COP27 Week One Update

by: Tiffany Sill

A sea of people flooding to the Red sea to go to COP27 this year is ironic since Egypt has recently been plagued with flooding of the Nile resulting from global climate change.  locals talk about the snow they had experienced in Egypt, for the first time in their written history; describing it as horrifying to wake up to a blanket of white snow over their desert mountains.

So here we are, at COP27, to discuss the implementation of climate change mitigation strategies on a global scale.  Each delegate from the American Chemical Society has their own focal point in the multitude of sessions offered from the country pavilions and plenary sessions.  My own heart lies with materials solutions to implement decarbonization efforts on an industrial scale in hard-to-abate sectors such as transportation, building and construction, and energy storage.

Many of the pavilions have been hosting discussion sessions and presentations from top researchers in their field as a way to spread awareness on new and improved technologies and strategies for mitigation efforts.  the Building Pavilion specifically had several extremely interesting discourse sessions regarding new concrete technologies that can mitigate emissions associated with production by roughly one third.  In addition, the Japan Pavilion is hosting many of their industry titans such as Mitsubishi who also have a new zero-emissions concrete formula.  

A single technology will not do the trick alone.  And we certainly have a long way to go.  But all the little dents these emerging technologies are making together can add up to a big difference.  All-in-all it seems like if we can come together as the human race, then there is still some hope in avoiding a full-fledged climate catastrophe.