Leaders gather in Egypt
This November is the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, better known as COP27.
The conference schedule includes 13 days of meetings between Heads of State, ministers and negotiators as well as climate activists, civilian representatives and CEOs. It is the largest and arguably most important annual gathering for climate action and it’s happening in Egypt’s coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Why?
This year COP27 is held in the wake of the 2020 report The State of Climate in Africa, and the chilling 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability both of which show the deep and dangerous onset of a climate crisis indisputably resulting from human activity. The purpose of the event is to discuss the growing energy crisis, greenhouse gas emissions and extreme weather events, and to establish actions that will deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement for the planet and its people. The Paris Agreement, which is a legally binding international treaty to tackle climate change and restrict global warming to well below 2°C, was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015.
There are six key themes for COP27, these are adaptation, finance, cause & effect, emissions, food and renewable energies. The themes are interlinked but each has an urgent need for solutions, and failure to act will be felt around the world.
Will it work?
The COP meetings are a promising step on humanity’s journey towards a net zero, sustainable, liveable planet, but with 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases released each year (and that figure still rising), there’s a long way to go.
So far, real action has been scant. COP26 was broadly accused of paying lip service to environmental realities and using ambiguous language to make half-baked promises. Questionable decisions about the event sponsors and choice of host nation might raise some fears about the possibility of any real, binding progress at this year’s event.
Targets closer to home.
As a global business, Elevate values good citizenship and looking after our planet, no matter what your role or where you work. It can be easy to dismiss the climate crisis as someone else’s problem – leaving it to leaders or activists, or even future generations, but we believe every human on the planet has a part to play.
We take impact seriously, it’s something we talk about a lot when working on events; How our people create impact through their work. Measurable impacts of our projects. Demonstrating our impact to win new clients and form new partnerships. But this year we are also looking at our internal impact on people and planet.
Elevate levels up
We have joined Isla – the independent industry organisation established to help our industry work sustainably. We’ve been collaborating with experts to create a far-reaching and ambitious ESG strategy and plan for action in our internal teams, and for the events we work on. Our core pillars will be people, planet and purpose. The plan includes ambitious but achievable targets towards sustainability, diversity & inclusion and equity across everything we do.
We have high hopes for real progress at COP27. But we also understand the steps we can take to make our own contributions towards humanity’s shared goal of fighting global injustice and halting climate change.
Read more about the ways we are supporting our employees and the communities we work within.
Elevating Purpose: Our Plan for Social and Environmental Action
At Elevate we’re excited to be part of the solution.
