Go behind the scenes of COP28 in Dubai with climate activists — Assembly

23-year-old climate activist, Alexia Leclercq , at COP28. (Photo credit: Konrad Skotnicki)

23-year-old climate activist, Alexia Leclercq takes us along as she and her peers fight for an equitable fossil fuel phase-out. Go behind the scenes at the largest climate conference in the world.

Wednesday, Dec 6th

After a couple of layovers and 20+ hours of traveling, I finally stumbled my way past border security and arrived in Dubai. The warm humid air felt comforting and reminded me of summers in the Taiwanese countryside but the glittering skyscraper transported me into a sci-fi novel.

I got to my hotel at 1 am before quickly waking up at 2:30 am for a call with a potential funder. I run a social-environmental justice education non-profit called Start: Empowerment and we are super excited to be expanding our reach in 2024.

I jumped back into bed but after a few minutes of tossing and turning, I realized the jet lag kicked in so I ended up doing some outreach for community members to testify at a land use/zoning vote back home in Texas. 6 am finally rolled around, it was time to get ready for COP28 — the yearly United Nations Conference on Climate Change where different countries come together to negotiate and make decisions on tackling the climate crisis.

Today was a busy day. Between meeting with Trigg, the head U.S. negotiator for COP, planning for a high-level roundtable on an equitable fossil fuel phase-out, strategizing on our policy agenda, and navigating the maze that is the Expo Center where COP28 is being held, I was exhausted.

I’m working with a coalition of international youth to push for an equitable fossil fuel phase-out (EFFPO) in the cover decision and we are following the Global Stocktake, Just Transition Work Program, and Mitigation Work Program negotiations.

Thursday, Dec 7th

Today is the one rest day for COP28 which lasts over two weeks. My friends Karin, an amazing activist from Chile, and Fatima-Zahrae, another amazing activist from Morrocco, headed out to explore Dubai.

We stopped by old Dubai and went to the beach downtown, before heading to an event at the Jameel Arts Center by the Al Jadaff Waterfront organized by my friend Ayshka and a local UAE youth climate collective she is a part of.

We danced to live music, made friendship bracelets, learned about local sustainable art/infrastructure projects, ate, and talked the night away. It felt so good to see some of my favorite people face-to-face instead of on a Zoom screen. It’s always the little moments like this that make everything worth it.

Friday, Dec 8th

The days started blurring together. Our high-level roundtable on an equitable fossil fuel phase-out went well and we heard statements from global leaders on the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels and for the global north (Europe, Canada, U.S., Australia, Japan) to fund this transition. I caught up with several friends, listened to a panel on ecocide, and had countless strategy and policy meetings, and several work sessions for our EFFPO campaign.

Saturday, Dec 9th

There’s always one big action day at COP where civil society — all the activists, frontline community members, advocates — come together to protest for our demands. We marched to the beat of drums, singing, dancing and stood in solidarity with our Palestinian sisters and brothers to demand an immediate ceasefire.

There is no climate justice on occupied land, there is no climate justice without human rights, and military activity is an extremely large contributor to global carbon emissions.

We cried and held each other as we listened to stories of frontline activists and Palestinian organizers.

Sunday, Dec 10th

I started the morning by passing out “not paid by the fossil fuel industry” and “we need an equitable fossil fuel phase out” stickers to people entering the conference.

As someone who struggles with anxiety, activism has brought me out of my shell — I don’t think my middle school self would imagine me talking to hundreds of strangers.

I had a speaking engagement at the Culture and Entertainment Pavilion and the Indonesia Pavilion where I got to share some knowledge on grassroots organizing, just energy transition, and climate policy I’ve learned over the years.

Then after our several policy and negotiation meetings, we ended up taking over an empty room to sing karaoke as we waited for the new Global Stocktake Text (which is an inventory of global climate action and climate action agreements that countries commit to) to drop. Who knew we’d have a mini-party at COP? After hours of screaming to the Mama Mia soundtrack, we took to train to see the Burj Khalifa and the famous water fountain show.

Monday, Dec 11th

I arrived really early and worked on press outreach, turning our policy agenda and negotiation notes into talking points, and creating some social media videos to break down negotiation tracks, which ended up taking a while because Daniella and I kept laughing at every take.

Then I headed over to the People’s Plenary where civil society leaders spoke on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Palestine, and the dismantling of colonial-capitalist systems that uphold our climate crises.

Hearing people’s stories and feeling the grief and pain from all this injustice brought me to tears but we held hands and stood in solidarity.

Afterward, I ran across to the next building for a meeting with John Kerry on the U.S. commitment (or lack thereof) to fund a just energy transition. This evening the new Global Stocktake Text dropped without any mentions of a transition away from fossil fuels – and we knew we had to do something to change this on the last day of COP.

Tuesday, Dec 12th

We got right to work in the middle of the night (negotiations often go until 2 am). We started talking to negotiators from different country blocs, putting out statements to the press, holding a line and chanting outside the negotiators' room, held cross-constituency meetings, and started planning a big action to demand an equitable fossil fuel phase-out for 5 pm.

As the evening rolled around we were ready for our big protest, hundreds of press members showed up and more importantly, hundreds of activists showed up.

For one hour we chanted and sang together. After dinner with some friends, we split up into teams to track down party delegates to push for EFFPO on the final text.

I spent the night walking around, with my friend Rida, an amazing advocate from Pakistan, getting very mixed responses from different countries before finally heading back to the hotel at midnight.

Wednesday, Dec 13th

It’s the last day of COP28. It’s been a long, exhausting, and emotional journey. The final text includes language around a transition away from fossil fuel, which is a win, but overall it’s still insufficient and includes various loopholes.

The final global stocktake text simply does not keep the goals of the Paris Agreement alive, and as a result, frontline communities continue to die every day.

At the end of the day, the hard work continues in local communities across the world but today I’m sleeping for the next 30 hours as I fly back to Texas.

Alexia Leclercq

she/they) is a Taiwanese and French environmental justice organizer, scholar, and artist based in Texas. She is the co-founder of a climate education org called Start:Empowerment, and the policy director at PODER. Her work focuses on protecting frontline communities from pollution and climate disasters while building a new world. You can follow her adventures on Instagram!