Since 1995, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has hosted the yearly Conferences of Parties (COP) to facilitate international climate policy. Organizations from around the world gather to set the agenda for coordinated action on climate change. Marking its 25th meeting, COP25 suffered multiple setbacks beginning during the planning stages and continuing …
Category: COP 25
The Politics of Power in Global Climate Efforts: A Reflection
The 25th Conference of Parties (COP 25) was originally scheduled to be held in Santiago, Chile, but a national fight against structural injustices there led to a last-minute change of locale. Instead, the global climate change convening took place in Madrid, Spain. While I and the other U-M delegates were able to change our flights …
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Reflections on COP 25: Food Systems
As a first time observer of the Annual Conference of Parties, I was completely enamored as soon as I walked in the convention center, and am honestly still reeling about the experience. If you have not yet had the pleasure of attending, it is a conference unlike any other. One convention center packed to the brim …
Interwoven Entanglements: Reflections on Indigenous Language and Community-Engagement at COP25
It’s day 3 of COP25 and I’m serving as a volunteer, note taking for the UN Secretariat at the Joint Event on Integrating Local and Indigenous knowledge into Adaptation Action. As the facilitator, Musonda Mumba, Chief of the Terrestrial Ecosystems Unit at the UNEP staged a guiding question, “How do we integrate the diverse knowledge …
Sustainable Tourism: Challenging a Personal and Global Catch-22
At 37,000 feet in the air, there was a hint of hypocrisy that filled my mind; I was on my way to attend a conference dedicated to sharing how humans are impacting the environment and what can be done to reduce that impact. And to support that mission, I was traveling over 4,000 miles and …
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Europe’s Moonshot: An Argument for Environmental Optimism
The European Union, a political and economic union consisting of 27 European nations, announced, during the second week of the 25th Conference of Parties, an ambitious “Green Deal for Europe” which will attempt to drive the continent to carbon neutrality by 2050– and be the first continent to do so. The Deal is remarkable in that …
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Climate & Youth Activism at COP25
Youth activists was a prominent aspect of COP25. During the second week at COP25 in Madrid, Spain, I felt, heard, and saw the youth at the conference in more ways than one. It is important to recognize the intersection of youth and climate, where climate change is an intragenerational challenge and ultimately it will be …
Response Measures: What Are They and Why Are They Important?
On December 4th, 2019, I sat in a meeting of the “Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures” (KCI) and for three hours, I listened to world leaders discuss colors. What exactly are “response measures,” and why are they a major strand of talks at COP25 in Madrid? In …
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Article 6 – The Carbon Markets and the Issues
In 2015, 195 countries signed the global climate deal at the Paris climate conference (COP 21). The Paris Agreement aims to set an action plan pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. Each signatory shall submit a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), an estimation which embodies her goal in emission reduction. Last December in …
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Marching in the World’s Largest Climate Strike
By Kate Vogel On Friday, December 6th, I had the opportunity to join one of the world's largest climate strikes ever: the 500,000 people strong march in Madrid, Spain. As I was sitting in a restaurant eating tapas, I wasn't thinking about what the next eight hours of my day would look like. Rather, I …
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