1st Day at the Conference

Monday was the opening day of the conference we came to Poland to attend, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties, or "COP". The two week event is an international conference on climate change, and this year is the 19th year the conference has been held. Countries, known as "Parties", send their own delegates but there are also non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).

National Stadium (Stadion Narodowy): Where COP19 is being held

After imagining what it would be like to go to the COP19 conference, we finally got to go and experience it for ourselves. It was quite a culture shock with so many different cultures mingling together in one place. In the morning everyone gathered, either in the main hall or in an overflow room equipped with big screens, for the Opening Ceremony of the conference.

In the Opening Ceremony the elected leaders and the main issues that would be covered at the conference were introduced. The Opening Ceremony started with Mr. Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the COP18 president,  saying his farewells and noting the achievements made in Doha, Qatar at the COP 18 Conference. He then introduced the COP19 president, Mr. Maran Korolec of Poland, who touched on the importance of everybody working together to reach the goals set by the Convention to address climate change. Ms. Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, spoke next and told everyone the scary truth about the air we breath. We are currently breathing 400ppm of CO2 in our air for the first time in human history. She also spoke about the link between climate change and the tsunami that hit the Philippians and other surrounding countries in recent days and about the importance of addressing the financing aspect of climate change as part of any international agreement  The mayor of Warsaw, Ms. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, then took the podium and talked about how Warsaw is working everyday to become a more environmentally friendly city.

The final speaker was Mr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His powerpoint presentation described how continuing climate change will affect our future, including the warming of the oceans, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, ocean acidification and record concentrations of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide, much of which can be attributed to human activity. He showed predictions of a 2.6 to a 8.5 degree rise in atmospheric temperature in the future, a rise that will present a severe challenge for adaptation. In order to avoid these issues we have to act now or it will be harder to fix in the future. The Opening Ceremony ended with country representatives and members of civil society voicing their opinions on the issues that should be covered during the conference.

After the Opening Ceremony we were able to explore the stadium and figure out where everything is located. We found food, the meeting rooms, and the exhibits of the NGOs (non-governmental organizations).

Overall it was a very overwhelming but exciting day.