One of our Young Leaders – climate activist, environmental scientist and ethical influencer – Laura Young has returned from COP27 in Egypt last month. She shares her reflections of the event in this blog post.

Settling back from COP27 it’s hard to put the experience into a short reflection. This conference was disappointing, as a lack of new commitments and clarity on action was obvious. We had reiteration after reiteration of old pledges and promises which really continued the frustration as we stand still on climate action after a year of distractions and stalling. It was good however to finally see a Loss and Damage Fund set up, to provide vital climate finance to vulnerable nations, something which has been campaigned for over 30 years.

I am a firm believer in needing to work with the system, not against it, but in some cases completely re-writing it seems the only plausible solution. COP27 is an example of a platform which has such huge potential, as it brings the world together, to create lasting climate action. However, this year we’ve seen stalling and backsliding on climate commitments from countries around the world, and little to no progress to shout about. This was supposed to be the conference of ‘implementation’ where we’d see clearly how big goals would play out. I felt more confused coming out than I did going in.

Even on the national scale this is clear. Scotland laid out climate targets a few years ago, with the Net Zero pledge by 2045, shocking even environmentalists with its ambition. Yet, a few years in it’s clear we are not on track, and excluding 2020 – the year of COVID – we haven’t been meeting the progress we need. From reducing car kilometres by 20%, to restoring peatlands and reducing our waste, there is a lot on home soil left to be desired. What we need is clarity on how we will meet these goals, and movement to get action done soon.

What does this mean for us? Well personally, and among many young people, including the Young Leaders, we want to see action on biodiversity and climate from the ground up. That’s why we put it into our COP26 Youth Manifesto! We want local councils to take seriously how we can create biodiverse havens for wildlife on every inch of land within our control, and seek out nature-based solutions where problems like flooding or drought arise in our communities. But crucially we need to do this alongside local people. They know areas best, they know the needs of the community, and working together across disciplines means we can bring multiple benefits to a variety of different issues.

I hope that coming out of another UN climate conference, we can see the role each of us can play. Whether that’s sticking a wildflower window box outside our flat, talking to our employers about environmental initiatives in the workplace, or engaging with local councillors, MSPs, and MPs to get the change we need from local to global to truly tackle the climate AND biodiversity crises together.

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