Look Back: Civil Society and Climate Action

Learning from failures, pushing for change, taking space to reflect and grow

With dramatic effects of climate change affecting vulnerable communities around the world, a lot of expectations were put on the UNFCCC Conference in Baku (COP 29) and on the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance.

At COP29, activists, NGOs and civil society organisations have a key role in advocating for the most vulnerable, claiming for sustainable objectives to be achieved and keeping polluting states accountable, while facing all the difficulties of the conference negotiations. In this context, civil society representatives need to keep pushing for collective impact: gather, mobilise and increase the pressure on policymakers to ensure concrete influence on future decisions. 

The event “Building Momentum for Climate Action: Reflections on COP29 and Future Steps”, organised by the Hague Humanity Hub in collaboration with the City of The Hague and a dozen of collaborating organisations part of  the Hague’ s Climate Justice Community, offered a space to reflect on the unfolding of COP29, share impressions, recommendations, knowledge and motivation. It featured an insightful panel discussion focusing on the role of civil society in climate policymaking, exploring the ways it can influence change, as well as how to stay resilient in difficult ecosystems.  

“It is important to keep believing in multilaterism,” Jori Keijsper (UNFCCC)

Importance of civil society

Barbara Rosen Jacobson (Senior Advocacy Advisor at Mercy Corps), sharing her COP experience as part of the  International Climate Coalition, and Ellie Kinney (Advocacy coordinator at CEOBS), who was part of the working group Peace@COP-Ecosystems of Peace Community of Practice, emphasized how hostile the environment in Baku was to civil society participation, sharing the same feeling of exclusion.  

The presidency of COP plays an important role in shaping the dynamics of the negotiation, and in this case, shared Barbara, “it was a very difficult COP for civil society to influence the negotiations”. Looking into the future, civil society should demand its rightful place in the process of bringing change forward. 

This inspiring message was conveyed also in Jori Keijsper’s perspective as Head of the Netherlands’ Delegation to COP29.  Indeed, the role of leaders and politicians is crucial in decision-making, but it is civil society who is needed to mobilise change. In its efforts, civil society faces continuous pushbacks in what she called “pendulum of climate action”, and activism fatigue is prominent and real. Nevertheless, challenges should not lead to demotivation.  

“It is important to keep believing in multilateralism” looking towards COP30 in Brazil, remarked Jori Keijsper, and keep advocating for Climate Justice. She stressed that to create the political space to make big steps, civil society should work on three key factors: bottom-up mobilisation, push from motivated businesses and peer pressure among political leaders. In a hopeful message, besides all failures and setbacks, COP still represents a pivotal platform and opportunity for civil society to push for change.

“When we talk about climate justice, we talk about change of power balance, and shifting the narratives,” Samira Ben Ali (World’s Youth for Climate Justice)

Climate justice and storytelling

Gathering this advice and experience at the Hague Humanity Hub and online, the event allowed for the kind of exchange of perspectives that should be fostered to harness optimism for climate justice, building momentum and uniting the community in the Hague and internationally. Exploring different pathways of engagement and collaboration, participants had the opportunity to discuss specific topics related to COP29 in focus groups, facilitated by experts with first-hand experience. Youth advocacy, international law, intergenerational equity, creative pathways for investments and finance, gender and diversity inclusive action plans, circular economy and private sector engagement were all subjects of engaging breakout room discussions. 

“When we talk about climate justice, we talk about change of power balance, and shifting the narratives”, shared Samira Ben Ali, representative of World’s Youth for Climate Justice, leading the discussion on International Law and Climate Justice. Their campaign aims to empower young and vulnerable people at the international stage and states accountable for their climate change legal responsibilities. 

“Storytelling remains a vital tool for engaging stakeholders; however, narratives must adapt to evolving circumstances, including shifting financial landscapes and stakeholder priorities” concluded Nadia Sanchez (Climate Legal Consulting) and Ruth Carlitz (University of Amsterdam), commenting on the future of climate finance after their breakout discussion on the topic.

There is still a lot of work to be done to make these discussions mixed, intersectional and intergenerational equal,” Anja Tresse (Kofi Annan Foundation) and Anyse Pereira (Mercy Corps)

Build bridges across sectors

Anja Tresse (Kofi Annan Foundation) and Anyse Pereira (Mercy Corps), in the breakout on Youth and Intergenerational Equity, highlighted the need to open the floor to different perspectives and understanding the interlinkage among climate justice issues and actors.  “A lot of the discussions are siloed: young people talking to young people, Global South to Global South. There is still a lot of work to be done to make these discussions mixed, intersectional and intergenerationally equal”. 

Every contribution and takeaway shared from the panel discussion and the breakouts was an occasion to remind each other of a common goal and to build bridges across sectors. Civil society is the driver of change: this event has been the perfect opportunity to highlight the importance of collective action and collaboration as the key to climate action. 

This event was part of The Hague Humanity Hub’s Climate Justice Hub, whose mission is to bring together changemakers from across sectors to foster dialogue, share knowledge and facilitate collaboration. The Climate Justice Hub enables this with its community building efforts and with community activities and events. If you are interested in being part of an inspiring network for climate action, send an email to climate@humanityhub.nl:  we’ll be happy to welcome you in the community’s channels and share with you interesting opportunities, updates, events and news around the Climate Justice Hub.