Shakes Dlamini

I started day three with energy and determination as I rushed to the Africa Group of Negotiator’s meeting at 8:00 am. My excitement was quickly extinguished by the contents of a presentation by Dr. Fatima Denton, the director of UNU-INRA. Dr. Denton presented a summary of a paper entitled ” AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT IN THE AGE OF STRANDED ASSETS” and for the first time, I learned about exposure and vulnerability that African Governments have due to overdependence on natural resources for their economic development. African countries are faced with the burden of advancing economic development to alleviate their people from poverty while simultaneously exercising ambitious climate action. However, the paper also highlights opportunities that African countries have regardless of the exposure and further provides useful recommendations on how governments could mitigate their risks.

My hopes were rejuvenated when I attended a world bank event which proclaimed that innovation is the key to the climate crisis as innovation was also central to the recommendations in the paper from UNU-INRA. The world bank event made this declaration through narratives by representatives from different start-up companies that are innovatively responding to the climate crisis. This event also presented innovative strategies that could be employed by governments to combat climate change through case studies presented by a representative from the Finnish government. Finally, I returned to the negotiations, specifically the negotiations on technology transfer. It was saddening to hear the negotiator representing the African Group repeatedly raise an issue and his outcry seeming to fall on deaf ears as developed country negotiators tagged teamed against Africa’s position.

Yared Lemma

Today is my third day of the conference where I continued following up the issue of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage. Luckily, after the usual coordination meeting of the G77 and China Group, I got the privilege to talk to Mr. Vicente Yu, Coordinator of the Group on Loss and Damage. He graciously answered all my questions. I already prepared a blog post based on his interview.

I also got a chance to connect with new team members of Ethiopian delegation. These are experts from Addis Ababa University, Ministry of Agriculture and another fellow from Ghana. We met during lunch time where we exchanged our conference experiences and current affairs about our home country. Finally, we exchanged contacts for future connections.

I was also able to attend a IPCC Press conference and a couple of side events. Several of the IPCC lead scientists participated in the Press conference including the chair and vice chair of the organization. On the other hand, the topic of the side events were Human settlements on climate change and Africa readying for Paris Agreement.

Well, now it is about mid night. Let me tag the events that I am going to participate tomorrow on the conference application before I fall to sleep.

I will be back with another post tomorrow.

Zukhruf Amjad

Day 003 of the COP and my legs are finally catching up with the massive venue of IFEMA, Madrid. At least I’ve finally figured out where everything is in this massive, massive hall … I think.

The negotiation have starting picking up pace and its noticeable how the delegates have started getting into the technical details of the topics that I am tracking. Its interesting how much detail the negotiators themselves have to go into when they plan for these meetings. The main negotiations I was tracking revolve around creating tables that can be used for transparency – namely GHG emissions, financing structures and NDC progress. At first it might seem trivial to spent 30 minutes talking about the how the references should be included in the footnotes but when you think about how these negotiators are creating the structure that will be used by thousands of people in their countries, its becomes fascinating how tuned their minds are to proactive approach. You can see how these negotiations have learned from aspects missed out in the previous agreements that led to problems in the future, for example the allocation of carbon credits in the KP. I’ve got respect for how patient they are with the process of creating this global framework.

Forrest Robinette

I’m expecting to hear any day now that the German government is in financial crisis. The Germany Pavilion at the COP has free coffee from 9:00-5:00 every day, and I have consumed enough cappuccinos to bankrupt any government that is funding this.

With the power of caffeine, I had another great day at the COP. I began with the BINGO meeting, the daily coordination meeting for business NGOs. It was, perhaps as expected, very different from the TUNGO, or trade unions NGOs, meeting. The BINGO was top-down with leaders sitting at a raised table in front of an audience. The TUNGO by contrast was much more horizontal and held at a roundtable.

I next went to a great event organized by students at Cornell’s Master of Public Administration program. In partnership with the World Bank, they put on an event exploring innovation as the most effective response to climate change. I particularly enjoyed the comments from the representative of the government of Finland. She said among the citizens of Finland, the majority don’t support ambitious climate action. I would not have thought that. If Finland isn’t ready for climate action, I worry we’re all doomed.

Next I went to write a summary for an ILO event on green jobs. It explore the ubiqitious issue of just transition. The ILO is particularly invested in climate action that follows the 2030 Agenda mandate of “Leave No One Behind.” As such, any climate action must be aware of labor impacts and impacts on vulnerable populations. Definitely a great discussion.

More to come tomorrow!

Emma Hughes

I’d like to start today’s reflection with the following comment. This is a climate emergency not climate change. This is phrase we have all heard a few times this week. I think the first time I saw people reacting to this comment (but not explicitly said) in an event I attended on corporate accountability. It seemed to be the first time I saw people get angry and emotional about climate change. To me this was important because it was the first time I saw a very human side of COP25. Up until this point I have only personally seen a very formal side of the conference.

Attending this side event allowed me to bring these ideas to two conversations I had today one with a climate professional and one with my classmates. In both conversations we talked about the need to put people in the center of our considerations for climate policy. I really appreciated the comments and insights provided by the climate professional we talked with. He shared the importance of NGO’s in the negotiations, which I think was very helpful for me when thinking about the innerworkings of COP. However, I think the debrief with my classmates was even better. We got to talk about our days, what we learned, what we thought, etc. Needless to say there were some fun and important points made over tapas. Looking forward to tomorrow and Friday.

Melinda Melvin

Today was a whirlwind day of learning and seeing negotiations in full swing. This morning, the first iteration of the draft text for Article 6 came out, and there started to be real movement by parties on technical aspects of this negotiation. I worked together with other NGOs to formulate updated recommendations in the morning which was distributed to delegates over the lunch break. During the afternoon negotiation session, we saw a delegate reading our proposal, and heard several countries make positions that sounded a lot like what we had proposed in our paper. Some of the Duke students also met up with the Executive Vice President of C2ES, Elliot Diringer, who shared some insights into the COP, its relevance post-rulebook, and how his organization has influenced discussions by Parties over the years. It was a great day of learning more about advocacy in action and how NGOs can affect the outcome of these negotiations from the outside. I also attended a briefing for all Canadians by the Chief Negotiator about Canada’s priorities for this COP. I really appreciated that the delegation was so transparent about its goals, answered questions from observers, and asked observers to share what they were working on and what their interests were at this COP. We ended the day with delicious tapas in the back of a wine shop in downtown Madrid. A long but energizing third day at the COP!