2018•12•19     Katowice

UNU-EHS press briefing. Photo: UNU-EHS

The 24th UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, has ended. UNU-EHS attended with a delegation of researchers and staff from several different academic sections. This delegation hosted, co-hosted, and participated in nine public events at the conference.

A highlight was the UNU-EHS press briefing with Director Prof. Dirk Messner and Dr. Robert Oakes discussing climate change, migration and international justice. Among other possible solutions, the panel mentioned the idea of a ‘climate passport’, which was consequently discussed in several international media outlets, for example EURACTIV or L’Orient Le Jour.

The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) was once again involved in a number of events that centered around finance for loss and damage. Among others, MCII hosted a side event together with the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) on the climate strategies of the V20 Group. MCII has been supporting this group of finance ministers that represents 48 of the most vulnerable countries in its initiative to bring about a broader menu of instruments and predictable and effective financing options for those countries most affected by climate change.

Meanwhile, researchers from the Vulnerability Assessment, Risk Management & Adaptive Planning Section (VARMAP) were involved in the launch of the InsuRisk Assessment Report 2018. Together with their partners they had developed a tool that provides information on countries’ vulnerability towards climate and disaster risks and their readiness to accommodate insurance solutions.

For the first time ever, UNU-EHS participated in two Facebook Live events that were hosted by Facebook itself and streamed via the United Nations University and UNU-EHS Facebook pages. One video featured Kehinde Balogun of MCII, who spoke about climate risk insurance (video here), the other Prof. Messner, who discussed innovative solutions for climate change (video here).

Another first was MCII Executive Director Soenke Kreft‘s choice of transportation for his travels to COP: He cycled the 1000+km, from Bonn, Germany, to Katowice, Poland and raised money for two different organizations in the process. He gave an interview about it to German TV station Phoenix (in German), which can be found here.

Soenke Kreft being interviewed by Phoenix at COP24. Photo: UNU-EHS