The Oxford World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment bought together over 200 climate leaders from business, policy, academia and civil society to explore the face of climate leadership in these geopolitically fragmented times, 10 years on from the Paris Agreement.
This summary was first published by Oxford Smith School here.
Julie Forchhammer from Klimakultur was invited to speak at the segment "Breaking Out of the Bubble: Leveraging Diverse Allies in Service of Climate Action". She was joined by Thiago Jesus, Co-Director, People’s Palace Projects, Queen Mary University of London and Liam Kanegha from the Magamba Network.
Alexis McGivern, Head of Stakeholder Engagement, Oxford Net Zero, facilitated the session.
(The session was held under Chatham House rule)
Summary: From youth dance passes to advertisement on football fields, sponsorships from companies with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry are rampant.
In the face of such problematic presence, the session asked the questions: how can music, sports and culture avoid falling into fossil fuel sanitisation and what role does community engagement hold in the process?
To provide the room with a glimpse at possible solutions, academics as well as guest speakers in activism and civil society organisations shone light on three initiatives at the frontlines of climate action. Guest speakers explored:
- How alliances can be built through satire, poetry, dance, and storytelling to prevent polluters from intruding into football competitions across Africa.
- How the cultural embeddedness of the fossil fuel industry in Norway (and beyond), cemented by education programs and sponsorships for children’s games, could be resisted through grassroots festivals, artist activism, and including ministries of culture into global climate summits.
- How activists, artists, researchers, and civil society could come together and challenge climate injustice through preservation and restoration of indigenous sites, stories and traditions in Brazil.
The room was then asked to reflect, in small groups, on what tactics for climate action might work and what allies were needed. Lively conversations then ensued, with participants sharing the importance of greater coordination across activist groups, while others suggested that civil disobedience could be more disruptive than solution oriented. The room then discussed the complex funding architecture that ties cultural institutions, governments, and universities to the fossil fuel industry.
The debate was concluded with the hopeful reminder that different sectors, backgrounds, and expertise could converge to strengthen the climate movement, mobilise people, and bring about change.
Summary notes from Malo Gledhill, Oxford Blavatnik School of Government Researcher.
