My final days at COP were filled with a lot of learning and cultural immersion. On Tuesday, I attended a “COP and Coffee Chat” at the Deloitte pavilion in the Green Zone. After the talk, I introduced myself to Dr. Freedom-Kai Phillips, the Director of the Deloitte Center for Sustainable Progress. I was impressed by his expertise and approached him after this talk to learn more about his professional journey. Dr. Phillips greeted my classmates, and I with immense kindness and openness. He invited us to meet with him in the Blue Zone the following day for a longer discussion on COP.
On Wednesday, we met with Dr. Phillips and were provided with an experience that I will forever appreciate. Dr. Phillips walked us around the Blue Zone Pavilions, introducing us to his colleagues and friends who work at different climate organizations. He gave us a proper lay of the land and made COP feel smaller and manageable. We met leaders working in the Ocean, Digital Innovation, and World Green Economy Pavilions. We got the exclusive opportunity to talk with a secretariat at the United Nations, in the restricted section of the Blue Zone. This experience framed my perspective for the last two days I spent at COP. It reaffirmed the idea that everything is about the connections you have with individuals in and outside of your field. As we parted, Dr. Phillips reminded us that, in 10 years when we are growing professionals in our respective fields, we need to share our experiences like he did.
Unfortunately, my time in the Blue Zone was cut short on Thursday due to a Pavilion fire, but my classmates and I embraced the disruption as an opportunity for culture immersion in Belém. We visited the Museum of the Amazons, where I learned about the rich and historical culture of the Amazon Rainforest’s Native tribes. The exhibit emphasized the threat that climate change poses to the livelihood of Indigenous Groups. We also visited the Mangal das Garças, which is a bird sanctuary with free admittance. The predominant bird species there are cranes, who are free to come and go as they please.
Although hearing about all the amazing things that organizations are doing to mitigate and adapt to climate change during my tour with Dr. Phillips and my explorations in Belém filled me with hope; I was still disappointed by some of the outcomes of COP. In the concluding agreement, countries that profit greatly from petroleum production and largely polluting states, removed language that provided a roadmap away from fossil fuels.
It is great to learn about all these organizations doing amazing work, but if the majorly polluting countries do not care and refuse to make concrete actionable plans away from the use of fossil fuels, will the climate crisis ever be solved? If the United States does not re-join the Paris Agreement, will countries that typically follow suit ever support the sustainable energy transition? There are so many questions that I was left with after concluding my time at COP30. Although the final agreements left me questioning the avenues forward, the hope given to me by the local and professional organizations that challenged these dominating countries remained.
Madelyn Kelly is a senior environmental engineering student.