The first two days of COP were confusing, to say the least. The World Leaders Summit occupied the beginning of COP and drew so much attention that the pavilions (where most informal events are held) had limited schedules. It wasn’t until Wednesday that we really started to get into the groove of things and gain a firmer understanding of how we wanted to tackle COP. We focused on attending pavilion events, where countries assemble panels of public and private sector leaders to discuss efforts and progress occurring in their country. The events cover a range of topics and match the theme of the day scheduled by the COP organizers. For Ben and I, we were most excited about Energy day on Thursday since panels would be discussing topics we have the most prior knowledge and interest in. 

Thursday mostly tracked around the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Green Hydrogen Catapult, an initiative that brings together industrial companies from around the world to make commitments to green hydrogen production. The day began with a private roundtable among CEOs and Ministers of the Environment on the potential for green hydrogen. Ministers shared what their countries are working on and the Director for Energy in John Kerry’s office spoke about the First Mover’s Coalition, a group of businesses committed to purchasing green hydrogen in an effort to demonstrate the existence of demand. The second event was part of the Marrakech Partnerships and was a short panel on green hydrogen. Jules Kortenhorst, the CEO of RMI, moderated the panel of business leaders and facilitated a discussion on their commitments to green hydrogen. This was sort of the leadup to the big event RMI was working on, the launch of the Green Hydrogen Catapult. At this event in the Action Hub (a beautiful multimedia space) a similar panel announced that the Catapult of 11 companies from around the world were committed to operating 45 GW of green hydrogen by 2027. The size of this announcement is enormous given the International Energy Agency projected that the world will need 80 GW of green hydrogen to stay on track for 1.5°C goals. 

Overall, Energy day reflected an economy in the midst of a clean energy transition. There was hardly any talk of energy efficiency, wind, solar, or any other early stage clean energy technologies. Instead, talk was about technology that will hasten existing decarbonization efforts and programs that will facilitate sharing lessons learned. 

Additionally, We were pleasantly surprised that dialogue from the United States was about collaboration within the government, between governments, and between the public and private sectors. Events at the U.S. Center avoided boasting about redundant efforts and focused on innovating together with partners. The center successfully incorporated individuals working in “the weeds” of climate innovation into direct dialogue with high-level messengers like Secretary of Energy Granholm and White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy. 

The conversations around climate governance and technology development show a degree of maturity in our collective decarbonization effort. Leaving COP26, we are hopeful that global dialogues around climate will continue to be collaborative and allow innovation to be shared across borders. This is a step in the right direction for international dialogue and a necessity in our fight against climate change.

– Ben Joseph and Sagar Shah