Month: December 2023

“There is no climate justice without human rights”: The People’s Plenary

By: Emmy Li’25 (she/her)

Grandmother Mary Lyons, Anishinaabe-Ojibwe Elder, from the Indigenous Peoples Organization giving the opening speech at the People’s Plenary.

For the second year in a row, the Swarthmore delegation attended the People’s Plenary, a large gathering of civil society representatives making their voices and demands heard. Similar to COP27, this event was nowhere to be found on the UNFCCC COP28 Daily Programme schedule despite being an official UN sanctioned event. However, after learning of it in group chats, we officially marked it on our calendars and excitedly attended. 

The People’s Plenary, by far, did not disappoint. After spending nearly two weeks sitting in on stalled negotiations or witnessing the constant greenwashing around the venue, it was rejuvenating to hear the voices of those fighting climate change on the frontlines. Representatives from Indigenous Peoples, youth, women and gender constituencies, environmental NGOs, trade unions, and farmers all came together to give impassioned speeches calling for real climate solutions – ones that recognize Indigenous rights, labor rights, land rights, and human dignity. Hearing their voices gave me hope that we will find real solutions to combat climate change. That eventual fossil fuel phase out is possible despite parties blocking it from happening in negotiations currently. 

A noticeable theme across speeches at the People’s Plenary this year was a calling for the immediate ceasefire in Palestine. During the opening speech, the co-chair started by stating that she is from Palestine. Immediately, the whole room erupted into cheers of support and solidarity that continued for more than a minute. The calls for solidarity with Palestinians continued throughout the People’s Plenary, despite the regulations put in place by the UNFCCC Secretariat. I later learned from an organizer with the Climate Action Network (CAN) Australia that protests at COP28 are all strictly approved, controlled, and enforced. In regards to support for Palestine, protestors are not allowed to mention Palestine by name (despite the State of Palestine having a designated pavilion), cannot chant “From the River to the Sea,” and can only call for a “Ceasefire” but NOT “Ceasefire Now”. If protestors violate these restrictions, they risk having their badge taken away and being barred from attending COPs in the future. Despite these restrictions, those who spoke at the People’s Plenary asserted their voices to echo the overall theme that “there is no climate justice without human rights.” 

Image from a protest earlier in the week. Notice how the sign can only display “Ceasefire” but cannot display “Ceasefire Now.”

Given the various moving speeches, I would like to take the rest of this blog post and dedicate it to sharing the voice of the people. Representatives from all across the globe emphasized their extreme frustration with the existing UNFCCC system, a need for a just transition, and an overhaul of the existing capitalist, exploitative system that causes marginalized BIPOC communities to suffer the most at the hands of rich countries in the Global North.

From the Co-Chairs of the People’s Plenary:

  • “There is no climate justice, without human rights” 
  • “Ceasefire Now!” 
  • “What has Palestine got to do with climate change? It has everything to do with climate change! It is the very same system that is responsible for climate change and colonialism.”
Image of a protest from a video that was shown during the People’s Plenary. Given that protestors cannot mention Palestine by name, people have resorted to holding up posters of watermelon as a symbol of Palestinian resistance and persistence.

From the Representatives of the Indigenous Peoples Organizations (IPO) Constituency: 

  • “I am the water and the water is me. I am the fire and the fire is me. I am the air and the air is me. I am the earth and the earth is me.” 
  • “You cannot put a price on humanity and nature.”
  • “Earth, air, fire, water show no prejudice. Greed, greed created that.”
  • “We are the regions [Global South] that have the most killings just because we defend our lands.”
  • “When they talk about nature based solutions, we are part of the relationship with nature to engage in activities. We are the solutions.”
  • “We should stop commodifying indigenous territories, Indigenous lands. We are not an economic resource for the system and we will fight towards the end.”
  • “We are not here as passive observers, but experts, custodians of knowledge.” 

From the Representatives of the Youth (YOUNGO): 

  • Naomi, a 13 year old girl from South Sudan:
    • “I come from a country where children’s rights are being deprived because of flooding.”
    • “We’ve attended 28 COPs but nothing has been implemented from what we speak.” 
    • “If there was action, children wouldn’t die in rural areas, there wouldn’t be hunger in places.”
  • Roa, a youth from Sudan:
    • “An error does not become a mistake until we refuse to correct it.”
    • “If we don’t work together to save the environment, we will be equally extinct.”
Image of a protest from a video that was shown during the People’s Plenary.

From the Representatives of Trade Unions (TUNGO):

  • Joy Hernandez, a trade union worker in the Philippines:
    • “There is no just transition without labor rights.”
    • ”A just transition must be an opportunity to uphold our dignity.”
  • Bert Del Wel, the head of TUNGO:
    • “A just transition is about solidarity and justice. It’s about a decent life and jobs for everyone and everywhere. It’s about justice in and for Palestine. It’s about cooperation and support for equality and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.” 
    • “We need organized workers. We need collective bargaining, social dialogue, and a social protection system to deliver this climate justice.” 

From the Representatives of FARMERS Constituency: 

  • “We need protection of land rights, because land is the fundamental source of life.”
  • “How many people at this COP talk about land as the source of everything we need. They talk about markets. They talk about oil. They talk about money. Yet land is where we are rooted.”
  • “The agribusinesses that are here today trying to say that they provide the solutions to feeding the planet in the place of increasing climate chaos are not the ones providing the real solutions. The small scale farmers are.”
  • “They thought they could bury us, but they didn’t know that we were seeds. And that’s exactly what small scale farmers do. They provide the seeds of the future. When you bury us, we will grow.”
Audio from Ayshka Najib’s speech on behalf of the Women and Gender Constituency

From the Representatives of the Women and Gender Constituency: 

  • “There cannot be climate justice on occupied land.” 
  • “The elephant in the room is demilitarization.” 
  • “We are tired of being your bargaining chips.”
  • “We call resistance. [Repeated in Arabic]. We call liberation. [Repeated in Arabic]. We call equity. [Repeated in Arabic].”
  • “The silence and global north organization in positions of power is unbearable. The limitations on freedom of speech imposed in this space by the UNFCCC are left on the shoulders of the civil society movement is unacceptable and beyond paid for.“

From a Representative of an organization to demand climate justice: 

  • “La tierra no se vende, la tierra se defiende.” 
  • “Nobody is free until everybody is free.”
A hug between Tasmeen Essop, the director of CAN, and the Co-Chair from Palestine.

From the Representatives of Environmental NGOs (ENGO) Constituency: 

  • Tasmeen Essop, director of Climate Action Network and from South Africa:
    • “The governments today are disappointing us and our Palestinians. But it’s the people across the world that are rising up and standing with Palestinians. That is our power. We will not let down our brother and sisters in Palestine, just like we did let down the people in South Africa”
  • Speaker 2: Male representative from the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice:
    • “Their broken promises on climate finance, on equity, and on justice litter 28 COPs. Their empty words no longer fool anyone. But our fight has never simply been about reducing carbon. Our fight has always been about ending injustice and inequity.”
    • “Our goal is to uproot this rotten system and injustice of 500 years of exploitation and extraction.”
    • “Our fight is not just about a just transition.  We want a justice transition. Our fight is a fight for humanity.”
    • “Yes, we say ceasefire now. Yes, we say end the occupation….And yes, we say we want an end to this rotten system. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!” 
The lyrics to the climate anthem that we sang as we marched out of the People’s Plenary.

As the People’s Plenary concluded, the collective call for climate justice continued to echo through the halls of COP. We all marched out of the plenary led by youth activists to a climate parody of the Backstreet Boys’ song “I Want It That Way.” I hope that seeing, reading, and hearing these activists make you feel as empowered as I do for the future of climate action.

The Shifting Sands of COP28

By Prof. James Padilioni, Jr.

Como arena entre los dedos. For some reason, there are certain phrases that strike me as more evocative in my heritage language of Spanish than their translation into English, my dominant tongue. One of these – como arena entre los dedos / like sand between the fingers – describes the futility of exerting more and more energy trying to accomplish something that is fundamentally structured in an antagonistic or unproductive way. 

For the last week I have attended side events, plenary sessions, and policy negotiations at COP28, and despite the goodwill for building sustainable futures carried to Dubai Expo City by many of the over 80,000 registered attendees, all I keep hearing in my head is the endless refrain that so much of the intentions uttered here will amount to nothing more than a Sisyphean effort to grab hold of the earth como arena entre los dedos. Though I strive to model for my students that “my default position is wonder [in the face of the beauty, magic, miracles, and patterns of the world], I am not without critique, disappointment, frustration, and even depression when I contemplate humanity.” 

Prof. Padilioni with Swarthmore-Pomona delegation (and friends!) at COP28

Since the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement, much fanfare has been made around the target of slashing emissions by half their current rate prior to 2030 in order for humans to have a chance at limiting global average temperature warming to only 1.5°C beyond pre-industrial levels (with a 2.0 degree average warming placed as the upper threshold of acceptability.) However, report after report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Meteorological Organization, and other climate science researchers over the course of 2023 in advance of COP28 has continued to sound the alarm that, with our current carbon emission rates, Earth is likely (66%) to exceed the 1.5°C benchmark prior to 2030, despite the now-eight-year global campaign to mitigate this outcome. Additionally, since the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement, it has also been known that COP28 would form the first global stocktake, defined by the UNFCCC as “a process for countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement – and where they’re not.” As an accounting and inventorying measure, the global stocktake was intended to enable the world to “identify the gaps, and work together to chart a better course forward to accelerate climate action.” 

But I am pained to report the global stocktake is, perhaps, the grandest staging of political theater humankind has ever had the opportunity to witness. For eight years now, various carbon markets and other trading schema have emerged to help facilitate a country’s net reduction in fossil fuel emissions so they can meet their obligations according to their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). But, at best, this stocktake is a ruse that, como arena entre los dedos was never intended as a true or accurate accounting measure, as country NDCs and their concomitant stocktake do not account for carbon emissions generated by militarism and warfare. Here, I find myself once again turning to sand as a proverbial figure for human futility: how utterly absurd it is to speak of reducing carbon emissions while simultaneously sticking one’s head in the sand as it relates to the ecological cost of warfare writ large. One cannot claim to care about the environment on one hand, while ignoring a primary vector of environmental degradation on the other. To ignore military fossil fuels on paper, while espousing “net-zero” carbon arrangements via financial and credit instruments is the height of absurdity. The reality of our warming atmospheric condition abides, regardless whether we factor military greenhouse gases into our bookkeeping measures or not. 

Graphic advertising the Peoples Plenary for Climate Justice at COP28

From the Steppes of Eastern Europe to the Levant of the Eastern Mediterranean, and down through the Sudd wetlands of the Upper Nile to the ​​Jebel Marra and beyond, the ecological destruction of warfare is on full display as we “doom scroll” through our social media feeds. As The New York Times has made clear, it should be obvious to any half-aware person that “Wars destroy habitats, kill wildlife, generate pollution and remake ecosystems entirely, with consequences that ripple through the decades.” But that which is seemingly-obvious is often elusive to collective human efforts, and thus, while the UNFCCC climate regime seeks to reign in excessive carbon emissions, warfare and genocide form the durable, though apocalyptic, signs of our times. Since February 2022, the Russian-Ukrainian War has expended over 150 million tons of carbon, or “more than the annual emission of a highly developed country like Belgium” according to Viktoria Kireyeva, Ukraine’s deputy minister of environmental protection and natural resources, who addressed this matter at the COP28 side event, “Climate damage of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the knowledge gap on conflict and military emissions COP28.” Likewise, in just the first month of Israel’s besiegement of Gaza, over 25,000 tons of munitions rained down upon the coastal strip the size of Philadelphia, with a carbon expenditure equalling the “annual energy use of approximately 2,300 homes, or the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from approximately 4,600 passenger vehicles.” And even in so-called peace time, the world’s militaries, with their aircraft, tanks, and weapons, and via their drills, exercises and other daily operations, are estimated to account for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, this is only an estimate because the Paris Agreement contains no operationalized mechanism to provide a true accounting of militarism’s carbon budget. 

Grandmother Mary Lyons, Anishinaabe-Ojibwe Elder, opens the People’s Plenary

But this is not the whole story. Or at least, I refuse to accept that this be the whole story, for I am convinced that hope is the precondition of all social movements for justice. A young activist addressing the crowd gathered for the COP28 People’s Plenary evoked yet another metaphorical figure of sand and soil that also resonates with me more evocatively in Spanish than English, on account of the fact I first learned of this popular Mexican dicho while visiting the revolutionary murals of San Diego’s famous Chicano Park in Barrio Logan. Despite the seemingly-nonstop onslaught of bad news, we must never let ourselves feel beat down, but, rather, remember this truth: they tried to bury us, but they forgot that we are seeds / intentaron de enterrarnos, pero no sabían que somos semillas. While the shifting sands of time and the fog of war obscure our utopian visions for desirable sustainable futures, may we never forget our collective power to sprout, set roots, and flourish. 

COP28 Private Sector Idealism Over Realism

By: Ethan Weiss ’25 (he/him) and Emmy Li ’25 (she/her)

Hi everyone!  While we come to you rather late into the process of this year’s Conference of Parties, we would like to share our thoughts, reflections, and ideas as we wrap up week one of COP28 Dubai.  For those that are not familiar with the UNFCCC and COP, we will do our best to explain!  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change operates as the international body upon which climate policies are negotiated and adopted.  The Conference of Parties (COP) is an annual two-week convention where all representatives come to ‘finalize’ the year’s worth of smaller discussions into larger bodies of work.  These smaller discussions occur in cities like Bonn, Germany, and New York City, USA, to build negotiations upon previous meetings, set agendas moving forward, and build slowly toward the culminating work that occurs at COP.  While COP is the big summit of this work, it is not just an event.  It is very much a process.  Hannah’s post from earlier last week does a great job explaining this more!

This year, COP28 is characterized by a unique level of controversy due to its host nation.  Dubai is a state (emirate) inside one of the UAE, one of the world’s largest oil exporting countries.  Until very recently, the UAE’s economy has been based solely on its fossil fuel industry.  Development as a world wonder and shifts in investment toward sustainable systems have backed the UAE’s aspirations to be a role model for climate action.  That being said, they still export industry-leading amounts of oil with no plans to stop.

Days before the conference’s official start, the BBC released an investigative report outlining leaked memos that indicate the UAE’s intention of creating new oil deals during the COP’s proceedings. COP President Sultan al-Jaber had long faced criticism for his conflicts of interest as the head of a state-run oil company.  A main agenda piece of COP is solidifying commitments to alternatives to fossil fuels and shifting toward a renewable future.  If the leadership is entrenched in the industry that their conference seeks to absolve, how can they effectively fulfill their responsibility?

These thoughts remain at the forefront of our approach here in Dubai.  Week One consisted of a mix of attending negotiation sessions, protests, and side events in a venue that seems to purposefully isolate these avenues of engagement.  While the locations of these conversations are widely spread, the seemingly constant presence of fossil fuel private sector representatives trips our internal alarms.  Save for the party-only negotiations and informal consultations, there have been executives, representatives, or lobbyists for  pollutive industries at every single event we’ve attended.  This ubiquity is not just anecdotal.  The Associated Press counts a record-setting 1,300 oil representatives registered in attendance at this year’s COP.  This is triple the number from last year at COP27 Sharm-el-Sheikh.  Expo City’s blue zone layout includes one-hundred buildings, which breaks down to an average of thirteen representatives per location.

Hey everyone, Ethan here.  My interests lay primarily within the realm of carbon markets.  Such markets exist at different scales.  Under the UNFCCC, Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement addresses a forthcoming framework for an international carbon exchange scheme.  There are also voluntary carbon markets (VCM), country- and state-specific compliance markets (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and California Air Resources Board (CARB)), and union-level markets such as the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme.  Discussions over non-Article 6.4 matters have occurred at side events in the form of panel discussions.  These panels on voluntary carbon markets have all had a mix of independent research leaders, institutional representatives, and our ever-present fossil fuel lobby.  Their contributions (as our title suggests) are rooted in idealism that lacks substantive backing.  An American oil executive was a panelist at the opening remarks for the thematic day on methane reductions where, upon first opportunity to speak, the conversation shifted to self-congratulatory remarks on their recognition of the need to abate methane emissions.  Their commitments reduce methane, but not GHG emissions overall.  Their comments are framed as “we should” or “we must” in reference to changing fossil fuel dependency.  Their action smells distinctly of self-preservation.

Those that are on the side of creating offset solutions for voluntary carbon markets are at fault as well.  One panel discussion, entitled “The Science Behind Carbon Markets,” was composed of two independent research representatives, a state environmental manager, and two forestry-based offset project firms.  These two private-sector project developers spoke to the successes of their companies and the great potential of carbon sinking in creating forests.  Items left unmentioned by any panelist were the fact that an estimated 80% of carbon offsets from forestry projects are either non-additional, reversed, or leaked to other areas.  Pervasively low prices that do not reflect social costs of carbon were also omitted from the conversation.  With the voluntary carbon market already under great duress from lack of confidence by investors, representing this topic with individuals from projects with arguably the least integrity is not only unhelpful, it’s embarrassing.  Members from a previous panel spoke to the end-goal of uniting voluntary offset projects under a set of identified best-practices such that their contributions would be recognized by international regulatory markets.  If this truly is the anticipated route, someone needs to tell these folks.

Hi! Emmy taking over!  Looking beyond the carbon markets, panels directly engaging in discussions with private sector banking executives do not seem to offer any more hope either.  These executives continue speaking to what should be done rather than what they are doing to fulfill these needs. In an event titled, “Accelerating Private Capital into Nature-based Solution Projects: a multi-stakeholder collaboration approach” in the Capacity Building Hub as part of Private Sector Finance Capacities Day, the speakers from various banks such as Barclays and HSBC came together to discuss how to channel more private capital funding into nature based solution (NbS for short) projects, specifically exploring the Mangrove Breakthrough Initiative created at COP27. However, once again, instead of explaining the process to de-risk the environment to encourage more private sector financing, the panelists focused more on highlighting how the current market into investing into NbS projects does not exist and will likely struggle to exist in the future as projects are not “bankable” in size, in addition to country scope issues. As I walked away from this panel, I was left with a more pessimistic view and one big question as to how to scale up private sector financing: if everyone thinks that private sector financing is supposed to facilitate early activity, where does talk stop being just talk?

We hope that as the conference moves into Week Two, more substantive answers will arise.  Side events seem to take a back seat to the larger negotiations with the shortening timeline, though we will be keeping a keen eye on the contributions of private sector speakers around the conference.  Perhaps their language will become more specific if the higher-level negotiations begin to settle on debates surrounding Paris Articles 6.2, 6.4, and 6.8.  We look forward to keeping track of these discussions.

Till next time,

Ethan and Emmy

Hello from COP28!

Today, the Swarthmore delegation embarked on it’s first day at COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates!

COP28, which officially kicked off on November 30, 2023, stands for the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Sounds simple, right? In reality, it’s incredibly complex, with this title actually referring to negotiations on multiple international climate agreements happening in parallel to each other.

The Swarthmore delegation is attending COP28 with observer badges – a designation that provides the opportunity for those outside of party delegations to essentially observe the negotiations. While this also sounds pretty simple, observers have valuable roles to play in transparency, advocating for certain outcomes, and bringing innovative research and ideas to the table. During the next 12 days, we’ll be navigating the complexity of COP28 to engage on a wide variety of topics and share what we are learn. Check out our first impressions and what we’re looking forward to below. Follow along on this blog for updates from our delegation!

First impressions:

Oviya Kumaran (’24)
“You are able to experience and see so many different aspects of the world of climate action. I got to sit in informal meetings relating to the Green Climate fund and gender and climate change but also attend a panel on the intersectional climate action being done by local communities and indigenous community leaders . Everyone is truly represented in the climate world.”

Emmy Li (’25)
“I am extremely grateful to be a part of Swarthmore’s delegation to COP28 this year! COP is the largest annual climate change conference, and after the first day, it’s been very inspiring to be surrounded by over 70,000+ people who are all passionate about solving the climate crisis. In addition to attending negotiation meetings on the Santiago Network and the Green Climate Fund, I attended a side event titled “Operationalizing the Loss and Damage Fund with Equity and Efficacy” and explored a few country’s pavilions (Palau, China, EU, and Nigeria). Overall, I’ve noticed that while negotiations may progress at a very slow pace, it’s been super rewarding to engage in conversations with fellow attendees to learn more about their background experiences and passions.”

Hannah Ulloa (Climate Action Manager)
“COP is this massive convergence of people and ideas. At first glance, you might think you are witnessing a two-week event with a set beginning and end. But really it’s a culmination of months, even years, of work to move forward on international climate agreements. Every COP builds upon the last, just as every meeting or event you attend while there builds upon the previous one. It’s a fascinating process to follow and incredibly valuable context to discuss climate action on any scale.”

Looking ahead:

Ethan Weiss (’24/25)
“The negotiations that take place over how to proceed with existing protocols, namely Kyoto and Paris, take place across multiple scheduled events that cause pauses in conversation. Such pauses slow the process of mending agreements, though this makes sense given the need for group consensus. Chatting with other observes and folks in the Green Zone has been just as informative as meetings in the Blue Zone, so I look forward to the rest of my time in both!”

Emmy Li
“Throughout the next two weeks, I am most interested in following negotiations and events surrounding climate finance, specifically looking at scaling up finance from all stakeholders from public, private, and multilateral channels for mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damages. It’ll be particularly interesting to see how the details shake out with the L&D fund (such as whether more pledges come in), considering that it was officially operationalized on the first day at COP28.”

Oviya Kumaran
“I’m looking forward to topics related to a just transition, aviation, carbon offsets, the global stocktake, and the role of indigenous groups.”