My overall experience at COP24: learnings, my role? and much to be done

It’s been a bit over a month since I left the International Climate Change Conference, COP24, in Katowice, Poland, where I shared daily reflections.

I never finished putting together this post of my overall thoughts and learnings, so with some breathing room, I thought to go back and do so.

I don’t want to get too into the logistics of the conference with takeaways and implications of the Katowice rulebook. There are sources and articles way better than myself for those summaries (like here).

Rather, I can bring my own perspective and learnings as a 21-year old that just graduated college from a ‘top 20’ US university.

More people should be informed

There are certainly many that are very informed about the current state and future impacts of climate change, but not nearly enough.

This isn’t to say that this is necessarily the #1 topic that should be taught more in schools (US foreign policy history, sex education, financial literacy, etc are also all under-taught). That said, this is definitely towards the top.

There is tons of science and numbers, but for just a few:

• If temperature increase is limited to 1.5C instead of 2C, then by 2050, it’s estimated that 420 million fewer people will be exposed to extreme heat waves, 26–34 million fewer at risk of increased flooding, 184–270M fewer will be exposed to water scarcity risks, and on and on. [source]

It means in my lifetime, climate change has the potential to alter hundreds of millions (if not billions) of lives.

The more that people are aware of the severe potential consequences, the more that will realize it’s a noble, important problem to go into for a career.

There are so many moving pieces

Both overwhelming and energizing is the number of moving pieces when we talk about climate change. There are countless industries, sectors, companies, and ways of life that impact greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s overwhelming when you ask, how can I, as one person, do anything?

It’s energizing, though, to realize how many different ways an individual, or larger collective, can play a part.

Forestration, agriculture, buildings, cattle, renewable energy, water use, waste management, city development, and so on. There are endless ways to get involved.

This is especially the case when factoring in technology. People interested in the emergence of technology and/or in life sciences can get involved and fight for change through better tech — cheaper renewable energy, renewable building construction processes, carbon sinks, etc.

I believe if more people learned about and were exposed to these conversations, and key studies and events were greater publicized, then more would realize the pressing need for action. That’s a better allocation of human resources than sending smart college students off to mindless jobs.

Steps towards change and greatest hopes?

After sitting through negotiations at the conference, I’ve formed the belief that on an international scale, things are going to move too slowly.

Many countries and individuals have the right intentions, but capitalism is a beast (both good and bad). Economic incentives drive much of life (and emissions today). The goal of running on entirely renewable energy by 2050 would take massive steps, including combatting huge dollars that sit in the pockets of oil.

Many countries entire economies rely on their ability to sell oil, and while some are working towards getting off of it, many aren’t doing it quickly enough, and some are hardly doing it at all.

I sat through painful negotiations over singular words in a rulebook that isn’t even binding, and it was like pulling teeth for some countries. There were a handful that wouldn’t even fully recognize the new IPCC report and the future impacts it shed to light.

This isn’t to take an entirely pessimistic lens towards COP, because I can’t imagine a better way to be handling this on an international level, and the UNFCCC and conference have made some momentous and noteworthy strides — aligning international players, creating a space for collaboration, allocating financial resources, shedding light into who is doing well and who is not in this game of tragedy of the commons, and pushing countries to implement policies that will create a brighter future.

It’s just to say that top down, from the UNFCCC to countries to companies and individuals, I don’t think it will be enough to combat climate change the way we need to, especially with the slow-moving nature of these systems.

Collaboration is certainly key, and it will take many agents and factors and efforts. All that said, I believe the biggest hope against some of these scary changes in the future is the rise of technology.

Upon a quick Google search, for example, I found this company Pivot that’s developing more environmentally friendly fertilizers.

“If every corn farmer in the US were to use Pivot Bio’s microbes, the reduction in nitrogen emissions alone would be equivalent to taking about 1 million cars off the road.” [Pivot CEO, Karsten Temme].

These innovations exist across every sector touching climate change, and I think they’re the greatest, quickest, most critical way to combat the issues being faced and to scale them across the globe.

Gratitude for the opportunity

I was astounded by how few students were present at this conference in Katowice. Despite it being the future that we are growing up into, my school is one of a handful undergraduate ones (with not too many more graduate schools) that send students to the conference.

There is a coalition of young people at the conference as well, but these numbers dwarf in comparison to the rest of the participants.

The fact that I was able to attend and participate was a humbling, and eye opening experience. It demonstrated the international energy being put towards this problem, it showed me collaboration on one of the largest and most important international scales, and it give me a wider perspective about the climate change issue: who is out there working on it, what they’re working on, and how much truly needs to be done.

It begs the question, what do I do?

It’s one I’m still grappling with. You could argue that climate change is the number 1 problem the world currently faces (although I’ve heard compelling arguments for the rise of AI as well as cyber warfare and maybe a few others). Either way, I’d certainly put it in the top 5, and probably even lower.

For now, I have to continue to stay informed, in the conversations, and sharing about my experience for others to hear. There’s fruitful opportunity all over the place in sustainable development and it very well could paint some of what I choose to do next. Still thinking through that piece, though.

Regardless, I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity and have no doubt that climate change and protecting the planet will be a part of my individual and more broad future.

Thanks for reading! If you want to view my daily thoughts from the conference, look here.

If you want to chat, feel free to reach out!