Annika Bellot is originally from Dominica, a small island nation in the Caribbean. While she grew up surrounded by the region’s lush rainforests and picturesque mountains, Bellot also experienced the devastating effects of climate change and natural disasters. She felt she had no choice but to get involved in climate efforts to ensure the survival of Dominica and islands like it.
Now an international climate lawyer, Bellot is also an M.A. in Climate and Society student and this year’s Class Day student speaker. Below, Bellot reflects on her path to the Climate School and the message she hopes her classmates will remember as they work toward a more sustainable world.
How did you become interested in climate?
I grew up in Dominica, also known as the nature island of the Caribbean, so for me, nature was an inescapable part of life. Throughout the years, we would go hiking, to the river, to the beach all the time. We were completely surrounded by the natural world.
I pursued my undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies in Barbados. In the summer of 2015, I was getting ready to head back to undergrad when a devastating storm, Tropical Storm Erika, destroyed parts of Dominica. One community, Petite Savanne, was decimated; even today it’s considered uninhabitable. Then two years later, I’m getting ready to head back to school again in Barbados, and we’re struck by a category five hurricane, Hurricane Maria, in 2017. At that point, I happened to be a student leader of the Dominican Student Association at my university, and I was thrust into coordinating student relief. By being involved in those efforts and speaking lots of panels, I realized I couldn’t escape being involved in climate as a career. Because it had to do with the survival of my island and the rest of the Caribbean region.
What brought you to the M.A. in Climate and Society?
As I continued learning about climate, I actually pursued an L.L.M. [master of laws] in environmental law prior to this degree. I also attended quite a few environmental meetings, including two COPs in the U.A.E. and Azerbaijan. I realized going through climate negotiations that I wanted a background that would merge a lot more of the policy with the science and data aspects of climate work. Then someone recommended this program; that’s why I am at the Climate School today.
What lessons or experiences will you take from this program into your future?
A lot of my focus has been around adaptation work in small island developing states, working with the Alliance of Small Island Developing States. This program has really brought me more into the intersection of climate and everything else. It’s so interdisciplinary. No matter what field you’re involved in, there’s always some way to be engaged in climate work because we need all hands on deck to address this problem efficiently.
I’ve gained a much greater interest in corporate sustainability and how institutions decarbonize and work toward a sustainable future. I’m hoping to continue working in this space and applying all I’ve learned from the program.
What is your plan for this summer and looking ahead?
I’ll be engaged in a capstone with the New York City Emergency Management Department. I’ll also be engaged in a lot of my summer courses, which coincidentally have to do with corporate sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions as well.
Looking to the future, I am hoping my work will continue to have an impact on small Island developing states. We need a continued push toward reducing emissions in order for them to have a chance of survival.
How did you feel being selected as the student speaker for Class Day? What message do you want to share with your classmates and anyone in the audience?
I was excited to be selected, but it quickly turned into a sense of obligation. It’s definitely a moment where everyone’s listening to you and you have an opportunity to spread a good message. I want my classmates to remember that [climate change] is a collective problem. It’s very easy to be in this space and be surrounded by other professionals who are just as passionate as you in terms of solving the climate problem, but when you go out into the real world and everything starts pulling at you, it can be very easy to forget. It happens to me—someone who was directly impacted by a catastrophic storm. It will happen to everyone, but I think we need to remain connected and remember that fear can get in the way, especially with a lot of the things going on in the world right now. Always remember to have courage in addressing these issues and remember to lean on each other—the people we have spent an entire year building networks with—as we continue our work into the future.
Have you received any advice that has helped you on this journey?
I got some really good advice when I started at the Climate School. I felt overwhelmed because there are so many resources at your fingertips, all the professors and lecturers who are doing great work in their fields. One of my classmates told me: ‘This is one year that you have everybody in this Climate School in this university rooting for you to succeed. You don’t have to do everything, but make sure anything you do, do it with passion.’ I think that applies to anyone in any field, whether you’re in high school or an undergrad, you have an opportunity to use that moment and to just select one or two things that you are super passionate about and ensure that you put your heart into it and just work for the betterment of the climate.
Anything else you want to add?
I think I might be the only native Caribbean person in my program, which is pretty significant for me because it’s not often that Caribbean people get to enter spaces where their voices are heard. It can be difficult in climate negotiations where we’re out-powered, out-numbered. I hope more students from the Caribbean, from the Global South, from small island developing states in general can get opportunities like these to be engaged with the Climate School.
