COP28 Delegation

Professor Charlie Spillane – Director of Ryan Institute & Director of Masters Program in Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (MScCCAFS); Chair of Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD)

Read Professor Spillane's profile

The Director of the Ryan Institute at University of Galway, Professor Charles Spillane, attended the COP28 Global Summit to engage in climate action with both national and global partners. Over the past decades, Prof. Spillane has been engaged in a wide range of research activities on agriculture, climate change and food security with global partners attending COP28. On 6 Dec 2023, Professor Spillane chaired an event at the Food and Agriculture Pavilion on the ”Role of youth in capacity building and policymaking for climate action in the Global South”, where the GRA-CGIAR MITIGATE+ funded CLIFF-GRADS PhD Fellowship program (supported by University of Galway) announced the Round 6 research mobility awards to 44 PhD students from countries in the Global South.

Professor Spillane attended COP28 as a member of the Irish Government Overflow Delegation where he represents the interdisciplinary Ryan Institute at the University of Galway, and the Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD). The Ryan Institute is the University’s largest research institute (102 research groups, over 500 researchers) conducting research for sustainability, including climate change. Professor Spillane works extensively with United Nations and international development organisations worldwide on sustainable development, climate change, agriculture, food systems and food security. For COP28, the Ryan Institute YouTube Channel broadcasted its regular video briefings on the COP28 negotiations by MScCCAFS students and leading climate change experts attending COP28: www.youtube.com/@ryaninstituteuniofgalway/videos

charles.spillane@universityofgalway.ie

Read Professor Spillane's reflections on COP28 and the Climate Crisis

According to Professor Spillane, “It is critical that all of our political leaders and governments display the consistent ambition & urgency necessary to meet the goal of staying within 1.5^oC of global warming, despite the rapidly dwindling carbon budget. The carbon clock is ticking. By 2030 a transformational shift in the energy economies of all nations has to occur if global warming is to be limited to 1.5^oC.  A key positive outcome of COP28 is the recognition (for the first time in over 30 years…) that it is necessary to transition away from fossil fuels, through accelerated action this decade.  While the texts and pledges made by governments and non-state actors at COP28 are welcome, they will need to be rapidly implemented ahead of 2030, if net zero targets by 2050 are to be met. However, since the beginnings of the UNFCCC climate change negotiations in 1992, the evidence to date is that the necessary transformational shifts are not happening at the pace, scale and depth that is necessary.

He further stressed that “Due to indecision combined with inaction regarding climate action, our current day political leaders are at risk of condemning the next generations of citizens to an unsafe operating space for humanity on our planet. Both speed and scale of climate action now matter and are urgent to forge a more sustainable future for all. All of our children’s grandchildren will be challenged to live on a planet which at current rates of emissions is on track to be up to 2.9 degrees warmer which will be catastrophic for humanity for centuries ahead. The politics of compromise evident in each year’s climate summit negotiations indicates that many of our political leaders and governments do not have the social license to display the leadership and immediate actions necessary to drive the rapid transformational shifts necessary to keep global warming to within 1.5^oC. Like Nero, they will be considered to have fiddled while the planet burned.”

Professor Jamie Goggins – Professor of Engineering, and Head of University of Galway Observer delegation

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Professor Goggins is an expert in developing sustainable and resilient structures for buildings and energy infrastructure. He leads research in marine renewable energy, and is Director of Construct Innovate, Ireland’s construction technology centre, which is focused on developing more sustainable approaches to building.

At COP28 Prof. Goggins focused on strengthening connections and collaborations with global partners working on the intersection of climate change, urbanization and the built environment.

jamie.goggins@universityofgalway.ie

Read Professor Goggins' reflections on COP28 and the Climate Crisis

Professor Goggins reflected that, “I went to COP28 with a hope that there will be agreement between nations on an ambitious pathway for reduction of greenhouse gas emission that included a clear plan for a tripling of renewables, a doubling of energy efficiency and the phase out of fossil fuel production and consumption.  Similar to the rapid phasing out of the use of horses for transportation to be replaced by motor cars around a century ago, we are now at the cusp of this transition to phasing out of fossil fuel energy to an energy system fully supplied by reliable, affordable and accessible renewable energy.”

He further added that, “I came back from COP28 with a renewed believe that each one of us can make a different through decisions we make in our work practices. In Construct Innovate, we will support construction professionals and other stakeholders involved in construction and the built environment to put sustainability at the heart of all their decisions. We can all make our own commitments to help us to emerge from the climate and biodiversity emergency that we all now face. If each one of us today makes a decision to do something to help in this emergency, then when all of these individual commitments are put together we can make a substantial difference.”

Dr Una Murray – International Development Expert/Researcher

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International development expert, Dr. Murray works closely with global partners and alliances attending COP28 on climate change, migration and social protection. On 9 December 2023, Dr. Murray gave a keynote talk and chaired a session with UNICEF, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, The World Bank and the Red Cross Climate Centre on "Adaptive Social Protection for Loss and Damage Response: Placing Children and Vulnerable Groups at the Heart of Climate Action" in the UNICEF Pavilion.

Dr Murray is the Director of the University’s MA in International Development Practice, in Geography, and also works as a UN international evaluator. She attended COP as part of the Irish Government Overflow Delegation. She leads an Irish Research Council-funded project on migration, climate change and social protection affiliated with the Ryan Institute, with ongoing research in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

una.murray@universityofgalway.ie

Read Dr Murray's reflections on COP28 and the Climate Crisis

Dr. Murray considered the COP28 discussions on climate change, migration and displacement, including the positive outcome on Loss and Damage. She highlighted that "we must keep global warming within 1.5 degrees -  if not, the bill for Loss and Damage for those who already experience displacement due to climate change will be massive". She further added that “climate change is pushing vulnerable people further into poverty or preventing them from escaping from poverty. It is absolutely staggering to consider that 774 million children are living in poverty and affected by high climate risk. Social protection measures can be used in an anticipatory way to build resilience, can provide relief, and can help with recovery from climate events. Without some form of social protection, displaced and climate affected people may have to resort to negative coping strategies, such as selling off assets, pulling children out of school or marrying girls off early”, She reflected that “At the heart of COP28 lies a profound interplay of language and words used in the negotiations, where the negotiated outcome of the verbs used in political consensus reflects the level of global political commitment to different forms of climate action. In addition, the outcomes of the negotiations does not reflect the many laudable climate actions proposed by some countries but rejected by others, which do not make their way into the final consensus document.”

PhD Students

At COP28, Yuhan Zheng and Lala Rukh Memon attended a wide range of youth and climate events, where they have been deepening the University of Galway engagement in global youth networks for climate action.  

Yuhan Zheng – Geography PhD researcher, and UNFCCC Youth Delegate

• Y.Zheng3@universityofgalway.ie
• Personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/yuhan-zheng/homepage 
• Yuhan Zheng is a PhD student in the School of Geography, who is focused on climate change and energy transition. Through her work, she is advancing practices to develop more climate-resilient cities. She is a UNFCCC Youth Delegate, contributes to the YOUNGO broadcast team, and will participate in panels at the UN’s Climate Change Conference of Youth, China Pavilion, Thai Pavilion, and UNECE Pavilion, focusing on Empowering Youth in Resource Management, and also the global stocktake under the Paris agreement.

As a youth delegate of the UNFCCC and also a Global Alliance of University on Climate Ambassador, Yuhan Zheng made a range of contributions, including speaking at the Student Energy Summit before the COP28 Summit. At COP28, Yuhan spoke and contributed to six panels, organized by UNECE, IEEE Young ProfessionalS, China Pavilion, Sri Lanka Pavilion, TAQA Pavilion, International and Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Student Renewable Energy Agency and the Thai Pavilion. Throughout COP28, Yuhan closely followed the negotiation process of the Global Stocktake and topics related to adaptation.

Lala Rukh Memon – Engineering PhD researcher

• lalarukh.memon@universityofgalway.ie
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lala-rukh-44709134
• Lala Rukh Memon is a Civil Engineering PhD student whose research focuses on the interrelationships between buildings’ energy demand, internal environmental conditions, the people occupying the buildings and the materials and technology used in the retrofit of buildings.