Climate Changemakers - Davos isn't just for CEOs

I was so glad to see that the topic for this year's World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting was focused largely on climate change. I was hoping that a year of Greta Thunberg and #FridaysforFuture in the news would create big ripples. And it appears that she does make people stand up and take notice. I am hopeful that more bold actions will follow.

I am also thankful that she is working so hard - even if at the same time, I find it a little sad to realize that a young teenager feels she must spend her time thinking about such serious topics. Because the adults and decision makers aren't moving fast enough. She is an amazing role model for children - and adults.

In my daily and professional life, I pay close attention to what people are saying at international fora like Davos. What are the CEOs and policy makers deciding or talking about? What actions will they now take? Is it just all greenwashing and clever PR, or are bold actions and forward-looking policies now coming? It's probably a bit of both.

Changemakers making waves

For me, it was the news out of Davos that came from non-CEO attendees that I found most heartening and interesting. I am amazed by the young changemakers who attended the Annual Meeting and used the platform to amplify their voices.

I want to highlight a few of their stories here.

Because they deserve a megaphone.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad. She stepped onto the stage in Davos in her beautiful, colorful clothes, providing not only a visual contrast to the business suits, usually filled by men that generally take the seats on stages at conferences like this.

Her perspective is the important contrast she brought because she represents indigenous peoples of the world who are already impacted severely by climate change - but whose voices aren't always valued.

She is no stranger to a global stage: Time Magazine highlighted her in September 2019 for her work and she was co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, which was important to the historic Paris COP Agreement in 2015. She is also an #SDGAdvocate for the UN.

I really love her heartfelt and personal message, which makes clear that indigenous peoples across the globe are suffering and that they also have knowledge to share, and, importantly, that their opinions and lives matter.

It's not about profits, and numbers, and margins. It's about survival. And she's right, talking about 2050 as a good timeline for reacting to climate change, is not soon enough.

Seriously, shame on me for not having known about her awesome and inspiring work sooner.

For more inspiration, follow her @hindououmar.

Vanessa Nakate is a 23 year old Ugandan climate activist and founder of the activist groups Youth for Future Africa and Rise Up Movement. You may recognize her name as the woman who was cropped out of a picture of climate activists attending Davos by the Associated Press. She tweeted to them to ask why she wasn't part of the picture that she posed for. The public discussions that followed justifiably raised issues related to race and representation. Amazingly, she turned that negative experience into a way to amplify the voices and work of African climate change activists. To which I can only say, well done.

In December 2018, Vanessa staged a solitary climate change strike in front of the Ugandan Parliament. 1 year and 1 month later she was in Davos. Incredible. I recommend following her @vanessa_vash. Expect good things.

Why Davos matters to everyone

Some people say, the discussions at Davos are just that: Theoretical discussions among privileged people that don't go much farther than the mountain town in Switzerland that they take place in.

Self-congratulatory hot air.

But I disagree.

Ideas don't just happen out of nothing. Global challenges demand a global approach. You cannot achieve global reach and inspiration by talking to yourself. You need a dialogue. A wide-reaching dialogue. And you need to collaborate. And you need to ask the unexpected or not-obvious stakeholders for their input as well. Dialogue is good place to start - but not where it should end.

Why should people like me care, a non-CEO who isn't jetting around talking big topics with other big people all time?

Well, because I am a citizen, mother and consumer who has just as much at stake in a sustainable and prosperous future as you do. And as the big names of the world do. We have voices and a duty to be informed. Maybe we don't all want to be decision makers, but we should care about the decisions being taken and inform ourselves. If we don't have a seat at the table, we should at least read the notes that were taken.

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NB: I used to work for the World Economic Forum, but no longer do and this post is my own and not associated in any way with the World Economic Forum.

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