Why COP26 is important

Why COP26 is important

The Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations, or COP26, Will be held in Glasgow, Scotland from October 30th to November 12th. COP is the largest and most important international conference on climate change.The countries involved came together and developed some Key decision Stabilize greenhouse gas emissions to ensure a sustainable future for mankind and the ecosystem. The COP meeting was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The two-week conference will include plenary meetings and negotiations, as well as seminars and side events hosted by NGOs and companies.

International Institute of Climate and Society Melody Brown No stranger to these large conferences. The first COP she participated in was in 2009 (COP15), held in Copenhagen. She has been there six times since, and Glasgow will be her eighth COP. These experiences have helped shape the way she works at IRI, including her role as the national leader of Bangladesh, adapting today’s agriculture to tomorrow’s climate (Action today) Columbia World Project Help farmers and decision makers implement climate adaptation and management strategies.

Why do you think COP is important?

First of all, COP is important because we have no choice. The impact of climate can be seen everywhere, we set a new record every year, The most recent IPCC report Confirm that we need to correct our trajectory immediately. The COP, the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC process put climate issues on the global negotiating table once a year and create a cooperation framework for governments to respond to the climate crisis. This is a slow but absolutely necessary part of the solution. Of course, this is neither magical nor sufficient. In addition to the negotiation itself, another important aspect of COP is strong, powerful, interdisciplinary organizations and individual communities, who bring their experience of creating change on their own level. To the COP to support and influence the negotiation process. They learn, share knowledge and contribute their knowledge to the agenda items under discussion, promote more ambitious, inclusive and fair results, and collaborate on field projects. Many important things that happened at COP happened in the corridors.

You have previously talked about some of the problems you observed at COP15, that is, the excessive allocation of certifications has caused farmers from all over the world to lack space to express their concerns. Do you think the local voice space has improved in the past 11 years? How do these concerns affect your goals at the COP and the way you hold meetings this year?

In the past few years, attention to the diversity, inclusiveness, and participation of marginalized groups in the decision-making process has increased substantially, which has helped to move in the right direction at the global and local levels. Of course, more work needs to be done. Due to the background of COVID-19, this year is particularly complicated, Unfair access to vaccines, And how it affects people’s ability to participate in COP. This once again puts an additional burden on developing countries. What’s new this year is that a large part of the activities will be mixed and provide the option of online attention. We will have to look at how this affects civil society, and more specifically the ability of marginalized groups to participate in the process, and how it affects the learning, sharing, collaboration, and strategic planning part of the COP that I mentioned.

Your ACToday work helps connect important climate data to Bangladesh’s climate policies and practices through the interaction between climate information providers and data users. How do you plan to bring this work to Glasgow? How do you see or hope that the COP resolves concerns about a top-down climate policy approach?

Our work is closely related to the agenda items discussed by the COP in many ways. The biggest and simplest message we have is that if the people who generate climate information in one country are different from the people facing climate impacts in the same country, we will not be able to adapt to the effects of climate change that we see all over the world. Do not talk to each other, cooperate and jointly produce useful climate information products. Without proper resources and institutional mechanisms, they will not be able to do this. This requires funding, institutional support, climate education and professional capacity building. Therefore, our work with our local partners on climate services and the development of the Climate Services Academy directly supports discussions on adaptation, focusing on the needs of a bottom-up, inclusive and participatory process. Our work in using the best available science for climate prediction and supporting the development of early action mechanisms and climate risk insurance is very relevant to the discussion around loss and damage. We are also actively participating in the Paris Commission’s capacity building network, and this year I am very happy to be able to make more contributions to some of the work on climate empowerment-both are very focused on enabling all members of society to participate in climate action.

Mélody Braun collaborated at an insurance seminar in Dhaka, Bangladesh in November 2019. Photo: Jacquelyn Turner, IRI

Are there other activities that excite you?

So many, this is always a challenge in large events such as COP! In terms of specific activities, IRI will organize an event with the Climate and Development Knowledge Network on November 3, focusing on the role of universities and research organizations in creating long-term climate-related capacity building; it is called ‘From research to practice: bridging the gap between science, research, policy and practice‘.

I will also host an event organized by the French Development Agency entitled “Empowering Action Through Scientific Literature: Highlights from the 6th IPCC Assessment Report and Dialogues with Youth and Public Development Banks”, which is in line with our activities It fits very well.

I will also participate in climate school events, the launch of a new initiative called the Adaptation Research Alliance that IRI has joined, and many other events organized by our partners. More generally, loss and damage financing is such an important topic in Glasgow, and I would love to know what will happen in this regard. I also plan to participate in events organized by the Climate Emergencies Action, so I also look forward to contributing to the climate Fresk educational game that will be played and displayed throughout the COP.

Video: Mélody tells about her work in Bangladesh, her past COP experience, etc. Video by Jacquelyn Turner, IRI.

Brynne Wilcox is a graduate research assistant at the Columbia Institute of International Climate and Society.