My first stop at COP28 was the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub. In figuring out which sessions I wanted to attend, I noticed the word “innovation” appearing again and again and thought it might be helpful to hear how an official UN pavilion was defining this buzzword in the initial events. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself listening to panels that seem to take an expansive view of the definition of “innovation” beyond just technological changes. The series of speakers each talked about the need to close the gap between what we think is possible and what is needed to avert the worst climate impacts. In their formulation this moment necessitates a reimagining of our all too often exploitive relationship with the natural world. “Either the future will be green or there will be no future.”

I asked the speakers how we break free from the limitations constraints that short term incentives, habits and practices in both political and business realms impose on human systems when trying to cope with a long-term challenge such as climate. In response, one speaker identified three truisms to keep in mind; 1) customers generally don’t want to pay more for things, 2) shareholders always want to make more money, and 3) politicians want to be reelected. Continuing, this presenter described past work in finding synergies between seemingly unrelated constituencies as a kind of “magic alchemy” to achieve unlikely breakthroughs, giving an example of how partnering with mobility activists on a campaign to increase public transit led to a successful campaign.

As a master’s student at the Sanford School of Public Policy, I was heartened to hear many speakers emphasize the importance policy. Policy is needed both to incentivizing the kinds of changes we want, while strong regulation is necessary to limit or eliminate activities that we find to be environmentally destructive and harmful to human health and flourishing. Of course, this is easier said than done, but these conversations did validate my decision to orient myself professionally to pursue climate solutions through public policy.

Another highlight of the day for me was a discussion in the Ocean Pavilion on the climate implications of plastics production and waste. After she spoke passionately about the need for a binding global treaty on plastics production and waste management, I was privileged to get to speak with Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program. She noted that materials that are precious (like oil) must have systems in place to recycle them and to eliminate unnecessary uses because they are ultimately finite. She shared how great deal of plastic waste is generated by cleaning products that used to be powder products are now sold as convenient products like liquid detergents. This reminded me to the opportunities that can be found in challenging the default practices that we’ve inherited and instead attempting to align of practices with the needs of the present and our aspirations for the future.