Day 2: Learning as we go

Hello! 

My name is Camellia Schwartzman and I’m a junior physics major at Mac! My focus for the COP is sustainable cities and development so you’ll see how that influences the events that I attend. 

Today was the second official day of the COP. A few of us woke up early for pavilion events and took the metro to get to the COP just as it opened. The photo above shows us looking out from the back of the women’s only car with a view of the Dubai skyline and metro system. Women aren’t required to ride in the car, however, the car feels safer and provides a sense of solidarity to ride with other women. When we arrived, the main walkways were blocked off with security because many heads of state presented speeches. Our observer status didn’t allow us to watch these high-level speeches in person so we made the most of our time in other side events. Because of the blockade, we had to walk all the way around to get to the other side of the Blue Zone. 

My first event was in the Korea Pavillion about net-zero city development initialized by local governments. Later in the day, I attended a similar event in the Japan pavilion. Both featured speeches from mayors who presented plans to lower the consumption and carbon emissions from their cities. I caught up with everyone at an official press briefing from the Climate Action Network (CAN) where speakers discussed a summary of yesterday’s big decisions and points. They mentioned how it was unprecedented to have such a significant action, in this case the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund, on the first official day of a COP. Yet, they challenged us to push harder for a fossil fuel phase out.

Lunch was a bit difficult because of the massive number of people all wanting food at the same time. I had difficulty obtaining lunch because many places had either run out of food, or had very long lines. 

After attending a few more pavilion events, I called it a day and headed back to the hotel. All of us met up to eat dinner at a Pakistani restaurant across the street. I really enjoyed the food and am happy to go to bed with a satisfied stomach. 

I think I can speak for everyone when I say how tired we are after the full schedule today. I’m excited to see how the rest of the conference plays out and what higher level side events I can listen to and learn from in the next week.