ESA at COP28: Day 1
Blog Author: Malika El Mazhad
The Science has spoken, it has been loud and clear.
These were the words of Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President as he addressed the opening session of this years COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As I sat watching with hundreds of other Observers and COP 28 participants from around the world in an huge overflow hall down the corridor, I felt the magnitude of the climate emergency before us greater than ever. Spontaneous applause erupts at different sections of the address as people listen intently peering over their laptops and gifted COP28 water bottles, there was not an empty seat to be found.
The venue which is divided into the blue and green zones has striking modern installations, with plenty of facilities. I arrived at the Blue Zone much earlier in the day, being my first COP I was not sure what to expect. The badge collection process was smooth, and I proceeded to explore the Blue Zone which consists of individual country pavilions, meeting rooms, breakout areas, restaurants, food trucks, exhibitions, and everyone seemed to look like they knew exactly where they were going.
Thankfully there were lots of friendly volunteers and United Nations Security personnel on hand to point me in the direction of the sessions and pavilions I had already highlighted to visit for the day.
As I explored, most of the pavilions were still setting up, workmen putting the final touches to the pop-up stages, media crews marking out their spots, there was a sense of calm and a chance to revisit my itinerary for the day. There are also large screens that have a live running order of meetings and their locations which is also helpful as there are multiple sessions and side events taking place simultaneously.
The Opening Plenary was planned for 1pm so I made sure I arrived at the overflow room nice and early to guarantee my seat_the blue zone was starting to fill up and the atmosphere had a buzz. I met several people throughout the day and it was great hearing the different types of projects that people are working on from both an advocacy perspective, and also adaptation and mitigation efforts too.
My final stop of the day was to the Green Zone, where I passed by the Saudi Green Initiative exhibition and learnt more about their wastewater treatment process. I also dropped into the knowledge exhibition which featured booths from leading global consultants who were showcasing their services including how to communicate climate strategy.
There is still so much to see and I am looking forward to a full agenda over the coming days as negations commence. Parties adopted The Agenda during the Opening Plenary so as Dr Sultan Al Jaber said now the work begins….
