Could you please take a minute to reflect on what you think this might mean?

Did you? Good!

I am sure you came up with a great thought! Still, I would like to share with you my perspective.

Planet Earth represents the all and you are the one! Well … Not just you. You, me and every living being consists – individually – in one element in this huge planet. In this context, the cycle of life goes on and never stops. As seasons change, each component experiences life, death and life again. Every unit is transformed but is still part of the all. In the all, we are connected and we come together as one!

Does that make sense to you?

As one, we – the entire world – are currently facing a pandemic, and this is not breaking news, I know! Nevertheless, we have been called attention to open our eyes to our planet, our home, to our neighbours, colleagues and everyone, regardless if we are acquainted with them or not. This moment, nature, in the verge of a tipping point, calls us out to stop and open our eyes to all the damage humans – us – have been causing in this world.

It has not been easy. Ever! Climate change, deforestation, pollution, extinction, consumerism, disturbance of natural cycles and processes. Poverty, hunger, gender inequality, discrimination, no access to health nor education and so many other issues! We debate, we disagree, we don’t believe. But the fact is that it is difficult to endure and mitigate certain situations as ONE, as people from different backgrounds (geographical, economic, social) live contrasting realities and face distinctive hardships.

It is impactful to me how this 2020 Coronavirus pandemic is practically making the world stop. However, this should not shock me as much considering that this is not the first pandemic that the world has ever faced. In the history of pandemics^[1], the one that caused more deaths is the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death. This records the 14^th century and it was a disease originated in rats and had fleas as vectors to humans. It is estimated that half of the European population died during this period.

The second greatest pandemic is Smallpox in 1520, that killed approximately 90% of Native Americans, and registered a number of around 400.000 dead people annually in Europe in the 19^th century. That was when the first vaccine for Smallpox was created. Don’t be alarmed! I am not trying to scare you!

Amongst many other pandemics, more recent ones, that always pop up in our minds – now thinking about the Coronavirus – are the Swine Flu and the Ebola. Let’s not forget that HIV/AIDS was also considered as a pandemic! And even though there is not a cure yet, there are medicines to treat and effective ways of prevention.

Still, somehow, the COVID-19 pandemic feels different. And some reasons are: it is a new virus, scientists and researchers are still understanding and learning about this new form; and, it is a current outbreak which increases every minute. Moreover, today, we live in a 24/7 online world, and as news travel as rapid as ever before, so does fear … But, so does hope!

Just like the union that has been rising to change this situation, we as individuals can grow stronger, selfless, caring and active! In this moment, when we experience this necessary quarantine, we have the opportunity to reflect on how our actions have been impacting our planet. We have the chance to understand that we are a part of one universe and, although we may feel small, we can shape the world around us. As environmental leaders and advocates, we can promote more dialogues and discussions to raise awareness and solutions about Earth’s urgent agenda! And I know you have already been doing this and that you try every day!

But as all of us, inhabitants of the Earth, take a step back to deal with this new virus, let’s take this time of union and connectedness to glimpse together the rise of a new dawn! There is hope of a turn in events when everybody engages to reach the goal that benefits the ONE (planet). We should stand together as every fight is a fight of ALL of us, to protect our home and ensure the existence and resources for the sake of the environment, ourselves and future generations. We can do this! Because now is ALL FOR ONE!

Reference:

Pandemics^[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/

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“I hear no objections, it is so decided.”

As observer in the Bula zone, this sentence was the most heard during the first days of the 23^rd Conference of the Parties . Most meetings in the first days of the COP23 still dealt with organizational matters, such as agreeing on the structure of following meetings. The interventions by parties appeared rather repetitive to me, which is probably caused by the diplomatic character of the sessions. Almost everybody started their comments by thanking Fiji and Germany for hosting this year´s COP and stressing out how much they appreciate the previous work and look forward to fruitful discussions with tangible outcomes.

The negotiations in the Bula zone are carried out in many parallel meetings of the following working groups/ bodies:

• Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA),
• Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI),
• Conference of the Parties (COP),
• Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA),
• Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP),
• Conference of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA)

Each group has a long list of agenda items that they work on during the two weeks in Bonn. For more detailed information on what the COP23 is all about, read this GCE post. Due to the vast number of parallel meetings and increasing restrictions for observer presence in sessions, it was impossible for us four observers from the Global Change Ecology programme to get a full overview of what´s going on each day in the negotiations at Bula zone. Luckily, there are many media teams, climate activists and other NGOs who provide very helpful daily briefings, such as the Climate Tracker.

I mainly attended informal consultations of the SBSTA, e.g. on systematic observation and research, and the big COP plenary meetings. In the course of the first week, I could observe how the negotiations went from structural issues to more technical, content-based discussions. Some of the bodies already produced informal notes and draft texts which ultimately will lead to the creation of a rulebook for the
implementation of the Paris Agreement.

According to the big COP stock-taking plenary on Saturday and an overview article by Climate Tracker, the main points being discussed in the different bodies in the first week of COP23 have been:

Pre-2020 actions
The Paris Agreement commitments only begin in 2020. However, as the COP president Frank Bainimarama says: “We must not waste time”. For this reason, especially developing countries, demanded pre-2020 actions to already get started with mitigation activities to combat climate change and have a chance at limiting global warming to below 1.5°C in comparison to pre-industrial levels. This is very crucial for island states, for example in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, so far the pre-2020 ambitions have not been assigned to any working group or official agenda item of this year´s COP.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
One of the main points being discussed in this context is how and when the reporting and updating of the NDCs should take place. Developing countries and developed countries might face differentiated processes here.

Loss and Damage
As nicely explained by Climate Tracker: “loss and damage is a concept where rich countries, who have historical responsibility for climate change, are asked to be liable to developing countries, who are already facing climate change impacts.” Unfortunately, negotiations on this topic ended in controversial discussions when some developed countries questioned the scientific evidence necessary to correlate extreme weather events/natural disasters with climate change.

Finance
One of the crucial issues for the implementation of the Paris Agreement is the finance of all required measures, e.g. in form of an Adaptation Fund which can help the developing countries to tackle climate change impacts.

Talanoa dialogue
Also known as Facilitative dialogue, the Talanoa dialogue has been introduced by the Fijian COP presidency to have inclusive, participatory and transparent conversations in which people listen to each other and respect the other one´s perspective. It is supposed to be held in 2018.

Other important topics covered in the meetings were the reporting guidelines/ implementation for adaptation and mitigation, the global stock-take, a gender action plan and features, such as transparency, equity, capacity building and technology transfer.

The parties still have a lot of work ahead and with ministers arriving in the second week of COP23, one can hope that negotiations progress faster and that the delegates agree on how to implement the different components of the Paris Agreement.

I feel honored to be given the unique opportunity to observe the negotiations at the UN Climate Change Conference 2017. I felt overwhelmed by the number of events taking place at the same time and also by the engagement and interest that NGOs demonstrated at Bonn zone and within negotiations.

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