Climate and Development Lab firing on all cylinders in Paris

The Climate and Development Lab is at its fifth UN negotiation in Paris these first two weeks of December. The historic negotiations are the focus of work by the 16 member team, led by Timmons Roberts, Professor in the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and Guy Edwards, Research Fellow at IBES.

Students attending Paris session — **Engaged learning:** Students attend a major session in Paris.

Eleven undergraduate class members are attending the talks, from seven different concentrations across campus. Four undergrad alums of the class are attending the negotiations with the lab, continuing their engaged work begun in past years in the class.

Guy Edwards has supported the lab for the past five years, and represents much of its capacity on Latin America. Edwards and Roberts' book A Fragmented Continent: Latin America and Global Climate Politics was just released from MIT Press.

There are substantial logistical issues to make the trip possible. Credentials for recognized observer organizations were sharply restricted for 2015, due to the wide interest. To give as many students as possible the opportunity to attend, class members each came for one of the two weeks of the negotiations. All four returning members were engaged in projects that required they stay for both weeks in Paris, but they had to obtain credentials from other organizations.

Lab members debrief at apartment — **Hard at work:** Back at the apartment, lab members debrief and discuss until late in the night.

Each year, Roberts has rented an apartment to affordably and safely house the lab members. This year, the group rented a four bedroom flat just off the Place de la Republique, allowing the team a base of operations for late-night impromptu seminars on the proceedings and for pointers for new members from veterans.

This year's trip was funded by IBES.

The lab's mission is to support just and effective climate policy. Each year the CDL conducts original research in partnership with delegations, think tanks or NGOs.

One major team research project of the lab this fall was the quantitative research behind the first-ever Adaptation Finance Transparency Gap Report, which the lab planned, wrote and released with the global network of think tanks, AdaptationWatch.org. The report became salient as India's ministry of Finance questioned claims made by the wealthy countries who are members of the OECD on how much aid they are delivering. The work was mentioned in major Indian daily newspaper The Hindu, and referred to by negotiators for the Group of 77 and China group. The lab's 2012 research on the same topic was cited in the position paper prepared for the Indian Ministry of Finance.

Support for limiting global warming — **2°C is not enough:** Lab members show their support for limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

A second group project has examined the implications of a Paris deal for Latin America. That work is resulting in blogs, collaboration with think tanks and is continuing at the talks with interviews with key negotiators and experts from the region.

When possible, students also are "embedded" with think tanks, country delegations, NGOs or media organizations. Kailani Acosta '16 and Izza Drury '16 provided support for Saleemul Huq of the International Center for Climate Change and Development, and supported his work with the Climate Vulnerable Forum. The CVF scored a stunning victory this year with the mainstreaming of the idea that we need to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Kailani became the cover girl for that movement.

Sujay Natson'16 worked with World Wildlife Fund and The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) doing photography and policy research. Jonathan Gewirtzman '17 also worked with the UCS, as well as with the World Wildlife Fund, doing policy research and text analysis.

Tory Hoffmeister'17 and Alexis Durand'16 continued their work on the new Loss and Damage mechanism, which also advanced importantly in Paris. Camila Bustos'16 collaborated with sustainability strategy group Nivela to communicate updates on the negotiations in accessible language for English and Spanish speakers, and wrote a piece on human rights and the climate agreement with a senior attorney at the Interamerican Association of Environmental Defense.

CDL members connect with US Senators in Paris — **An ocean away:** Members of the CDL connect with United States Senators Whitehouse (RI) and Booker (NJ) in Paris.

In her third negotiation in that role, Olivia Santiago'16 was embedded with the Seychelles delegation, helping them with events as part of the Global Islands Partnership (GLISPA) and AOSIS, the Association of Small Island States. Marguerite Suozzo-Golé '16 participated in US Youth organizations at the COP's work on climate justice.

The trip was covered by NPR (1, 2), the Providence Journal, the Brown Daily Herald, and WGBH Boston. Roberts appeared on NPR's national talk show On Point with Tom Ashbrook. In conducting individual research for blogs, op-eds and a presentation upon their return, the students met presidents, US Senators, delegation members, experts and activists from around the world.

"It's been a very exciting first week in Paris," said Guy Edwards. Our Latin American colleagues have been very enthusiastic about our new book on the region and climate change politics. Presenting a couple of signed copies to the former president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, and Peru's minister of the environment Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, both of whom came to a Brown conference last year, was a particular highlight."

Now with the second week crew on the ground, the lab is eagerly awaiting an ambitious and equitable agreement at the end of this fateful week.