Delegations from nearly 200 countries came together earlier this month in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for the United Nations 27th Climate Change Conference, referred to as COP27.
The goal was to bring countries together to try to take action towards achieving the world's collective climate goals as agreed to under the Paris Agreement in 2015.
The consensus among many attendees was that COP27 was a disappointment. While wealthy nations did agree to create a program to address what’s called “loss and damage” that aims to offset climate-caused financial damages to emerging economies, they did not finalize any agreement on funding for that program. And there was no formal decision to establish policies discouraging the use of fossil fuels. Most of the focus seemed to be on adaptation — meaning what will be needed after the Paris Accord’s 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for global warming is surpassed.
We get a first-hand take on what happened over those two weeks in Egypt with three local activists who are part of a team that produced daily video updates summarizing what was unfolding at the conference — two of which were in Sharm el-Sheikh during COP 27.
GUESTS:
KC Schulberg, Collier County Waterkeeper and filmmaker
John Capece, Kissimmee Waterkeeper
Valholly Frank, a 19-year-old climate activist and member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. She was part of a group of seven young people who in filed a 2018 lawsuit against the state of Florida, then-Gov. Rick Scott, and several state agencies. The lawsuit asserted that in causing climate change the state violated “the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness – and has caused harm to Florida’s essential public trust resources, such as beaches, coral reefs and marine life … by creating an energy system based on fossil fuels.” That lawsuit was dismissed in 2020.
Click here to watch the daily broadcasts created by their team.
Click here to watch the video updates produced by Climate Campus Corps.
