[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: COP21 report from Matt

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Colleagues - Finally, the fourth and last update, this one on the COP21.

As I think everyone knows, I was part of a delegation of about a dozen US cities sponsored by NLC, ICLEI, the World Wildlife Fund, and the US Green Building Council.  They collectively paid for all of the travel costs, and their representatives joined us on this trip.

The COP21 was held at Le Bourget, an old airport in suburban Paris.  Since we stayed in a hotel in the city, there was an hour+ long commute each way, which I believe I did six times.  The conference was held in several huge old hangars, with pavilions set up for countries, NGOs, businesses, and other organizations.  Security was very tight, and getting between buildings often required long walks and additional security checks.

There were also events outside the COP itself, most notably a day-long meeting at Paris city hall put on by the mayor of Paris and Michael Bloomberg (in his role as UN climate envoy).  I also attended an ICLEI executive board meeting on the Sunday that the COP was closed.

Our delegation got to meet with several US State Department and executive agency representatives, as well as getting to know each other and the reps from ICLEI, WWF, and USGBC better.  We also each had the opportunity to take part in various COP events; I spoke at three panel sessions and gave a presentation at the large ICLEI pavilion.

As stated in the good Camera article, this COP was particularly important in many ways, and notably for cities, which had been largely ignored at previous COPs.  This time a huge number of cities came (perhaps 1000), and all of us were noticed - even if, of course, the key agreements were made at the national levels.  As we all reiterated, cities are where much, if not most, of the climate change mitigation and adaption is happening and will need to happen in the future.

One other important note: I need to give a huge thanks to our Boulder staff, particularly David Driskell, Jonathan Koehn, Brett KenCairn, and Greg Guibert, for making me (reasonably) smart on many of the issues I spoke about, providing lots of information and presentation materials, and particularly to David for handling much of the pre-conference communications with various groups wanting information and providing speaking invitations.  David and his team are also entirely responsible for our getting a time-slot at the ICLEI pavilion.

With that introduction, here are some of the events and meetings I took part in:


*         Spoke at a panel discussion on 100% renewable energy.  This was a good session, and I noted the difficulties most cities have in attaining this goal, referencing our muni efforts and the unfortunate state of energy regulations.

*         Spoke at a panel discussion on measuring GHG emissions and how to verify them.  This was also an excellent panel.  I brought up the issue of not just how to measure emissions and the difficulty of doing so given what are essentially arbitrary political boundaries, but also my long-standing concern (shared with our staff) of how to translate those measurements in meaningful policy discussions and outcomes - and why measurement can very often mislead and suggest inappropriate policies.  That became a main part of the discussion as others on the panel agreed it was a key concern, at least at the local level.

*         Attended an interesting talk by ex-VP Al Gore at the US pavilion.  This was followed by an even more interesting panel discussion on the financial implications of climate change.  I've heard similar discussions before, and each time folks who really understand international finance - from huge banks, investment companies, reinsurers, etc. - are quite clear that the near future will see fossil fuel usage diminishing significantly and renewables increasing dramatically for economic reasons.

*         Attended another session at the US pavilion to hear the always-interesting EPA director, Gina McCarthy, talk about US efforts at climate change mitigation, notably the Clean Power Plan.

*         Attended most of the all-day event at the Paris city hall (I had to race over to the COP21 for my ICLEI presentation), where we heard remarks from, among others, the president of France, the mayor of Paris, Michael Bloomberg, mayors of several cities, the secretary-general of the UN, and many others, including celebrities.  Needless to say, there were numerous very touching references to the recent bombing in Paris.

*         Gave a presentation at the ICLEI TAP (transformative action program) pavilion.  We were selected by ICLEI as one of just a half-dozen North American cities to take part (cities from other regions also had time slots on other days) thanks, as noted, to the work of David and his team.  I spoke about Boulder's efforts to create "safe-havens" in times of disasters as part of our resilience efforts.

*         Attended a session at the ICLEI pavilion that included several key international speakers recapping climate action efforts over the past decade, and then recognizing all of the US local officials.

*         Attended a meeting and reception at the US ambassador's residence.  The meeting was with some of the State Department staff who have been involved in the COP21 negotiations.  As you might expect, the residence in Paris is rather spectacular.

*         Attended ICLEI's executive board meeting.  ICLEI has a global executive committee (which has one rep from the North America regional executive committee) and then regional committees.  They essentially took advantage of the COP to get everyone together and hold what I think is a yearly meeting of the entire group.  We discussed ICLEI's position on the COP negotiations - ICLEI is accredited by the UN and is able to take part in some of the international conversations - as well as a variety of items that ICLEI is actively working on.

*         Attended a meeting with other cities that have signed onto the Compact of Mayors.

*         Took part in a fascinating small group session with some of our delegation and John Holdren, the president's science advisor (who quickly gave a great explanation of the second law of thermodynamics as we were chatting about science in general and the woeful lack of understanding by oh-so-many of our political leaders), and the interim head of the administration's Council on Environmental Quality and her staff.

*         Spoke on at panel at the "flagship" event on cities and regions sponsored by the European Union Committee of the Regions.  This was about the importance of the Covenant of Mayors (the international version of our Compact of Mayors), why it is essential to have such compacts, and why and how cities are leading the way.  As the only American I gave my thoughts on those issues and also noted some specific steps that Boulder is taking to mitigate climate change and how they could be incorporated by other cities.

*         Of course, there were also several lunches and dinners to attend, including a big event sponsored by Paris at the Eiffel Tower, and a dinner sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation for their 100 Resilient Cities members.  And...then there was the quite remarkable U2 concert, thanks to VIP tickets from a delegation member and (very!) good friend.

--Matt