On this episode of Find Your Sustain Ability, Host Laura England welcomes Dr. Dave McEvoy, professor and chair of the Department of Economics in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University, along with students Nicole Tran, a senior majoring in political science with a concentration in international and comparative politics, and Grace Knapp, a senior majoring in global studies with minors in Spanish and political science, as they discuss their experience as observers at COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Dr. McEvoy explains the UNFCCC’s role in global climate negotiations and App State’s involvement. Nicole and Grace share how they found out about the trip as well as their insights on indigenous communities, climate refugees and the financial challenges of climate action, particularly in conflict-affected areas. They highlight issues of accessibility for marginalized voices and the slow progress of international climate finance. The discussion also touches on the emotional impact of climate change and activism, the challenges of large-scale climate action and plans for future student delegations at COP 30 in Brazil. Show Notes mcevoydm@appstate.edu englandle@appstate.edu https://www.instagram.com/appstatetocop/ https://unfccc.int/ Transcript Laura: Hello everyone and welcome to the Find Your Sustainability Podcast. I'm your host, Laura England, from the Department of Sustainable Development, and I'm currently working full-time on App State's five-year climate literacy initiative called Pathways to Resilience. Today's episode is a bit different from the others that I've hosted. We have a bit of a party here in the studio today. I'm here with not just one guest, not two, but three wonderful guests. This team has recently returned from Baku Azerbaijan, where they served as App State's delegation of observers at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's 29th Conference of the Parties or COP 29 for short. I'll briefly introduce each of our guests and then we'll get to know more about each of them as we go. Dr. Dave McEvoy is professor and chair of the Department of Economics here at App State. He has graduate degrees in environmental economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University College London. His research focuses on the design and effectiveness of international environmental agreements. And relevant to today's conversation, Dr. McEvoy serves as the organization head for App State's involvement in the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change. Also with us is Nicole Tran, a senior majoring in political science with a concentration in international and comparative politics and a minor in leadership studies. And we also welcome Grace Knapp, a senior majoring in global studies with double minors in Spanish and political science. Thanks so much Dave and Nicole and Grace for coming on the podcast, for being in the studio with me, and I'm really excited to hear more about your recent experience as observers of international climate negotiations. Dave: Definitely happy to be here. Thanks. Nicole: Thanks for having us. Grace: Yeah, thank you for having us. I'm happy to be here. Laura: Excellent. Well, first let's start with some context for our listeners. Dave, can you talk about the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change? A brief history, the purpose of the annual conference of the parties, what it's accomplished so far, a semester's worth in like three minutes. Dave: Three minutes? Laura: No pressure. Dave: Sure. The UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is an international treaty that's designed to try to move countries collectively towards a common goal of avoiding dangerous climate change. It was drafted in '92, entered into force in 1994, and since then, every year minus Covid and a couple weird situations, there's been an annual conference of the parties. And those parties, around 200 countries try to work together to make things better. And it's a gradual process, but typically, countries are working under a treaty or a protocol that's kind of under the umbrella UNFCCC. These days, it's called the Paris Agreement. And so I think most people, while they may not know what the acronym UNFCCC means, they've probably heard of the Paris Agreement, which is, again, a treaty or an agreement under the UNFCCC, and that's the main context of the 29th conference of the parties that we just came back from and every conference of the party since COP 1. Laura: That's excellent. And I know, David, thanks to your leadership that App State has the possibility of bringing a delegation. Can you say a bit about what that process involved and also the course that you developed that parallels the delegation? Dave: Sure. So App State and many, not too many, but quite a few research institutions, even in this state, I can think of Duke and UNC Chapel Hill that are observers to the UNFCCC. And it was an application...
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