COP26
This year (2021), I attended “Conference of the Parties” – an annual climate change negotiation, conference, networking event, and all-round madhouse that I have been keen to go to for years!
COP comes to a different city each year, rotating between the continents, and this year it was held in Glasgow. Postponed last year due to covid, COP26 expectations were high, and (as always) the event attracted hundreds of thousands of people. COP is always high-profile, but the exceptionally challenging agenda of finalising the Paris rulebook made this event particularly important.
After two years of relative isolation due to covid-19, and conducting a limited number of interviews over zoom, COP was also my first outing “in the field” as a journalist. It was jarring to step into the frenzy of networking at one of the biggest climate change conferences to date, but I threw myself into it and had a great (if exhausting) time.
Arriving at Glasgow station; At the COP26 “action zone”
This was my first real feel of on-the-ground journalism. Walking through the media centre was manic in the first few days, as world leaders entered and left surrounded by crowds of photographers, last-minute press conferences were called, and journalists tirelessly filed stories! (Some of my colleagues saw Al Gore, Barack Obama, and Boris Johnson – to name just a few people. But sadly, I didn’t see anyone famous.)
A media scrum!
As soon as the world leaders left and the nitty gritty of negotiating began, the media centre emptied out. I spent the fortnight attending a range of press conferences, pavillion events, and structured dialogues – as well as meeting up with people, conducting interviews and trying to keep ontop of my normal Carbon Brief work! (I gave up on my email onbox by day 2 though, as press releases flooded in faster than I could read them.)
Indigenous leaders from the Amazon after a panel discussion
Second meeting of the Structured Expert Dialogue of the second periodic review
YOUNGO press conference
After getting my bearings, I set about finding a “project” for my time in Glasgow. I decided to use the time to connect with climate scientists from the global south, with a view to improving the diversity in my reporting. I learned how to use the camera, and spent much of the two weeks chasing interesting people for interviews! Some of these interviews will hopefully feed into a piece that I’m planning too…
With the camera, ready for a busy day of filming!
COP26 is divided into two “zones” – blue and green. I spent my time in the blue zone, where negotiations take place, IPCC processes are carried out and world leaders address swarms of media personelle. To walk from the entrance of the blue zone past meeting rooms, seminar halls and pavillions all the way to the Carbon Brief office at the far end of the media centre took a solid 10 minutes. And that is after you make it through the airport-style security!
Carbon Brief traditionally produces a video compilation at every COP, asking a range of people to answer a single question. This year, the question was “what is one key outcome that you want to see at COP?” I think we got a good range of people for the final video.
Inevitably, I spent plenty of time at the COP26 science pavillion – in which the UK Met Office (UKMO), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and World Meteorological Organisaiton (WMO) collaborated to host a wide range of events. It was great to catch up with some old Met Office colleagues, and to meet scientists who I have been emailing for the past year, face to face.
Excitingly, I was also asked to contribute to a science pavillion event! This event was set up to launch a new series of papers in the journal Climatic Change, on the topic of “Climate Change Communication and the IPCC”. Some of the authors presented their work – which ranged from the importance of including indigenous knowledge in the IPCC reports, to the opportunities to engage youths in the IPCC process – and then IPCC vice-chair Velma Krug delivered some remarks.
The plan was for then for some “special guests”, including myself, to briefly discuss some ideas from the talk that stood out to, and to “pitch” a suggestion to the IPCC. Unfortunately though, the event over-ran a little – so instead, we gave our remarks on video and shared them on twitter! My video is here.
By the end of week 1, I was shattered – so on the middle Saturday, I took a day off from the flourescent lighting blue zone, and went out into Glasgow to see the protests! Through the rain and the cold, 100,000 people showed up to march through the streets of Glasgow, demanding for action and climate justice.
The protests were brilliantly organised into a series of “blocks”, including indigenous peoples, feminists and youths. The energy was fantastic, and the demonstrations made big headlines in the news the next day.
Kicking off week 2 was the Carbon Brief quiz. The quiz has become a highlight of the energy and climate calendar, and is supremely technical and nerdy. I wrote a lot of the questions this year, and still couldn’t remember or work out the answers to all of them!
Usually the quiz is held at a crowded bar in London, but covid forced it online in 2020. This year, Carbon Brief upped the ante by running a hybrid event – welcoming around 100 people to a restaurant in Glasgow, and inviting hundreds more players online from around the world! It was a great chance for everyone to let their hair down, and I treated myself to chips and alcohol (which I very rarely have for medical reasons!)
Hoesung Lee – chair of the IPCC – makes an announcement at a jam-packed science pavillion event on the link between IPCC science and climate policy
The gavel finally came down close to midnight on Saturday – more than a full day after the conference was meant to end – making it the 6th longest COP to daye. And by Monday afternoon, Carbon Brief had published our “key outcomes” piece – which everyone contributed to, but was driven by Simon and Josh. After being fully immersed in COP for a full two weeks, the piece was useful for taking a step back and looking at the outcomes, to get some distance from the nitty gritty of the event itself.
Overall, it was a fantastic fortnight, with highlights including:
Finally getting to know the full Carbon Brief team in person!
A 5-minute conversation in Spanish with an indigenous official from Boliva
A “walk and talk” interview with someone after a press conference (like a real journalist!)
Staying with lovely friends in my first week at Glasgow
Seeing real journalists “in the wild”!
Diwali drinks with (left to right) Aruna Chandrasekhar, Giuliana Viglione, Somini Sengupta and Shravya Jain-Conti
Dinner with (part of) the CB team
Catching up with my friend Liv Grant
Sam Burgess showing off her stripes