When upwards of 30,000 people from 195 countries descend this week for the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, a Santa Cruz local and Scotts Valley High School graduate will be among those advocating for the planet in a year that will certainly be declared the hottest in recorded history.
Analee Josselyn’s official status as an observer will allow her to help influence negotiators and report back home to family, friends, classmates, colleagues and citizens, as she further mobilizes for climate action in a politically polarized United States.
Josselyn is a junior at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, where she double majors in history and economics and business, minoring in environmental studies. As an observer, she will represent A Rocha International as part of the Christian Climate Observers Program (CCOP2023).
“COP28 is an important way for the global community to come together and hopefully work alongside each other to mitigate the environmental issues people are facing every single day,” Josselyn said. “My attendance at the conference is significant both as one of those people myself and as an advocate for other people whose voices need to be heard.”
Dubai, UAE is the host of COP28 scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 12. As part of her pre-departure training, Josselyn was told by CCOP co-director Brian Webb to prepare for these five topics uniquely featured in the COP28 negotiations:
- The first ever Global Stocktake (assessment of progress on the Paris goals);
- How to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund;
- Climate finance—still not at $100 billion and needs to increase;
- Framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA); and
- Fossil fuel language (“phasing out” vs. “phasing down” coal, and whether to mention oil and natural gas alongside coal).
Webb also advised Josselyn and her fellow CCOP2023 observers to watch for these “hot topics surrounding COP28”:
- Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) reform;
- Increased presence and role of fossil fuel companies at COP28;
- Mistrust between developed and developing countries; and
- Decreased opportunity for grassroots climate leaders, Global South leaders, youth leaders, and civil society in general.
Josselyn’s hope is that “COP28 will cultivate change and help us take steps towards a new era that prioritizes the environment as a way to love people both currently alive and yet to be born.”
On a more local level, she hopes that the people she meets, the stories she hears and experiences she has “do not just impact me but can be a resource and encouragement to my friends, family and community as they too attempt to navigate how to live responsibly in a warming world.”
