{"id":1124,"date":"2019-12-10T00:28:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T00:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/?p=1124"},"modified":"2022-03-09T21:39:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:39:16","slug":"world-climate-summit-the-investment-cop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/2019\/12\/10\/world-climate-summit-the-investment-cop\/","title":{"rendered":"World Climate Summit \u2013 The Investment COP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, it felt so surreal that we finally made it to Madrid! Following the Swat Delegation\u2019s posts and keeping abreast of the news coming out of the first week of negotiations had built up my anticipation. Still slightly jetlagged but brimming with an equal measure of excitement, I made my way to the World Climate Summit: The Investment COP, which was conveniently next to the airport. The Summit, dubbed as \u201cthe most important official COP25 side event,\u201d has, over the past ten years, brought together leaders in the public and private sectors to seek and share \u201cbusiness and\u00a0investment-driven solutions to climate change.\u201d This event interested me because I genuinely believe that if we are to tackle climate change successfully, then we need everyone on board, especially businesses. Certain businesses pollute, while others are innovating for solutions to address climate change. Either way, there is no denying that we can\u2019t get close to meeting the Paris Agreement without the private sector\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At the World Climate Summit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I arrived at the Summit in time for the first break out session on \u201cThe Future of Energy \u2013 Decarbonizing the System,\u201d The speaker offered a synthesis of the requirements for stabilizing the climate and why the next decade is critical, which are broadly categorized as \u201creduce demand, change how we power and fuel our lives, scale up a \u2018carbon management\u2019 industry, and tackle other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.\u201d On the last point, what stuck out to me was how if all the cows in the world were a country, then the Republic of Cows would be the world\u2019s second-largest contributor of GHGs! Our diets are definitely something that must shift if we are serious about combating climate change, so I will also look forward to reading Isabel\u2019s posts about agriculture. On a lighter note, one of the panelists joked in this session mentioned how he took his first flight on an electric plane this year and joked how the range matters more on an electric plane than an electric vehicle. I found this to be pretty funny and appreciated the humor because climate change conferences can, at times, feel a bit \u201cdoom and gloom.\u201d Another session I appreciated was an interactive workshop on \u201cPhysical Climate Risk and Response.\u201d The speaker discussed topics such as \u201cwill countries like India get rich before it gets too hot?\u201d Such questions really need to be at the forefront of policy discussions considering extreme heat conditions will be at a level when humans cannot survive, so how would India cope when \u00be of its workforce works outside, and only 7% of its population has air conditioning? Another interesting topic was about \u201chow will long-term mortgages exist for risky geographies?\u201d Typically insurances operate on one-year contracts, so with climate change making disasters more frequent and severe, then premiums might become too cost-prohibitive. Also, mortgages are usually for 30 years, but you need insurances to have mortgages. In such situations, this could even lead to a crisis in places like Florida, which depend heavily on property tax. Risk is a very fraught issue because it\u2019s tough balancing the various needs of stakeholders involved. A point brought up in a later session that I thought also fed back neatly into the discussions around insurances was the concern of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Their worry is that the increasing talk about the risks climate change poses to their country will also drive up the cost of capital, leading to a drain on capital. That could then be a vicious cycle because it would leave less capital available for adaption. Jet lag is hitting me, so I\u2019ll wrap up for now! Don\u2019t worry, these are all areas I hope to further explore at COP25. I still have so much to learn\/share!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, it felt so surreal that we finally made it to Madrid! Following the Swat Delegation\u2019s posts and keeping abreast of the news coming out of the first week of negotiations had built up my anticipation. Still slightly jetlagged but brimming with an equal measure of excitement, I made my way to the World Climate … Continue reading World Climate Summit \u2013 The Investment COP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}