Later this month, more than 70,000 will gather in Dubai for the 2023 United Nations Climate Conference. Attendees will include heads of state from more than 140 countries, government negotiators, leaders of non-governmental organizations, media members, and observers.
The conference gives the international community the opportunity to negotiate the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty, a document that provides much of the legal and scientific framework for national, local, and institutional climate policy and climate action plans. This is an important document because it sets goals and objectives that organizations of all sorts – governments, corporation, non-profit groups, and more – can when taking steps to address climate change.
Observers are important guests at the conference. They make up the largest and most diverse group of attendees, and they serve important roles in observing negotiations and advocating their perspectives. But unfortunately, attending is expensive, time-consuming, and logistically complex.
Frank Granshaw – geoscientist and climate education – set out to do something about that. He created a an online portal so that citizen observers and others interested in following the conference could participate from the comfort of their own homes.
The portal includes background information about the conference; virtual conference exhibits; online climate courses; links to live webcasts, teleconferences, and video channels; and dozens of ideas about how to get more involved in climate action.
“For most of us attending a UN climate conference like the upcoming COP28, is daunting if not impossible,” Granshaw said. “And yet the need to get far more eyes on the process and grassroots voices at the table grows increasingly critical as climate disruption becomes more urgent and climate negotiations continue to fall short of what is needed.
“The UNFCCC process, despite its imperfections, is one of the few common tables where all levels of global society have a chance to do the necessary work to provide a positive environmental legacy to our children and grandchildren,” he said “Even the smallest countries, sometimes the most impacted by climate change, have a voice at these conferences.”
Granshaw plans to update the portal with new information throughout the conference, which runs from November 30 to December 12.
For more information, go to https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/connecting-to-cop28.