Day 1 of COP28: Lots of walking and progress on loss and damage

Day 1 of COP is finally here in sunny, warm Dubai. I would say it was a fairly chill day compared to other COPs and UN conferences I’ve been too. There weren’t too many meetings or sessions to attend so I wasn’t running around at all. But I know this is not the norm with these conferences. I think this is merely the calm before the storm. Some negotiation items are more contentious than others and have had a lack of consensus before. It will be interesting to see what happens as the conference progresses.

Similar to my last post, I will split this into two parts: a technical and negotiation-based part and a more relaxed telling of my experience on the first day. Feel free to go to the one that you are most interested in. Or, if you really want to, you can read both!

Part 1: Technical and Negotiation Updates

Today was the opening of COP28. This means there was an opening plenary that went through a series of items to establish leadership and the ways in which negotiation tracks will meet. It usually includes a speech from the Presidency (in this case the COP28 Presidency), the UNFCCC secretariat, and others. The speeches normally include what they hope to get out of the COP and what they ask Parties to do during this time (work on consensus, be flexible and collaborative, etc.). In today’s plenary, there was a lot of talk about the need to have ambition in greenhouse gas emission targets (especially methane), the urgent and immediate road ahead, and how we are not doing enough so now is the time to step up. All great things to hear at a UN conference, but it is always about what is not being said. Not to mention, words are meaningless without actual action to solve the problem. We will have to wait to see if those words actually land to making meaningful and rapid action on the climate crisis.

The opening plenary is also the time where the agenda for the conference is adopted. This may seem like an easy and quick process, merely having to agree on something as simple as what will be talked about. However, it can be hard to reach consensus on what issues deserve time. When I was in Bonn for SB58, the agenda did not get adopted until the second to last day of the conference. Before it was adopted, we weren’t sure if any of the work done throughout those two weeks were binding in any way. And if they weren’t binding, then they couldn’t be brought to COP28 to continue working. So, adopting the agenda, while some may seem as an easy first task, can be something particularly chaotic. And the agenda for COP28 is no different.

Just to start, an agenda was adopted today during the opening plenary. So, we are on track with many of the negotiation items to make meaningful and binding work. However, an earlier version of the agenda had more items and topics than what was adopted. This provisional agenda had a total of four items that were not included in the final adopted agenda. These items included:

·      Mountains and climate change: highlighting the need for the protection of vulnerable mountain ecosystems while building the resilience of mountain peoples and economies to reduce loss and damage.

·      Operationalization of the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 2, of the Paris Agreement.

·      Mission 1.5: positive incentives for accelerating early actions and policies are nationally determined.

·      Concerns with unilateral trade measures related to climate change and their potential adverse impact on equitable and just transitions, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.

There can be many reasons why agenda items are cut from the final agenda: could be that there just isn’t enough time to discuss everything without losing progress, some countries may disagree that the agenda item should even be talked about, or that there isn’t enough broad support from all countries to include it. The reason these four were removed is unclear. Although, I will say it is interesting that the “Mountains and Climate Change” agenda item was cut as I don’t know what in particular could be contentious about it. But these things happen behind closed doors so it’s hard to know. On the other hand, I do see this topic being brought up more and more so there does seem to be more momentum on addressing it.

Besides the agenda being adopted, one of the main updates that happened was the operationalization of the loss and damage fund. The fund will help the most vulnerable countries pay for the irreversible impacts of climate disasters. Countries pledged a specific amount of money to help get the fund up and running, with the initial funding close to $429 million. This fund was originally agreed upon during COP27 in 2022, so to see it already operational is a big step forward. In between COP27 and this announcement, there was discussion on where the fund will be housed. And while the World Bank was ultimately announced as the interim host of the fund, many developing countries are worried it won’t reach the communities who need it. The placement of the fund was a tough negotiation, especially as many advocated that the fund be mostly grant-based instead of loan-based, to which the World Bank usually gives loans. Nonetheless, the full operationalization of the fund is a great start to what will be a long two weeks of negotiations, even if the amount of funding is a drop in the bucket compared to the need (some estimates have loss and damage costing greater than $400 billion annually).

And those are the technical updates of the day. Like I said, fairly light all things considered. I expect tomorrow will have more updates and announcements as the World Climate Action Summit begins, with the heads of state come and negotiate. If you are wondering what heads of state will be there, you can look here. And yes, you are correct in that President Biden will not attend despite climate being a major point in his campaign.

Part 2: My Experience Around the Conference Center

Personally, I was excited for the start of COP28. I have never been to Dubai before and when I flew in, it was around 10pm so I didn’t really get to see what was around me (besides the skyscrapers!). I woke up around 5:44am (the aim was 6am but my body wanted it earlier) and started getting ready for the day. I was meeting my policy friend for breakfast at 7:25am since we are staying at the same hotel. We like to have breakfast together to get caught up on the day and start thinking about what the current day has in store. After breakfast, we caught a 20 min shuttle to the metro station, take the metro for another 10-15 minutes, and walk about 2 minutes to get to the conference center. Once we got to the conference center, we separated as I had to get my badge and she had gotten it the day before. So, I got in line for security, went through the badge registration line, and finally entered the conference. The security and badge registration took about 25 minutes. So, from leaving the hotel and getting in the conference center, it took about an hour. Not too bad at all for the first day of COP28. I heard that later on (about an hour after me), some people waited as long as 4 hours. That is the perk of arriving early.

First impression of the conference center is that it is absolutely huge! I will definitely be getting my steps in during the 2 weeks. What I also didn’t anticipate was the majority of the conference center is outside with some shading on the main paths. Considering it is going to be at least 80 degrees with 80% humidity in Dubai, it’s going to be hot, hot, hot. I’m glad I brought a lot of short sleeve shirts that just cover the shoulders.

After I had some time to walk around, I tried to find the building where I can get my COP28 reusable water bottle and free metro card. I was already deep in the conference center and it turned out it was at the entrance. So, I had to walk about 10 minutes or so to get back and get the swag. The water bottle is really nice and will help keep the water cold all day. The metro card will be really handy as I plan to use it everyday to get to the conference center.  

Then at noon, I went to a policy meeting with the climate and health coalition I work with to go over what we can expect at COP28. These types of meetings are useful to get a lay of the land, meet people who want to advocate for the same things, and to see what is coming next. It took about an hour and I got to meet some stellar people who are passionate about climate and health. It’s nice to have a type of community to lean one while at a large conference like COP28.

Once the policy meeting was over, I had enough time to have some lunch with a new friend. The food places in the conference center are spread out, so there’s not one specific place to get food. You really have to be on the lookout to find something, but once you do, there are plenty of options. The closest one to the meeting was a little “park” with about 4 food trucks that were selling vegan and vegetarian food. I got a Korean burger, which was some sort of vegan patty with kimchi and other Korean spices (it was delicious). Then it was off to the opening plenary.

I discussed the technical aspects of the opening plenary above. But I will say, there were so many people that wanted to be there that a secondary plenary room was used for overflow. I was not able to get into the overflow as that had filled up too. So, I used my iPad to webcast the plenary and watched it on a couch outside of the overflow plenary. It started at 2pm and by the time I left (around 4pm), it was still going. Most likely it ended at around 6pm.

I left the conference center with my policy friend and we took the metro back to a station and uber’d from the station back to the hotel. We got back at around 5:15pm, most likely the earliest day we will finish for the two weeks. I took a 30 min nap and then headed for dinner at around 6:30pm, where I had some delicious grilled lamb with the most amazing humus. And of course, a Peroni beer to cheers to the first day of COP28. At about 8:30pm, I headed back to my room, answered some emails, wrote some things down, and was in bed by 10:30pm. A pretty early night all things considered.

Tomorrow is the start of the World Climate Action Summit, where heads of state will come to the conference and make some speeches. I expect security will be heightened because of this. More to come tomorrow.