COP29 has been a multidimensional experience. I’ve had so many opportunities to grow and learn, for which I truly am grateful. However, after riding the high of the overwhelming buzz and excitement at the conference throughout the week, I’ve had some epiphanies I can’t help but share.
One of my significant realizations revolves around the financial investment in COP and whether it is truly worth it.
I was at a press conference today where a speaker mentioned how she asked someone how much the creation of their pavilion cost, they said 400,000 dollars. There are seemingly a hundred pavilions at COP, and if the cost of one could be nearly half a million dollars, especially as one of the smaller ones, I cannot imagine the price of not only the creation of all the pavilions but all of the infrastructure that comes along with COP. From the venue — nearly completely built up — to the transportation to hiring all the employees that work in all the dimensions of creating COP. I mean this conference in and of itself is a multi-million dollar production. Most of this investment doesn’t even go into organizing and maintaining the negotiations, which are arguably the most critical aspect of COP. This for me raises two critical concerns; firstly, I call into question the priorities of COP.
According to the UNFCCC, “COPs are where Parties (governments) assess global efforts to advance the key Paris Agreement aim of limiting global warming to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.” Clearly the main agenda of these annual, global meetings is to make progress towards curbing climate change and its impacts, and I do see that happening. I’ve gone to some very enlightening negotiations and press conferences, and I do genuinely believe we are making progress.
But, on the other hand, I’ve also seen how COP is similar to some huge, global networking event. I mean, if most of the investment is funneled into these extravagant pavilions and elaborate infrastructure rather than the core negotiations and actionable outcomes, I question the effectiveness and priorities of the conference.
Are we really focusing our resources on this meaningful dialogue to combat climate change, or are we getting sidetracked by the allure of showcasing our national achievements and innovations?
On that note, I’ll discuss my second critical concern; COP is gradually, almost imperceptibly, normalizing the climate crisis. Near the entrance of the pavilion section of the Blue Zone is the Brazilian pavilion–being one of the most visually striking ones–with a bold headline that reads, “See you at COP30!” I didn’t think anything wrong of it when I saw it, in fact, it was invigorating. I was already imagining how incredible the next COP would be. But in essence, this sentiment raises a troubling question: Are we truly addressing the urgency of climate change, or are we treating COP like an annual festival, some kind of well-organized gathering that we actually look forward to attending?
I mean, let’s take a step back here. COP was initially established because we recognized the critical nature of the climate emergency. We need to realize that the original intent was to unite nations in a needed effort to combat a crisis that threatens our very existence! We should approach each COP with gravity and desperation! Honestly, it should feel like a necessary, albeit painful, gathering—an unfortunate call to action rather than any cause for excitement.
I’ll leave you with this; We should hope that every COP is our last, not because we are giving up, but because we have finally succeeded in addressing climate change and no longer need to convene on this dire issue.
Rakiya is a Climate Generation Window Into COP delegate for COP29. To learn more, we encourage you to meet the full delegation, support our delegates, and subscribe to the Window Into COP digest.
Rakiya Sheikhosman is a freshman at the University of Minnesota majoring in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. She loves engaging in work pertaining to environmental conservation and community involvement. As a Youth Environmental Activist for Climate Generation, she’s done work lobbying for a statewide Climate Justice Education Bill, along with co-hosting the annual Youth Climate Justice Summit. She’s also spent a summer working in a biosystems and bioengineering lab at the University of Minnesota to mitigate hydrogen sulfide in agricultural settings. She recently finished her term as a 4-H State Ambassador representing Hennepin County in which she co-facilitated statewide 4-H youth conferences as a part of the Service Committee and gave presentations guiding youth in starting sustainable initiatives to help their communities and enact change. Outside of her work, she enjoys crocheting and cooking. She also loves spending time with friends and family.
The post My Qualms With COP29, And Also, COP in General appeared first on Climate Generation.
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Picture an American farm in your mind.
I fell flat on my backside one afternoon this January and, weirdly, it made me think of you. Okay, I know that takes a bit of unpacking—so let me go back and start at the beginning.
For the last six years, our family has joined with half a dozen others to spend a week or so up at Wangat Lodge, located on a 50-acre subtropical rainforest property around three hours north of Sydney. The accommodation is pretty basic, with no wifi coverage—so time in Wangat really revolves around the bush. You live by the rhythm of the sun and the rain, with the days punctuated by swimming in the river and walking through the forest.
An intrinsic part of Wangat is Dan, the owner and custodian of the place, and the guide on our walks. He talks about time, place, and care with great enthusiasm, but always tenderly and never with sanctimony. “There is no such thing as ‘the same walk’”, is one of Dan’s refrains, because the way he sees it “every day, there is change in the world around you” of plants, animals, water and weather. Dan speaks of Wangat with such evident love, but not covetousness; it is a lightness which includes gentle consciousness that his own obligations arise only because of the historic dispossession of others. He inspires because of how he is.
One of the highlights this year was a river walk with Dan, during which we paddled or waded through most of the route, with only occasional scrambles up the bank. Sometimes the only sensible option is to swim. Among the life around us, we notice large numbers of tadpoles in the water, which is clean enough to drink. Our own tadpoles, the kids in the group, delight in the expedition. I overhear one of the youngest children declaring that she’s having ‘one of the best days ever’. Dan looks content. Part of his mission is to reintroduce children to nature, so that the soles of their feet may learn from the uneven ground, and their muscles from the cool of the water.
These moments are for thankfulness in the life that lives.
It is at the very end of the walk when I overbalance and fall on my arse—and am reminded of the eternal truth that rocks are hard. As I gingerly get up, my youngest daughter looks at me, caught between amusement and concern, and asks me if I’m okay.
I have to think before answering, because yes, physically I’m fine. But I feel too, an underlying sense of discomfort; it is that omnipresent pressure of existential awareness about the scale of suffering and ecological damage now at large in the world, made so much more immediately acute after Bondi; the dissonance that such horrors can somehow exist simultaneously with this small group being alive and happy in this place, on this earth-kissed afternoon.
How is it okay, to be “okay”? What is it to live with conscience in Wangat? Those of us who still have access to time, space, safety and high levels of volition on this planet carry this duality all the time, as our gift and obligation. It is not an easy thing to make sense of; but for me, it speaks to the question of ‘why Greenpeace’? Because the moral and strategic mission-focus of campaigning provides a principled basis for how each of us can bridge that interminable gulf.
The essence of campaigning is to make the world’s state of crisis legible and actionable, by isolating systemic threats to which we can rise and respond credibly, with resources allocated to activity in accordance with strategy. To be part of Greenpeace, whether as an activist, volunteer supporter or staff member, is to find a home for your worries for the world in confidence and faith that together we have the power to do something about it. Together we meet the confusion of the moment with the light of shared purpose and the confidence of direction.
So, it was as I was getting back up again from my tumble and considering my daughter’s question that I thought of you—with gratitude, and with love–-because we cross this bridge all the time, together, everyday; to face the present and the future.
‘Yes, my love’, I say to my daughter, smiling as I get to my feet, “I’m okay”. And I close my eyes and think of a world in which the fires are out, and everywhere, all tadpoles have the conditions of flourishing to be able to grow peacefully into frogs.
Thank you for being a part of Greenpeace.
With love,
David
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