How to Be a "Firefighter" at COP (Your Real Job)
COP30 day 30 of 30: Why your real job at COP is putting out fires, not changing the whole system.
Welcome to day 30 of your 30-Day Series
This is the final edition. You have learned the players, the rules, and the tactics. You know how to get your text on the page. Today, we are talking about the real strategic mindset you must have to survive and win.
You are going to COP to fight for your Indigenous rights and protect your lands. You want to change the world’s mind.
But here’s something you must understand.
And I’m sorry to drop this on you on day -1 of COP30.
You are walking into an institution that has a default worldview. That worldview is built on market-based solutions and the idea of “financializing” nature.
You cannot fix that entire global system in one two-week meeting.
Be super aware that you are fighting two different battles at the same time:
The outside one: The long-term fight to change the world’s fundamental beliefs.
The inside one: The short-term, damage controlling fight to protect Indigenous rights within that system.
Here’s how I would put it. Indigenous Peoples are firefighters. We go into the various negotiation streams to put out the fires where our rights are under attack. So, get ready…because 80% of your time at COP will be spent firefighting.
The Battle of a 1000 Tiny Choices
You cannot just show up to the plenary and make a powerful speech demanding your rights and expect that climate change will be solved the next day.
Why? Because the real fight is not about the final, big-picture principle. Heck, the real fight is not at COP. The fight is in the small, hidden choices.
The real fight is….
Long before the gavel: A final decision is not one choice. It is the result of hundreds of tiny choices happening over the course of a few years. You’ll find them in a sub-paragraph, the title of a workshop, the wording of one bullet point, all made in small, unglamorous meetings that you’re not aware of. The final gavel is just a stamp on the work that has already been done.
Fast: The system is designed to move at a blinding speed. Critical procedural decisions, like the conference agenda, are often “gavelled” and locked in on the very first day, before you have even found the meeting rooms.
Where the fires are: This is the most critical lesson. The real fight is in the room. This is where participation, access to justice, Human Rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples are attacked in the text. If you are not in those small rooms to put out those fires, you have missed your moment of influence. So, forget that side event, when a negotiation is happening on the other side of the venue. Forget drinks after a long day, if the Parties are coming back to negotiate at 11PM.
Protesting Is Not Negotiating
Another thing. If you are not in the room where the tiny, detailed choices are made, where the attacks on your rights are happening in the text, then a protest in the hallway is not negotiation. It is a public statement.
Public statements are “vital” for the “outside” battle. They build solidarity. They get media attention. They show the world your strength.
But they do not change the text.
The real negotiation is the “inside game.” It is influencing the hundreds... of micro-decisions that lead up to the final text. It is being visibly just outside the “huddle.” It is being the expert your allies turn to for wording. If you are not there for that part, you have already lost the text.
The “Damage Control” Mindset
This is not a message of defeat. It is a message of strategic clarity.
The “Fix the System” Trap: Do not try to stop the entire market-based machine in a single negotiation. You will fail, and you will be ignored. Focus on the text you can change to protect your rights within that machine.
The “Too Late” Trap: The system has adapted to your pressure. It knows that Indigenous Peoples and civil society put enormous time, effort, and energy into the two weeks of COP. To avoid this concentrated pressure, the UNFCCC has figured it out: it spreads the micro-decisions throughout the year. For many technical issues, if you wait for COP, you are already too late. A perfect example is Article 6.4 (carbon markets). If you come to COP to influence carbon markets, you have missed the real fight. Most of the critical decisions and recommendations on that topic are made months earlier, at the meetings of the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body. The text that arrives at COP is often 95% finished. Your “damage control” should have happened at their meetings, not at COP.
The “Wrong Tool” Trap: Protesting is a vital tool for the outside game. But it is the wrong tool for the inside game. You cannot put out a text-based fire with a protest in the hallway. You put out a text-based fire with better text. Do not confuse your outside strategy (protests, media) with your inside strategy (negotiating).
Before You Go
You are there to be a firefighter. You are there to “limit the effect” of a bad system by being in the room.
Your job is to go into every small negotiation stream and put out the fires where your rights are under attack. This is not a “public statement.” This is the real, hard, and essential work of negotiation.
This is the end of our 30-day journey. You are no longer a first-timer. You are a negotiator.
Good luck!
P.S.: 🚀 Read the entire series here.