Cop27 Primer, plus more on Cop27, and climate champ, Neema Namadamu.
Cop27 Primer, More on Cop27, Climate Champ–Neema Namadamu
COP27 PRIMER
The 27th United Nations Climate Change conference, its Conference of the Parties, aka COP27, commenced yesterday in in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It’ll run until 18 November. Last year’s COP26 in Glasgow wasn’t the success many of us had hoped for. But, keep hope alive. By the way, what the heck are COPS and why do they matter to us?
A Conference of the Parties is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements. A key task for the COP is to review the reports submitted by Parties on their GHG emissions and climate action.
The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise. There was no COP in 2020 due to COVID. Here’s something interesting: UNFCCC COPs are not open to the public. All participants need to be duly accredited. There are three categories of participants at meetings and conferences in the UNFCCC process: Representatives of Parties to the Convention and Observer States, Representatives of observer organizations, Members of the press and media.
Note that two of the three categories of participants include observers. An observer somebody or some entity granted status. It is a privilege granted by some organizations to non-members to give them an ability to participate in the organization’s activities. For example, Observer organizations are further categorized into three types: the United Nations System and its Specialized Agencies, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There are roughly two dozen UN Specialized Agencies. Click on the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story at TheClimate.org/episodes to see the whole list.
IGOs and NGOs can register delegates once they have received observer status. Bottom line? COPs are important, they aren’t open to the public, and we need to hold them accountable.
DEEPER DIVE: Day in the Life of a COP Observer, COP27, UN Observer Status, UN Specialized Agencies
MORE ON COP27
At the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, COP 21, governments agreed that mobilizing stronger and more ambitious climate action is urgently required to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Action must come from governments, cities, regions, businesses and investors. Everyone has a role to play in effectively implementing the Paris Agreement. Science has established beyond doubt that the window for action is closing rapidly.
In Glasgow, Parties reaffirmed the long-term global goal under the Convention, and the temperature limitation goal of the Paris Agreement, and recognized that urgent action needs to be taken to keep the 1.5 degree target within reach, a call confirmed by the latest IPCC Working Group III report. Furthermore Parties and stakeholders confirmed the importance and priority of Adaptation and Resilience for all countries and communities, particularly in developing countries. The IPCC reports, including the latest working group II report, highlighted that the world is not on track to deal with current climate impacts and is not prepared to deal with the increasing number and magnitude of climate change induced impacts.
Egypt is currently hosting the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, with a view to building on previous successes and paving the way for future ambition. COP27’s goals are Inclusive, rules-based and ambitious, focused on substantive outcomes, commensurate with the challenges based on science and guided by principles building on agreements, decisions, pledges and commitments, from RIO 1992 to Glasgow 2021.
COP27 seeks to accelerate global climate action through emissions reduction, scaled-up adaptation efforts and enhanced flows of appropriate finance. ‘Just transition’ remains a priority for developing countries worldwide. Let’s be hopeful, and yet skeptical. COP27 matters to us only in so much as “the parties” can actually create less talk and more action.
DEEPER DIVE: COP27, UNFCC, The Guardian
CLIMATE CHAMPION, NEEMA NAMADAMU
Neema Namadu, Founder and Executive Director of Hero Women Rising & Synergy of Congolese Women’s Associations, visited GVP today during in house lunch. Neema shared some of her life story and her life work and allowed the girls to ask her questions.
Neema was crippled from polio, but she didn’t let that stop her. She is the first woman with disability from her ethnic group to earn a university degree, going on to serve in Parliament for South Kivu province, and then as Chief Advisor to DRC’s Minister of Gender and Family. Upon leaving government service, Neema founded an NGO to support disabled female-victims of violence in East Congo.
In 2012, Neema founded Synergy of Congolese Women’s Associations (SAFECO), a forum to foster collaboration among women-led NGOs to work their Peace, Rights, and Development agenda. Women Thrive Worldwide named her as 1 of 14 Fierce Women’s Rights Advocates To Watch In 2014. Why does Neema Namadu matter to us? Because in the all hands-on-deck world of climate change that we live in, it matters more than ever to educate as many girls and young women as possible to help humanity deal with climate change in new and innovative ways.