December 13, 2023
By Bhavya George
Programme Coordinator – Climate Change
COP-28 was held in Dubai from November 30 to December 13, inviting thousands of delegates from various sectors and fields to attend this annual global climate forum. Bhavya had an opportunity to attend from December 4 to December 10 to represent Keystone’s work as part of Gender Just Climate Solutions Awardee network supported by WECF, as a practitioner working on the grassroots level in the Climate Change programme.
This was her second time at COP after having received an award at COP 27. Her interest in COP-28 was the intersection between gender and climate change that were explored at several events – how it is dealt with in global policies, and how the Women and Gender Constituency work on it though negotiations and side events. Along with this, Bhavya was also keen to observe how India engaged in the COP-28 space and what are our country’s stances on various issues. This can help streamline the work done in the Nilgiris. This year, Bhavya organised a side event with the All India Women’s Conference to deliberate on women-led micro solutions in the context of climate change.
Pictured above: recipients of the Gender Just Climate Solutions Award, including Bhavya, in 2022 for Keystone’s work in barefoot ecology.
This space opened Bhavya’s interactions with the Women and Gender Constituency to know more about negotiation and other interesting work happening in the global south on gender just climate solutions. The Constituency meets once a month virtually to share updates on their work across the world. COP-28 provided an opportunity to catch up with the members and welcome the new awardees. Read more on the WECF website.
On Youth Day, the India pavillion welcomed the hon’ble minister of environment forest and climate change Sri Bhupender Yadav. On the same day, Bhavya also met with alumni from the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun which is my alma mater. I did say a quick hello to the government delegate from Tamil Nadu who presented on green climate efforts in the state.
Even though it was Bhavya’s second time, it was no less overwhelming. There were moments where the question came up – “is this a space for grassroots and field-based organizations?” Being part of a larger network like the Women and Gender Constituency has helped connect Keystone’s work on the ground to that of women-led efforts across the world, and raise the voice in the negotiation space by interacting with the negotiators. The space also helps make connections with all the countless networks that Keystone is a part of, like GAGGA, NTFP-EP Asia and IPON. The opportunity to collectively pitch our concerns and points through joint side events is also not to be missed. This forum is also a great place to learn about trends in the global discourse on climate change, which can feed into strategising Keystone’s work in terms of indicators and approaches.
