Connecting to COP27

In November of this year the international community meets to negotiate the next stages of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) treaty. As we approach this conference here are some important things to keep in mind about it:

• This event is the 27th such meeting in which major decisions related to the UNFCCC are made. The title of the event, COP27, is short for the 27th Conference of the Parties to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

• COP27 takes place during a time of record greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and increasing frequency of extreme weather events.

• It happens in the wake of several major reports from the international scientific community making the case that we are quickly running out of time to do a critical overhaul of our global economy in order to stem the tide of this disruption

• It takes place during a time when renewable energy resources are becoming competitive with conventional energy resources (fossil fuels) and several major countries have adopted significant national climate policies.

• It will take place in Egypt and is predicted to include 35,000 attendees from all over the planet. These will include negotiators from nearly 200 countries, support staff from both Egypt and the UN, and observers from nearly 3300 civic and intergovernmental groups.

Since the global community has been meeting to deal with these problems for almost three decades, often with limited and inadequate success, it is tempting to conclude that the process is broken. Furthermore, given the scale of the problem and the UN process, it is equally tempting to feel that the process is inaccessible to all but the world's political and economic elite. With this in mind, here are some key reasons why, despite its limitations, the UN process remains critical to the survival of global society, and why even more citizen involvement is crucial to its success.

• Climate disruption is a global problem needing a global response, and right now the UN is the major table available for forging that response.

• The UNFCCC and work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provide much of the legal and scientific framework for national, local, and institutional climate policy and climate action plans, in effect linking the global to local.

• Observers have come to play an increasing role in many of the COPs. In all they make up the largest and most diverse group of attendees at the COPs. In addition to observing negotiations, they come to advocate for their country, city, civic group, tribe, business, union, faith group, school, or other group of which they are a part. They also come to network with other observer groups, sharing their issues and successes. In doing so they contribute not only to the negotiations but also to their home base as they bring back what they learn to other members of their community.