Recently I attended the Building a Will for Climate Change Action with Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at St Pauls Cathedral.
It was an exciting evening as the Cathedral was packed full of people all gathered to discuss how we can work together against climate change. The opening speech epitomised the tone of the evening; ‘We cannot talk ourselves out of something we have behaved ourselves into.’
We heard from various people who explored and unpacked the complexity of tackling climate change through issues from economics and politics to technology and health.
The main message from one speaker which caught my attention was that climate change is a multi-layered issue which is overwhelming and pushes people away from engaging. Therefore we need to reframe it, by changing the negative doom and gloom narrative into a multi-layered opportunity for change. I loved the idea, but how do we practically do that?
Christiana Figueres had earlier said that love was the missing ingredient from our multi layered approach to tackling climate change. Not a fluffy pie in the sky love, but a tough love that will reset our moral compass. Like the one Jesus talks about in the Bible, he says we should love our neighbour, which is not always easy and requires time and effort. Today we live in a global community and have a responsibility to love our global neighbour; who is (are) being affected by the affects of climate change today.
What better way to change the doom and gloom narrative of climate change, than to infuse it with love. If we can’t build a will for climate change from the things we love and want to protect from the effects of climate change, like our family and friends, then I don’t know what will.
So ‘Let us be a generation that stands up to this responsibility.’ why not join the For the love of Climate Coalition campaign today and tell us what is building your will for climate change?