All posts in Climate Negotiations

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Posted:
June 5, 2018
Category:
Beyond the Negotiations Climate Change Climate Negotiations Sustainable Development
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Climate Change: a post-development and post-colonial exploration

My interest in climate justice has been constant through my four years at College of the Atlantic (COA). During my second, third and fourth years I was part of the COA delegations that attended the UN climate negations. In addition, I did my internship at the National University of Mexico in the Political and Social Sciences Faculty where I did research on different ways to promote renewable energy from a public policy perspective.

While attending these spaces, I realized that many of the so-called “climate solutions” assumed particular economic and political goals. It was easy to identify a strong developmental agenda engrained in the climate projects discussed, proposed, and financed at the UN space. With this in mind, for my undergraduate thesis (Senior Project) I decided to explore the UNFCCC discourse on Climate Solutions through the lenses of post-development and post-colonial theory. Read more…

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Posted:
November 7, 2017
Category:
Climate Change Climate Negotiations
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It’s not just about what we say: it’s about who is listening

by Andrea Fontana

Credits Aura Silva Martinez

Credits Aura Silva Martinez

First day at COP23. Having the chance to address the opening plenary of the Subsidiary Bodies at COP23 we frantically put together a statement on behalf of the coalition Climate Justice Now. Focusing on Loss and Damage and requesting developed countries to live up to their commitments to developing countries (don’t worry – nothing too radical here, just trying to have countries fulfill their commitments). Oh yeah, we also asked Parties to recognize the current losses and damages by climate change and to not rely on the private sector – read capitalism – to solve the climate crisis. Because #copitalismkills. Below is what my voice relayed on behalf of thousands of Climate Justice Now members:

Thank you chair, my name is Andrea Fontana, a member of Earth in Brackets and Climate Justice Now.

 Chairs, delegates

 With the losses of climate disasters stacking up year after year and with Typhoon Damrey currently wreaking havoc in Vietnam, it is impossible to ignore that losses and damages are being faced by communities right now. To give impacted peoples a fighting chance, we need the permanent incorporation of Loss and Damage into the agenda of the COP and SB meetings, and we need clarity on the 100-billion-dollar roadmap for real finance and support.

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Posted:
November 20, 2016
Category:
Climate Change Climate Negotiations
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Marrakesh Climate March (Credit/Aura Silva)

A COP in Brackets

The 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change took place in Marrakech, Morocco, from November 7th to November 18th. In this blog post, the Earth in Brackets members who attended the conference reflect on their experiences and on the possible ways forward for the climate activist movement.

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Posted:
November 15, 2016
Category:
Climate Change Climate Negotiations Food
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Land Use at COP22: What Happened and What’s Next?

By Sara Velander, Jenna Farineau, and Elaina Burress. 

After the final text of the Paris Agreement was adopted mid-December 2015, several land-focused organizations analyzed the different ways land use and agriculture are positioned in the agreement, in order to identify the future trajectory of land use in international climate policy. According to Climate Focus, the Agreement made specific references to land use in various articles including Article 5 on forests, and a reference to food production in Article 2. However, these are merely recognizing land use in the agreement and have no binding provisions as of yet. Where land use is likely to have the biggest role is in the accounting of emissions and removals in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), one of the few binding obligations of the Paris Agreement. Read more…

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Posted:
November 15, 2016
Category:
Beyond the Negotiations Climate Change Climate Negotiations
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What am I supposed to do with my feelings?

Credits to David Tong

Credits to David Tong

By Margherita Tommasini

I experience panic attacks. I already share this struggle with the people I love, so it does not really matter if now the Internet will know about it.

I sort of knew what I was getting into. Last year I attended COP21 in Paris. I did not have accreditation for the Blue Zone, but I spent the three weeks in the Ville Lumières engaging with different levels of civil society and getting a glimpse of what climate negotiations look like.

In Marrakech I was finally able to unveil the true story.

Given my history of anxiety and general depression, in early September when it was time to decide whether to join the preparatory course to attend the COP, I had asked myself whether I could have handled an unknown amount of stressors and whether it was worth it. I told myself that I could not surrender to the monsters in my head. And I went for it.

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