COP27 Reflection

By Miriam Silverman Israel

Miram at COP27

No matter how much information you have beforehand, I’m not sure it’s possible to entirely prepare for the experience of attending the COP. The scale of the event, with thousands of attendees, hundreds of events every day and seemingly infinite negotiations, is overwhelming, inspiring, and frustrating. It can feel like the many pavilions, side events and networking opportunities are a distraction from the real work of technical negotiations, to which many attendees aren’t even paying close attention.

 At the same time, while attending the second week of the conference, I was able to meet many dedicated advocates and organizations working around the clock to meet with country negotiating teams and encourage them to prioritize certain issues and agree on specific language. These observers played a critical role in ensuring that negotiators were held accountable for their positions, and that the often slow and painstaking process of negotiations are accessible to people who can’t be at COP in person.

 At Fletcher, my focus has largely been on adaptation and resilience in climate policy, so I was interested in tracking the progress around an agreement for loss and damage. Loss and damage is the idea that developing countries, who have contributed relatively little to climate change and yet are already bearing the worst of the impacts, should be supported by developed countries with a direct funding mechanism that will help them recover from natural disasters and adapt to climate change. It is a crucial way of ensuring climate justice and of protecting the most vulnerable communities around the world. And yet, it has been extraordinarily difficult for parties to come to an agreement around who should provide the funding, how much is appropriate and how to ensure the funds are used properly, among other issues.

 Coming to an agreement on this issue was a priority for COP27 and yet, as week two of COP came to an end, there was still not a coherent agreement, and the draft text left out the positions of many developing and vulnerable countries. Thankfully, this changed during the final 24-hours of the conference, following an extension into the weekend. Negotiators reached a historic deal on funding for loss and damages that, for the first time, acknowledges the responsibility that developed countries have to developing countries who are already experiencing climate impacts.

Miriam and another Tufts delegate at COP27

 This process, and the last-minute rush to the finish line, has left me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, I am thrilled about the agreement on loss and damages, and hopeful about what this funding will do for vulnerable communities around the world. Sitting in on the negotiations revealed how technical, difficult and time consuming it is to reach consensus among so many countries. However, meeting activists at COP, particularly members of youth organizations and indigenous people, revealed the deep frustration and sense of betrayal that many people feel around the UNFCCC process.

 Experiencing the conference in person made clear that COP is a place of contradictions, where it is possible to be devastated and inspired in the same afternoon, and where people in power can feel impossible to influence one minute, and then you can bump into them in the hallway the next.

 I plan to take this understanding with me as I continue my studies and my career in the field, and hope that it will make be better equipped to create and implement climate solutions. Particularly in adaptation and resilience, it is critical to recognize this complexity in order to act quickly to preserve communities, ecosystems and ways of life in a way that is equitable, inclusive and sustainable. ∎

Miriam Silverman Israel is a Dual MA Candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Harvard Divinity School.