Huskies at the UN Climate Conference (COP)

Category: Student Stories

COP28 Reflections

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Geophysics PhD candidate Gabriel Ahrendt and recent physics alum Dr. Elise Rosky recently attended COP28 and offered their reflections in the Daily Mining Gazette.

Rosky and Ahrendt moderated multiple panels. Dr. Rosky’s panels included:

  • The science-policy interface: How can researchers shape critical climate policies?
  • Fossil Fuel Divestment at Universities
  • Perspectives on the Role of Universities in the UNFCCC
  • Guest panel on the science-policy interface: How can researchers shape critical climate policies?

Ahrendt also moderated multiple panels:

  • Student Panel: Dialogue between students at Arctic and American universities
  • YEAH for Museums: Catalyzing Community Action
  • CLA Research Presentation
Dr. Elise Rosky
Climate conference moderator Dr. Elise Rosky
Gabriel Ahrendt
Climate conference moderator Gabriel Ahrendt

Read about Ahrendt and Rosky’s reflections on the climate conference in the Daily Mining Gazette.

About COP28

Michigan Technological University is one of a handful of universities taking a leading role at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) from November 30 to December 12, 2023. Hosted by the UAE at Expo City Dubai, COP28 is the largest climate change-focused event in the world. COP28 aims to unite the world towards agreement on bold, practical, and ambitious solutions to the most pressing global challenge of our time. You can read more about the Huskies’ presence at COP28 in the Huskies at the UN Climate Conference (COP) blog.

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Significance of Youth and Student Engagement at COP28

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Shardul Tiwari

It has been almost 33 years since Dr. Carl Sagan testified in front of Congress about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their effect on our planet. Dr. Sagan, one of my favorite science communicators, passed away one year after the Conference of Parties (COP) met for the first time in Bonn, Germany. This year is the 28th time the COP will meet in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30th November to 12th December. I believe given that human-induced climate change is now an even more significant challenge and threat than it was 33 years back, with visible and scientific evidence of global loss and damages, it is imperative now that we engage in an equitable global dialogue and learnings through the platform of the annual United Nations climate change conference, commonly referred to as COP.

Huskies Host Pavilion

This year, in 2023, is the fourth time Michigan Tech students and faculty members will attend and participate in COP, which is the largest platform for global policy dialogue and engagement for global climate governance. Unlike the previous three times, Tech will be hosting a pavilion. Through the pavilion, Michigan Tech actively engages multiple stakeholder groups, including but not limited to representatives from indigenous communities, academics, international nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, and youth.

A Conference Not Without Controversy

There is and always has been skepticism around climate change and more so around a climate change conference that brings people from around the globe to engage in discussion, policy-making, and knowledge sharing around COP. The colloquial conversation, and I am paraphrasing here, is “People are flying and emitting GHGs to go to a conference to talk about reducing GHGs.” I agree that unnecessary energy use and wastage should be heavily criticized. However, is going to a conference, which is the most prominent policy platform, to engage and to find a solution to an agreed-upon problem really an unnecessary GHG emission? I would go with the answer, no, it’s not, and in this blog post, I will briefly provide two primary arguments for the same while thinking about students and researchers as the primary stakeholders. 

Just a part of the Michigan Tech delegation at COP28

Youth and Student Engagement Plays a Big Role

In academia, it is a standard practice to go to academic conferences in every field. It is encouraged because that is where you learn about the latest research activity in that field. The students and professors at these conferences engage with people who are doing similar and state-of-the-art research work. COP, in this sense, is no different than an academic conference with space for researchers to engage in academic dialogue. COP is a melting pot for researchers coming from science and policy fields, sharing and learning from each other on how science is informing global climate policies. Hence, if we don’t criticize students and researchers attending a typical academic conference, why push back against climate change conferences both from the emission and need perspectives? 

Second, we rightfully now agree that today’s youth (I am not saying “we” because now I don’t qualify as a youth, even though I want to believe that I am still young)  are the future of tomorrow. They will be affected the most by the impact of climate change-induced extreme weather events. Hence, it is important for the youth to learn about the science and policy-making for climate change. If we agree that education is essential, we can make the case that it is vital to learn where and how the global climate governance process occurs. COP is arguably the best platform for students to learn about the actors, interests, and institutions involved in the process. Today’s students are scientists and policymakers for tomorrow, and COP is a platform to learn and engage with scientists and policymakers formulating policies for global climate governance. One student told me, “COP is like a mini internship.” Would we not fly to where we have an internship if that was the only means of traveling there?

Engagement Solves Problems

I believe engagement is key to solving either a local challenge or a global challenge like climate change that transcends national boundaries. COP provides that platform to engage and learn, and more students and researchers must engage on this platform. The engagement will lead to a more comprehensive and hopefully urgent approach by current and future policymakers to address the challenges that we are and will face due to climate change.

About COP28

Michigan Technological University is one of a handful of universities taking a leading role at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) from November 30 to December 12, 2023. Hosted by the UAE at Expo City Dubai, COP28 is the largest climate change-focused event in the world. COP28 aims to unite the world towards agreement on bold, practical, and ambitious solutions to the most pressing global challenge of our time. You can read more about the Huskies’ presence at COP28 in the Huskies at the UN Climate Conference (COP) blog.

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Kendra Lachik Reflects on COP27 in Keweenaw Now

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Keweenaw Now published a blog post written by Kendra Lachik ‘23 (environmental engineering) about presentations given by Michigan Tech’s delegation to the COP27 climate conference, held in November in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. MTU students Anna Kavanaugh (environmental engineering, sustainability science and society), Rose Daily (environmental engineering) and Alexis Pascaris (environmental and energy policy) were quoted in the article about their experiences at the conferences.

Read Kendra’s article on Keweenaw Now.

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Live From COP27: How MTU students participated in global climate discussions across borders

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Eugene Brown Agyei

MTU students with others from the University of Colorado and Cardiff University interact with students on campus via Zoom. From Left, Eugene, Rose, Anna, Kendra, Daniel Dominguez, and Daniel Briggs.

“Alright. Get ready. We go live shortly!” Those are the words I would usually say or text on the MTU COP27 Whatsapp group page minutes before a class on campus joined us to learn about our experiences at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. This came after many hours of preparation by the MTU delegation which included booking meeting rooms, setting up cameras, and putting our notes together. If you met us within this period, you’d think we were running a mini newsroom. My past experience working in the media had prepared me for things like this.

Since Michigan Tech was granted observer status to the conference in 2019, the delegation has always endeavored to share their experiences live from the conference grounds with students offering related courses on campus. This year was no different, except that we went beyond the usual Zoom sessions with students sharing their experiences turn by turn. We wanted them to virtually feel the conference environment, enjoying the ambiance, the chaos, and the massive crowds right in their classroom in Houghton.

COP27 took place from November 6th to November 18th, 2022. The Michigan Tech student delegation went in two groups. The first group which participated in the activities of the first week included me, Rose Daily (Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering), Kendra Lachick (Social Sciences), Anna Kavanaugh (Social Sciences), and Alexis Pascaris (Social Sciences). Ayush Chutani (Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics), Katherine Huerta Sanchez (Social Sciences), Aritra Chakrabarty (Social Sciences), and Shardul Tiwari (Social Sciences),

The first day of our Life from COP experience did not go exactly as planned. Even though we had a nice setup and ambitious ideas, technology had its own plans. However, we were able to share our experiences with one class on campus and answer questions they had sent to us before our interaction.

Tech students and faculty member Dr. Mark Rouleau at the US Center at COP27.



On the second day, we added a little bit of innovation and positioned ourselves at different points at the venue. This gave us indoor and outdoor experiences while interacting with students. For my colleagues who were new to anything journalism, that would be their first experience as student reporters. We shared scenes of what was happening on the grounds from different areas and gave them a brief of events and sessions that we had individually been part of. The exciting part was that we received an invitation to a keynote speech by President Joe Biden on that day. We shared snippets of the prelude to the event also.

Students on campus in turn had several interesting questions about which countries were making waves at the conference and what their priorities were. We shared with them ideas, initiatives, and proposals for addressing climate change as well as which of them we thought were the most realistic and most likely to win support from more than one group. We talked about China, and Egypt as the host, the venue and facilities as well as our surprises. There are always surprises at COP.

Before the Live from COP, and after it, students from Michigan Tech and others from six universities in the United States and other countries who formed the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) network hosted press conferences and panel discussions on climate education, youth climate actions, and storytelling among others. We also participated in events that were of interest to us or related to our areas of study. All of these were beside the exhibition that we mounted at the US Center. The display highlighted what climate action meant to young people like us.

Being part of such a global conversation on an important topic as climate change is an experience of a lifetime. We formed connections with different people from different parts of the world that will last a lifetime, made great impressions highlighting our training at Tech, and saw a different part of the world. Beyond this momentous experience, the commitment of Tech students toward a sustainable world is proof of Michigan Tech’s commitment to preparing students for the future.

Michigan Tech Ph.D. student Eugene Brown Agyei

This post was written by Eugene Brown Agyei, who is attending COP 27 as part of a delegation led by Sarah Green and the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) Network. YEAH is a transdisciplinary, multi-institutional network that equips students with real-world experience in collaborative, evidence-based approaches to global environmental sustainability. Eugene is among more than 35,000 attendees at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27). The annual summit is the largest climate-change-focused event in the world. He is a Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture graduate student at Michigan Technological University.

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Indigenous Perspectives at COP27: Kathy Huerta Sanchez

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Kathy Huerta Sanchez
Kathy Huerta Sanchez

Once at the conference, I most look forward to attending and listening in on indigenous perspectives on climate policy and action. Learning from these perspectives and ideas is important because they carry generations of knowledge that have historically been ignored by global leaders. So we should start to consider their valuable input.

I want to attend the conference because climate change is a topic that weighs heavily on my interests and research. By attending I can learn more about the delegations, policies, conversations, and science involved in the topic. I hope that by being an active participant in these matters I can become better educated and hopefully do more to influence my peers/generation about the pressing nature of climate change.

Kathy Huerta Sanchez sitting on a couch with 3 other COP27 attendees
Kathy met folks from all over the globe at COP27.

Since I am attending week 2 of COP27 I will be acting as the social media liaison for Michigan Tech as well as acting as a moderator for a capacity hub event that aligned with my previously stated interests. As part of my social media responsibility, I will be posting highlights of the conference on MTU’s Snapchat, recording my journey to Sharm El Sheikh, as well as interviewing students about their experiences at the conference. The panel I helped moderate invited four speakers from diverse backgrounds to come together to speak on how to utilize local/indigenous knowledge to help inform climate science. Using their expertise, recommendations, and ways of living we can influence and utilize generations of knowledge that have long been ignored by policymakers.

This post was written by Kathy Huerta Sanchez, who is attending COP 27 as part of a delegation led by Sarah Green and the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) Network. YEAH is a transdisciplinary, multi-institutional network that equips students with real-world experience of collaborative, evidence-based approaches to global environmental sustainability. Zach is among more than 35,000 attendees at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27). The annual summit is the largest climate-change-focused event in the world. He is an Environmental & Energy Policy graduate student at Michigan Technological University.

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Zach Hough Solomon: Historic Negotiations Creating a More Equitable Future

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I am very excited to be a part of a group of Michigan Technological University students attending the United Nations COP27. In my mind, and for many other young people, I view these historic negotiations for younger generations to work towards sustainable development that will create a more equitable future for all.  

Zach Hough Solomon
Michigan Tech Enironmental and Energy Policy master’s student Zach Hough Solomon

Different Perspectives From Different Regions

Throughout the semester, all of the students in the course Climate Science and Policy have been studying these negotiations – including the history of climate policymaking and how the different institutions function. As well, we have been learning about how science is used to make decisions and adapt at the global level. Personally, I am excited to be traveling from the Great Lakes region, a relatively remote area, to represent the region where we live and study on the global stage.

This perspective also reminds me that all these other scientists and policymakers are traveling from different places. Each with unique ecosystems and visions for the future. This aspect of different communities traveling from all over the world is exciting to see how differently we will perceive the events and Sharm El-Sheikh Egypt, as a whole. Traveling from the Great Lakes region, which contains 20% of the world’s freshwater resources and vast forest systems, the lands will be very different from where we live, and an opportunity to return with a greater appreciation for the global importance of where we live and steward.

Amplifying the Diversity of Knowledge to Create an Equitable Future

I am looking forward to meeting other people and learning about the lands they come from, and the different ways they conserve and study them. With some fellow students, we will be hosting a capacity-building hub event at COP27. The event amplifys the diversity of knowledge from local peoples to better understand climate adaptation. The panel will describe local knowledge production, its uses, and how it can be implemented. Then this will transition to open the event to participants from COP27 to provide insights into how local knowledge should and has informed climate adaptation. 

This is the main focus of why I wanted to travel to COP27 – to learn from as many people as possible about building equitable and resilient futures, and share with others the work we are doing in the Great Lakes. I am hoping to build momentum for those working on community-level adaptation that can empower other organizations to work strategically and contextually.

This post was written by Zach Hough Solomon, who is attending COP 27 as part of a delegation led by Sarah Green and the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) Network. YEAH is a transdisciplinary, multi-institutional network that equips students with real-world experience of collaborative, evidence-based approaches to global environmental sustainability. Zach is among more than 35,000 attendees at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27). The annual summit is the largest climate-change-focused event in the world. He is an Environmental & Energy Policy graduate student at Michigan Technological University.

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Aritra Chakrabarty: What COP 27 Means To Me

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Ever since the first Conference of Parties (COP) was initiated in Berlin in 1995, COPs have been used to review what the signatory Parties (the countries who have signed up) have achieved, and measure their progress. These annual conferences organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are the sites for negotiations, discussions, and abating challenges.

Aritra Chakrabarty

Global Crises Impact COP 27

This year (2022) COP 27 in Egypt takes place amidst the backdrop of a multitude of global crises (Cogswell, et al. 2022). We could expect this COP to be an active heated discussion ground that might witness renewed discussion on the pledges made at 2021’s climate conference which had recognized the interlinked global crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss.

The ripple effects of COVID – 19 had not subsided completely when the Ukraine war roared on the horizon which has caused double impact on already impoverished economies. Food, fuel and overall energy prices have skyrocketed, thanks to profiteering of the crisis by the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC), mainly Saudi Arabia (Bland 2022). A climate catastrophe in Pakistan claimed more than 1000 lives and displaced millions (Chaudhary 2022).

The first half of 2022 also saw floods and storms in southern Africa that disrupted economic activity and claimed hundreds of lives. China was similarly battered by a drought that derailed the nation’s food and energy production, and Europe is bracing itself for a cold winter after facing the onslaught of the worst drought in 500 years (BBC 2022). Crises does not differentiate between developed, developing or least developed countries. However, the impacts of natural and/or man-made crises is compounded by existing economic disparity, a weak public safety net and deteriorating food systems.

The Parties Must Come Together

A colorful, rainbow-like, free-standing sign that shows "#COP27"
The many colors of COP 27, representing that action on climate change is an inclusive affair.

It is thus required from this year’s climate conference that Parties come together to navigate such crises. It is high time that we recognize how our ecosystems have become fragile due to burgeoning unsustainable economic activities. This conference should also be used by the Parties and their delegates to recognize that adaptation, mitigation and GHG reduction strategies now have to extend beyond climate specific activities and be more inclusive of the nexus with food, income, gender, and living.

Millions of people have now been pushed back to poverty for the first time ever. As the current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres remarked recently, “the world has moved backwards. COVID – 19 and the war has set back more than four years of hard – won progress. Income inequalities have widened as more people fall back into extreme poverty, job losses, along with increasing food and energy prices has set the cycle in backward motion” (Xinhua 2022).

Young voices protest for action on climate change

Why I Am in Egypt at COP 27

The intention to participate in the conference was to advocate on my part for the local voices that can speak to adaption strategies, in the context of the National Adaptation Plans (NAP), that are to be finalized by the Parties (UNFCCC 2021). The NAPs were established under the Cancun Adaptation Framework (CAF) which enables Parties to formulate and implement national adaptation strategies as means of identify medium- and long-term adaptation needs. It is a continuous, progressive and iterative process. Through the participation in the Capacity Building Hub organized by the Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB), our objective is to inform climate policy making through local knowledge that has been the wealth of indigenous and other local communities for centuries and how their practices have helped in harboring a sustainable relationship between humans and the ecosystem.

This post was written by Aritra Chakrabarty, who is attending COP 27 as part of a delegation led by Sarah Green and the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) Network. YEAH is a transdisciplinary, multi-institutional network that equips students with real-world experience of collaborative, evidence-based approaches to global environmental sustainability. Aritra is among more than 35,000 attendees at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27). The annual summit is the largest climate-change-focused event in the world. He is an Environmental & Energy Policy graduate student at Michigan Technological University.

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