Sunday the COP was closed. Roughly half of the attendees went to Krakow, the other half to Auschwitz. Eriko, Saadiq and I went to Krakow, Melissa to Auschwitz. (Eriko has already been to Auschwitz; Saadiq and I will go at the end of our time here.)
The path to the shuttle bus to Krakow (leaving from the COP) was full of one of the Christmas markets the first week’s delegation described.
People here are really into Christmas!
On the bus to Krakow, I had the great pleasure of chatting with Sr. Saddy Rafael Pineda Castellanos, part of the Honduras delegation. Señor Pineda is the head of the Forest and Climate Change Department in Honduras. He is part of a twelve-person delegation and his primary focus is on mitigation, with some attention to adaptation and financing, which others are also helping to cover. The delegation is spread around the area, with some people staying in Krakow, and others in small towns some distance from Katowice. This makes it hard for them to meet and plan each days’ negotiations, but they make do with WhatsApp.
It sounded to me as if the Honduras forestry department is doing a lot with the resources available: they have plans for restoring one million hectares of forests. They broker deals, providing restoration plans for private landowners and connecting people to funding when needed. Honduras is also working hard on watershed remediation, especially in the dry corridor.
I was pleased to hear that a recent extradition law (extradition to the US for drug trafficking) had decreased gang violence. Food security continues to be a big issue, and climate change is driving migration, but so is the differential in wages between the US and Honduras.
Señor Saddy Pineda will be happy if this COP24 produces three things: a completed Paris Rulebook, a completed Talanoa Dialogue, and a financing mechanism. I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that this may come true.
In fact, in Krakow, at the Wawel Castle and surrounding buildings, I climbed the bell tower of the Cathedral. The audio guide says that if you put one hand on your heart and touch the clapper of the bell with your other hand, your wish will come true. I tried it both way: left hand on heart, right on bell, and vice versa.
