An Opinionated Guide to Watery COP27 Success
I cringe a bit at being called an expert on COPs, climate policy, or the UNFCCC more generally. Does expertise come with this many scars and bruises? Is expertise the outcome of gaffes and missteps? I’m not sure. On the other hand, I’ve been to a lot of COPs at this stage, and my sense is that COP27 will have a large number of new water people who will attending and involved in this year. I am thrilled that the water community is becoming more interested in the UNFCCC — we need more alignment between water and climate issues (it was lonely for a long time!). We also need smarter alignment. If possible, I would be even more thrilled if I can suggest some ways to avoid scars and bruises and at least a few gaffes and missteps. One quick performance indicator: how many NDCs have you referred to in the past week? If the answer is zero, please keep reading.
My most important observation: this is not a water conference, and even if the water community is wildly successful at this and every future COP, there won’t ever be much water present. Water is really important to align with climate change, but most members of the climate community would probably ague that their agenda is larger and more pressing than ours. Consider this: they may be right. They are also a more rapidly growing community than water and they skew younger and more activist. They have momentum and energy and confidence and a sense of a shared, collective effort.
As a result, for us, humility is a very important quality to not just possess but to show. As an outsider (and perhaps an immigrant), learning the local language and issues are key to becoming an insider and native. Do you understand the emerging debate on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA)? Do you have a sense of how well the NDCs are proceeding and if the global stocktake will result in significant shifts in commitments? Are NAPs going to expand in scope to middle income countries? Is Paris Alignment increasing the pool of climate finance? Is the loss and damage movement gaining steam?
If those questions seem exotic or incomprehensible, then buckle up. Those are the topics that the climate community is worried about, among others. Water is present in all of those topics. I would argue that water is even essential to realizing efficacy in all of them as well. If you want to engage the climate community, then you should learn about what they are interested, using their language and terminology, and if there are potential inroads for relevant water discussions. (If it makes you feel better, I have to relearn a bunch of acronyms every COP.) They set the agenda. Not us.
Perhaps a corollary to the first point is that most people in the climate community don’t know who you are and probably don’t care very much. Unless proven otherwise, you’re not worth getting to know. You’re on their turf, not the other way around. And if they have an opinion about water, it’s probably framed around SDG 6 or WASH issues or urban utilities. Your agenda is from a past, pre-climate era. You are Old Development. If you run into a more technical person, they may ask you about how you integrate climate risk and resilience issues into your work, or how you have realized Paris Alignment in your organization. Which NDCs are you supporting? Is locally led adaptation a movement that can be realized in practice? Is TEK sufficient for emerging climate issues? How do we balance a lack of equity now with a meaningful vision of climate justice for the future? These are good questions to consider. And consider presenting evidence that you are addressing these concerns in substantive ways.
One way to summarize these points: don’t spend that much time in the Water Pavilion before or after your session. Walk the hallways. Talk to strangers. Listen to speakers in other booths. Find out what excites the climate people. What will be the landscape of issues for COP28? If you just stay in the Water Pavilion, you didn’t really go to COP.
Don’t misunderstand me: all of my work for roughly 20 years now is predicated on the premise that water can play a transformative role in how we thrive and prosper and create healthy communities and resilient ecosystems in a shifting climate. But we in the water community have a lot of work to do at home. If we treat climate change seriously, that process will challenge how we have been doing business for a long time. The climate community is skeptical of us in many ways; they are correct that we are working in ways that would look more or less familiar to water colleagues from 20 or 50 years ago. Sometimes they are right to be skeptical of our claims. The investment in showing up and meeting the climate community as a way to serve, support, and enable effective resilience is worth it, for all of us.
I look forward to seeing you in Egypt in a little more than a month!
John Matthews
Corvallis, Oregon, USA