The third day of the COP23 climate conference was another quiet day with meetings between the COP23 presidency, UNFCCC NGOs and National Parties taking part in the conference. Things are beginning to build now before the bigger events start on Friday. From Friday onwards, there are thematic days run by Global Climate Action (GCA); different areas of the environment are looked at in more detail for countries to engage with and identify ways to become more sustainable.
Looking at the conference itself, it is planning to be a climate neutral event. Every aspect of the conference was examined for ways that would increase the energy efficiency of the event, increase the use of renewable energy and, for those emissions that are unavoidable, offsetting emissions and purchasing certified emission reduction credits from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Getting the leaders of nations all over the world to converge on a single event in a city in Germany has it’s an obvious flaw for a climate change conference. The emissions for all national leaders and their country’s delegates are most likely very high, but the use of the CDM offsets the emissions caused by travel by investing in emission-reduction projects; a number of emissions from flying dignitaries against the emissions saved through the introduction of green technology of reduced emission projects, thus allowing the conference to be climate neutral.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, there are two zones at this years climate conference: the Bula Zone and the Bonn Zone. Travel between these two zones is operated entirely be electric vehicles with electricity produced from renewable energy resources. Energy efficiency has been greatly improved in the hotels that leaders stay in during their visit and the centres where events are being held. Even the environmental impact of the food that is supplied to the two zones during the COP23 event is being considered to ensure that the conference truly is a climate neutral one.
The environmental impact of holding a world conference like this is big. Unfortunately, there’s not getting around that. But the work being done by those in charge of the climate conference is very important and it dramatically reduces the environmental effect of events like this; nobody is making things that little bit worse to try and make it better.
That’s Day Three over, Time for Day Four and the young and future generations day at COP23.
