The French embassy in Zagreb is planning a Franco-Croatian symposium next fall in the context of Paris climate talks next winter. The first step in preparation of the symposium is a meeting that will take place in the embassy tomorrow afternoon. Vjeran Piršić, the best known green activist in Croatia, has helped the embassy identify the best and the brightest among those concerned with climate change in Croatia. I am one of them. I know a few others among the invitees, but not too many. Judging by the missives sent around by Vjeran, everybody who is anybody in Croatia has heard about tomorrow’s meeting and wants to take place in it. There will be at least fifty people there, I reckon. For good measure, I recently sent everyone on the list a brief electronic-mail message and the electronic copy of my book about climate change. I argued that the only remaining concern is disaster management on the local level. And I added that the motto for the future is simple enough: “Think locally, act locally.” Interestingly, I have not received any reply. This I am dying to see what if anything will happen at tomorrow’s meeting.

Addendum I (December 17, 2014)

The meeting ended up much more to my liking than I had expected. There were some twenty-five people present, for quite a number of the invitees could not make it this time around. The French ambassador opened the meeting with a warm welcome. Two people from the embassy led it. A French academic concerned with climate change was also there, and he offered some opening remarks that struck me as quite useful for the first meeting. Among other things, he said that Croatia is expected to play a leading rôle in helping the neighboring countries through climate change. Serbia and Bosnia are expected to be hard hit. But Vjeran was excellent. He knew all the invitees very well. He has been working closely with some of them, as well. I expected quite a few stuck-up people typical of the Croatian capital, but there were none of them at the meeting. Most important, my emphasis on disaster management was accepted with open arms. Everyone agreed that adaptation to climate change was the only meaningful response at this juncture. For this reason, quite a bit of emphasis was placed on the civil society and local affairs. Along these lines, governments were not expected to be of any great help in the longer run. All in all, the group assembled by Vjeran may indeed come up with a few useful things. Although I am taken aback at my own optimism at this stage, I have no reason to hide it. Fingers crossed.

Addendum II (January 20, 2015)

Amazingly, I am optimistic about the whole venture even after our second meeting today. Now we have the Croatian Climate Change Panel, in which I am coordinating a group concerned with disaster management. Other groups are dealing with less gloomy topics, such as energy, food, and law. Today was the panel’s first official meeting. Ably led by Vjeran, we now have a website, as well. It will be kicked off early next month, and it will serve as a platform for climate change activities across the Balkan peninsula, which is at least environmentally unified. Besides, the thickly wooded mountain range is paramount in biodiversity across the European subcontinent. Most important, the team of twenty-odd experts is very to my liking. The meeting was held in good cheer, which was occasionally peppered by a juicy expletive. But the acronym of the panel says it all, of course. It would not be very funny before the breakup of Yugoslavia, but now it is nothing if not funny. Lenin must be turning in his grave.

Addendum III (September 14, 2015)

So many months later, the Croatian Climate Change Panel is dead in the water. The Franco-Croatian symposium is planned for early October, but the panel will not play any significant rôle in it, if any. Apparently, the French embassy in Zagreb got in touch with Vjeran last year after failing to establish contact with the Croatian government. A year later, the contact has been established, and a ministry dealing with many things including the environment will play a part in the vaunted symposium. Panel members have been invited to it, but only as spectators. It is thus not surprising that the CCCP website, which was put together early this year, contains nothing of any importance. The only proposal for the Croatian government is my own. In particular, I am proposing that disaster management teams be established at the lowest levels of local self-government. And by law. “Think locally, act locally” is my motto for true. The rest of the panel can go fly a kite.