by Sara Löwgren This is a personal story. It is different from our regular blog posts and may present a different perspective. I have written about the impacts of climate change for years. Seeking to inform, animate, and provoke action, I put words to emotions I did not yet know. I am extremely privileged: I still do not know what it feels like when a drought threatens your family’s daily meal, when your house is washed away in a flood, or when you know that within 50 years,

Written by Thule van den Dam, Aura Silva Martinez, and Rachael Goldberg COP23 (Fiji) in Bonn officially started today and we are caught between a rock and a hard place. The Paris Agreement is a watery, empty promise, and a Polish presidency for COP24 is promising to be as dark as the ‘Coal Summit’ that will be hosted at the same time. To hold developed countries accountable to anything, however, this watery, empty promise needs implementation and clarity, never straying from

By Sara Velander, Jenna Farineau, and Elaina Burress. After the final text of the Paris Agreement was adopted mid-December 2015, several land-focused organizations analyzed the different ways land use and agriculture are positioned in the agreement, in order to identify the future trajectory of land use in international climate policy. According to Climate Focus, the Agreement made specific references to land use in various articles including Article 5 on forests, and a refer

At every COP meeting, constituencies have the opportunity to address opening and closing plenaries through interventions. The closing of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice closed today at COP22, and a member of our COP22 delegation, Jenna Farineau, gave the speech on behalf of the UNFCCC youth constituency (special thanks and shoutout to all the people who worked on the intervention behind the scenes: Laura Berry, Caroline Jeanmaire, Amalie Cordes, an

by Elaina Burress and Jenna Farineau “I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” ―Malala Yousafzai Just two days ago, Sada Albachir and Agnes Leina from the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee along with Tafadzwa Dhlakama of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association spoke on a panel that raised issues of human rights and gender. This side event was moderated by Hindo

by Aneesa Khan It has been almost an entire year since parties to the UNFCCC gathered in the home of fine fromage and disastrous climate deals. The 31-page Paris Agreement came into existence through its adoption on December 12th, 2015 and its birth was met with thunderous applause and tears of joy from rich countries and the French Presidency of COP21. On the frontlines of climate change and amongst the groups that fought for justice, there were tears as well. Miserable tear

by Aneesa Khan It has been almost an entire year since parties to the UNFCCC gathered in the home of fine fromage and disastrous climate deals. The 31-page Paris Agreement came into existence through its adoption on December 12th, 2015 and its birth was met with thunderous applause and tears of joy from rich countries and the French Presidency of COP21. On the frontlines of climate change and amongst the groups that fought for justice, there were tears as well. Miserable tear

By Laura Berry & Margherita Tommasini “As we open COP 22, 100 parties have ratified the Paris Agreement. All together, we have made possible what they said it was impossible and we have done it with determination, we never gave up, this is a historic moment” ~Ségolène Royal, President of COP21 The official Opening Ceremony and first plenary session of the COP 22 climate negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco took place today, signifying the formal return to the negotiation table

By Laura Berry & Margherita Tommasini “As we open COP 22, 100 parties have ratified the Paris Agreement. All together, we have made possible what they said it was impossible and we have done it with determination, we never gave up, this is a historic moment” ~Ségolène Royal, President of COP21 The official Opening Ceremony and first plenary session of the COP 22 climate negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco took place today, signifying the formal return to the negotiation table

by Klever Descarpontriez Climate change threatens to alter the world as we know it. It poses an environmental and social crisis. Climate change affects genders differently, yet not all genders participate equally in coming up with solutions. Institutional sexism at the decision-making process, prevents women from meaningfully engage in negotiations and politics. This exclusion results in policies that are not gender-responsive, nor gender-sensitive, and that further exacerbat

by Klever Descarpontriez Climate change threatens to alter the world as we know it. It poses an environmental and social crisis. Climate change affects genders differently, yet not all genders participate equally in coming up with solutions. Institutional sexism at the decision-making process, prevents women from meaningfully engage in negotiations and politics. This exclusion results in policies that are not gender-responsive, nor gender-sensitive, and that further exacerbat

guest blog by Daniel Voskoboynik, This Changes Everything UK For all the dispiriting truths I know about the world, inside of me I still carry impulses of hopeful naiveté: that there are no bad intentions but misguided ones, that things are being constantly improved, that there are always saviours somewhere, that all problems find their cures. These intuitions, engraved in me through innocence and illusion, come and go, but never have they encountered such a direct challenge

guest blog by Daniel Voskoboynik, This Changes Everything UK For all the dispiriting truths I know about the world, inside of me I still carry impulses of hopeful naiveté: that there are no bad intentions but misguided ones, that things are being constantly improved, that there are always saviours somewhere, that all problems find their cures. These intuitions, engraved in me through innocence and illusion, come and go, but never have they encountered such a direct challenge

by Aneesa Khan To be in a room for seven whole hours is arduous in itself. However, for that room to be one filled with painfully complacent idiots, the overpowering smell of corporate power, and sickeningly thundering applause? Well, that can only be described as torturous. Feelings along the lines of delirious levels of fury, profound misery and a fairly good amount of second-hand embarrassment for those in the room were inevitable and rampant. Those clapping fools who tho

by Aneesa Khan To be in a room for seven whole hours is arduous in itself. However, for that room to be one filled with painfully complacent idiots, the overpowering smell of corporate power, and sickeningly thundering applause? Well, that can only be described as torturous. Feelings along the lines of delirious levels of fury, profound misery and a fairly good amount of second-hand embarrassment for those in the room were inevitable and rampant. Those clapping fools who tho

By Aura Silva Martinez There were over 160 people sitting in layers around a big, wide circle at the Climate Coalition 21 assembly. An ongoing wave of comments, questions and answers was being thrown to a multitude of unresponsive chairs. This was an overwhelming experience for me, and despite being a somewhat inefficient space where having a real, meaningful conversation was significantly difficult, it was here were many of my current thoughts about the future of the movemen

By Aura Silva Martinez There were over 160 people sitting in layers around a big, wide circle at the Climate Coalition 21 assembly. An ongoing wave of comments, questions and answers was being thrown to a multitude of unresponsive chairs. This was an overwhelming experience for me, and despite being a somewhat inefficient space where having a real, meaningful conversation was significantly difficult, it was here were many of my current thoughts about the future of the movemen

by Makiko Yoshida What the Paris Agreement has Failed to Achieve After four years of negotiations, the Paris Agreement was adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on December 12th. There are many reasons why many of us do not think that this agreement is sufficient to what the world needs despite what many media outlets have been reporting. Following the adoption of the agreement, Oquist, the Minister of Environment for Nicaragua also

by Makiko Yoshida What the Paris Agreement has Failed to Achieve After four years of negotiations, the Paris Agreement was adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on December 12th. There are many reasons why many of us do not think that this agreement is sufficient to what the world needs despite what many media outlets have been reporting. Following the adoption of the agreement, Oquist, the Minister of Environment for Nicaragua also

By Kendall Cook I found myself walking through the bourgeois neighborhood Saint-Germain, an ornate path to a prestigious institution where I was meeting an elite group of Loss and Damage experts.  There were about twenty to twenty five people in the room, all professionals over the age of thirty, half of which were sustainable development directors of various NGOs, the other, self-involved bureaucrats.  I was the outlier. The workshop started with a brief history of Loss and