During the first week of COP27, I participated in a briefing with US State Department negotiators; attended a speech by President Biden; and interviewed colleagues from US faith communities. More than once, I caught myself wondering, “couldn’t we have just done this on Zoom?”
It can feel superfluous to travel halfway across the world to attend an event where my main focus is on mobilizing people in my own country. Many of the COP presentations are live-streamed; much of the information is available online. Why would we spend the time and effort—let alone the carbon—to come in person?
If you want to understand the global issues well enough to explain it to your friends and neighbors, you have to go to the global public square. The COP is where we come to learn the perspectives and paradigms of people from countries and contexts that are very different from our own. We live in close community for a short time with individuals who are experiencing phenomena that appear as climate buzzwords in US media: “the most vulnerable,” “those already suffering,” “the Global South.”
It’s also important to come in person so we can appreciate the wisdom of leaders from other cultures…wisdom which often comes delivered wrapped in caffeine. Standing in line for coffee, I enjoyed a fascinating conversation with an older woman banker from Egypt. We talked about double standards in the workplace and about women working in finance. We got a special treat one evening when we stopped by the Niger Pavilion and accepted cups of tea from Alhousseini Chehou, one of Niger’s negotiators. The Niger Pavilion is always full of people sitting on rugs drinking Alhousseini’s tea, which he says is the tea of peace. “People in conflict come together to drink tea,” Chehou said, “and by the time they are finished having fellowship over their tea, they are able to work out their differences peaceably.”
Solving global climate change will require true cooperation and compassion between countries that have vastly different cultures, polities, and aspirations. COP is an important place to establish the human connections and mutual understanding that will help us navigate the rough waters of this “decisive decade.”