We first review the components and the effectiveness of each element of scaffolding provided to the students. Second, we discuss and evaluate the learning outcomes. A basic understanding of the COP and the negotiation topics was provided as part of the scaffolding, but it was each students’ individual choice about what different action and agenda items to observe, how they engaged with them, and what best supported their individual research and personal growth. Third, to understand key challenges and student learning about the climate negotiations, we highlight a mixture of outcomes and observations shared through the survey and during the qualitative interviews.
3.1 The components of academic “scaffolding” provided before and during the COP
3.1.1 Side event to engage as Observers at the COP
The core components of the training and the experience at the COP centered around the development of a “side event”. By contrast to the country delegates who represent Parties to the UNFCCC, Observer organizations only rarely speak in the plenaries and negotiations. The key activity for Observers is to propose and present at side events. Side events are held concurrently with the negotiations as a platform for Observer organizations “to engage with Parties and other participants for knowledge sharing, capacity building, networking, and exploring actionable options for meeting the climate challenge.” (29).
Preparing for and presenting at this side event provided the students with an immediate way to engage as an Observer at COP. They had to establish the focus of their side event, including what information or research was needed to support this topic, and who should present and how information should be presented. As most of the students had not previously attended a COP, they did not have a clear model for the structure or content of such an event. The students collectively chose to highlight climate research and action on their campuses and present the viewpoints of their peers and faculty in a multimedia format. While the professors were there to support and provide feedback, it was also made clear that this was a student-led event. In this way, this side event provided a platform for the students to engage in the COP process and supported the main innovation of this course of allowing students to experience how information from climate change research interfaces with the UNFCCC process.
3.1.2 Structuring the COP experience with daily meetings and check-in opportunities
The COP presents challenges from navigating the venue to identifying and gaining access to events. Hence, the students were provided with recommendations for activities that could structure their schedules and provide support if there were any periods of uncertainty. This was achieved by establishing several “home bases” and ways to check-in. First, the students were strongly encouraged to attend the daily Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organizations or RINGO meeting. This meeting provides an opportunity for the Observer organizations classified as a RINGO to convene, learn about what others across the independent, research, and NGO sectors had experienced the day before, secure “tickets” that were allocated to RINGOs for that day to enter the limited-access plenaries and negotiations, and share any observations or learnings about the meeting. After the RINGO meetings, the group met to discuss potential activities for the day, including how to adjust schedules based on the new information conveyed at the RINGO meeting. Individuals, however, were encouraged to establish their own schedules as well as be able to recognize and adapt to the changes in the events that are the hallmark of the COPs. Second, the students used the booth as a place of convening and resting; students would gather in the small space and talk about their COP experiences.
3.1.3 Professorial and other support before and during the COP experience
Professorial and teaching assistant support was critical for setting up the structures before the COP to support the students at the meeting. The teaching assistant, who also attended the COP, was essential to the execution of the course. For instance, she created an internet-based group chat – WhatsApp group – early in the pre-departure period to alert students about new information and open a forum for asking and answering questions. The transparency and openness of this virtual collaboration tool were intrinsic to overcoming certain barriers, such as housing challenges and information incongruities. The group also allowed for self-organized information sharing by the students, who also answered each other’s questions about everything from badges to flight itineraries to interesting events to engage with. During the COP, the group used WhatsApp to plan, share ideas, and sometimes collectively reflect about the plenary process or other salient issues to reach an agreement at the COP (e.g., the strong presence of Poland’s coal industry).
Professorial support extended from the course through the COP. Students expressed that the professor’s role and the RINGO meeting was essential in accessing and understanding the negotiations. Both the professor’s leadership and the RINGO meetings provided time and space to digest and analyze what had happened the day before during the negotiations. Talking through observations was highly instrumental in the transformational learning process for the students, as it both empowered them to participate in the plenaries, but also to engage with the RINGO network and listen to others’ observations.
3.1.4 Other logistical support for the COP experience
An important logistical challenge is ensuring that the students have the necessary credentials to access the COP. Prior to the setting up of the course, all universities had secured what is known as “Observer Status” to the UNFCCC process. This designation allows for the organization to send observers to the COPs. This is done through a process of nominations submitted by the organization and then the UNFCCC Secretariat allocates a specific number of badges to each organization. Observer organizations are restricted in the number of badges that they are allocated, which generally does not cover the full request in the nomination stage. Only those with “badges” are ultimately able to enter the part of the COP where the negotiations take place – referred to as the “blue zone”. Generally, COPs also have a “green zone” where the public may attend, although the capacity may still be monitored. Students experienced challenges related to planning to attend due to the uncertainties of the process of credentialing as well as scheduling of the events.
3.2 Evaluating learning outcomes
3.2.1. Evaluation of learning goals on climate negotiation literacy and COP experience
Knowledge of the diverse content of the COP expanded in the post-survey from a focus on the Paris Agreement Rulebook to multiple components of the agreement (e.g., Warsaw Agreement), recognition of multiple forms of activism and evidence of the challenge of negotiations (e.g., the ‘noting’ of the SR1.5). The main learnings also naturally demonstrated how students gained greater understanding and respect for the processes taking place during the COP, from the negotiations to the vast array of resources being used to address climate change (Table 2). Along with this, students expressed how they were inspired, have a voice, and see a career pathway in environmental policymaking (Table 2).
Table 2. Pre- and post-survey responses related to climate negotiation literacy.
Question/ Theme
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Summary of Pre-COP Responses (# of respondents)
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Summary of Post-COP Responses (# of respondents)
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What do you think will be/were the main outcomes of COP24?
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Paris Agreement Rulebook (PAWP) (4)
Reference to PAWP (3)
Set targets to remain below 1.5ºC (2)
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Strong evidence of climate activism (2)
‘Noting’ of IPCC’s SR1.5 (2)
Networked across international borders (2)
PAWP (1)
Progress on Warsaw Agreement (1)
Incremental progress on Rule 6 (1)
Agreement on Biennial Reporting for 2024 (1)
Recognition of youth and Indigenous Peoples (1)
Santiago Network established (1)
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What do you expect to learn/did you learn?
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How main negotiations function (6)
Relevant workplans at the COP (1)
Intercultural communication (1)
Hear peoples CC stories (1)
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How negotiations function and don’t function (5)
Vast array of resources being used to address CC (2)
Intersectional ways in which adaptation/mitigation impacts various groups (2)
How to navigate international conference (1)
I have a voice here (1)
I am interested in policy work (1)
Inspired by attendees I met (1)
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In the interviews with the students reveal a more nuanced experience of the COP. These experiences highlight how the COP can provide opportunities for personal growth by inspiring and building intercultural understanding, yet can also be a source of discouragement due to the inaccessibility of the COP. A key part of the overall experience was mediated by the students’ ability to access the negotiations at the COP. In our opening paragraphs, we illustrated a formal diplomatic protest observed by our students during the SBSTA discussion on December 3, 2018. Accessing the high-level negotiations was possible by obtaining a specific ticket from the universities’ constituency group. These tickets were announced at the morning RINGO meetings, which most of the students attended, and were in limited supply. Those who did not receive a ticket to these meetings could only access plenaries remotely. Sitting in that plenary became a cornerstone of their COP, and the students came back to this experience in their interviews noting both an increased sense of agency and engagement as well as understanding and respect for the process.
“I really value the access to the plenary because being in that room is kind of symbolic that I don't feel like an outsider. Like, I'm not watching it on television; I'm not standing outside the door, I'm inside the room, with all these really cool people who've done amazing things, and I'm not on the outside. That's a really important feeling for me, because sometimes you get this feeling of - I'm young, I can't do anything, or I have to wait until I have a certain level of ability” (#12).
“That was good to see a formal protest in that way…There has to be compromise or you're not going to move forward on anything… I don't really have a formulated opinion on whether I wish the majority of parties had been willing just to accept [the SR1.5 by] or 'take note'... But I get why they strongly push for 'welcome' because of the implication it has in terms of how they base the future of their work” (#3).
“[I]t's neat to just to think about these negotiators…that you know they're clearly talented and capable individuals… well educated and they could be spending their efforts probably really anywhere else, but this is where they've ended up and so even if you don't agree with them at least there's still you know like this is still what they're spending their time on and mostly a positive manner” (#2).
While the students found that the COP brought salience to the issue of climate change and the challenges of achieving progress in the international setting, students also found that the technical information or the sheer complexity of the issue at hand could be confusing and frustrating. This resulted in lower overall understanding of what the goals and objectives were at the COP and how they were accomplished.
“…I really think the list of how climate change is going to impact our world is kind of endless. It’s very daunting to get into this subject. And I think you also see this at the UN, right, there are these huge international players, so it’s hard to make any steps of real progress because it’s such a big thing…” (#14).
“I didn't follow the negotiations closely… So I'm not very familiar with the outcomes of the COP other than the drive change together, the pact that the COP president was spearheading, which was interesting, but I found it to be a Band-Aid solution to a huge problem that we're having” (#15).
“…some of the things they were talking about were very technical and I didn't quite have the background knowledge I felt like I needed to completely grasp what they were saying” (#9).
Even with the scaffolding such as badges, home bases, communication, and the side event to support students during the COP, students encountered multiple uncertainties about how to be a delegate, including difficulties in navigating, finding access to negotiations, and understanding information presented during negotiations. Some students overcame these challenges through a high reliance on the scaffolding of the course, while others implemented their own coping mechanisms, such as tracking the daily schedule of side events, visiting booths in the pavilion or observing direct actions. Given the small group size, we are not able to make any meaningful distinction in learning outcomes between these two approaches and both groups described strong learning outcomes. However, the students who were able to forge their own pathways may have achieved more of their personal learning outcomes and gained a larger sense of empowerment in navigating complex information and settings.
“Yeah, honestly it's been it's been just really overwhelming because there's so much happening and it's difficult to distinguish what it's about to distinguish what's physically designed for us and what's not” (#11).
“You have no idea what to expect…no matter how much preparation you've gone through you cannot prepare yourself for what happens. It took me three days to figure out how to just get through a day's worth of events. Because [something] would be happening under a certain theme…and you don't even know where to find [it]” (#2).
3.2.3. Participation and engagement
The students were also asked about their perceptions of participation and contributions during the COP. Several students in the pre-COP period perceived that they might be able to ‘encourage negotiators to be transparent’ and ‘express urgency about climate change.’ In the post-survey, these more idealistic contributions were not stated, representing both greater literacy on what being a delegate at the COP allows one to contribute and a more realistic perspective about the student’s ability to engage with delegates (see Table 3). Students perceived their contributions both at their side event and at other youth events to be especially important considering the US government’s decision to pull out the Paris Climate Accord and the resulting ‘We’re Still In’ movement of US States and universities, which one student noted had been ‘reduced’ since their last observations of that movement at the COP in Bonn.
Table 3. Pre- and post-survey responses related to empowerment and engagement.
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Pre-COP (# of respondents)
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Post-COP (# of respondents)
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What do you believe that you will contribute/contributed?
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Knowledge based on side event (3)
Express hope and urgency about CC (2)
Share with friends/family my learnings (2)
Encourage negotiators to be transparent (1)
Evidence that US students care about CC (1)
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Knowledge based on side event (8)
Evidence that US students care about CC (3)
Networked with other students (1)
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In what ways will/are you able to engage/influence?
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Not able to influence (4)
Share knowledge at side events (4)
Contribute to collective youth voice (2)
Provide new perspective to negotiators (1)
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Not able to influence (4)
Shared knowledge at side events (3)
Share perspectives about how CC impacts my life (2)
Establish strategic relationships (1)
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A key component of the structure of experience engaged with the side event. Overall, students’ sense of agency was amplified by their preparation and presentation of a side event at the COP. Attended by around 50 participants, the side event was recorded and shared through multiple online fora via the students’ social media accounts as well as through the online portal of the COP24. After the side event, the professor informed the students that they were invited to give a press conference, which all were able to attend and during which many of those who had not yet spoken shared their thoughts with the press. In their reflections shared after these events, five of the students mentioned the side event as their main accomplishment and point of engagement at the COP
“I think the side event that we did together and having our own youth event – so that gave youth a space to share research and network and how to move forward with the progress and how to get youth to take away something from the youth events. I think there is space to apply this thinking” (#14).
“My view is already somewhat almost biased, but we just came through a lens of already youth having a role since our whole side event was focused around youth… And there's so many youth giving different side events or even in the U.N. pavilion…the U.S. pavilion had an event targeted just at youth…And so I think all those things are great” (#14).
Some expectations of the students, however, were not met as far as the role of and the constraints on Observers at the COP. While students were pleasantly surprised about the access to the plenaries, high-level negotiations, and the country delegates themselves, students found that their expectations about the type of access they would have to their country delegates and the negotiations were not met. One student (#15) expected to be observing round table discussions, to have access to descriptions of negotiations taking place and to be at the actual table working and listening to the delegates. More generally, the students shared a desire to have more connection to the delegations and negotiations, as part of youth engagement at the COP. We return to these elements in Section 3.2.4 on youth engagement.
“I thought…we'd be able to see more of the plenary sessions. I thought we'd be more involved with high level officials which isn't the case…[yet] I've done amazing things and was able to ask questions and run up to [delegates] after and try to gain an interview” (#11).
“…[W]hen I meet with the other delegates from the other countries like Mexico, Israel, it's really nice. I mean it's nice to watch the exchange, what they are thinking. Probably we are not going in the super right direction... But even so I'm very enthusiastic about being here” (#8).
Students also identified how to situate themselves in the COP along the many intersectional pathways of – youth, researcher, nationality, and gender. Two international student participants stated that they found it hopeful and heartening that they could talk with their country delegates and network with them. US-citizens spoke more about their ability to network with US students as well as individuals from all over the world as an important part of the intercultural experience of the COP. This intercultural learning gained transcended the expectations of what many believed they would contribute and gain from the COP.
“Yeah, well we don't play a direct role in the negotiations or anything… it's more like networking and getting ideas for how to be involved and observing and trying to figure out what to do next” (#9).
“I think that’s the coolest part of the COP is that you have people from all over the world, and you get lots of different narratives about the best way to mitigate [climate change]” (#14).
3.2.4. Towards improving youth engagement at the COP
The COP provided a variety of ways for youth to engage, with youth speakers at the plenaries, a designated day for youth climate action, side events, events hosted by various governments or nongovernmental organizations with pavilion space, protests, RINGO and YOUNGO – the children and youth constituency to the UNFCCC. We summarize the pre- and post-COP experiences in Table 4.
Table 4. Survey responses in relation to youth engagement in the COP24.
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Pre-COP (# of respondents)
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Post-COP (# of respondents)
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What are your views on youth inclusion?
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Youth are well-placed to contribute to negotiations (6)
These is moral urgency to slow impacts of CC (2)
Youth will be most impacted by CC (5)
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Youth presence is critical to the COP (3)
Youth are being heard at the COP (3)
Youth are not being heard at the COP (3)
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What are your impressions of how the COP engages/ed youth?
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Civil society/side events (5)
YOUNGO* (2)
Youth Ambassadors/delegates (2)
No inclusion of youth (1)
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Civil society/side events (5)
Youth as delegates (2)
Youth-led protests (2)
YOUNGO (2)
RINGO** (1)
It’s only lip service (1)
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What do you recommend in relation to youth engagement?
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More inclusive of youth in delegations (7)
Scholarships and logistic support to youth (3)
Youth-related side events (2)
Engage schools to view COP event (1)
More access to youth activists (1)
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Give youth a seat in delegations (5)
Scholarships for youth (2)
Youth-related side events (1)
More courses like this one (1)
Better pre-departure training (1)
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* YOUNGO is the official UNFCCC constituency of Youth Non-Governmental Organizations.
** RINGO is the official UNFCCC constituency of Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organizations.
There is some support in the survey responses and interviews for effective youth engagement at the COP. However, while the students generally reported high levels of personal engagement, the reactions to the knowledge they were gaining about how the COP is run, the slowness of action, and the difficulties of diplomacy were met with emotional responses from the students and some discouragement of their level of agency within this process. The slowness and inaction they observed caused several to point out how their pessimism about the issue of climate change was validated by their observation of the climate negotiations.
“There were a lot of youth, a lot more than I thought would be there. So, it’s a nice change to see that they are trying to get youth involved” (#14).
“I heard the YOUNGO group talking about system change. I know the Sunrise movement, [and] some representatives from that were there. There is a well-known speaker from Sweden named Greta…But other than that, at the side events or the pavilion events, it seems like a faux politic, people didn’t really talk about capitalism or any sort of economic system being problematic or a better solution” (#15).
They also echoed desires shared by other youth activists to give youth more of an opportunity to engage at the COP. This was especially highlighted in statements that emphasized the unequal generational burdens of climate change impacts on youth and, consequently their appropriateness as advocates for specific policy (Table 5).
Table 5. Quotations in response to the question: What is the importance of youth engagement in the COP?
Generational Burdens
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A lot of the issues being talked about directly impacts the younger generations. So why shouldn't we be a part of these negotiations? This is our reality and our future. So, it seems almost criminal to keep the young people out of it when we're the ones who are likely to face the brunt of these issues (#15).
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…we're going to be the ones dealing with the decisions that are made or not made. And it's pretty important that we're a part of that whether that be like directly or indirectly (#5).
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Youth as Advocates
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…there's not youth at every level…I feel more like we're the intern that gets to sit by and have coffee while the adults speak, which I think is a big detriment because we're the ones who have to be living with the choices or made in some cases not the choices here and we're the ones who are pushing hard (#1).
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…it's youth who ultimately going to bear these burdens and that you know among some people really want to see youth involvement and hear youth voices because these are the people that you know are going to be really, ultimately facing and dealing with these issues later down the road (#4).
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Obviously, everyone says that we’ll be the next policy makers, so it’s better to get involved now because we’ll be making the decisions later. However, I find it is frustrating because the youth have hope, but we don’t only need good policy makers in the future, we need it now (#14).
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Interestingly, the students were split in their responses about the ability of young people to be ‘heard’ in the COP – expressing that youth presence was sufficient or a reformative need towards more youth inclusion in delegations.
“[If I were a delegate], my mindset would be changed if I came out of the negotiation or walked to the back of the room, and I saw a bunch of youth. It makes their decision feel more important because they have people supporting them even young people” (#5).
Several students reported that their experiences and interactions with other youth and students at the COP reinforced notions that youth do not have a voice in this negotiation (stated by 5 participants) and the belief that their contributions are, as one respondent put it, ‘paying lip service’ to young people. Similarly, they are mixed in their responses in how students and youth should be engaged going forward. While several of the students echoed Greta Thunberg’s call for ‘system change’(30), others called for youth having a ‘seat in the delegations’ and recognized the importance of the youth presence at these negotiations that so impact their future.