To follow individual issues/agendas of the COP26 negotiations in-depth, this year International Centre for Climate Change and Development, (ICCCAD) offered an online high-level short course for the advanced-level participants. It was a unique short course on the Conference of Parties (COP) which provided a great way to follow the COP26 negotiations.
The purpose of the short course was not just to learn and comprehend the outcomes of COP26 negotiations but rather to illustrate how non- negotiators, like many of us who could not attend the venue of COP26 in Glasgow, UK physically can potentially give inputs to and get outputs from the COP process.
Prof Saleemul Huq, Director, (ICCCAD) and Professor, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), and one of the top climate scientists in the world, designed this course for the participants. The course was designed in a way to help interested high-level participants who could not physically attend the events at Glasgow, get a clear idea of the process and ongoing events at the COP this year. The short course consisted of a series of webinars before, during and after COP26, which started on November 1 and ended on the 12th.
As a part of this short course, there was a collaboration between Northeastern University (NEU), Boston, USA and ICCCAD, Dhaka, Bangladesh through CANVAS – an online learning platform that gave participants a new dimension of online learning by sharing regular blogs, vlogs, critical discussion, and several sessions on different negotiation tracks on climate change both by NEU, Boston faculty members and ICCCAD personnel. Prof Laura Kuhl, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs Program, Northeastern University, Boston, USA, was very supportive with the short course participants.
To follow a single issue/agenda of the COP26 negotiations in-depth, selected participants of this course got the opportunity to remain updated with daily information and advice straight from Glasgow from high profile experts that included Prof Saleemul Huq and Prof Mizan R Khan, Deputy Director, ICCCAD, who are experienced mentors and negotiators when it comes to COP. Prof Huq is the only Bangladeshi climate scientist who has been speaking for Bangladesh in all COPs for the last 26 years. On the other hand, Prof Mizan Khan has been one of the negotiators from the Government of Bangladesh for the last 20 COPs.
The participants from ICCCAD and the students from the Northeastern University (NEU), Boston, USA, who were taking this course as a part of their Graduate-level Negotiation course, shared their interests and knowledge in a world class virtual global classroom. The CANVAS classroom was a gathering of international students from all over the world including students attending from USA, China, Spain, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Italy, UK, India, Russia, and Taiwan. It was the first time ever ICCCAD participants used CANVAS as a learning platform, offered by NEU, Boston and ICCCAD. The learning tool SLACK was also very useful to all the participants.
ICCCAD’s online short course was designed to deliver maximum learning outcomes through carefully chosen high-quality learning materials. These highly facilitated online courses combine self-paced study modules with applied learning components, interactive exercises, and collaborative group work, specially tailored to the needs of the professional interest in deepening one’s knowledge on UNFCCC’s nine specific negotiation tracks. Nine topics of the UNFCCC negotiation can be classified into: Action on Climate and SDGs, Adaptation and resilience, Capacity-building, Climate Finance, Climate Technology, Education and Youth, Gender, Mitigation, Global Stock take.
This was an opportunity to join climate and environmental discussions, and also get insight from experts of the field. One of the participants spoke highly of the experience, saying, “As the course was based entirely on an online platform, it was a unique way to learn about and follow the events at COP, all while we attended to our regular official duties. It was a bit challenging but highly engaging and rewarding. All the pre and post COP26 webinars, shared blogs from the COP26 Glasgow venue and reading materials were extremely helpful to follow the negotiation track.”
However, the course participants faced some minor difficulties, mostly for the three completely different time zones that Dhaka, Boston and Glasgow fall in. Due to this difference in time zones, some participants could only learn by listening to the class recordings, and could not avail the chance to attend the question answer sessions in person.
ICCCAD is planning to organize this course every year with a more advanced-level of learning. To emphasize collective responsibility to tackle climate change issues, Bangladesh as a part of LDC has a significant role to become a prominent influencer in the upcoming COP. A course such as this will make a significant learning and knowledge sharing platform for the future.
Dr Nazneen Khan coordinates the COP26 short course at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development. She can be reached at nazneen@iub.edu.bd