Loads of surprises for the Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD) on the first day upon our arrival in Paris. First it was Jolene’s luggage being late, then Adrian’s uninformed occurrence, following by the good news of getting pink badges (accreditation to enter the COP21 venue, registered under our national government)!

Let me introduce you about the badges in UNFCCC. To enter the COP venue, you need to have accreditation, and the badge is the prove of your accreditation. This is to control the nuimber of people accessing to the venue. There are actually several types of badge representing different identities:

• Pink (National Delegate)
• Yellow (Civil Society Organisation)
• Red (Head of Delegation)
• Green (Observer State)
• Blue (UN Agency Observer)

Initially MYD only managed to secure a yellow badge for second week, we were lucky to get 2 full yellow badges and 4 more full pink badges as the COP21 commence. Initially we did not realize the difference, or rather, pros and cons, of the pink and yellow badges, until the COP21 official starts. We found out that the pink and yellow badges combination works the best.

“What’s the difference of pink and yellow badge?” ”How do you feel to have a pink badge?” These are the questions that all the youth delegations that we met have raised.

As a “Party Overflow” (Under National Delegation, but sort of secondary) pink badge holder, I have been following the negotiation since the day that the Ad Hoc Working Group on Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) opened. I’m very grateful of having such amiable Head of Delegation who are very willing to share his knowledge with us. I’ve got the chance to follow him to almost all the meetings, including closed meetings, on the first few days. With all the sharing and debrief from Dr. Gary, we managed to have a clearer picture about the negotiation.

It was funny how the pink badge holders “trapped” themselves in the conference rooms for most of the time. We felt obligated to do so because we have the privilege to access to the live negotiations while many civil society members cannot. Anyway, the team worked together and get involved in action and negotiation tracking which I am really happy to see!

There were some special badges too. How special? If you manage to get that badge, you will be able to stand just 1 meter away from Obama, Xi Jin Ping and Putin! Those badges are very limited and usually will be distributed by the Secretariat to the observer constituencies like YOUNGO, ENGO, RINGO accordingly, and the constituencies will give them out to the selected members. These special badges usually will be used when there are significant meetings that involve high level segment like the Head of States or Ministers.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Minister of Natural Resource and Environment, YB Datuk Dr. Wan Junaidi bin Tuanku Jaafar for granting us the “Party Overflow” badges that allowed us to have such awesome and eye-opening experience!

Written by Elaine