COP 22 Day 1

Our first day at the Conference of Parties in Marrakech, Morocco was exciting, yet overwhelming. Neither of us knew what to expect. It was our first time attending an official UN event. We arrived to the COP22 village, which sits next to the Marrakech royal palace, around 9:30 in the morning. As we arrived, zero emission buses dropped off attendees, who then piled into the main entrance to receive their accreditations. It is expected that over 30,000 people will attend the conference over the course of  the next two weeks. People arrived in a rather cheerful manner, despite the overcast skies and rainfall. We went passed through security, claimed our accreditations, and set off to see what COP events were all about.

Our first hours were spent familiarizing ourselves with the layout of the village. The COP village is a long rectangular complex, with tents on both sides that house large meeting rooms and pavilions. In the pavilions countries present their green initiatives, as well as host themed panels. We walked through the long line of tents, collecting schedules of events from the Nordic Group, Morocco, the United States, South Korea, and the European Union. These schedules detailed panels that would be held throughout the next 12 days, touching on a wide range of subjects particular to the agendas of each delegation. Furthermore, some pavilions we visited had exciting graphics, flashing lights, and videos. We got the impression that each country was trying to show-off all that it was doing in the fight against climate change, for better or for worse. 

In the afternoon, we attended a “side event” in the blue zone, hosted by Tunisia, called Market Mechanisms under the Paris Agreement - the Role of Article 6. There speakers were from Germany, Ethiopia, and Tunisia. Admittedly, some of what they said went entirely over our heads. They panelists spoke in acronyms and used technical language from the Paris Agreements that we were not well prepared to understand. Yet, the general content of the panel included a discussion on the steps that need to be taken in the effort to bolster the role of carbon markets in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and the specific ways the respective countries understood the importance of carbon markets within their national context. 

The UNFCCC is deeming this year's conference as the COP of action. Although a diverse range of topics will be covered at COP, the priority will be to “act” in order to nuance the generalities set-forth in the Paris agreement, such as specifics around financial support and nationally determined contributions (NDC). Moreover, COP22 presents an important opportunity for the African continent to make its need and concerns heard. Delegations from the African continent will focus on attaining funds for renewable energy projects and modes of technology transfers. COP22 is opportune for “developing” countries to assert their needs.

The bottomline is the reductions in CO2 emissions pledges in the Paris agreement are not satisfactory to meet the 2 degree celsius threshold. According to a UN Environmental Emissions Gap report, the current pledges under the Paris agreement, if achieved, will still result in a 2.9 - 3.4 C temperature rise by the end of century. Moreover, it is estimated that around 1.3 trillion dollars per year until 2050 will need to be invested in order to achieve 1.5-2.0 degree temperature increase (Source: Towards a Workable and Effective Climate Regime, CEPR Press). Hopefully this reality is addressed and acknowledged by delegations and high officials in this years COP.   

Disclaimer: neither of us have ever been to a conference such as this, nor are we environmental studies majors. The reason we have found ourselves in attendance of the first week of COP22 is good timing and Macalester’s status as an observing institution at UN events. This fall semester we have been studying abroad in Rabat, Morocco. We are participants in SIT’s program Morocco: Migration and Transnational Identity. The last month of our program is designated for an Independent Study Project in which we have the month of November to conduct research on a topic of our choosing; we are lucky enough to be able to attend COP22 in order to inform our projects, as well as to introduce ourselves to environmental studies and climate negotiations. We are attending COP without a fine-tuned agenda, and have chosen to attend talks about topics of interest to us and of relevance to our research.

Katelyn Miller ‘18
Kaleb Mazurek ‘18