Author: Corey Sugerik (Page 2 of 2)

Keeping an eye on my Twitter feed this week, I am disappointed to see that I missed out on some of the more exciting and emotionally charged moments from the second week of the COP. With a significantly larger presence of fossil fuel representatives in the side events this week, there was also much more room for contention. Seeing the videos of protests and walkouts from sessions being presented by fossil fuel representatives was inspiring. To see so many motivated youth taking visible action against these industries on a global stage was bold and hopefully sent a clear message to world leaders.

If the overwhelming presence of fossil fuel representatives wasn’t enough, coal took a front seat in discussions not only in the first week, but throughout the conference. From my perspective, had the COP not been hosted by such a coal-dependent country I feel the tone towards fossil fuels would be completely different. Poland even won the Climate Action Network’s Fossil of the Year award for its promotion of coal and for attempts to suppress NGO activists. Poland also won the Fossil of the Day award a few times over the course of the two weeks. On the other hand, they have also returned to awarding the Ray of the Day to countries that are promoting cooperation and positively working towards success in the COP.

Source: Twitter

While I valued all of the sessions that I attended in the first week of the COP, I would love to have attended the second week to see more of the intense debate. It is disappointing, albeit not surprising, that the US has now aligned more with countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia in trying to block progress on the Paris Agreement. This is incredibly frustrating considering the US (as one of the largest emitters of CO₂ globally) has expressed its intention of withdrawing from the agreement but insists on blocking progress before that time comes. It is equally frustrating that the countries that are pushing for the most action are the developing countries that are most vulnerable. It feels like this devastating cry for help and those in power are not listening.

In the end, this course was incredibly valuable in understanding the complexities and sheer magnitude of work that goes into international agreements regarding climate change. I walked away from the conference and this class with actions I can take now that will hopefully make an impact in the grand scheme of tackling climate change. I also feel a sense of hope that so many young people have stood up for climate action and are going to be the next generation of leaders that will hopefully take even more serious and meaningful action on climate change. The young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg gave a speech in a plenary session this week in which she succinctly summed up my feelings about intergenerational equity with “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to your children.”

*FOMO = Fear of Missing Out

It’s hard to believe how quickly week one at COP24 passed. Attending this monumental event was a very enlightening and motivating experience. There was a lot of information to absorb, and a lot of discussions to track, but we all walked away with an understanding of the complexity that goes into international negotiations. The end result of COP24 is a rulebook for implementing the Paris Agreement and we were lucky enough to witness the intricate, and often frustrating, work that goes into developing such a comprehensive document.

I think that attending both the negotiations and the side events provided a balance of understanding the intense process behind creating this Paris rulebook and hearing authentic experiences of environmental leaders around the world who are passionate about climate action. Working with the Environmental Defense Fund this week, I was tasked with following issues on transparency and increasing ambition. The negotiation sessions on transparency were often dry and repetitive. The same parties tended to speak (United States, Brazil, EU, Saudi Arabia) and they spent most of the time emphasizing and repeating what other parties had presented. They spent hours at a time picking apart text, the use of brackets, and trying to push their parties’ agenda forward.

The side events were much more fast paced and exciting, especially because they tended to lean towards speakers who have implemented projects and programs in their state, city or local communities. These events covered every conceivable topic around climate change. I attended sessions involving mitigation, transparency, youth involvement, aviation, increasing ambitions, and the IPCC report. I wanted to attend sessions that interested me, but I also wanted to make sure I was following topics that my NGO client (EDF) didn’t have the time to cover but wanted information on.

Delving into transparency and increased ambition, and hearing experiences from environmental leaders, increasing transparency tended to involve incorporating it into any regional, national, or local climate policy. Integrating transparency from the beginning made it much easier for these countries and sub-national actors to report their emissions, and to do it in an efficient and effective manner. They also emphasized the importance of involving the private sector, as it can be challenging to engage them in climate action, but their participation is necessary to achieving our targets.

Moving forward from this experience I took away a few key messages. One is that I need to start a vegetarian diet as soon as possible. Another is that while we may feel helpless at points operating under a federal administration that refuses to take action on climate change, we have a certain level of influence in our personal circles. Climate action can be taken at an individual level by changing your diet, electing state and local officials who are pro-climate, or even convincing loved ones to take those small steps to reducing their carbon footprint. Ultimately, that holds a lot of power, and we will not be able to reach our goals of mitigating climate change without individual action in addition to those actions at the higher levels.

The time has finally come that our class has been preparing for all semester. The first week of COP24 is upon us and the outcome of these negotiations will have serious implications for the future of our environment and the future of climate change. My interest in the COP and climate mitigation really began with my service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi.

While spending three years in Malawi, I witnessed the detrimental effects that climate change can have in a developing country. I felt this overwhelming sense of guilt that I (as a citizen of one of the largest CO2 emitters in the world) have contributed to the climate consequences that Malawi was facing. After that experience, I decided I wanted to play a role as environmental professional in the United States by working towards mitigating climate change.

I will be spending some of my week at COP24 working with the Environmental Defense Fund and providing support as they track carbon markets and double counting of emission reductions. These topics are key in ensuring that mitigation measures are being accurately and transparently accounted for. When a country transfers carbon credits to another country, in some cases the country that transferred the credit will count those in their reductions and the country who received the carbon credits will also count the credits in their reductions. This is clearly problematic as now there is an overestimation of carbon reductions and there need to be clear rules set in place to prevent this from happening. Another major topic that I am interested in following is the CORSIA (or Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation), which is very relevant considering how most participants have to fly to the COP.

As I write this post at the Warsaw airport, I can’t help but think about the emission that I caused by flying to COP24. I remembered that I received an email from the Climate Neutral Now platform, which provides the opportunity to offset your carbon emissions from traveling to the COP by purchasing certified emission reductions for various projects.The first step is to calculate your carbon emissions from your travel, which you can do through the International Civil Aviation Organization carbon emission calculator.

As you can see my round-trip flight alone emitted a little over a tonne of CO2. This doubles if you fly business class. The next step is to search the list of projects on the UN Carbon offset platform and select one to purchase certified emission reductions. The price of a single certified emission reduction can vary from about $0.33 to around $9.

I purchased 2 certified emissions reductions (equivalent to 2 tonnes of CO2) for a renewable energy project in India that promotes wind energy. If everyone who is attending the COP is committed to combating climate change and they choose to fly, they should also make the commitment to making their travel carbon neutral.

All in all this week will be a whirlwind, but I am looking forward to observing and learning as much as possible, and hopefully walk away a bit more optimistic for the future of our planet.