Thomas Meijer werkt aan duurzaamheidstransities bij NewForesight Consultancy en is actief als klimaatactivist. Vanuit deze twee verschillende rollen schrijft hij gedurende de COP26 over zijn motivatie om naar Glasgow te reizen en hoe hij de COP ziet als kans voor systeemverandering en het oplossen van de klimaatcrisis.
Since the year I was born there has been an annual climate conference. The world knew climate change was a problem – just not a problem pressing enough. For me it also took until I started studying at university before I understood and felt the full gravity and urgency of the situation. A lot of progress has been made in terms of science, awareness, technology, and international cooperation, yet emissions are still staggeringly high. We need to act now – and fast. The question is how to bring about change? And how might COP26 offer an opportunity for change? In this blog I briefly reflect on these questions from the perspective of a sustainability professional and as a climate activist.
Going to the Conference of Parties (COP) gives me the opportunity to make my voice heard about the climate crisis. The COP is a unique feat of international cooperation and governance to address a unique challenge to our lives. While a changing climate will most severely affect young people and future generations – especially those in the Global South – it’s mostly older generations in parliaments and boardrooms who are making the decisions. Moreover, those benefiting from the status quo will most strongly oppose the changes needed to combat climate change. We are in a critical time to address the climate crisis if we still want to keep our planet from warming to 2°C or more. As an activist I advocate for systemic change needed to address the climate crisis while as a professional I look for ways to make systemic change possible.
The ‘Climate Train’ organized by Youth for Sustainable Travel (also see this interview with Mara de Pater) is a great opportunity to sustainably travel to Glasgow alongside activists, young professionals, official delegations, industry experts, and NGOs, while enabling informal conversations on the future of sustainable travel and other climate-related topics.
On the train and at COP26 I hope to have meaningful and inspiring conversations with people from different organizations, industries and walks of life. Exchanging ideas on what a sustainable future should look like and how to get there. I also look forward to speaking with companies and other stakeholders about how to transform markets. In my work at NewForesight, a sustainability consultancy, we try to understand how markets work (the systems behind it) and devise strategies to make them work more sustainably. I’m curious to see how our approach can help others in thinking about ways to solve sustainability issues.
To help change a system, I think it’s helpful to think in systems. There are countless initiatives out there trying to bring about systemic change to solve the climate crisis: from social movements, shareholder activism, and lawsuits, to innovative frontrunner companies, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and developing new government policies. Many of these initiatives try to find an effective way to change something about how systems work.
As a professional and activist, I try to do the same: think about how I can most effectively contribute to the change I want to see and how I can encourage and support others in working towards this goal. In doing so I think it’s important to recognize that everyone has a role to play. Whatever your job or age, you can have impact on changing the system that leads to the current climate crisis. Whether its individual behaviour such as eating less meat and increasing the awareness of people around you, or more wider organizing to encourage action by your government or the organization you work for. Ideally do something that you are good at, get energy from, or feel like you have some influence on. The same counts for companies, NGOs, government organizations, research institutes, and so on. Each will have a role to play – and I would love to discuss those roles at COP!
