Last month, Harrisonburg City Council member Laura Dent travelled to Belém, Brazil, to participate in the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP30. Currently in her second term, Dent has advocated for environmentally-friendly initiatives in the city since she was elected in 2020. WMRA’s Calvin Pynn asked Dent what led to her attendance at COP30.
Laura Dent: Oh, it was a phenomenal experience. I felt like I'd found my true calling of being a citizen diplomat on the global stage. And good question, how did I get there? Is through a leadership certificate program I took through the elected officials to protect America, um, along with San Francisco University or, or EOPA for short.
Is a coalition of military veterans, elected officials, climate activists, and Ukrainians of all things. Yeah. And, um, the, the reason for the Ukraine connection is that the, the core of the EOPA is military veterans who know that climate action is necessary for a national security and that we must protect Ukraine for national security and for.
Fighting for democracy worldwide. So I went through this leadership certificate and said, I'd like to go with you to cop. And sure enough, there we were and I had a Ukraine badge of all things. I became kind of an honorary Ukrainian, like in a room full of Ukrainians. I would be the one yelling: ‘Slava Ukraini!’
And they all go: ‘Hiroiam Slava!’ which is their standard patriotic answer. So, that was really profound and they appreciated that solidarity. Now, I was also there unofficially representing the National League of Cities.
So in some very real way, I was representing America because the US did not send a delegation to COP this year, tragically, the US has backed out of the Paris Agreement from 2015 where countries all over the world agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to, um, carbon neutral by 2050.
Now, fast forward, Harrisonburg has essentially signed onto the Paris Agreement voluntarily because we have, uh, adopted that as a community goal. Admittedly aspirational, but we're working on it. So I was carrying the message that Americans care about climate even if our federal government isn't here.
And everywhere I went, people were so grateful and relieved to hear that. So that's where I felt like I was doing citizen diplomacy to keep America in the conversation.
WMRA: Did you meet, or have an opportunity to meet other, elected officials at the local level or other folks, who were there in a similar capacity?
Dent: Oh, absolutely. I went to a couple of really wonderful, uh, conversations, one with the Brazilian parliamentarians at the state and local level and National Parliament. And again, I was bringing that message that America cares and we hope to, um, foster that climate partnership including, as Gavin Newsom was there and he had said the day before: “never mind the federal government - that's temporary, do business with the states.”
And I was promoting that Virginia is about to be more climate friendly, and you know, talk to us. So, I was saying that in Portuguese as best I could. I just started learning Portuguese and Rosetta Stone where I used to work. And another time I went to a dinner of Mexican parliamentarians again at the national and state level.
And I just clicked into my high school Spanish that said: ““Muchas gracias por incluirnos desde Estados Unidos”
Or: thank you very much for including us from the United States and how we hope to foster that climate friendship. So that was a really profound and fulfilling role that I felt like I was carrying our message to the world and to particular nations that I was talking with.
WMRA: Now, when you were there, How exactly was this organized? Were you able to participate in like open forums? Were there workshops? How exactly, how did this play out over the couple of weeks that it went well?
Dent: Exactly and organized are not words I would exactly use because it was so huge and overwhelming.
Just to get some picture of the layout, this was in an enormous giant pavilion, um, like a huge tent that they had built in the city park that had - well, they called them pavilions - large kiosk stations of varying sizes and locations, uh, down the hallway. For instance, China had a huge pavilion that was kind of in the center of things and always busy. They were giving out pandas and across the aisle was Saudi Arabia and then Germany and then the UN. And to get to my Ukrainian delegation, you go right at China and left at Finland. And down the hall was the cities and regions hub that I was also really involved with, and also LGMA, that's a coalition of local governments and municipal authorities. So, and here's a story with those, with that group. I was just about to give a presentation on the town hall COPs, then the fire broke out.
There was a, yeah, an explosion of a coffee pot. Somebody said that it just melted this giant tent above it. And it was scary because there were tens of thousands of people trying to evacuate in a stampede and you didn't know how fast it was gonna spread.
WMRA: I remember there was another incident that happened. That there were protests at this and at point, a group had breached into the building or into the area. Were you there, for any of that?
Dent: I missed that. I was not there yet that day. 'cause I was still arriving and I think it was a Tuesday morning and I got there Tuesday afternoon, something like that. But I heard about it afterwards. There was a very strong emphasis on the Amazon as the lungs of the world. And the indigenous peoples who live there and lots of people with really elaborate feather headdresses and tattoos or paintings over their bodies, and it was really wonderful to see that there. But I guess they didn't feel adequately represented for how important that is. Now, after that, there was a kind of cordoned off protest zone where groups could come and do their chants and held their signs, and that felt like a. A valid presence for the protests and a sort of safe way of letting off steam. You could stand there and chant with them or video them. And I got several pictures of that that shared. So yeah, there was that element of inside and outside that there's the frustration that we've been talking about this for 30 years and it seems to always be disappointing and stop short of where we ought to be.
For example, this year, the majority of the countries wanted to have a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels. But Saudi Arabia and a couple of other countries, India and Russia blocked that. And Colombia raised a really strong point that we have to have this in there. And it was blocked. So, these are contentious negotiations that they still managed to salvage some degree of agreement, and the Brazilian presidency promised to carry forward further discussions into the roadmap off of fossil fuels and to, uh, limit deforestation, which was one of the main thrusts of what Brazil was talking about being. That was the whole point of being there in the Amazon.
WMRA: Looking at the outcome, there were some strides, I saw, but then it seemed like there was, the general feeling was that it didn't quite achieve what a lot of folks, were hoping that it would. I'd love to know, what were your thoughts on how that ended?
Dent: Well, to put it in perspective, one of the members of our delegation from the EOPA said the COP series is the most complex negotiation in human history. They had a compendium of each cop and how it advanced and what it was doing that I thumbed through and I said I could see the point.
Um, so given that it's not surprising that it's difficult and it's highly important that the underserved countries have a strong voice. And that the top polluters - of which the US is the very top and is bailed out of it - really have a responsibility to make up for what the damage that we've done that's falling disproportionately on the lesser served countries.
So, there's that, um, equity and climate justice aspect to it that's really hard to hold the top polluters and the top economic powers too. But at least there is this forum for that. So, any progress we make or even just having the talks is important.
WMRA: Considering all of that, what was the mood like towards the end? What were you hearing from other folks there?
Dent: Sort of frantic and disappointed and we've gotta get this in there. Just really, um, trying to push through at the very end. And they went over time, like an extra day to reach any agreement at all. Now, one particular aspect that I was closely involved with was this LGMA, that's about local and subnational governments. Uh, that really wanted to push language validating and supporting the role of subnational governments like us here in Harrisonburg because we are where the climate implementation actually happens.
This, this COP 30 in Brazil was supposed to be sort of: ‘enough negotiation, let's move to implementation.’ And so, from the LGMA’s point of view, that fell sort of short in not having specific language acknowledging the role of subnational governments, but we're still doing the work. It’s just a matter of recognizing and supporting it.
WMRA: Could you talk some more about what’s happening at the at the local level? What’s being done right now to get us there, here in the City of Harrisonburg?
Dent: Oh, I had a good time bragging about Harrisonburg that we are sort of punching above our weight for a relatively small city in a rural area that we are forward thinking. We've done a lot already and have some big plans. And I told Brian O’Dell, the head of our municipal utility, Harrisonburg Electric Commission, or HEC, that I was talking about what we have in a shared solar farm, plans for battery energy storage, which is a really crucial aspect of keeping renewable energy viable, my vision for a solar farm on the retired landfill that's still being settled and so on. We already have solar panels on our public works building. We have a solar ordinance and an implementation plan. We have the environmental action plan. Soon, I hope to have solar panels on the farmer's market. To be really iconic. And I also launched and city council passed an amendment to their environmental action plan to bring in community goals. Because prior to that, our EAP - environmental action plan - city staff had seen it as applying to the municipally owned buildings and vehicles and such that we can control. And I said: ‘but that's 3% of our emissions. What about the other 97%? Let's find ways to enlist the participation of our community.’ And staff has come up with some wonderful programs and ideas for that.
One, for matching funds for tree planting. HCAP, it's called. Harrisonburg Climate Assistance Program or something, planting trees or more ambitious plant projects like pervious pavement or green roofs that might not be so much a residential, but a business or faith organization could do. And they've had some takers on that. And there's this Great Eats program, that's restaurants being able to sign on to their progress and doing away with plastic straws, doing composting and renewable energy. So, we are doing things at both the city level and the local community level. And our community has always been really active in promoting solar.
We've been a leader on residential solar in Virginia and maybe the nation. So, we've got a lot of eager participation and recently the organization Renew Rock Town has been renewed and so it's an easy place to work. When I was describing all of this as well as our diversity, that we are an immigrant and refugee resettlement community, somebody said: ‘it sounds like Harrisonburg really has the secret sauce.’
WMRA: In your conversations with others there, you know, did you learn anything from what, uh, you know, others at the local level are doing that could be implemented here, that hadn't already been part of the plan?
Dent: Well, one, uh, I think my overall impression of what to bring back is: let's cultivate the local and state connection. Especially since next year we'll have a much more climate friendly democratic super majority and governor in the Virginia State House. I was partly inspired by hearing the California, some California representatives from various NGOs and such, talking in depth about their carbon market program. And I said: ‘gosh, I wonder if we could do that.’ And he says: ‘let's talk now.’ I don't know if that's kind of overlapping with what we have. Or had in RGGI - the regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative - that unfortunately the current state administration pulled us out of. Um, so can we get back in RGGI, is it still viable given that Pennsylvania has dropped out? I mean, it has saved a lot of money and it's in a sense, a cap and trade carbon market.
One group that I heard of, Climate Interactive. This is really geeking out, but they have an online app called En-Roads that you can tweak dials to see what has the most impact. And the short version is carbon pricing has the most impact. Because it gives an incentive to wean off of carbon instead of just trying to make policy decisions about it.
So, yeah, I've got so many things to say: ‘hey, let's get these people to present to us and then take that to city council, or whatever it might, whatever the next steps might be.’ So that's the kind of thing that I bring back from these forays that I go to.
WMRA: Well, Laura, thank you so much for coming in and, sharing this experience and, we're excited to hear more.
Dent: Well, thank you Calvin. It was such an exciting thing. I'm really glad to be able to bring it back and share it with the larger region here.
