Eight CC students are in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this month to attend the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) as part of the Block 4 COP28 in Dubai: Ethnographers of UN Climate Action Efforts course. COP28 takes places from Nov. 30 through Dec. 12. Students in the course will be in Dubai from Nov. 30 through Dec. 17.
“It is an incredible honor to be able to be a part of this global event,” says Tristan Durocher ’25, one of the CC delegates. “It is a dream come true to be able to witness an amazingly global event in person and even get the chance to speak with government officials and heads of state from countries around the globe. Though it may be a little overwhelming, I am beyond excited to create connections and have important discourse with other attendees from all over the world.”
Each year, CC sends a small delegation to the annual United Nationals Climate Change Conference. Students join a team of COP ethnographers and work through the Youth Environmental Alliance in High Education (YEAH). YEAH is a network of undergraduate and graduate institutions in the United States, Australia, Peru, and the United Kingdom focused on climate action by working through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Co-instructors Dr. Sarah Hautzinger, Professor of Anthropology and Principal Investigator at YEAH, and Myra Jackson, a CC Creativity and Innovation Fellow, are leading the CC students and will accompany them to the conference.
Last year, Hautzinger and Jackson took 10 CC students to the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Students blogged about their experiences here.
Hautzinger first attended COP as part of CC’s delegation in 2019 at COP25 in Madrid, where she connected with fellow higher education professionals and formed YEAH, with eight participating colleges and universities across four nations. Last year was the first time she brought students and made COP27 the focus of an entire block.
“As my own focus as an anthropologist, ethnographer, activist, and teacher began turning toward climate questions around 2016, I was struck by how this is a problem that is spatially and temporally unique: at once local and global, about the present and also the future,” Hautzinger says. “I’ve brought my discipline’s practice of putting individual and community experiences in regional, national, and international context, in structural, political, and sociocultural terms. Therefore, joining the big circus of the United Nations’ climate summits felt like an imperative piece in shaping youth climate leaders.”
Jackson became involved in UN processes as an electrical engineer focused on renewal energy within the utility company she worked for in California. “After a series of dreams, I retired early to focus on climate change as a part of the UN Open Working Group that established what is now known as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” Jackson says. This will be her 16th time attending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“As the course is framed as ‘COP28 in Dubai as Ethnographers,’ I look forward to being there after the throngs leave, exploring what hosting COP28 meant to residents and organizations in Dubai while finalizing our other written products in community,” Hautzinger says. “My colleagues from all those schools not on the Block Plan are envious!”
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established in March 1994 with the goal of preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system. Every year since then, countries attend the Conferences of the Parties (COP) to the Convention to assess climate measures.
“I originally applied to this course because I felt that climate change had long been a blind spot for me in my activism,” says Mckenna Ryan ’25, an Anthropology major with a focus in sociocultural anthropology. “I wanted to learn more so I could effectively integrate environmental justice into my work in social justice, because it is obviously an extremely important and pressing issue.”
Over 70,000 people are expected to participate in this year’s conference, including government officials and heads of states.
“It is an immense privilege to be a part of this event,” says Jasmine Sone ’24, an Environmental Science major. “I recognize that many people are more deserving or qualified to attend such an important conference, but circumstances prevent many from doing so. Recognizing this privilege, I am determined to make the most of this opportunity. I also feel responsible for amplifying voices often marginalized in these discussions, especially since I come from Myanmar, a country that is often marginalized. It’s an opportunity to learn, participate, and push for more inclusive and effective environmental policies. This experience emphasizes the significance of using my position to advocate for a more sustainable and equitable future for all.”
Preparation for the Block 4 class has been going on since students were notified of their selection to the delegation. Many students sought out additional resources and conducted their own research to ensure they are as prepared as possible for COP28.
“Since being admitted in March, student members were reminded that first, they are members of a participating and contributing delegation (like Burning Man – there are no bystanders!), and only second are they students taking a course,” Hautzinger says. “Across the summer each member tapped into the Intersessional meetings in Bonn Germany. We all read the novel Ministry for the Future and had online discussions about it. These meetings and preparations have continued through the fall, including four of the students attending a YEAH ‘Road to COP28’ Conference held at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.”
The Bonn Intersessional is the Bonn Climate Change Conference which took place in June. The conference continues discussions and mandates that occurred during COP27 last year, and prepares draft decisions for potential adoption at COP28. CC delegates Lucy Kramer ’26, Zoraiz Zafar ’25, Riss Banuelos ’26, and Ryan attended the two-day October YEAH ‘Road to COP28’ conference intended to prepare young people attending COP28.
“I think going to COP28 is important because climate solutions require relationships, strong relationships, and I think that being together with activists who are working on this issue from multiple angles will offer the opportunity of building these necessary relationships,” says Banuelos, an Organismal Biology and Ecology major and Anthropology minor. “At COP28, I want to focus on relationships between people, but also relationships between the land and how we can make kin, building resilience in response to climate change.”
“Our class began preparing for the conference in the summer, delving into assigned readings and actively sharing valuable information,” says Sone, who added that individually, she is investing in thorough research and learning as much as possible to guarantee she is ready for COP28. “In addition, we’re researching as much as we can, delving into previous conference outcomes, and exploring current environmental regulations and trends.”
“It has been crucial that I stay up to date with the news leading up to the COP, following multiple sources as well as staying privy to all the information put out on the COP website,” Durocher says. “This will be a unique COP due to the Global Stocktake as well as the ethics around the host country, and I am excited to see how this will play out.”
“As a class, we’ve been in constant communication and meetings since our applications got accepted,” says April Kwan ’24, a Political Science major with minors in English and Linguistics. “We’ve been talking about so many things from being participants and observers at COP28, the individual projects we’re undertaking, and safety and cultural etiquette in the UAE.”
Hautzinger’s Anthropocene class was a prerequisite for students attending COP28 during Block 4, which CC’s delegates agree was very helpful in preparing them to attend the conference. Students could have taken the class at any point prior to them departing for COP28, but five chose to take it during Block 3, which Kramer notes was a great choice, as it got them thinking about the intensity of the climate crisis at the current moment.
“This class has been extremely helpful in providing me with the basic information on climate change I need prior to the COP, including the complex political history,” Ryan says. “Additionally, class discussions have been instrumental in helping me situate my role in this work in larger local, national, and global contexts. Professors Hautzinger and Jackson encouraged the delegation to start considering potential research topics very early in this process, which has allowed me to think about my own role in climate justice early and often.”
CC’s delegation is excited, nervous, prepared, and grateful. They plan to share and use lessons they learn at COP28 to better their local communities.
“I look forward to examining nature-based solutions at COP28, particularly those about biodiversity conservation and natural carbon sinks,” Sone says. “My interests also include learning about environmental injustice and exploring ways to efficiently incorporate traditional knowledge into policies. These topics interest me, and I’m eager to learn more about them so that I may make a meaningful contribution to environmental sustainability.”
Durocher is most looking forward to conversations he will have with delegates and attendees from other countries. “I am especially intrigued by the conversations happening outside of the United States and want to know where public opinion lies on a global scale,” he says. “Global problems require global solutions, so I look forward to the discourses I will attend that will provide insight on the road forward.”
Kramer is excited for the wealth of knowledge that will be at COP28. “I am hoping to continue a project from last year, where I ask different participants about their favorite conversation from that day. I really would like to continue the work that makes COP-following important, accessible, critical, and personal,” she says.
Ryan had a difficult time picking one thing she was most looking forward to. “My primary motivation for being in this course is to learn, and I’m unbelievably privileged to get to improve my climate knowledge at a place like the COP,” she said. “I hope that COP28 will be especially fruitful, with exciting benchmarks like the first Global Stocktake, and negotiations for loss and damages fund ahead.”
Connor Johnson ’25, a Mathematical Economics major and Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies minor, sees himself doing work with climate change in the future. He views COP28 as a time to focus on finance and how eco-friendly projects can be financed to help the environment. “You can’t really justify everyone taking a carbon-emitting plane to COP28, but what you can hope for is that the outcomes from the COP and what you learn can bring a bigger positive impact. That’s kind of what I hope to focus on,” he says.
There are two zones at the conference: The Green Zone, open to the public, and the Blue Zone, where negotiations will take place. There will be multiple hubs within the Green Zone where participants can get more information on specific topics, such as Energy Transition, Climate Finance, Greening Education, and more. CC’s delegation will be attending events in both the Green and Blue Zones.
The COP28 schedule is compact, with multiple events, panels, and talks each day, ranging from themes of accountability, education, technology, recovery, and peace. The conference will also host the Student Energy Summit (SES). This is the first time the SES will take place in the Middle East. The 2023 SES is hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi in collaboration with Student Energy, a global organization led by youth with a network of 50,000 young people from over 120 countries.
This year, CC’s delegation will convene two panels where they will report on actual-and-imagined projects tied to the Sustainable Development Goals and reflect how these can be more effectively realized if worked in conjunction with the Inner Development Goals (IDGs).
“I hope students take away from this experience a clear sense of how they can engage in global policy for and the power of placing their action into local efforts within their own community — implementation is local,” Jackson says. “Their participation globally and locally is a potent nexus for their engagement.”
CC’s delegation at COP28 will also be characterized by their individual research and work with the Youth Climate Movement.
“Our class plans to participate actively in the conference by holding thematic panels within a pop-up pavilion organized by Monash University. We are focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals,” says Sone. “These thematic panels allow us to share insights, discuss perspectives, and advocate for actionable SDG solutions. It’s an opportunity for us to contribute meaningfully to the larger conversation about sustainable development and global initiatives.”
Almost 50 students applied last March to attend COP28 and eight were chosen by Hautzinger and Jackson. Students had to explain why they wanted to enroll in the class and list relevant experiences and insight on the current approaches to climate change.
“I hope each student finds a meaningful and effective insertion point for sustained climate work, even if that takes surprising forms,” Hautzinger says. “Many of us who work in the social sciences, arts, and humanities recognize that scientific and policy-based knowledge have been insufficient to muster the ambition to commit to the kind of mitigation and adaptation actions needed. COPs can be dizzying, complex, and even disillusioning, in turns, but they can also bring conviction and inspiration.”
Students will be blogging about their experiences while in Dubai. Kramer, who works for Creativity and Innovation at CC, will also be posting on Creativity and Innovation’s Instagram account.