Our Climate Vision: From Experience to Action

Last week a group of our catalysts launched their Mock COP Fringe event ‘Our Climate Vision.’  Team member Zoe Montgomery here outlines their journey creating this innovative event, which will take place on 29th November.

We have embarked on a mission to create an event that allows people of all backgrounds to share their stories relating to the climate crisis. This event will include sharing findings from original research about how people have experienced the climate crisis and allow people to express their vision of a greener and fairer world through craftivism.

There are links to both the survey and the are below – you can also follow us on Instagram to stay up to date!

We wanted to share a brief insight into how our Mock Cop fringe event developed into what it is today. Initially prompted by Jenna – Catalyse Change director – it has blossomed into a creative and dynamic venture. Here are a few highlights…

Mock COP Fringe event: The Process

COP26 is the UN’s climate change conference which was due to be held in Glasgow this year. However, due to Covid, the conference has been postponed until 2021.

Luckily for us, the youth of today are rising and filling the void of COP26 with a youth-led movement: Mock COP26 – a global, online event designed to be inclusive and demonstrate what would happen if young people were the decision-makers.

As a group of young women, we are shocked by the lack of representation from women in the UK’s COP26 delegates. Women’s perspective’s are vital in climate change discussions and we cannot be ignored. We want to take action to address this underrepresentation in the UK.

8 October: Putting the Plan in Motion

Our first meeting was one of ideas and brainstorming. A fantastic discussion unravelled of how we, as young women, could host a space to share stories, create a vision and generate action to call on the government for change.

By combining our ideas, we developed an outline for our Mock Cop Fringe event:

  • Create a survey to understand public feelings towards climate change, government (in)action and a vision for the future;
  • Allow respondents to share their stories, creating a participatory space;
  • Generate a call for action through craftivism by creating postcards and encouraging people to send them to MPs, COP26 delegates and post on social media.

Our Mock Cop fringe event plan was finalised, written up and emailed off to Mock COP26.

We waited in anticipation to hear the verdict…

28 October: “We’re in!”

After what seemed like a lifetime, Jenna emailed us with the good news!

“I am happy to announce that your application to organize an event as part of the official Fringe event for Mock COP26 has been approved successfully.”

What unfolded was a chain of excited emails and meeting arrangements to get the ball rolling.

During the meetings, we identified each individuals’ skillset and subdivided into coordinating teams. It was so positive to hear about everyone’s strengths!:

Survey Squad: Amelia, Freya, Hannah, Neha & Sophie
Social Media Marvels: Julia, Megan & Zoe
Event Planning Posse: Freya & Megan
Organisation guru: Jenna keeping us on track.

Using shared documents we commented and refined ideas, whilst also using the project management tool Trello to create to-do lists for each team.

3 November: Finalising the Details

Our final meeting before launch was another productive session of updates, progress and what to do next. We have now set up an email for all enquiries: ourclimatevision@gmail.com – feel free to email us with any questions!

We also have some great ideas for our social media page – watch out for them on instagram @CatalyseChange – and agreed upon the various platforms for each stage of the event.

The survey questions were reviewed, debated and discussed. It has now been trialled among family and friends and revised from this feedback.

Some tweaks later and voilà – the survey is live! We would love to hear your views, thank you. COMPLETE SURVEY

Mock COP26 events will run from 19th November until 1st December with the group from Catalyse Change holding an online event on Sunday 29th November, 3:00pm – 5:00pm.

You can register for the free event at the link HERE