DUBAI – Every year at COP meetings, negotiators come together to discuss and make decisions on how best to tackle climate change, and review the progress made. 

Singapore, too, sends a team of negotiators to these conferences to have its say on topics from adaptation to mitigation to developing carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The working tools for the negotiations are negotiating text, based on written proposals submitted by governments. Once an agreement has been reached, the chair of the meeting will bang his gavel to declare that a decision or a new treaty has been adopted. 

The Straits Times speaks to Mr Rueban Manokara, lead negotiator for Article 6, which relates to carbon markets, and Mr Mock Yi Jun, lead negotiator for the global stocktake, which is essentially a health check on the 2015 Paris Agreement goals.

Here is an edited version of a question-and-answer session with them.  

Q: Hi, Yi Jun, could you tell us a little more about the work that you do for the global stocktake? 

A: The global stocktake is a once-in-five-years assessment of the collective progress towards the Paris Agreement goals. In the most basic terms, it looks at how countries are doing to collectively meet their climate targets and keep the 1.5 deg C warming within reach.

We are looking forward to seeing how the outcomes will inform countries in the enhancement and update of their climate targets, otherwise known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Q: How many negotiators does Singapore typically send to these COP conferences? 

A: There is a wide array of topics that are discussed at these COPs and these include mitigation, adaptation and carbon markets. So Singapore has a wide array of issues to cover.

In general, we have around 30 negotiators from across the whole of Government covering the various topics that come up in COP.

Q: When countries are not able to agree on something, how do you help Singapore get what it wants out of a negotiation? 

A: I think at heart, what we do is to preserve and protect Singapore’s interests, but also to work with countries to form compromises – by proposing bridging language in the text, for example, and understanding the perspectives of the different parties. We try to bring different people together, like a bridge builder, and push the process forward.

Q: What is your COP survival tip? 

A: Drink lots of coffee in the morning, and take along a lot of snacks that will keep us – and our counterparts – going, such as chocolate bars, dried mangoes and chips. It is these little things that give you a little boost when you need it.

Q: What is your favourite thing about COP? 

A: I think one of the best things about COP for me is the people. There are very few platforms where you will really meet people from all over the world, and every country is represented at COP.

One of the things I love about the people here is that no matter where we come from, everyone shares a common passion for, and belief in, the importance of addressing the pernicious challenge that climate change is. 

I think that shared sense of purpose creates a sense of community, even if we may have our differences at times as we represent our national positions.

Q: If there is one person you could invite to COP, who would it be?

A: I think young people have a very big role to play in addressing climate change.

If I could, and if carbon budgets were not an issue, I wish that I could bring every young person to COP at least once to see what it is like to talk about climate change issues, to see the different complexities that we have to think about when we address it, and to show them especially that we care, and we are doing our best as governments as well to try to solve the climate problems that we face.

Q: Hi Rueban, could you share a little more on why it is important for Singapore to send negotiators to COP?

A: Climate change is very important to Singapore. Like all countries, Singapore is affected by its effects, and we are all committed to getting the world to 1.5 deg C warming.

And carbon markets are an important element for Singapore. Being a small island state, we need international collaboration to get to 1.5 deg C and to get to net zero.  

Q: Could you share a little more on what Article 6 is? 

A: Article 6 is a mechanism where countries can transfer their mitigation outcomes. So if a country decarbonises, it could sell carbon credits to another country, which it can then use to meet its national climate targets, or NDCs.

This has helped Singapore and other countries as well, as many do not have the same mitigation potential and are not able to decarbonise their economies as efficiently as others. So Article 6 helps with that. 

Q: What are some of the issues that still have to be worked out for Article 6?

A: Fortunately, many of the political issues have already been resolved. So for this year, we are focusing more on implementation issues. How do we report in a credible manner, how do we ensure that what has been committed to is not reversed, so ultimately when a country buys a carbon credit, the carbon credit is real, it is measurable, and it is not used by someone else.

So we are trying to operationalise the system and get it up and running, so that we can use carbon markets to get us to net zero as fast as possible.

Q: What is the longest time you have sat in a negotiation for? 

A: This was around 16 to 18 hours, at the COP26 conference in Glasgow (in 2021), where after six years of not getting an agreement on the Paris Rulebook (which provides the necessary practical guidance for the implementation of the Paris Agreement), it was the last few days, and we were trying our hardest to get it to the end.

And it was quite funny because all the negotiators were just huddling together, trying to get through the last amount of text, but we got a deal, so it was worth it. 

Q: Describe one epic moment during your negotiations.

A: So we have this trick among the Singapore negotiators where we bring dried fruits, because we do not get to eat much during the negotiations... and we do not have time to have lunch sometimes.

So I bought a pack of dried mangoes, and it was like 2am to 3am... and everyone was very tired, and they could not agree on a decision during the negotiations. 

Then I took out the mangoes, and when we had all had that sugar boost, we managed to agree. I will not let the mangoes take full credit, but it was one moment when little things helped during the negotiations. 

Q: How long is a typical work day at a COP conference?

A: Very long. Typically, negotiations last anything from 12 to 16 to 18 hours, and you start really early in the morning, at like seven, eight o’clock, and it ends at about 2am, 3am, sometimes even 5 in the morning.

Q: I understand that the negotiator committee is a very tight-knit one. Could you describe what it is like?

A: We are like a band of brothers and sisters, and many of us are friends outside or have built friendships outside the negotiation rooms. Very often, we communicate via WhatsApp; whenever we travel, we try to meet for meals on the sidelines, or at meetings.

And that helps because a lot of the negotiations happen outside the negotiating rooms. When you have these interactions, you understand better where the country is coming from, what are its reasons behind some of its positions. So when we enter the negotiation rooms and everyone puts on the negotiator hat, we understand them much better, and it is easier for a country like Singapore to do our part and find bridging solutions between them.