{"id":7047,"date":"2024-12-12T16:36:17","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T23:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/?p=7047"},"modified":"2024-12-20T11:17:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T18:17:17","slug":"ccs-badge-boogie-at-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/2024\/12\/12\/ccs-badge-boogie-at-cops\/","title":{"rendered":"CC’s \u201cBadge Boogie\u201d at COPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Hautzinger, Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

\u201cHow many badges did you get?\u201d <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you badged for next week?\u201d <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDoes anyone know of an available badge for Thursday?\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

These are questions anyone encountering COP, or a UN Conference of the Parties gathering, will encounter. For the climate COPs* that I\u2019ve been taking CC delegations to since 2019, to be badged means to hold a credential that provides entry into the \u201cBlue Zone\u201d where negotiations take place\u2014alongside exhibits, pavilions, \u201cSide Events\u201d (typically panel discussions), and much more.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike other colleges and universities that we partner with across the YEAH (Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher-Ed) network, who typically endeavor to take students to COP for one or the other of the two weeks COP convenes, the block plan has been conducive to making a whole course out of the COP experience. A primary goal, then, has been to provide students and others (faculty, but Colorado College\u2019s also brought our president and other administrators, trustees, and alumni) with badges for at least half of the days COP convenes. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

This is a feat more easily accomplished in some years than others! We\u2019ve noted over the years that the \u201cCOP gods\u201d tend to smile on CC. Last year, for example, for COP28 in Dubai, UAE in 2023, CC initially received 9 badges, and eventually I brokered that up to 12. ** By comparison, a little school up the road from us, Colorado University at Boulder, began with just 2 badges, eventually gaining 4. We understand that the UNFCCC*** tracks and rewards participation in \u201cofficial\u201d functions like exhibits, side events and so on, and like to think this shapes our historical good fortune, but many also hold that these decisions are cloaked in mystery and some degree of arbitrariness. This plentitude of badges in recent years had allowed me to share badges for one or more days with youth activists and researchers from the global south \u2013 Ethiopia, Nigeria, Chile and India \u2013 as well as faculty and staff from other schools. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Heading into COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, however, the badge bounty screeched to an abrupt halt. CC, like all other higher-ed organizations we knew of, initially received precisely one badge for this year, eventually raised to 2. The official message from the secretariat read, <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Given the need for more diverse representation of observer organizations at UNFCCC sessions . . . the quota allocation system has been revisited. Efforts were made to ensure a more balanced representation of observer organizations with regard to regional groups and constituencies.<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s all well and good, but organizations from the Global South we knew of didn\u2019t seem to receive more badges, either. The scuttlebutt was that Russian influence on the Azerbaijani hosts was aimed at limiting participation from Western countries, or from civil society writ large. Either way, a leaner COP was also cited: while participation reached over 90,000 in Dubai, Azerbaijan was expected to be far smaller–initial projections cited 35,000 (though eventually registered participants reached nearly <\/span>twice<\/span><\/a> that number).<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

How did we go, in 2024, from 2 badges to all eight of our students holding badges for at least 8 of the 11 days of COP? This is where the wheeling and dealing came in: owing to our connections across YEAH (Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher-Ed) we were able to borrow from and\/or give badges to other schools (Boston U and Vanderbilt). Even more, co-instructor Myra Jackson\u2019s unparalleled connections (COP29 was her 19<\/span>th<\/span> COP) had us borrowing badges from other NGOs (Omega and Seven Generations Ahead, along with Earth Law Center, for which she\u2019s DCP).<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

Students quickly learned that a single day at COP can be super-saturating, and unbadged days away can be welcome for digesting days in the venue. One commented that having two days unbadged after her first in the venue was essential for her finding her rudder to guide her through the remaining days. Many of the blogs published during COP were only due to those days away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"C:\\Users\\shautzinger\\Pictures\\Screenshots\\Screenshot
Colorado College\u2019s Badge-Tracking Spreadsheet <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Toward the end of week two, I had an unbadged day I\u2019d looked forward to. We\u2019d be leaving Baku in just two days; perhaps I could squeeze in a visit to the Carpet Museum\u2014or even a legendary \u201cTurkish\u201d bath house? No such luck; in addition to an already long to-do list, we learned of students from both Boston College and University of Chicago who had come all the way to Baku without a single day badged! Myra and I managed to find badges, both in-person and virtual, for some of them, at times appealing to CC students to offer a day, which was gratifying. Because the block plan augers toward making a whole course out of COP, we couldn\u2019t imagine travelling all this way without any badge prospects, but again, this reflects our historical good fortune.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CC students reflect a lot on this good fortune, mindful that it betokens a form of privilege, and that with such privilege comes responsibility. It parallels, in that sense, the core contradictions of taking fossil-fuel jets to a carbon-intensive gathering to address greenhouse-gas-driven climate change<\/em>, and whether the outlay can yield justifiable returns. Each cohort has worked hard to in some sense \u201coffset\u201d these costs and merit receiving badges \u2013 by holding \u201cLive from COP\u201d broadcasts, publishing blogs and collected volumes of individual research articles (see CC@ClimateCOPs<\/a>). When we’ve returned to campus, students have organized roundtables and guest speaking, Talanoa Dialogue<\/a> circles and multi-year reunions of delegations, and with stakeholders both on and beyond campus. This year, students from the previous, COP28 organized “COP Watch” nightly sessions while we were in Baku! For my part, seeing how many former CC delegates find their way into meaningful climate or related work after graduation provides yet more of the answer to the question of how we make it “worth it” to journey to climate COPs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Other UN Conventions or treaties hold alternative COPs, e.g. on COP16 on Biodiversity held in Cali in November, or on Desertification currently being held in Rihad.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

**I serve as CC\u2019s approved Observer Organization\u2019s DCP (Designated Contact Point). We initially gained approved Observer status through the efforts of now-emeritus Professor of Economics, Mark Smith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***The secretariat convening climate COPs, or United Nations Framework for the Convention on Climate Change.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Hautzinger, Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHow many badges did you get?\u201d   \u201cAre you badged for next week?\u201d   \u201cDoes anyone know of an available badge for Thursday?\u201d  These are questions anyone encountering COP, or a UN Conference of the Parties gathering, will encounter. For the climate COPs* that I\u2019ve been taking CC delegations … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “CC’s \u201cBadge Boogie\u201d at COPs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[442,1],"tags":[419,417,450,414,415,443],"class_list":["post-7047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cop29","category-other","tag-cc-anthropology","tag-cc-etbnographerscop","tag-cccop29","tag-climateaction","tag-climatejustice","tag-cop29-baku-cc-anthropology","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1RtXj-1PF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7047"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7052,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions\/7052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}