After over 48 hours of plane, cars and so much sitting in airports, I finally arrived in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt early Saturday morning, greasy, sleep deprived and ready to be thrown into the hectic world that is COP27.
Though climate policy has never been my explicit focus, it has always been an issue that I’ve cared about and wanted to engage with more. That and the increasing presence and effects of climate change in all other areas of life, especially as a major cause of migration, made this year’s UN Climate Conference a perfect time to dive in. Two days in and I already have a lot of thoughts on the matter.
The majority of the weekend has been spent figuring out logistics both for the UN conference and also for staying in Egypt. Much paperwork has been filled out by now. Any free time we have had has been spent at interfaith meetings before the main events and negotiations start.
On Saturday we met with the Climate Action Network (CAN) a super group of civil organizations that have banded together to work at COPs and on climate justice for years now. For about six or so hours (not exactly sure due to delirium from sleep deprivation) I got to hear from a panel of experts that gave a run down on the state of affairs around climate, from Mitigation, Adaptation to Loss & Damages (the major agenda items of this year’s COP). Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the situation is greatly wanting. The majority of the western world has not come close to making promises in both cutting carbon emissions as well as in financing the global transition and adaptation to new climate norms. However, CAN, along with a number of other advocates, continue to press on.
CAN gave its members a policy outline that had written information on the climate situation, their policy recommendations and action plan for COP27 itself. The end of the meeting focused on how the groups were going to talk to world leaders and a put pressure on them as a collective force.
Several groups from CAN as well as others organizations then met on Sunday in a religious service where interfaith groups could meet, pray and discuss climate action in a telanoa format (a long time favorite of Texas Impact). This, too, gave me insight into the global climate community, and introduced me to some very interesting and inspiring people.
These intro meetings have been thought provoking and overall really engaging, however, a major disappointment I have felt with the whole COP process (besides the overwhelming frustration with world leaders to take the issue seriously) has been the neglection to give climate induced migration appropriate time or spotlight on the COP agenda. Climate induced migration is a serious issue and one that we can easily see at home. There are an anticipated 10 million climate induced migrants within the next few years.
Loss and Damages itself (the payment to climate affected countries who have contributed the least to climate change) just got onto the COP27 agenda, something groups have been fighting for years, with migration thrown under it as a subcategory. While it is a great success that Loss and Damages are finally being addressed at COP, migration is a growing climate issue in its own right that will require different and far reaching solutions.
The main reason for addressing loss and damages is that we have failed to properly adapt to climate change so we are now seeing the destructive results through floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and more. Of course, this is going to lead to the destruction of homes, and when people lose their homes they are going to have to move. This issue will only continue to become more pressing as time goes on, and will require enough individual attention to effectively address it.
In the face of such a massive issue such as climate change, it is hard not to buckle under its weight and feel paralyzed. However, the amount of dedication and passion coming from so many advocates gives me hope. They’re resilience and strength in combating climate change is not something to be taken lightly and should be an example to us all to continue to hope and work for the beloved community.