When the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established in the 1990s, negotiators focused on greenhouse gas emissions, or GHGs. They discussed mitigation actions; ways to reduce GHGs. The landmark Kyoto Protocol of 1997 (at COP 3) emphasized mitigation, with commitments from developed countries to reduce their production of and reliance on fossil fuels. The 2015 Paris Agreement set the goal of a global temperature rise of no more than 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2050. This goal would be achieved only if developed countries - the major GHG emitters - transitioned significantly to renewable energy sources. This has not happened. Countries are expanding their use of renewables but not fast enough th meet the 1.5 degree goal. Consequently, negotiators now devote considerable time to discussing adaptation - how to deal with a warming world and its consequencxes, such as wildfires, drought, intense hurricanes and typhoons... These articles relate to the imp...
I personally had never really heard about the COPs. I found it quite interesting that these negotiations are held every year and that many people from different countries around the world attend it. I have never seen news that these meets occur, it should be advertised more. I do know from reading the article that there have been many different calamities this year that are harmful to the climate or have been caused from climate change. Are these talked about at COP 28? Or is COP 28 only about speeches, booths, and events? Another question I have is what is the main point of these COPs? Is it too spread awareness about climate change? Or is it to figure out how to solve climate change? What is it exactly?
ReplyDeleteI also have hear absolutely nothing about the Conference of the Parties. I had been under the assumption that conferences might have existed between countries on the subject of climate change, but I figured they were only for diplomats and were kept out of the public eye. How many countries attended the event? Which countries attended COP 28? I am interested to know if they had full world attendance, or if there were some key players who failed to show up at the COP 28. What is the average attendance from regular people at the COP? Is the COP a large event like Comicon, where a large area is shut down and devoted to it? I know next to nothing about the Conference of the Parties, so I have questions about pretty much every aspect of the COP.
DeleteI have not heard about the Conference of the Parties previously either. I had similar questions such as how many countries are involved and if representatives show up from countries even during high tensions or current issues between countries. I think this is something that we should learn about prior to higher education and it should be information that is being shared more.
DeleteI have heard of the COP, but I do not know how they work. I understand that they are climate change negotiations, but how do they change what is currently happening to the earth? Once the conference is concluded, how does that effect the policies to combat climate change? Are there people there of political power that can make changes climate regulations in their own countries, or is the main purpose to just spread the knowledge of how climate change is affecting the world? Also does the location change every year or does it rotate between a few different countries? Some of these questions are very similar to Kevin's, but I believe that they are very important questions for the better understanding of what the COP is.
ReplyDeleteI have not really heard nor know anything of the COP until now. However, I find it shocking that this has not been talked about more. With the large-scale problems of climate change today, it comes as a surprise that the COP28 has just been discovered by me and others. To top it all off, the World Meteorological Organization states that the Earth has hit temperatures that make it the warmest ever recorded in 2023 (Milan, 2023). With this substantial heat on Earth comes several effects, according to the article. Many individuals are being displaced and experiencing food insecurity because of the heat causing extreme weather changes (Milan, 2023). Furthermore, global sea levels have reached its highest due to the extreme heat that has been occurring (Milan, 2023). Questions that do pop up into my head are: Are these countries/leaders obligated to make good on their promises in this conference, such as something binding them or forcing them? What universal changes can be done to prevent these worldwide dilemmas from occurring due to climate change?
ReplyDeleteOne article that I did interesting and that I recommend that relates to the COP28 is the United States' plan to cut methane from oil and gas production. As voiced by the article, "US lays out plan at COP 28 to slash greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas" by Nichola Groom and Valerie Volcovici (https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-lays-out-plan-cop-28-slash-climate-super-pollutant-oil-gas-2023-12-02/), "The rules would prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane from reaching the atmosphere between 2024 and 2038 - nearly the equivalent of all the carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector in 2021, EPA added" (Groom & Volcovici, 2023).
What an enlightening article! Being from San Diego, California, I was the first to know about the ridiculous rise in global temperature. I read a fascinating article some time ago regarding the rise in global temperature, although the article is from 2016, so it doesn't account for the temperature shunt experienced in the past seven years.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/10/see-earths-temperature-spiral-toward-2c-rise-graphic
I recall this one in particular because it includes a really captivating animation of a circular graph drawn by Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at The University of Reading in the U.K., which shows the average temperature of nearly every month over the past 150 years. Aside from the animation, the article is also a good read. It includes many topics pertaining to the rise in global temperature.
I have not heard much about the climate negotiations taking place in Dubai, I only have learned about it since starting Comm 114. I think it is great that this climate action is going on! My question is, why Dubai? I am not very familiar with what goes on in Dubai besides knowing its a very clean and safe country.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I am familiar with is the clean energy strategy that they are striving for, here is an article that goes into it more: https://u.ae/en/about-the-uae/strategies-initiatives-and-awards/strategies-plans-and-visions/environment-and-energy/dubai-clean-energy-strategy
I've heard a little about COPs due to the Science Communication class I took almost two years ago. When I was looking at extra material for the class, I came upon more information about them. In regards to climate change, I understand that negotiations are meant to help with collaboration of how to reduce greenhouse emissions.
ReplyDeletehttps://unfccc.int/process/bodies/supreme-bodies/conference-of-the-parties-cop
I came across this list of part COPs throughout the years, and I'm curious how it's decided who hosts the COP every year. Do you think the United States will hold a COP in the future?
Personally, I knew nothing about the COP before today. I have done some reading of other blogs and websites and learned a little bit more. However, I still don't know to much about COP.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about the COP 28, one thing I would like to know is how far it reaches. Is the purpose to create a climate coalition? Is it to set standards for emissions across the UN? Or is it merely to lay out the collective knowledge on the crisis? There is much that I do not know, and one strategy that the UN could utilize is to attempt to appeal to younger generations. If the UN was able to spread their reach on instagram and TikTok, there could be increased knowledge about the COP 28. Another thing I would like to know is: how does the UN spread it's information? Does it rely solely of news reporting?
ReplyDeleteUntil Dr. Walker discussed COP 28 during lecture, I didn't know that it existed. But from reading this blog for a good bit of time, I have a solid idea of the purpose of these events. The idea is to bring world leaders and representatives together to discuss climate status, propose new climate policy, and evaluate old climate policies and their effectiveness. What I would like to know about COP 28 is the final outcome: will we push aggressive climate policy? Or will we continue to believe that mitigation and low-bar goal policies will solve the climate crisis adequately? I also have a general wondering about COP. Has there been any significant worldwide policy to come out of a COP meeting? There have been 28 of them, but I haven't seen much information about the COP summits in general, which leads me to believe that they typically aren't very effective at sparking real change.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of COP28 until my enrollment in the COMM114 lecture, but I find that it provides very important information about Climate Change. It reported 2023 as the hottest year in history, but it does make me curious how much of this heat increase is due to "El Nino". Another thing that I learned about COP28 is that it doesn't just talk about the changes in temperature, but also touch upon flooding, hurricanes, and other abnormal weather phenomena. One last thing that the article led me to question: What will we do with all of this information, as it shows we are in "deep trouble."
ReplyDeleteI would like to know more about what they have planned on actual action on the climate crisis. Also what is being done to change policies that are harmful against the environment. I would like to be more informed on what is truly being accomplished by this summit. Most of what I've heard about climate conferences is all of the wealthy politicians and leaders flying into some exotic place to talk about how bad climate change is affecting the environment. It seems pretty contradictory against what they are trying to stand for.
ReplyDeleteI had heard words about to in the news, especially as Biden prepared to visit as well as after the meeting when the promises were made, but I think the media should have covered it more, as it seemed to have been buried beneath many other headlines.
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