Emma Hughes
The second day of COP 25 started off with a negotiation session on SBI/SBSTA informal consultation on report of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damages. This was exciting since this was the first negotiation session I attended other than the opening plenary session on Monday. This session reminded me a lot of a U.S. Congressional hearing. The focus was mainly on maintaining formality and decorum throughout the session. In my opinion, the maintenance of this formality and decorum is ironic since the UNFCCC also agrees with the fact we are in a climate emergency. It seems now is the time for the action everyone at the COP keeps referring to rather than spend a good chunk of limited time with formalities. It is also possible that this is a somewhat incomplete opinion due to the fact this is my first exposure to this type of environment.
The most informative and beneficial events I attended focused on transforming tourism for climate action and nature-based solutions. Both of these events identified how we can think about this climate emergency through different lenses/frames. In my opinion this is a very important point that should be considered more often. When we engage in decision making that brings in more groups and aligns goals with a group’s existing values, we also engage with that group. As a result we begin to see more people and groups subscribing to behaviors and practices that promote the environment and address the climate crisis from a perspective not previously considered.
Forrest Robinette
Today was negotiation day, no doubt. I have been following the Response Measures negotiations. Response Measures refer to the impacts of climate change action within a country and the effects beyond its borders. The topic is of tremendous interest to developing countries who believe they may be impacted by any climate policies taken by countries they frequently trade with. As an example, imagine the French impose a tax on airplane travel in order to curb emissions. This would have serious implications for, let’s say, tourism in the Maldives. Developing countries want a clear set of priorities to come out of Response Measures negotiations to ensure climate action does not negatively affect their societies.
I also had a chance to attend a press conference for the youth climate report. Part of the presentation was a film by an indigenous group living in a coastal village in Canada. Their village is slowly being destroyed by erosion due to rising sea levels. Two young members from the village spoke at the press conference to say how their way of life is being endangered. Including the voices of youth in climate negotiations has certainly been trendy in past years in the IGO communities. This seemed like a concrete delivery of that goal rather than mere lip service.
I still find myself completely exhausted at the end of each day. I just learned that some members of my client team are still at the conference as I write this (it’s 11:00PM in Madrid). My heart goes out to them!
Zukhruf Amjad
Today I got the chance to attend an event hosted by the IPCC about the Essential Climate Variables that are used to create models that are then used by policy making bodies such as the UNFCCC to refer to the impacts of different indicators of the changing climate atmosphere. It was fascinating because I had spent the last semester taking a course on Energy Modelling Systems where we learned about a very toned down version of what the IPCC did. While the class had majorly focuses on areas relating to energy systems, the discussion at the IPCC Pavilion was an insight into just how broad that scope of work was. It extend far beyond energy – into oceans and hydrological cycles and land use assessment and truly blurred the barriers of natural processes and human predictions.
As I sat listening to these brilliant scientists talk about how they aimed to make the Essential Climate Variables more robust to better adapt to the needs to current policy makers, I was in awe of the ability to stay up with the conversation and truly enjoy how they are integrated the relatively simple concepts we had learned in class to fit larger, more integrated ecosystems and it makes me excited about the possibility of, one day, putting all the tools I had learned in modelling class to good, practical use.
Melinda Melvin
Today was the first real day of negotiations and it was exhausting! Today was also a day full of Article 6! I am tracking the Article 6 negotiations at this COP and working with an awesome group of individuals who are hoping to strategically facilitate an agreement on this important provision. Today I went to the contact group and informal session that began the negotiations on specific guidance for carbon markets under the Paris Agreement. While there wasn’t a lot of movement by the Parties in today’s first ‘real’ negotiation session, it was still a good experience to witness how the Parties work together in coalitions and bring their positions to the facilitators of the negotiation. I also attended some side events put on by academics who study this issue extensively. It was cool to watch many speakers whose work I have read and cited to in my own papers share their expertise with country delegates. I also befriended a delegate from Kenya who asked me what my personal goals were for my first COP. I realized I had not thought it through and was only thinking about what I hoped the overall outcome would be in the negotiations. The reality is, this is such an overwhelming experience because of how technical the negotiations can be and also the sheer volume of issues and draft texts that are being negotiated. I won’t be able to fully digest it all during my first time attending, but hopefully I can set and attain some more specific goals of learning and engaging with climate policy at this venue.
Pradnya Bhandari
Day two started off better than yesterday as I attended the daily BINGO (Business and Industry NGO) Briefing. While the COP is focused on country delegations and negotiations, I was always more interested in private sector engagement to reach global climate targets. The briefing made me feel like I belonged because here was a room full of people who are also tracking business and industry, as the name suggests. I even had the event I was most looking forward to scheduled for today, how exciting! Well, things didn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped. The few side events I went to today felt a bit lackluster in their content. The ideas and solutions shared didn’t feel new or impactful enough. Granted, sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to come up with a great solution, but both of these discussions seemed to ignore the fundamental issue – we don’t need stop gap solutions. Short-term solutions are what created the situation we are in now and as Einstein said, “we can’t solve problems by using the same thinking that created them”. For tomorrow, my plan of attack is to immerse myself in some negotiations so I’ll report back on how those fare!
Shakes Dlamini
I started the second day of the COP with increased ambition as I had finally managed to get a directive from my contact with the Eswatini delegation. The day kicked off with a meeting of the African Group of Negotiators where the group shared its strategic negotiation positions, areas in which they needed more support as well as reports from earlier meetings. It was enlightening to identify the strength that the coordination gives to the African countries. This group support is critical for small nations like Eswatini who have a limited number of delegates hence depend on the group solidarity to have their bases covered without them having to be present in all sessions of interest. Furthermore, I learnt that the group approach enhances implementation of the technology transfer mechanism during the three technology development and transfer SBSTA and SBI informal consultation meetings I attended. The key take aways from this consultations include inter alia, the need for coordination between the technology mechanism and the finance mechanism especially concerning the regional orientation of support through the finance mechanism as opposed to just single party oriented support. Moreover, I was surprised to learn that coordinated climate assistance between countries is not limited to the mechanisms established through the UNFCCC. This was revealed through my connection with the Eswatini delegation where I was informed of bilateral agreements for climate assistance that Eswatini has with some developed countries.
