More than one week went by at COP24 in Katowice. Since the beginning of the conference I’ve been twice in the city, and followed several side events through the webcast. Here is a subjective list of takeaways so far:
- In a noteworthy presentation organized by the IPCC and WMO last Wednesday Dec. 5th, “Climate science for policy” (webcast here), the panelists reminded several times that “every year matters, every choice matters, every life matters.” They stressed once again the key conclusions of the latest 1.5 IPCC report: becoming carbon neutral by 2050, reducing CO2 emissions to 45% of their current level by 2030.
- During another worth watching side event, “How do we get there? The role of agriculture, energy and systemic change to meet the Paris Agreement” (Dec. 6th, webcast here), Prof. Kevin Anderson from Manchester University and Uppsala University reminded, in a memorable presentation, of the distribution of carbon emissions on the income scale, highlighting that close to 50 % of emissions are generated by the top income decile.
- Meanwhile, the young Swede Greta Thunberg explained to conference delegates why she is demonstrating each month in front of her Parliament and will continue to do so until Sweden meets its climate objectives.
- WWF Poland launched an timely and well designed campaign ahead of COP24, which caught my eyes when entering Katowice. Simply picturing a human face, it states: “You are an endangered species“. And, echoing this, a clever text on the banner of one of the participants at the March for Climate that took place Saturday in Katowice was reading: “Dinosaurs thought they had time too!“. The march brought together around 3 000 people, (pictures here).
- This general message of urgency was also the one delivered by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres during his speech on the opening day of the conference, December 3rd:
We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with climate change. Climate change is running faster than we are and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late. For many, people, regions even countries this is already a matter of life and death. This meeting is the most important gathering on climate change since the Paris Agreement was signed. It is hard to overstate the urgency of our situation.
- As for the climate negotiations themselves, COP24 President Michal Kurtyka and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa went through the progress of the first week during a press conference last Saturday, while Patricia Espinosa’s message to the ministers today was “It’s Within our Grasp to Finish the Job of COP24”. The next days will be crucial.
Carbon neutral - climate conscious 