Farewell to COP19!

Unfortunately, today was last day at COP19 for Kelly, Gillian, Mr. Johnson, and myself. There weren’t very many side events to go to since many people were more focused on the negotiations taking place. We had the opportunity to attend one press conference later in the day and I have to say I found it very surprising. The panel consisted of three young speakers that all expressed their strong opinion that this Warsaw COP has been a failure, even though they didn’t know the outcome of the negotiations yet. 

They also spoke about the walk out of 800 people that occurred on Thursday. A group of 800 people attending the COP all came together, wore similar t-shirts, and walked out of the COP. This was meant to convey their feelings of frustration toward the slow process of the COP and their overall disappointment with the COP19. It was also supposed to show how they were leaving the COP and focusing more on their local governments and change. Many were surprised by this walk out because it is now the largest “protest” the COP19 has experienced with its own NGO participants.  After speaking about this event, they talked about how they considered this COP failure because of the lowering of ambitions for carbon dioxide emission reductions, specifically in Japan and Canada. 

The one thing that bothered me about these speakers was that they had very black and white views regarding the conference. Instead of talking about or even considering the reasons the countries lowered their goals, the panelists deemed it a failure. Maybe it’s just because I am not a fan of such uncompromising thinking, but I found this extremely irritating. They also were very harsh towards the coal companies that emit a lot of CO2 and questioned their presence at the conference. However, many feel that it is important that they attend the conference so the companies can learn different ways to improve their methods, reduce their emissions, and even transition to different energy sources. I personally agree with this and understand that although these companies are emitting (which obviously isn’t good), they do it because there isn’t a feasible alternative in their eyes. 

Although I enjoyed this press conference because I found it interesting to hear about other people’s views about what was going on, I came out a bit confused. However, through this experience I was also able to gather my own thoughts about the conference and come to the realization that much of what needs to happen doesn’t solely rely on the global decisions, but on what local communities are doing to reduce emissions and the pressure that is put on governments to implement positive action. Anything is possible when small groups of people are committed and push for change.