Name: Roberto Rodríguez Sánchez
Affiliation: Climate Change Directorate of Costa Rica
Journal Title: The first day of training
Date: 25 July 2022


Preview
In my life I had not imagined I will be in Korea. I saw it like something so far.
On April 2022, I received a message about the opening of application submission of the program, and I decided to apply.
When I received the notification to do the interview, I was surprised. I started to listen to programs and speak English.
The day of the interview I was nervous. It was my second time I did an interview in this language. I did my best to get a good score. It was like to break a wall of ice, and to get the opportunity to improve the understanding about the greenhouse gases, negotiations and to implement the new knowledge when I’ll come back to my country.
The day I received the communication of be selected I celebrated.


First day
In the first sessions of training, I noticed the importance of the multicultural exchange that the program promotes, because there are people from some countries that have different realities and contexts.
In their presentations, most of them pointed out their expectations, related to get better understanding about activity data and data collection from the AFOLU and IPPU sector. Everybody was excited to learn.
Learn about climate change negotiations clarified most of the historical processes that all instruments have taken. It was very useful for me, because I have been so confused about the difference and scope of the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention, and the Paris Agreement.
Also, it was very interesting to know about the expectation of the Korean Climate Action and its interaction with the political stakeholders and the international conflicts.



Photo 1: Climate change negotiations lecture


The last lecture of the day was about the Paris Agreement. In the sessions, participants asked about some doubts related to the NDC communication, targets and submission.
One of the most interesting things I learned about it was to know that it also focusses in adaptation. This was because I related NDC only to mitigation actions, maybe something I would like to assess when I’ll come back my country.
The presentation continued through the MPG’s of the Paris Agreement. This is one of the goals my department have decided to fulfill. For this reason, the understanding of that paper is relevant because, on my opinion, it gives us perspectives of how we are and what are the pending things country will need to improve in their submissions.
In groups, we shared the country needs and discussed about the flexibility. Completeness, time serie consistency, institutional arrangements and methodologies used were some of the issues countries have identified as lacks to solve in advanced.



Photo 2: Groups during the discussion of the MPG’s



Coordinator's comments:
I am very surprised to know that our English interview was your second time to go through such process in English. 
I remember it clearly as a interviewer - you were superb both in completing your application form as well as the interview, Roberto!
It is exciting to hear that you found lectures on the first day interesting and helpful. 
Thank you once again for being our trainee and for coming a very long way to Korea to meet with us.