If we want to reduce the event’s emissions and make it more inclusive, then it must be easier to navigate and network
Along with 20,000 others, me and my colleagues at University College London attended Cop28 virtually this year.
While we were pleased not to add to the carbon cost, we were left frustrated at a system not yet fit for purpose.
The official sustainability report for Cop27 said that the event resulted in 63,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
That’s similar to what some small island nations – like Dominica – emit in a year. With record attendence at Cop28, its emissions are likely to be bigger still.
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Much of that is from air travel. By staying on our sofas and at our desks, we were glad to keep that carbon footprint down.
But we still wanted to enjoy all the benefits Cop brings to researchers like us like the opportunity to learn and to network.
Slow progress
Since Cop21 in Paris in 2015, the United Nations and host nations have been making Cops easier to follow from afar.
People are able to follow on social media and live webcasts. More recently, decidated portals for entirely remote registration have been introduced.
At Cop28, virtual delegates were allowed to participate as part of an official observer delegation.
Spaces were allocated in the same way as for in-person attendees and they could access the conference via a dedicated online platform.
But this platfroom was difficult to use. It was hard to search for specific events and not everything was available. Events were often not listed until the day before and the search function was clunky.
We found that many of the events were not recorded and only streamed live despite the promise that they could be downloaded. So if you missed them, you missed them for good – a particular problem for those in far-away time zones.
As well as this platform, there are apps and websites like UNFCCC and Cop28 resilience hub and the UN climate change YouTube channel which streamed side events.
While there was loads to watch, participation was challenging as there was not one single place to go and see what was going on across the whole event and what was available to those online.
We were frustrated not to know which platform certain events were on – although X (formerly Twitter) proved an invaluable resources for keeping up in real time.
The buzz of networking
The biggest downside was the inability to participate and network.
It wasn’t really a hybrid event – more of a virtual observation of events. Some sessions were better than others in engaging with online c
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