As you walk into a building and see different people from all over the world in one area is truly amazing. I have truly been blessed to see people all around with a common goal, to combat climate change. The security procedures at the confrence can be overwhelming. The security consists UN peacekeepers,police officers, and military. Security starts as you leave the train station to enter the shuttle bus to take you to the conference. As I near the actual center the more security I see. As I enter the site you would show your badge to one guard and then walk down a few steps to another guard I show him my badge. I then walk through this big building and see another security person direct me to an area where I unload all my belongings in a box. This procedure is similar to one done in the airport. On the first day I made a mistake of bringing a water bottle. The UN personel made me drink it in front of her to make sure there was no poison or acid in the water bottle.
So far my time at the conference in getting into meetings has really been based on luck. Originally I had an idea of focosing on small island nations, but once I got to the conference I just went in with the intention of being open to different things. Today I happened to stumble on annual financial reports. I heard the Green Climate Fun (GCF) deliver there fourth annual report to the Vice President of COP21. They were presenting what they have been up to for the past year with Mali. A lot of rumors have been going around about which country will host COP22, and at the annual financial report Morocco offically announced that they will be hosting COP22. A delegate from Morocco did not hesitate to mention that Morocco had been one of the first countries to put out a plan to combat climate change and has supported COP for the past few years. Also Morocco will be investing a lot of money into renewable energy. It is extremley fascinating to see all the delegates around the world hear the annual reports on what their or other countries are doing.
Today around 1pm our group used Skype to talk to a school in Sweden. The students in Sweden were very passionate about climate change. We discussed what is currently happening in COP21, what the climate change movement is in Minnesota and what a great job Sweden is doing to help neogioate. After that Lily and I decided to have some down time and get some lunch. I went to this empty room afterwards just to find out what I should do next when I hear that the President of COP21 and the President of COP20 were coming to answer questions from the NGOs. So I stayed to hear what the COP21 & 22 had to say. I was really inspired by the intellegence of these presidents. They had an answer for everything. One of the questions that hit close to home was "Some of the NGOs have little to no say in what goes on in the conference or in negotiations. How can we be heard?" The former President of COP gave out where he his office would be in the conferrence. He mentioned how essential NGOs are, and that that NGOs should be heard. He hoped to get all of the NGOs input and to relay it to the current President of COP
Overall my time here in this beautiful city has been surreal. I have been given this blessing to meet people from every walks of life. It could be someone from the Sierra Club staying in the same hostel as me, sleeping on the same floor. Or someone from Chad that runs the delegation office at COP. It has truly been an amazing time
Hi Filsan - Have you heard much yet at the conference about new financial commitments from the Parties to the GCF? Financing has been a major stumbling block for a long time, most notably since the establishment of the GCF at COP16 in 2010.
ReplyDelete