Notes from the ground
By Laura Millan
Negotiators, activists and, yes, journalists worked this Saturday as if it was a Tuesday. In a day with no big headlines, things started to move behind the scenes.
China and US negotiators met for hours in the Chinese pavilion, with envoys Xie Zhenhua and John Kerry themselves leading the talks. Details on what was discussed are still unknown, but talks between the top two world economies are traditionally interpreted as a good omen for the outcome of COPs.
Xie Zhenhua, China's special envoy for climate change, left, and John Kerry, US special presidential envoy for climate. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Meanwhile, delegates working on a framework to measure and track progress on adaptation to climate change kept waiting for the presidency to release a new negotiating text. That stream of the talks – the other ones being mitigation, finance and the global stocktake – remains halted after a group of Arab nations and a coalition of developing countries opposed a previous version of the text, observers told us today.
Concerns included how finance for adaptation is defined, they said. Others think adaptation is being held on purpose to trade it for other things later in the process.
As climate bureaucrats began wargaming inside air-conditioned rooms, hundreds of activists outside marched outside within the Blue Zone in the largest protest seen so far at this COP. They called for the phase out of all fossil fuels, for a ceasefire in Gaza, climate justice, finance for developing nations and even organic farming.
Protests on Dec. 9, 2023 at COP28. Photographer: Nayla Razzouk/Bloomberg
“It would be terrible that the decision [on phasing out fossil fuels] was delayed by another year, because we can't wait,” Chilean climate and gender activist Karin Watson told me. “Last year we had a bit of hope and it didn't happen, and this year we are a bit more hopeful.”
People dressing in indigenous clothes and shark costumes, traditional dances and catchy songs are a fixture of climate meetings, but they’re not a given. Activists warn this year they are facing more restrictions to protest than ever.