Facilitated by Daryl Upsall
In 2006, when American Vice President Al Gore released his controversial film An Inconvenient Truth to educate the public one global warming, it felt like we were on the cusp of a worldwide movement to impede the obvious and looming threat of man-made climate change on the planet.
While some awareness was raised, positive change on the scale necessary has been slow. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power was released in 2017, but, in 2023 – six years later – the 28th UN Climate Change Conference will take place in the United Arab Emirates – one of the world’s biggest producers of oil.
The production and consumption of fossil fuels, and the resulting carbon emissions, are out of control – and neither the companies nor countries responsible are making the changes so critically needed.
Despite sweeping public campaigns run by environmental organisations like Greenpeace, mass public protests led by young activists including Greta Thunberg, and direct action by groups and coalitions like Extinction Rebellion and the Climate Action Network, we are already living with the first consequences of climate change due to global warming – the impacts of which are being disproportionately endured by lower-income countries.
So, where has our sector failed? And what can we do now to make a real difference? This will be a lively, heated debate, involving some of our sector colleagues working on the face of the issue as well as those with the capacity to mobilise civil society.