Blog

COP27 opened with a warning from António Guterres (UN secretary general) to Global leaders that Humanity is on a “highway to climate hell”, the fight for a liveable planet will be won or lost in this decade.

In the same week, the US mid-term elections remind us that leadership can change, and recent history has shown that one election result can completely change the political direction of a country. This can be for the good of Climate Action, e.g. the recent election of Brazilian President Lula with new commitments to preserve the Amazon rain forest, but the opposite is also unfortunately true.

The future of our planet is simply too important to leave to the direction of the political wind in distant geographies, so the time has never been more important for us all to get involved in supporting Climate Action in whatever ways we can.

I don't want alarm you, but next time you get out of your car, after driving through one of the many Belgian traffic-jam hot-spots, please take a few seconds to look at the "Compass" app on your smartphone. Check the "elevation" (distance above mean sea level).

Where I'm sitting right now (in my loft in Aalter) is 20 metres above sea level. Think about that in the context of the volume of ice on Earth - enough to raise sea levels by 65 metres.

As Belgians, our low-lying territory brings a special reason to support Climate Action and minimise further damage to the Environment.

If you'd like to understand more about how you can contribute to Climate Action, please join us at the forthcoming event:

Registration is now open via the following link: Register now

At the Event we will explore what we can do as individuals (to reduce our carbon footprint) as well as professionals and members of PMI Belgium.

Some initial thoughts on how we could contribute as a Chapter are summarised below - please feel free share any new ideas (either at the meeting or in advance). You are also very welcome to support (or even lead) on any of these topics as well as helping us to maintain focus on the most beneficial initiatives.

 

Stubborn Climate Optimism

Sam Baker and I are "Stubborn Climate Optimists" (Sam even has the T-shirt!)

Despite some of the challenging topics raised at COP27 and above, we believe the Climate challenge can be met.

A great example of this was shared in Nico Petit's recent PMFair 2022 Keynote presentation on the power of Informal Networks.  Nico mentioned that the real power to drive change can be via the informal networks that exist in an organisation.

As Global Climate Action has no top-down governance structure (even UN and COP27 have no Executive powers), organisations such as the PMI could bring implementation capability, on a global scale, driven via the informal networks within our organisation.

Another good example was provided in Mark Mortier's PMFair 2022 Keynote presentation on "Re-Story-Ation". Mark's illustration of the power of having a vision has inspired me to share my very ambitious vision for Climate Action.

Please come along to hear about all of this, as well as sharing your voice, at our event on 24 November.