Despite its significant limitations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the principal setting for the international community to gather and confront our catastrophically destabilizing global climate. As the need for ambitious action from governments becomes more urgent, broader public engagement with the UNFCCC also becomes more urgent. Grassroots involvement is critical for assuring that negotiations are both effective and equitable.
Since the early days of the UNFCCC, UN staff have provided several avenues for members of the public to engage remotely with the “COP” conferences and related meetings. (“COP” stands for “Conference of the Parties,” where nations are attempting to negotiate authentic global climate solutions.) Remote access to COP has included: live and recorded broadcasts of negotiations, webinars by observer groups who are attending major conferences, and local community gatherings which are remotely connected with the main conferences.
A great deal of what goes on at COP actually happens outside the negotiating halls. Besides possibly witnessing the actual negotiations, people who attend COP in-person also gather in designated “zones” to share stories and learn from one another on an international scale. A “Blue Zone” is provided for people who have formally registered with the UNFCCC to attend the conference. A “Green Zone” is provided for other participants – youth groups, civil society, academia, artists, and businesses – to host events, exhibitions, cultural performances, workshops, and talks.
Although currently available avenues for remote access to COP are effective in capturing some of the experience of meeting outside the formal negotiations, these remote connections tend to feel fragmented and lacking in the spontaneity that comes from in-person attendance.
One way to improve that experience and to bring more grassroots voices to the UNFCCC might be to organize something I’m calling a “Global Blue-Green Zone.” This would be an international network of community engagement hubs which would offer a series of gatherings that are at once both global and local. The global character would come from the hubs being virtually connected to conference events and to each other. The local piece would arise from designing the hubs to be places where in-person local events would take place in tandem with treaty events.
On both the global and local level, hub gatherings would include opportunities for attendees to discuss their concerns, hopes, and commitments – and to communicate those to negotiators, UN staff, and other hubs.
I have been an in-person observer at three of the COPs (23, 24, 26), and a virtual observer to two of them (25 and 27). I have also helped organize scores of opportunities for “COP non-attenders” to learn about the COPs and to engage with them remotely. All these activities have made it apparent to me that a great deal more public involvement is needed to nudge negotiators forward quickly enough to effectively and equitably address the climate problems we are facing. I also see how little most people know about the COPs, despite strong interest.
I am eager to talk with Quaker meetings and other community groups about organizing local hubs in a Global Blue-Green Zone for COP28, which will be held November 28 – December 12, 2023, in Dubai, UAE. Strong public engagement with the COP process is essential for the health of our planet.
If you’d like to explore these issues in more detail, please visit my online presentation at https://tinyurl.com/Blue-Green-COP28. Here you will find an interactive overview which, as you bore down, will provide you with links to key policy documents and analyses. Finally, please reach out to me and invite me to visit your meeting, either in-person or online, via: f[email protected]. ~~~
Frank Granshaw is active in ecumenical efforts to increase public engagement in public decisions about climate change, both locally and internationally. He is a member of Multnomah Monthly Meeting in Portland, OR (NPYM).