COP26 - A year late

A view from the Frankfort Airport - it is not raining!

Good morning and Greetings from the Frankfurt, Germany airport. I have a layover on my way to Glasgow and COP26 and am a bit groggy from too little sleep on an overnight flight from Newark, NJ. 

COP26 refers to the 26th Conference of the Parties (signatories) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Convention (UNFCCC). With the pandemic, it has been much more of an ordeal to prepare than usual and with many heads of state attending, including President Biden, security will be extraordinarily tight. But let's hope that these leaders will make significant progress towards addressing reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation and resilience to a changing world, and climate finance to help developing nations advance in a low carbon future.

The Moravian University (formerly College) delegation will not have any students attending in person this year, due to the State Department risk level for the UK and an institutional decision not to let them travel to Scotland. Dr. Hilde Binford and I will do our best to share what we are hearing and learning “on the ground”.  Two current students, Sam Does (Senior Environmental Science major) and Keegan Schealer (Senior Environmental Economics and Policy major), will join in virtually as delegates. Keegan will also be presenting as part of our NSF-funded Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) initiative.

Four Moravian alums (that we know of) will also be attending either in person or virtually: Sarabeth Brockley ('10, Environmental Science) Chelsea Hill ('21, Environmental Science) Melissa Morales ('21, Environmental Science) René Wiesner Brown, PhD ('94 Biology/Natural Resource Management).

Besides representing Moravian and YEAH, I will also be representing the Research and Independent NGOs (RINGOs) as a steering committee member for this official constituency group of the UNFCCC and the Global Council for Science and the Environment.

To get a sense of what is happening each day at the COP, you can check the Overview Schedule, the Daily Programme, News, and the Side Events schedule (which begin on Wednesday). Monday and Tuesday will be devoted to the World Leaders Summit where heads of state will give their statements laying out the framework for any country's delegation during the negotiations. These are always fascinating to listen to. Due to security and space constrictions, it may be difficult to get into the venue to watch this in person, but I am hoping this will be live-streamed. Since President Biden is attending, I am sure that he will speak. In Paris (2015), I was fortunate to be in the room to hear Obama, Putin, Merkel, and several other heads of state ("The room where it happens" is going through my head, if you know this reference from the Broadway show Hamilton).

In a newsletter that registered COP delegates received on October 30th , there was a glimpse at the PR themes that will be used throughout the next two weeks including "TogetherForOurPlanet" and "Shepherd-in-Chief" for the COP26 President Designate (chosen by the host country). You can learn a bit about the COP26 President, Alok Sharma here; note the type of roles he has played in the government and consider how that might influence his perspectives.

In the past week or two leading up to COP26, there was a significant amount of coverage about this event in the U.S. media...more so than usual. NPR had many stories (like this one from last week) and this appeared in the New York Times today. We hope you pay attention to how the event is covered on national and local news over the next two weeks.