Events

Woodwell Climate @ COP29

photo: UN Flickr

This page will continue to be updated with information on the events we’ll be hosting in our pavilion, as well as events across the conference featuring our experts as speakers.

You can find us at our pavilion, D6b.

Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

5-7pm AZT

Join us for a reception to launch Woodwell Climate’s pavilion. We will share the schedule of pavilion events and enjoy good conversation.

Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

1:45-3pm AZT

Join us for a presentation and discussion on preliminary results from a country-wide climate risk assessment in Ethiopia. The event will reveal insights into the country’s exposure to climate-induced hazards. Through advanced projected data modeling, the findings highlight regions and communities most at risk, offering valuable information to our partners including policymakers, researchers, and in-country stakeholders for developing adaptation and resilience strategies.

Hosted by collaborator Abay Ezra at Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

6-7:30pm AZT

Join us for the inaugural launch of the African Center for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, a groundbreaking initiative poised to transform Africa’s climate challenges into unprecedented development opportunities. Attendees will learn about the Center’s multifaceted approach to addressing critical areas including renewable energy transitions, climate policy development, innovative financing mechanisms, agricultural resilience, and capacity-building for government officials. There will be opening remarks from the Center’s founder, Abay Ezra, and time for networking with food provided.

Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

10-11:30am AZT

A round table discussion on the diverse pathways through which changing climate hazards can exacerbate instability and insecurity risks. In this discussion, we will highlight novel examples of interdisciplinary partnership between the science and policy fields and how these partnerships can help anticipate and mitigate climate-driven conflict and humanitarian crises.

Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

10-11:30am AZT

This event will showcase climate risk analysis initiatives at local, national and international levels. Experts from Woodwell Climate, local and Tribal governments, and federal agencies will present examples of our local work in Charleston, national-level activities in Ethiopia, and regional efforts in the Alaskan Arctic. We will emphasize how partnerships between communities, governments, and researchers and data-driven insights are instrumental in shaping effective climate adaptation and resilience policies across a range of scales.

Our collaborations with NOAA and the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service will also be highlighted as a model of successful integration of scientific expertise, local knowledge, and governmental action, showcasing how proactive climate risk management can lead to transformative changes in regional resilience.

Hosted by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions at Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

1pm AZT

The conclusion of the first GST at COP28 in 2023 marked a critical moment in the Paris “ambition cycle.” The GST outcome urged Parties and non-Party stakeholders to join efforts to accelerate climate action, encouraging international cooperation and enhanced cooperation on the implementation of multilateral environmental conventions and agreements. It called for countries to respond to a number of key, transformational global targets and signals – including strengthening adaptation action by building accessible, user-driven early warning systems (EWS) for all by 2027.

Co-hosted by Woodwell Climate and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute at Side Event Room 6.

4:45-6:15pm

This event will present the latest science behind those emissions as well as their impact on the global carbon budget, and provide a platform to discuss the viability of the +1.5 limit and the preparation of the next Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in light of those emissions.

The side event will first introduce the latest research on increasing wildfire emissions, particularly due to intensifying fire regimes in the Arctic region. Panelists will highlight the latest scientific findings on Arctic wildfires and wildfire-permafrost interactions that are accelerating the release of greenhouse gas emission. The panel will elaborate how these wildfire-related emissions affect the carbon budget that remains for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and consider how wildfire mitigation efforts, like those championed by the Arctic Council, may help achieve the Paris Agreement goals. Finally, the panel will discuss the ongoing work to align the global climate effort with the 1.5 degrees limit (as agreed to at COP28), the preparation of the next NDCs due in February 2025, and what the research introduced at this event means for the already diminished remaining carbon budget.

Participants will be invited to discuss what is needed – both in terms of scientific advances, but also policy ambition– to keep the Paris process on track.

This event will take place both in person at COP29, as well as streamed on the UNFCCC YouTube livestream page.

Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

10-11am AZT

Dr. Jennifer Watts, Director of the Arctic Program at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, will share compelling photos from leading scientists and Indigenous community partners that illustrate the sudden and often irreversible landscape changes to the Alaskan ecosystem due to permafrost thaw, flooding, erosion, and other consequences of anthropogenic climate change.

Woodwell Climate pavilion, Db6

10-11:30am AZT

As we close the Woodwell Climate pavilion, we will recap highlights from the past two weeks and take stock of COP29, while also looking forward to COP30.