A Scientist's Guide to the COP

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We Are Still In (Update on US at COP23)

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Posted by Anna McGinn and Will Kochtitzky Opening panel discussion at US Climate Action Pavilion The United States Climate Action Pavilion (also know as the We Are Still In pavilion) opened yesterday with a well attended panel discussion between US leaders representing the state level, universities, faith organizations, corporations, and cities. As described in a previous post about the US at COP23 , this pavilion is not run by the federal government- as all other country pavilions are- but it is run by sub-national actors and is situated right outside the official negotiating venue. Over the next week, they are hosting events ranging from "city actions to decarbonize buildings" to "the economic case for US climate action: views from congress and the private sector." We learned this morning that at least five US senators will be traveling to Bonn to speak in the US Climate Action Pavilion. Wednesday is colleges and universities day at the pavilion, and UMa...
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Earth Science Feeding the COP

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Posted by: Will Kochtitzky How do we monitor changes to earth? How do we measure the essential climate variables (ECV) to inform decision making? How do we quantify climate change? At the COP, all these questions and more are asked within in the realm of “Research and Systematic Observation”. Because systematic observations play a key role in the UNFCCC processes there are defined mechanisms for parties (countries) to receive information from organizations working to make earth observations, such as the European Space Agency, World Meteorological Organization, among others. These groups are vital in assessing the state of the planet and relaying scientific information to the parties. In these negotiations, the parties also request information from scientific bodies. Many people may not consider these conversations important, as they are not dealing with climate policy and are not impacting global carbon emissions. In fact, these negotiations are the ground work ...
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"We are all in the same canoe"

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Posted by: Anna McGinn Presentation at the evening welcome reception by  (from left to right)  the moderator, Fiji Prime Minister- President of the COP, German  Minister of  Environment,  and head (secretariat) of UNFCCC.   COP23 kicked off this morning in Bonn, Germany with the opening ceremony and plenaries. The ceremony featured an important cast of characters for international climate change negotiation including the last year's COP President from Morocco, this year's COP President from Fiji, the German Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (because they are physically hosting the COP here in Bonn on behalf of Fiji), the Chair of the IPCC, and the head of the UNFCCC. Upon accepting the Presidency of the COP, the Prime Minister of Fiji, Minister Frank Bainimarama asserted that the delegates here, and the countries they represent, "are all in the same canoe," and therefore, we need to work together ov...
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