2 hours in Madrid and me and Forrest have already carried our heavy bags through the uphill streets of Madrid, the unending stairs of the subway, through all the security at the venue of the COP an even a very fancy mall. Nobody in their right mind would look at us and think we are here to attend a conference that brings together some of the brightest minds around the world to tackle an issue as serious as Climate Change.
This experience, however, only made me think about the thousands of people that are going through a similar journey from across the world to make it all the way to Madrid to play a part in reaching a consensus on such an important issue. From the event volunteers to the non-state actors to the actual delegations, brilliant minds from across the globe gathered in one place with the aim to reach a solution that is the most equitable across the world. People with the ambition to create a positive impact meeting year after year to devise strategies on adaptation, mitigation, finance, MRV e.t.c to slow down the disastrous environmental catastrophes that have started increasing in number over the past few years.
It is interesting to note, however, how a key challenge that the COP25 will look at is that of increasing ambition – because there are still millions of people around the world that need convincing that this problem is real. You can notice from the signs around the venue, each of which follow a connotation of emergency around the area of climate change, how the work has already begun. I look forward to seeing how world leaders and experts take on the challenge of increasing ambitions in the course of the next 5 days and hopefully, learn enough to increase ambitions in my community when I go back home.
