Clondalkin teacher one of five educators worldwide to speak at COP28

A CLONDALKIN teacher selected as one of five educators worldwide to speak about climate change, returned from COP28 feeling “overwhelmed, somewhat disappointed, but immensely grateful for the opportunity.”

Clonburris National School teacher Paula Galvin, was invited to speak at the Teachers COP (Conference of the Parties) in Dubai.

Ms Galvin has long been involved in green policies, having spearheaded the campaign to have Fairtrade Town status conferred on Clondalkin in 2014, and told The Echo she was “quite nervous presenting as it was being livestreamed across the world.”

“As well as being translated into Arabic, Spanish and French. But I was conscious of my responsibility to the students and staff of Clonburris NS to present the voice of hundreds of students concerning the climate crisis.”

Ms Galvin and her Clonburris students wrote a poetry book on climate change, excerpts of which she read at the summit.

“My presentation received great praise with the project described as a powerful way to give a voice to children and a project which uses creativity to explore climate action and to give hope.”

Reflecting in a blog post upon her return this week, Ms Galvin noted the vast numbers attending the summit with alarm.

“97,000 delegates attended COP28, 4,409 from UAE, 3,081 from Brazil, and 1,411 from China and Nigeria. I am not a mathematician, nor am I a scientist, but this seems to be an awful lot of people, all criss-crossing the globe emitting (according to my amateur calculations) 184,400,000 kgs of carbon dioxide.

“That was just in the Blue Zone,” said Paula.

Although proud of her colleagues at COP28, Paula feels their voices were “lost in the loudness and stridency of overpoweringly strong voices.”

“Our voices, the voices of indigenous peoples from Fiji and Tuvalu and Kiribati, young climate activists, all those who are vulnerable, were not listened to.”

In November, she presented a book of the children`s poetry to President Michael D Higgins.

Ms Galvin plans to continue this work with schools, colleges of education and NGOs.