The Road to COP28, UAE: Miklah Life & I Shall Attend, Host Side Events, Hack4Earth, & Showcase Innovations!

COP28 is officially starting on 30th November 2023 and will run until December 12th, 2023. For those familiar with these huge High-Level Conferences, you already know that most delegates and negotiators are supposed to arrive days or weeks before the actual date!

Importantly, we are glad to announce that I, Vicent Nemeyimana (or Nemvicx) (LinkedIn Profile here), shall attend COP28 on behalf of myself, the Government of Uganda, Miklah Life, and most youth who haven’t managed to make it there. I will participate in and execute a number of engagements on behalf of Miklah Life. As always, I will share all updates as they come in.

We have been talking and writing about the road to COP28 since almost the beginning of this year, and it is time we realize the journey!

Important to note is that, just like most sustainability-oriented conferences or negotiations that I attend, I am self-funding myself for COP28. But why the sacrifice?

COP28 Self-Funding: Why self-fund yourself for COPs?

I and Miklah Life are in the business of sustainability. In other words, as a business, our survival or value proposition is in exploring sustainability and guiding sustainability actions through entrepreneurship and innovations. As such, attending COP28 or any other COPs or sustainability proceedings, including UNEP processes, is OUR BUSINESS. Therefore, it is logical to invest in our business. This is why I have painfully drained my bank account so as to attend COP28!

Wait! Did you even read our COP27 Review or final review of COP27 in Egypt? In our detailed article, we agreed that in ‘all COPs, from the first one in Berlin to the upcoming COP28 in UAE and all that shall follow thereafter, the goal or point is BUSINESS‘. And this is not a bad thing! In fact, the climate change crisis must be approached as a business opportunity. This is the only reason climate action is possible; business!

COP28 Business for Miklah Life: Side Events, Hack4Earth, Showcase Innovations, and Make Connections & Collaborations.

We now know that #COP28 is about business, this time, business for climate action, right? Secondly, we now know that, if one’s business is about sustainability, then attending COP28 is worth the investment. In light of these facts, what interests or engagements is Miklah pursuing at COP28?

First, I was accredited and appointed by the Uganda Government via the Ministry of Water and Environment to be part of the official Uganda delegate. As such, I hold a Party (specifically, Party Overflow) card for the UNFCCC COP28 conference. Attending the conference as a delegate for Uganda is a big motivation in itself! When we collectively represent Uganda well and our negotiations win through, our country wins. And Miklah Life wins too!

Secondly, Miklah Life has been granted the opportunity to host a side event at the Uganda Pavilion during COP28 proceedings. This is my first time wholesomely hosting a side event at a High-Level conference like COP28. During our side event, we have 1 full hour sharing our evidence-based insights on ‘achieving sustainability (3Ps) without compromising economic growth’.

As illustrated in our concept note, this is an opportunity for Miklah Life to show the world, including investors, environmentalists, policymakers, and young people that climate action shouldn’t be at the expense of people’s livelihoods or any other aspects of our ecosystem. Who knows what would come out of such expressions?

Investors might want to invest in our approach to climate action using sustainable entrepreneurship. Young people might sign up for our Sacred Entrepreneurship program. Others might love what we are about and join our volunteers. Or we could link up with other entities and work on even bigger projects together.

Thirdly, I and Miklah Life shall participate in the #COP28Hack4Earth Hackathon. With support from partners like UNICEF, Young African Innovators Hub, JA Worldwide, Ericsson, AfroClimate, ACT.S, and others, Hack For Earth Foundation organizes hack4earth sessions.

Here, young people form teams and innovate towards various global issues of our time. Successful teams get the support they need to bring their concepts or innovations to life. Isn’t this an amazing opportunity for me? For Miklah?

Fourth, Miklah Life shall showcase some of her entrepreneurs’ innovations at some other important engagements and meetings. For example, Miklah already has a planned engagement with Professor Phoebe Koundouri (LinkedIn profile here) of the Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Αephoria (AE4RIA).

During the formal engagement, Miklah plans to showcase at least 10 of our most promising teams and their innovations and seek official collaboration with AE4RIA.

Lastly, there is always more. I am 100% sure that the above have been made possible by our previous sacrifices for COP. Wait! Did you know that COP27 (Egypt) was largely a self-funded program as well? How about the numerous UNEP processes that I have participated in? Self-funding!

Read about COP27 and UNEP processes experiences here and here respectively.

Back to the point, this is the life of an entrepreneur: We make sacrifices of time and money and all other resources hoping that maybe one day it will pay off. Sometimes, it does pay off. Some other times, it doesn’t!

Listen to this:

Whether it’s getting selected to host an event at Uganda Pavilion, being on Uganda’s official COP28 team, participating in the Hack4Earth hackathon, and scoring a formal engagement with Prof. Koundouri, my previous participation and engagements at COP27 (Egypt) largely made it possible!

In the same way, I plan to make more meaningful connections, seize more opportunities, and create friendships that will propel Miklah’s vision into the future, and collectively contribute to a more sustainable and habitable earth.

COP28 Dubai: What else is there to say?

I think I have said it all, at least for now! All you need to do are just two things:

1. Join Miklah WhatsApp Group so you never miss out on the updates, including the opportunities I always share. There are more than 400 in the group. You could also subscribe to our mailing list.

2. Register for our COP28 Side Event. For those not in Dubai, we will try to be available live on Google Meet. For those in Dubai, please, attend in person at Uganda Pavilion on 11th December 2023, 10:20 am to 11:30 am, Dubai Time.

3. And of course, read everything about COP28 by following this tag: #MiklahForCOP28