Ever wonder what actually goes on at an annual international climate change conference? Alexa White doesn’t. That’s because she’s attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (UNFCCC-COP) not once, but twice. She attended the 2015 talks in Paris, France and the ones that were held this month in Katowice, Poland. White is a second-year Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. student. She was sent as a representative of the University of Michigan’s student delegation, organized by SEAS Professor Avik Basu.
The COP hosts several meetings including plenary sessions, informal negotiations, closed negotiations, press conferences, and other, smaller “side events.” One of the main goals of these discussions is to reach a consensus on the verbiage of text published by the UNFCCC that can guide countries when writing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Those NDCs are then submitted to the UNFCCC to demonstrate each country’s commitment to the global fight against climate change, although it’s important to note that these contributions are not legally binding. White says it was fascinating to watch these negotiations from the perspective of a student delegate, in part because some of the meetings she witnessed came down to the difference between words like “welcome” and “note” or “to” and “for.” Although these debates can seem trivial, according to White, they’re incredibly important in order to achieve unanimous agreement on climate change between 197 different parties.
White studies biocontrol agents for coffee growing, and she attended multiple meetings that focused on agriculture. Biocontrol agents bring an ecological approach—rather than a chemical one—to agricultural pest management by introducing a predator to control insect populations instead of using pesticides.
Curiosity drove Ed, Bella, and Logan to strike up a dialogue with White about the differences in atmosphere between the 21st conference in Paris and this year’s 24th conference in Katowice (AKA the epicenter of Poland’s coal industry). Click up above to listen, and click down below for this episode’s links:
- United Nations Federation on Climate Change Conference-Nationally Determined Contributions (UNFCCC-NDC)
- Act on Climate Massively Open Online Course (MOOC)
- Climate Blue’s Mock UN Negotiation
And remember, keep it hot. Keep it here.