In December 2023, 11 Global Change Ecology students had the opportunity to visit the Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai as Observers. Here we reflect on our experiences and give some insights into the workings of an international climate conference.
Writing about the one COP seems impossible since there is not just one. I would say there are at least four COPs happening.
- The real-COP: Beyond the surface of speeches and political posturing, this event is the “Conference of the Parties” for UN climate treaties. The negotiations that are happening whether something like “fossil fuel phase out” should be in the text or not, whether certain technologies count as clean and so on. This paragraph-pushing patience exercise is at the core of the conference. While it may sound tedious discussing one verb for an hour, the result could differentiate between legally binding or not and we have to value the democratic process, as slow and as minimal consensus as it may be.
- The Dubai-COP: The fact that the climate conference is happening in a non-democratic, oil-rich nation, with over 2500 fossil fuel lobbyists whose presence was noticed, but under the radar of many. The Dubai-COP also included honorary guests such as “greenwashing”, “bigger COP = better COP?” and free public transport.
- The event-COP: Almost 100.000 people attended COP28. This is by far the largest UN gathering that ever happened and while a proportion definitely were focussed on the main part, “the real COP”, lots of efforts were poured into side events, plenaries, workshops and likewise. Basically like an industry conference where relevant players from NGOs, businesses and politics came together to form new collaboration networks and share their insights into the many-faceted problems of climate change. This is also the place where countless politicians pledge this or condemn that, which gets a lot of the media attention in the end.
- The “my-COP”: This is the so-to-say personal event, with all the people you interacted with, the events you visited, how good your coffee was and which negotiation track you followed (it really changes your mood when after many hours one country blocks all the changes made in the last day and postpones the decision to next year).
Everybody has their own experience with all the different COPs and what follows will be some individual perspectives and :
Yanna: The moment I learned that GCE sends students to the COP every year I knew this was something I wanted to do, and I was not disappointed – it was an extraordinary experience. We were warned beforehand that it would be a bit overwhelming, and that was 100% true (I don’t think I’ve ever been as tired as I was after the first full conference day!). But I also found it incredibly inspiring. There is a huge amount of work being done worldwide to combat climate change, by a huge number of passionate, talented people. The media headlines usually make for gloomy reading, and negotiations are certainly an exercise in patience, but the fact that more than 150 nations, with all their differences in culture, national priorities, wealth, etc., can come to any agreements at all is arguably a cause for celebration. And, greenwashing or not, the fact that Dubai took on the hosting role shows that this issue is finally getting the spotlight on the world stage, even though there are plenty who would rather ignore it.
Honestly, there were many favourite moments – but a memorable one was attending a talk given by Al Gore where he unveiled Climate TRACE’s work on an independent, global analysis of emissions worldwide using satellite data.
Challengings was answering the question ‘and what do you do?’. Of course students and academics in general are an integral part of the COP’s Observers, but I often felt intimidated when talking to people who are actively working on something truly impactful. Another challenge was finding delegates from countries that don’t have their own pavilions… some nations are better represented (and have louder voices) than others.
Attending the COP was an unbelievable privilege. It was also great fun to explore a new country, see the sun in the middle of European winter and, most of all, share the experience with some of the lifelong friends I’ve made through GCE! 😀
Once again, a huge thank you to the GCE Coordination who did everything possible to make this happen for us and also helped us along the way!
Anna: Let me add more details and share some of my experiences at COP28.
The COP venue has the so-called Green Zone which is the zone managed by the COP28 Presidency (in this case the United Arab Emirates), and the Blue Zone which is the UNFCCC-managed site. All the international protests and formal negotiations were held in the Blue Zone, and the accreditation badge is needed to enter this space. I have spent the majority of my time at COP28 in the Blue Zone besides some receptions in the Green Zone. However, many worthy events were located in the Green Zone, and it is more easily accessible for those who have not had a chance to receive “the magical badge”.
The pavilions of the countries were also situated in the Blue Zone and many of the side events held in such pavilions captured my attention. I can really recommend side events for powerful networking opportunities and expanding your contacts. When it comes to following the formal negotiations, I decided to focus on the process related to global stocktake. This was the first ever global stocktake taking place at a COP, and I thought that this was a unique event I was interested in most.
It can be very much advised to pick a topic one would like to follow and research the materials on it in advance so that the respective talks at COP are understandable. But, how do you prepare yourself if a COP is such a huge event and you cannot even choose which sphere you are most interested in? That is a rhetorical question.
When it comes to my experience with following the process of global stocktake, there was one main draft document that I was reading in between the events and on public transport. I remember that there were some High-Level Events that were not open to the public, but I managed to follow the online translations on the COP28 virtual platform. That was a big win because I know that some participants did not even know about the existence of this platform, or they could not log into the system with their credentials.
Then, I remember how I was standing in a long line to one of the rooms hosting the global stocktake discussion and reading that one document, and then the online translation stopped because the representatives of the countries gathered in a big crowd in the middle of the room negotiating without their microphones. Many observers were not let into that room. After that, there was shocking news spreading around: the countries had decided to cancel the whole document and start it over from scratch! Wow, such a turn…
If you want to learn more about the documents and the negotiations, you are very welcome to join the regular meetings of your respective constituency of the UNFCCC. For GCE it is RINGO (Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organisations). It is very beneficial when you can cooperate with the other RINGO members to form chats on particular documents to share draft documents, analyze the outcomes of negotiations, and help each other to become smarter. For instance, the RINGO group on global stocktake was very helpful. But, you may also participate in the events of the other constituencies if you wish, e.g. YOUNGO.
Gabriela: I participated in the second week and could observe the fatigue among attendees as the event drew to a close. Members were to focus on maximising progress in the conference’s final days with intensive work schedules and prolonged closed-door negotiations in the pursuit of a substantial outcome.
My favourite moment was the acknowledgment of agriculture and food systems as pivotal components in climate action represented a significant paradigm shift, because, historically, discussions have been predominantly centred around carbon dioxide emissions. This time, the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action marked a notable shift towards the acknowledgment of Methane emissions. This declaration emphasises the importance to integrate agriculture and food systems into broader climate mitigation strategies, highlighting food security, and environmental sustainability. As someone with a deep interest in this subject, witnessing this collective commitment was inspiring. Furthermore, the pavilions I visited had varied topics and the ones about the intersection of food and health catched my attention, where I engaged in stimulating discussions and forged valuable connections.
I recognized the need for greater preparedness among GCE students attending such big events. Understanding how to follow the negotiation dynamics, about networking strategies and side events would enrich the participation of students as observers and the possible impact their attendance could bring. Despite the challenges and frustrations encountered during negotiations, the COP highlights the importance of collaboration among the parties and diplomacy.
Yuyang: Attending COP was an extremely amazing experience! It was so amazing to meet people from the whole world at such a small place (even though the venue is actually quite huge) and to see the diverse cultures. I was really amazed by how all the different countries use the same language. Here I do not just mean English, but the vocabulary people use to talk about climate change, carbon neutrality, renewable energy ect. Besides, this experience helped me to find out the topic for my master thesis. Therefore, I am very grateful that as a GCE student we can get such precious opportunities.
There are several things I found interesting. First was the conversation with a
‘special guest’ of the president of the COP28 from Saudi Arabia, who had been a negotiator for his country for almost three decades but was already retired. He spoke very frankly about how he does not believe in climate change and his negative feelings towards the west. Another one was during a side event, while talking about why the measures are taken so slowly, a panellist quoted ‘no decisions can be made in an AC room’. It was funny and very relatable because everyone was freezing in the heavily air conditioned conference rooms.
The challenge for me in the beginning was to schedule my day so that I wouldn’t waste any time. With so many events going on everyday, it was a bit overwhelming and I had to make the schedule the night before. I gradually learned not to be greedy, it was the quality rather than the quantity that matters. Another challenge was trying to make my experience more meaningful, not only for me, but also for other people. To be honest, I still have not figured it out.
…
Back in the lecture halls of Bayreuth it is easy to forget that for thousands of people it is their daily job to negotiate daily within those international frameworks where we got a glimpse into. More importantly, for millions of people, climate change has profound daily impacts and we should not forget to take home the inspirations and momentum gathered from conferences and translate it into actions, motivation to keep going and hope. In a slightly updated John Lennon phrase: “Climate Change is what happens to us, while we are busy making other plans”.
Authors:
Flemming Ostermann, Yanna Raykov, Anna Mishakina, Gabriela Paz, Yuyang Li
Further reading
