We arrived to the venue of the conference after a train and bus ride to find long lines and palpable excitement among the attendees to begin week two. The first steps into the conference were all at once overwhelming and exhilarating. Immediately, you are thrown into a chaotic environment with people rushing to events and meetings, trying to find members of their group, and various languages floating in the air. As a result, I spent most of my first day exploring the Bonn Zone and trying to figure out what this place was all about. The Bonn Zone seems to be where much of the action outside of the actual negotiating happens and is filled with national and NGO pavilions, meeting rooms for events, and an exhibition hall. The breadth of events is so incredible it makes it nearly impossible to choose where to go. Just in one day I managed to see California Governor Jerry Brown speak twice, attend an event focused on youth at the Germany pavilion where I got to meet a lot of German college students, attend a panel sponsored World Bank, and attend an event from the U.S. People’s Delegation.
Photo: Gov Jerry Brown at event focusing on the Global Climate Action Summit to be held in San Francisco next year
Photo: A section of the line for the U.S. sponsored side event
Without a doubt the most interesting event of the day came when protests occurred at the White House event promoting “clean” fossil fuels, which is the only side event that the United States is sponsoring. I was intrigued by the event and how it would be received at COP, but did not expect the magnitude of the reaction. Lines started forming around two hours before the event started and just grew in length until people stretched across the main floor. The atmosphere in the line was somewhat electric – no one knew what to expect and we were questioning what we were even doing at a fossil fuel event at a COP. We, along with hundreds of others waiting in line, were not admitted to the event as it had already reached capacity. Almost instantly, protests began to form outside of the meeting room as people started to stage a sit-in protest, chanting “Keep it in the ground”. This attracted significant media attention as press and participants started taking photos, video and live streaming the protest.
Photo: Protesters outside of the meeting room where the side event was held.
Soon, a group of protesters disrupted the panel inside of the meeting room, starting to sing a rendition of the song “God Bless the U.S.A”, halting the presentation and causing the audience to turn their backs to the panel to watch the protestors.
The protests then moved to outside of the meeting room and into the main hall with others joining in song and chants. We stayed around – watching both the live stream of the panel and the protests going on in front of us. It was exciting to see activism at the COP and this event in particular because it underscores that the Trump administration does not speak for all Americans and fossil fuels are not the future that we want.
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