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While the experience of COP was simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting, it was also impossible to ignore the elephant in the room. Expo City was an impeccable venue that ran like a machine. But the mechanisms that made for a nearly seamless user experience were well-oiled by the extraction of fossil fuels that are killing our planet and are in large part responsible for us needing to have a conference of the parties in the first place.
Read MoreComing into the second week of COP28 in Dubai, I was advised to temper my expectations for progress towards consensus from negotiations in the two areas I was most interested in observing: climate adaptation and loss and damage. However, one theme that was especially popular this year was nature-based solutions and the concept of “blue carbon,” which promotes the role of coastal and ocean ecosystems in increasing the resilience of onshore communities, as well as protecting and building carbon sinks for the purpose of mitigating net greenhouse gas emissions.
Read MoreWhat is the day in the life at COP28? Mieke van der Wansem takes you through a typical day filled with events, meetings, and meals at COP28 in Dubai.
Read MoreI attended the first week of COP28 in Dubai. The hours-long lines in the sun of the first few days are now a memory and I'm eagerly awaiting the text of the COP decision. Hopefully countries will end the meeting with an ambitious final agreement but, at the moment, it seems doubtful because of a particularly contentious point: the language surrounding a fossil fuel "phase out" or "phase down". It was expected to be this year’s biggest sticking point and it has lived up to expectations.
Read MoreAs a pre-doctoral researcher with a focus on financing climate action in developing economies, my primary objective for attending COP28 was to monitor progress of negotiations on three key climate finance topics: the Loss and Damage Fund, the new collective and quantified goal (NCQG) for climate finance, and reforms of multilateral development banks (MDBs).
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