Salve Regina delegates will attend COP27, global climate change conference
For nearly three decades, the United Nations (UN) has brought together almost every country on earth for global climate summits called Conference of Parties (COPs). The tradition continues with COP27, the 27th annual summit, which will be held Sunday, Nov. 6, through Friday, Nov. 18, in the green city of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Salve Regina sent an inaugural official delegation of three University members to COP26 in the fall of 2021. Because of how beneficial the opportunity was in 2021, the tradition has been continued for 2022. Four delegates will be sent to Egypt for COP27 — two professors and two students.
Dr. Sally Gomaa
Dr. Sally Gomaa, professor in both the Department of English, Communications and Media as well as Department of Cultural, Environmental and Global Studies, is one of the delegates.
“It’s very special be able to be selected as one of the professors from Salve and to utilize my relationship with Egypt to connect our goals as a University to COP27,” said Dr. Gomaa.
The other professor delegate is Dr. Chad Raymond, an undergraduate professor in both the Department of Cultural, Environmental and Global Studies Department of Political Science and International Relations Program. He is also the associate director of the graduate program in international relations.
“I always encourage my students to put themselves in environments where they don’t represent the majority,” Dr. Raymond said. “Typically, Americans encounter these topics from a very American perspective …. So given all the different people from all the different places who will be a COP27, it’s an ideal environment for some of us to actually see and hear global perspectives firsthand.”
Dr. Chad Raymond
Becoming student delegates to COP27
The two students attending COP27 are Liadan O’Connor ’23, a major in anthropology sociology and global studies, and Cailin Martin ’24, a major in environmental studies.
Both students were nominated by faculty in the Department of Cultural, Environmental and Global Studies to serve as delegates. They are honored that they were selected.
“This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Martin. “We’re going to witness over 200 countries collaborating on goals for a sustainable future.”
Martin is interested in agriculture, particularly regenerative and sustainable forms of farming — so she is excited to see what indigenous communities have to say as world leaders are deciding policies for agriculture.
“There’s also a specific Gender Day that’s dedicated to talking about how you know women and other minority identities have been at the forefront of these sustainable efforts towards combating climate change,” Martin explained. “It’s nice to hear from people who are doing a lot of the ground work.”
O’Connor and Martin are taking over Salve Regina’s main official Instagram account on Nov. 16th, where they’ll be sharing what COP27 is like in real time.
“I feel like it’ll be a really productive and lively environment,” added O’Connor. “So I’m really excited to just see everyone’s thought processes, their unique perspectives and learn so much.”
Cailin Martin ’24
Climate change conversations on campus
According to Salve Regina’s four delegates, the goal is to bring back information gleaned from COP27 to Salve Regina, with the hopes of collaborating on future educational events on campus in coordination with the Office of Mission Integration. Climate change directly ties into Salve Regina’s critical concerns of mercy, so they hope that COP27 can spark further conversations.
“I plan on becoming an environmental sciences teacher after I graduate, and my main goal with COP27 is to share everything that I learned there with the campus community,” said Martin. “I’ve actually created and ran the Salve Regina trees Instagram account, and I do a lot of educational videos and posts about the sentinel trees on campus.”
Liadan O’Connor ’23
O’Connor is part of the Student Government Association (SGA), and the SGA has an environmental committee where one of their key initiatives this year is to make sure that Salve Regina is treating the critical concern of Earth on an equal playing field as the other critical concerns.
“I will definitely bring my findings back to the SGA environmental committee, and honestly anyone who will hear it,” said O’Connor. “I just love to talk about this stuff, and I’d love to do some kind of presentation or panel after COP27.”
History of Salve Regina’s delegation to COP26, COP27
Salve Regina was first admitted as an observer organization to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through the advocacy of Dr. Peter Liotta, former executive director of the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy and contributing member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In 2019, Salve Regina’s institutional membership in the UNFCCC as an admitted NGO observer was renewed by President Kelli J. Armstrong and the Office of Mission Integration. This paved the way for Salve Regina to send its first official delegation of three University members to COP26 in fall 2021.
This year, Salve’s delegation to COP27 has been participating in the Mercy Global Action’s Climate Justice Taskforce preparing an advocacy agenda for COP27. Mercy Global Action is part of Mercy International Association (MIA) centered at the United Nations and seeks to advance the mission of mercy globally on two key areas: degradation of earth and displacement of persons. Collen Swain ’16, ’17 (M), a distinguished alumna of Salve Regina, presently serves as leadership development and advocacy associate at Mercy Global Action and has attended COP24 and COP25 as a delegate for MGA. Swain has been a significant collaborator in preparing Salve Regina’s COP delegations and developing the advocacy priorities of mercy at COP27 around issues of loss and damage.
