Do you know who is seated next to you?

I wriggled my way into the middle seat for the flight from London to Glasgow – the final leg of the 15-hour journey from Durham. Seated by the window was a woman studiously completing a crossword puzzle in a “Puzzles for Mindfulness” book. As I settled down, I turned to the man seated on my other side and asked if he had been to Glasgow before, which I had learned was the offhanded manner to ask if he was attending COP. Sure enough, as was probably the case for the majority of the flight, he was headed to the conference. He began to discuss his work in renewable energy in the North East as I saw the crossword puzzle close shut.

“Excuse me for overhearing, but are you both headed to COP?” the woman enquired. Excitedly, I responded with a yes and asked her in turn, “are you attending too? Which agency are you with?”

She, it turns out, was a former Chief Scientist of the UN Environment Programme.

For the rest of the flight, she shared her experiences writing IPCC reports, her new findings on plastic pollution, insights into sustainable agriculture, battles with climate deniers, and new technologies to measure soil carbon. I heard about her incredible reforestation project in the community she lives in Kenya and learned how she combines her scientific expertise with the business practices needed to create climate solutions. It was the first time I have ever wished a flight could be longer!

As I got off the plane, I could not believe that I had not even arrived in Glasgow, much less the conference center, and yet I was already interacting with the most brilliant minds in the climate science and action field. If this was the experience I had just traveling to COP26, what will be awaiting me when Week 2 begins?

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Tomorrow, the second half of our cohort and I will arrive at the conference center to attend Week 2 of COP26. Armed with my UNFCCC badge and a sense of excitement, I cannot wait to see global climate policy development in action. While there is so much to take in at COP between negotiations and celebrity sightings (I’ll be keeping my eye out for Obama tomorrow!), I will be especially focused on progress on Article 6.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement addresses carbon and mitigation trading mechanisms. Despite the celebration of the Paris Agreement’s 6^th birthday this year, the rules surrounding trading still have not been defined. Many experts are calling this COP the last hope in achieving successful negotiations on this rulebook. I have become increasingly invested in decisions on corresponding adjustments, which dictates how emission trading between countries needs to be captured within both Parties’ emissions inventories and Nationally Determined Contributions.

In all, after a semester of learning the history of the UNFCCC and crossing our fingers that our travel request would be approved, I am incredibly ecstatic to have made it to Glasgow and to be attending a Conference of the Parties in person. This is truly a dream come true, and hopefully the first COP of many I will attend as I continue to learn about our world’s climate policy.