By John Leo Algo
It was 1:25 PM on 3 December 2023, the fourth day of the Dubai climate negotiations (COP28). It had been a few minutes since I fell into the long line of delegates patiently waiting to enter the venue. Around the halfway mark, I looked down from the stairs, seeing the hundreds of people behind me moving between the barriers.
After a few seconds, I mentioned to my colleague in front of me, “How will future COPs handle this many participants?”
In terms of inclusivity, COP28 may have been the peak of climate negotiations. Over 86 thousand people attended last year’s summit in Dubai, the highest in history. Whether for on-site or online participation, whichever country or sector was represented, it is a testament to the growing recognition of the urgent need to address the climate crisis.
Compared to the first conference in 1995, which had less than 4,000 delegates, recent climate COPs have become about more than just the negotiations themselves. They also serve 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. They offer the ideal space for different groups to form new collaborations or partnerships to address impacts, from the global to the local levels.
This has 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 the inclusivity and accessibility of climate COPs have been repeatedly raised in recent years. One major issue is the growing presence of fossil fuel lobbyists, who have adversely affected the progress of negotiations; in Dubai, they collectively outnumbered every Party delegation except for the UAE and Brazil.
At the recent Bonn climate conference (SB60), it was reported that delegates from Africa and Asia were unable to attend due to visa application rejections. Additionally, the event did not feature a virtual participation platform, a notable contrast to the emergence of such modalities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, we face the loss of the RCWs, which the UNFCCC has announced will be suspended indefinitely due to resource constraints. As of SB60, the body has less than half of the USD 165 million needed to implement its activities for the following year.
The RCWs provided additional platforms for non-government stakeholders, including youth, to engage directly with negotiators and policymakers, lobby for their positions, and call upon various aspects of climate action. They also serve as a space for Parties from the same region to build a stronger voice for COPs and for countries to secure investments for their adaptation and mitigation actions.
With these opportunities now gone for the foreseeable future, the Global South is likely to be the most impacted.
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 a lack of funding for travel and accommodation to difficulties in securing visas. With many unable to travel to Azerbaijan in November, the suspension of RCWs makes these challenges even more daunting.
It is ironic that the success of COP29 will be assessed largely on addressing the lack of finance, yet the institution responsible for organizing it faces the exact same challenge. It must be emphasized that the issue is not the lack of finance itself, but rather 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 this massive gap. The work at the national level becomes even more important for non-governmental groups to influence their country’s positions leading up to COP29.
Civil society groups from developing countries that are able to attend the conference in Azerbaijan have the responsibility to reach out to more vulnerable communities and ensure their voices are heard by national decision-makers. Every consultation by the national government and every focused group discussion among their ranks becomes even more significant.
For youth, the Local and Regional Conferences of Youth take on greater importance. 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 key 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 making sufficient progress in negotiations and national governments are listening to the needs and concerns of the most vulnerable, would there even be a need for these groups to travel to the conference venue just for a chance to meaningfully engage with their leaders?
Yet, when civic spaces are shrinking rather than expanding, non-government stakeholders are again forced to become resourceful and resilient.
When developed countries, based on their budget allocations, prefer to prepare for potential conflicts instead of engaging peacefully at the negotiating table, and when big businesses continue to prioritize 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 fulfill their roles.
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 in UN climate and environmental conferences since 2016. He has been a climate and environment journalist since 2016.
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