Mercifully, this is my final post on COP. Previous posts outlined the many flaws in the process. Yesterday’s post offered five recommendations to fix it. Today, we’ll list my final recommended fixes.
For the masochists among you, who wish to read the entire series of COP posts, below is a link to yesterday’s post which includes links to all the “what’s wrong with COP” posts.
Finally, here is some additional detail on recommendations 6 through 10:
Recommendation # 6: Restructure priorities to maximize financial and human resources.
It’s unclear to me how the climate community decides determines its priorities. It seems that the effort is haphazard and definitely fragmented. In other words, it seems it’s the proverbial “shotgun” approach. The absence of a clear strategy needlessly consumes valuable resources. The world should evaluate all potential emission reduction solutions and rank them based on resource requirements, probability of success, time horizon, and expected emissions reduction over time.
Recommendation # 7: Charter the climate science community to develop detailed impact assessments with specific metrics and an annual review process.
We need a consistent way of judging progress with measurable metrics. It would be beneficial to conduct annual reviews to determine what is working and what’s not in order to make timely adjustments.
Recommendation # 8: Put environmental justice issues on the back burner.
I understand the desire to help those most impacted by climate change. The problem is environmental justice causes mimic the nonprofit world: overly fragmented and inefficient. This is also consuming valuable resources and comes with opportunity costs that are likely delaying achieving the ultimate goal. And wouldn’t climate justice be better served if we were able to accelerate solving the problem for everyone.
Recommendation # 9: Set up a system of direct financial renumeration for those most affected.
In lieu of attempting to fund hundreds - if not thousands - of small environmental justice programs, establish a system that directly compensates those most impacted through reduced utility rates or other mechanisms.
Recommendation # 10: Mandate committees align with offenders and/or stakeholders.
It is counterproductive to form committees/groups when the key players are absent. Doping so is simply a waste of time. COP should ensure every group, alliance, and/or initiative has buy-in from the right countries and entities. If that isn’t possible, then don’t waste everyone’s time.
I hope these posts generate some discussion on how to make COP a more effective process.