David attends COP28
This past December I had the good fortune to join COP28 in Dubai in support of the primarily to share our latest projections of glaciers' response to climate change and advocate for the need to limit global mean temperature increase to +1.5 degC above pre-industrial levels. The cryosphere is such a good indicator of the temperature increase and its impacts on sea-level rise, water resources, and communities mean that regardless of where one lives they will likely be impacted by these changes. We were therefore working to get the delegates and policy makers to incorporate language associated with the cryosphere into the draft text.
The first day was a steep learning curve getting my bearings. COP is broken into two zones: the blue and green zones. The green zone includes “civil society” and is more broadly accessible, while access to the blue zone is more strictly limited. The blue zone is where I spent most of my time and comprised pavilions and offices that supported booths, side events (often live-streamed), and meetings. Our location was unfortunately quite far from the main meeting rooms where the negotiations and talks from world leaders are held. I learned quickly that getting 10,000 steps was going to be an easy feat to accomplish before lunch! Good shoes are a necessity.
I thus spent my time between standing at the cryosphere pavilion, listening (and sometimes providing some insight) in discussions with the negotiators, and generally enjoying visiting other pavilions and learning about the process.
The big outcome of Day 1 was the formation of the Loss and Damage Fund - a major achievement that builds on COP27 - which specifically provides funds from the primary emitters to the countries that are most negatively impacted by the resulting climate change.
Day 2 started early with a briefing with ICCI. As I mentioned, this experience for me was just filled with learning and these meetings helped provide wonderful perspective on the activities of the day and who we would hopefully speak with. That said, one thing I learned on Day One is that plans can change on a moments notice, especially with high ranking officials, so being flexible and prepared is key.
In the evening, we were planning to meet with Alain Berset - the current President of the Swiss Confederation. I thus spent an hour putting together a video that focused on glacier changes in Switzerland and Central Europe to supplement the State of the Cryosphere report that is shown throughout the pavilion (special thanks to Matthias Huss for providing most of the incredible images). Fast-forward to 6 pm and we were unsure if he was going to be able to make it but fortunately he did! We were able to thank him for his support of ICCI and various adaptation activities that the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and then launch into a discussion about the changing glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice (I only spoke to the former). I left feeling incredibly fulfilled at his attention and having the opportunity to speak with a world leader - very humbling.
Did I also mention all the other activities going on? Day 2 is when the world leaders make their presence known. While Biden didn’t have a surprise visit (John Kerry came instead), I did stumble upon a pavilion where Al Gore was speaking after a panel on the need to learn from local leaders who have been successful in making change and bring this to national leaders!
Day 3 was my last day and did not dissapoint either. We were fortunate to arrange a visit with Alberto van Klaveren - Chile's current Minister of Foreign Affairs - at the Cryosphere Pavilion. So once again, I put my amateur video-making skills to use and spent the first several hours putting together a video that highlighted our glacier projections for some of the most visited glaciers in Chile as well as highlighting relevant studies, especially those related to water resources given the contribution of glaciers to potable water in cities like Santiago. It's incredible all the work that goes into just a couple minutes of talking to a delegate, but these are incredibly fulfilling and humbling experiences to have political leaders who are interested and support our work.
I finished my time at COP28 by giving a talk at one of ICCI's side events before spending a little time to wander around the venue and soak in how fortunate I was to be a part of these incredibly important international negotations.
And of course, it’s always good to explore the city. Fortunately things in Dubai are open late given that we started early in the morning and typically didn't end until 6-7 pm. Some highlights included visiting the Palm Islands, Dubai Mall, and Burj Khalifa. The size of the buildings and some of the engineering feats gave me the feeling that the city could be used in Star Wars. The buildings all seemed new, were huge, and yet were spaced such that you didn't feel like you were in a concrete jungle. And of course, exploring is always more fun with friends!
