It was 1:25 PM on Dec. 3, the fourth day of the Dubai climate negotiations (COP28). It has been a few minutes since I fell in the long line of delegates patiently waiting to enter the venue. Around the halfway mark, I looked down the stairs, seeing the hundreds of people behind me moving between the barriers.
After a few seconds, I then mentioned to my colleague in front of me, “How will future COPs handle these many participants?”.
In terms of inclusivity, COP28 may have been the peak of the climate negotiations. Over 86 thousand people attended last year’s summit in Dubai, easily the most in history. Whether for on-site or online participation, whichever country or sector was represented, it is a testament to the growing recognition to urgently of addressing the climate crisis.
Compared to the first conference in 1995 which had less than 4000 delegates, recent climate COPs have become more than just about the negotiations itself. It also serves as the most high-profile platform for non-government representatives, from businesses to civil society groups, to showcase their climate solutions or air their concerns directly to policymakers. It also offers the ideal space for different groups to form new collaborations or partnerships to address impacts, from the global to the local levels.
This overshadowed the funding challenges that have been plaguing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for a while. This became even more evident last March when the UNFCCC announced the cancellation of the Regional Climate Weeks (RCWs).
The signs were there
Concerns about inclusivity and accessibility of the climate COPs have been repeatedly brought up in recent years. One of the major issues is the growing presence of fossil fuel lobbyists that have adversely affected the progress of the negotiations; in Dubai, they collectively outnumbered every single Party delegation, except for the UAE and Brazil.
In the recent Bonn climate conference (SB60), it was reported that delegates from Africa and Asia were unable to attend as they had their visa applications rejected. This event also did not feature a virtual platform for participation, which is a stark contrast to the emergence of such a modality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And now we face the loss of the RCWs, which the UNFCCC mentioned will be suspended indefinitely due to resource constraints. As of SB60, the body has less than half of the USD165 million it needed to implement its activities for the following year.
That included RCWs, which provide additional platforms for non-government stakeholders, including the youth, to directly engage their negotiators and policymakers to lobby for their positions and calls on different aspects of climate action. They also serve as a space for Parties from the same region to build a stronger voice heading into the COPs, and for countries to secure more investments to fund their respective adaptation and mitigation actions.
All of these opportunities are gone for the foreseeable future. And with any impact related to the climate crisis, this would affect the Global South the most.
Civil society and community representatives from the developing world face more challenges in attending COPs compared to their counterparts in developed countries. These issues range from lack of funding for traveling and accommodations to more difficulties in securing visas. With many unable to travel to Azerbaijan in November, the suspension of RCWs only makes the challenges even more daunting.
It is ironic that the success of COP29 would be assessed largely on addressing the lack of finance, yet the institution responsible for organizing it faces this exact same challenge. It must be emphasized that the issue is not the lack of finance, but rather in the lack of accessible and available finance.
From regional to national
With RCWs gone from the calendar, different groups are now scrambling to organize their own regional events to fill in this massive gap. Yet the work at the national level becomes even more important for non-government groups to influence their country’s positions heading to COP29.
Civil society groups from developing countries that are capable of going to Azerbaijan have the responsibility to reach out to more vulnerable communities and ensure that their voices are listened to by national decision-makers. Every consultation by the national government, and every focused group discussion among their ranks matters even more.
For the youth, the conduct of the Local and Regional Conferences of Youth also takes a bigger significance. Their insights on mobilizing climate finance must be effectively communicated through national statements, meetings with negotiators, or social media campaigns. The messages of enhanced ambition and enabling actions, identified by the COP29 Presidency as pillars of the next negotiations, must also be carried by the youth.
Climate work at the domestic level remains a challenge for civil society and youth groups in many developing countries. After all, if Parties are achieving enough progress in the negotiations, to begin with, if national governments sufficiently listen to the needs and concerns of the most vulnerable, would there even be a need for them to travel to the conference venue just for a chance to meaningfully engage with their leaders?
Yet at a time when civic spaces are shrinking instead of growing, non-government stakeholders are once again forced to become resourceful and resilient.
When developed countries, based on their budget allocations, prefer to prepare for potential conflicts instead of peacefully engaging at the negotiating table, when big businesses continue to choose short-term profits over long-term sustainability, civil society must step up even more to be the third pillar that reinforces global climate action until the other two pillars do their parts.
As a famous song goes, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone”.
John Leo is the National Coordinator of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas and the Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Campaigns of Living Laudato Si’ Philippines. He has been representing Philippine civil society at UN climate and environmental conferences since 2016. He has been a climate and environment journalist since 2016.
