The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conferences of the Parties (COPs) have been of significant interest to me since I first attended COP17 in Durban, South Africa in 2011 as a part of the Dickinson College delegation. Ahead of COP17, I participated in an intensive mosaic program which focused on climate change from the physical, political, and historical perspectives. My research project at COP17 focused on the group of counties that created the Climate Vulnerable Forum. 

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I continued to study the COPs during my studies at Dickinson College, and in 2015, I attended COP21 in Paris, France during which the Paris Agreement came to fruition. The years immediately following the entry into force of the Paris Agreement (which took place in November 2016) provide a unique opportunity to observe how countries attempt to shape priorities and power in this new Paris Agreement era. 

 

My master's thesis work focuses on climate change adaptation finance and implementation under the Paris Agreement. Specifically, I attended COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco and COP23 in Bonn, Germany to follow negotiations about the Adaptation Fund. This Fund was established under the Kyoto Protocol by the parties to the UNFCCC in 2001. In 2007, the Fund started to distribute funding to projects which met its objective, “to finance projects and programmes that help vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to climate change…based on country needs, views, and priorities” (Adaptation Fund 2018).

 

Since the Adaptation Fund was originally created under the Kyoto Protocol, the entry into force of the Paris Agreement introduced uncertainty for the Adaptation Fund—the parties could either establish that the Fund serve the Paris Agreement or the Fund could serve out its time under the Kyoto Protocol and then fade into UNFCCC history.

 

This juncture presented a unique opportunity to observe how different countries reacted to the Adaptation Fund’s uncertainty. During COP22, the Adaptation Fund emerged as such a salient negotiating topic that the parties were forced to create an addition Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) Agenda Item to address the debates around the Fund (APA Agenda Item 8A).  During these negotiations, developing countries represented by groups including the G77 and China, The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), the Africa Group, and the Least Developed Countries Group (LDCs) stood out as the most vocal and unequivocal advocates for the continuation of the Fund.

 

Stemming from these observations, my master's thesis research explores the extent to which the rhetoric displayed at the UNFCCC meetings aligns with or differs from the way in which the Adaptation Fund projects are planned and implemented on the ground. The research uses a case study approach to understand the dynamics at play in example projects through a multi-level governance perspective (see Climate Change Adaptation page).