As We Look Up to Bonn-A first Day Report from UNFCCC COP23
I t’s the first day at the much-anticipated United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 23, also called ‘Pacific COP’ with regards to Fiji, the host country of this year’s summit. Fiji, an island state, has been grappling with the adverse impacts of climate change. Cyclone Winston ravaged Fiji in February 2016, taking the lives of 44 people, destroying homes, uprooting families, and inflicting serious damage on the nation’s sugar crop, a foundation of the Fijian economy 1 . Bonn, a historical city in Germany, serves as the host venue for the approximately 25,000 participants at COP this year. As always, the event is attended by national governments, UN specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs. A rather innovative concept of having to rename the former Green and Blue Zones as the Bonn zone and Bula zone (Bula means hello in the Fijian language)- A number of words from the language have been notably...