhere in the world you want to be. He comes from a very poor rural background, and had to take care of himself from the age of six. They’ve both changed the way I think and behave in this world, and I am certain, will continue to influence my life until the very end.

More recently, someone won my heart through her acts of kindness for me. Her name is Grete, she is the mother of the boyfriend of the girl who manages the volunteering project I spent last summer engaged in cleaning the most remote coasts of Norway of plastic trash. Grete is “90-something” and she sheltered me twice when I ended up in Alta, a small town in the northern part of Norway. She spoke about climate change, encouraged me to believe in myself and the work I do in the world, and took care of me like her own grandchild. To me, that changed everything! That random act of kindness left a mark on my soul.

I want to mention one more person, and that would be Chair of The Elders and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson. Everyone knows about my fascination with the Irish for all that joy they bring into this world! I have followed Mary’s work since I was a teenager, and working in the climate political space has just made me admire her even more, because I get to hear more real-time anecdotes of her courage, compassion and her vision for a fair world. I do not feel as though I am a very loud activist - and not being loud can sometimes make you feel like what you’re doing isn't activism. Mary’s way of activism has inspired me so much about how, in a gentle way, we can change the world!

When did you first experience/become aware of the climate crisis and start thinking about its consequences?

The fundamental question that drives me every day is: What is my purpose in life, and are my actions today aligning with my purpose? Having said that, even as a child, I cared about working on compassionate coexistence between our communities and nature. I started my journey when I was 10 - it always revolved around different rights-based causes - often the environment, or ethical or justice issues related to the impacts of environmental degradation.

While over the past two decades I have worked at the intersection of human rights and environmental degradation. I did not think about it as a ‘climate crisis’ exactly, until 2015. Later, in 2018, I founded my own company that focused on just transitions for grassroots communities in India. It is during this time that I started reading, connecting and learning more about climate change. Since then, I have been painfully aware of its consequences. From the scorching heat in my city, to the most vulnerable people in our communities facing the threat of poverty and hunger - everything I see around me takes my mind to the climate crisis.

What work currently engages or nourishes you in climate space?

I believe that we can influence change at every level: as an individual, within a community, or as an organisation or at the institutional level. Over the past decade, I have worked towards creating change and climate action at every level and at the moment I spend a majority of my time engaged in institutional-level climate action.

Today, I spend most of my time wearing the hat of one of the four young, female co-founders of the Climate Youth Negotiator Programme (CYNP), a global programme aimed at redressing the systemic underrepresentation of marginalised communities, especially young people in multilateral decision making spaces for climate action. We train them as young negotiators to co-lead the world's most important dialogues.

The programme works directly with country governments, who nominate up to two young people to participate in the CYNP, who are guaranteed a negotiation mandate in their country's delegation. Those young negotiators undergo a training programme; extensive community building with their global counterparts and high-profile climate leaders; and we offer grant funding to support young negotiators from low-income countries (e.g. LDCs, SIDS or other Global South countries).

In doing so, we both tackle the underrepresentation of young people in decision making positions in climate negotiations; and support countries with their talent management and succession planning, ensuring they have the skilled, connected and effective negotiators they will need to continue with climate negotiations in the future.

Find out more about the Climate Youth Negotiator Programme here.

What emotional common ground have you found with people of different generations in approaching the climate crisis?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over time, it is that we don't know everything, and we cannot solve any problem alone. It takes a village to even raise a child! How could we then expect something as complex as the climate crisis to be solved by only a few groups of people? The climate crisis needs the intervention of every generation - we need to learn from the wisdom of our elders, and we need to keep in mind that the generations to come are going to be bearing the brunt of our actions and inactions today. One of the most important emotional common ground I’ve witnessed would be that of a sense of belonging, fitting in, and connection.

My personal experience includes people from different generations expressing comparative suffering - understanding the pain of being in places where the impact of climate change is immediate.

I’ve also experienced anxiety as a common emotion across generations in the face of climate change. The younger ones are scared about the life they are about to inherit, and the older generations fear the life they are leaving behind for their grandchildren and generations to come.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned over time, it is that we don't know everything, and we cannot solve any problem alone.”

What would good intergenerational allyship look like when we think about the climate crisis?

To me, intergenerational allyship is the sharing and shifting of wisdom, power, resources and responsibilities. Intergenerational allyship allows trust and respect to flourish across generations.

Wisdom, when shared between generations can help snowball learning and the growth of all generations. Let’s take the example of climate negotiations, there is no book/material on earth you can read to understand and know everything you need to know to best represent your country as a negotiator - especially if you are a young person in the role for the first time. You need the older, more experienced negotiators who have been around for the past two decades to support learning and growth. They do this by sharing their knowledge on the nuances and by sharing stories about successes, failures and more.

Just like many parts of life and work, when it comes to solving the climate crisis, most of those in a position of power to make a decision are those older than 60% of the world’s population. This homogeneity in composition of decision makers does not facilitate innovation and inclusion. Therefore, sharing power and responsibility is a beautiful way to exhibit intergenerational allyship.

To me, intergenerational allyship creates change in the systems we live in - from being adult-tailored/ adult-produced to something that includes younger generations - or even better - is co-created with them.

We need intergenerational allyship to build trust amongst generations and to resolve the tension that exists between generations today.

“Homogeneity in composition of decision makers does not facilitate innovation and inclusion. Therefore, sharing power and responsibility is a beautiful way to exhibit intergenerational allyship.”

What does a better future look like in your eyes?

A better future is one that is fair, one that is built on compassion and kindness. A world where poverty and hunger do not exist. I envision a world that respects the rights of all beings: the right right to life, freedom and existence.

I’ve spent the first twenty-five years of my life in India. I grew up watching people beg for existence each day. More than half the population of the country lives below the poverty line, with no means to feed themselves, let alone have the means to health care, education and other basic amenities to live. I’ve always been hurt by the fact that even though so much money exists in this world, we are still finding it so hard to create a dignified life for those who are suffering.

This leads me to my next thought, the world did not end up with rich and poor areas by accident - it is manmade. A better future is a world without colonialist ways of working, a world without capitalism, a world that is built on cooperatives, non-hierarchical, community wealth building models. A better world would be one that allows for compassionate coexistence between communities and nature, one that allows for building low carbon intensive economies.

We are currently threatened by some of the biggest crises, including the climate crisis. We need to advance through this crisis in fair and just manner. In order to do that, it is fundamental to share both the benefits and the burdens of the impacts of the crisis fairly. Therefore, a better world would be one that enables, supports and champions just transition.

Where do you find joy?

I find joy in a lot of things. I believe that finding joy in our everyday life is an art as well as a science. Over the past year, I have had to go through a major transformation process: grief, anxiety, overwhelm, fear, hopelessness, despair… It's been a lot. But it has given me the strength to find where my true joy lies, and how to curate every day experiences of joy.

Let me describe some of those moments to you:

A few weeks ago, I had to spend the day reading for my thesis. Instead of staying home and reading, I decided to take a day-long train journey through the mountains - making my mundane reading day such a joy! I am a mountain girl through and through - just being in the mountains means everything to me.
I had just finished reading a book the previous night (fiction, recreational reading!), the next morning I woke up early so I would have enough time to browse through my bookshelf with a warm cup of coffee, and pick my next read.
I add a conversation with people who bring me joy consciously into my calendar each day! When I say conversation, it's not always personal chats with friends. I make work conversations a joy. I weave work conversations that I love into my everyday life, each day.
One of my favourite moments of joy is at the start of any conversation in asking the question: how are you doing today? I find joy in exchanging a little bit of who we are, how we are coming to the conversation. It’s the joy of making the conversation human.
Joy for me is in doing anything tactile: knitting, reading a book (while holding the book in my hand, no Kindle!), cooking, carpentry.
Joy for me is freedom; freedom of thought, expression and choice.
Joy for me is in justice - the joy of doing the right thing, it’s liberating. It makes you feel a foot taller
I find joy in being in the presence of those who give me undivided attention, and who create the safe space for me to be 100%, wholeheartedly who I am. I find joy in having the opportunity to offer that same thing to those around me.

What would you message be to your past ancestors and your future ancestors?

A message to my past ancestors

A prayer, a thank you for passing on such a strong belief system in me - to constantly align my actions with my purpose each day. For the culture, traditions and my mind.

I grew up in a regular, middle class Indian family, and growing up in such a setting has been the biggest building block for me - it has made me who I am today. It made me kind, grateful for what I have and brave enough to go into the world and fight to make it a fairer place for all. I truly believe that my constant striving for compassionate coexistence between all living beings is something that got passed on to me by my ancestors.