"My COP" tool from the Climate Apology

The following text is an adaptation of a longer exercise that can be used as a warm-up or intro to your next climate-related presentation or workshop. Delivery, of course, is important! Take your time guiding them through the mapping process. And have a short pause after the mapping process before moving onto your conclusions.

"COP28 is once again upon us. It's the 28th time that individuals have gathered together as professionals working in government, industry, lobby groups and civil society to talk about what to do about climate change. With CO2 emissions still rising at a time when they should be dramatically decreasing, clearly all these people haven't done enough - not enough has been done. 

But what happens when we shine the torch on our own actions over these last 28 years? What does my COP and your COP look like?

I'd like to guide you through a quick mental journey in which we map, quietly in our minds, our individual COP record. We're going to start of course in 1995, the year of the first COP. (slow down delivery) Think back to 1995. How were you living then? How much space did you live in and drive in? How did you spend your holidays? How much stuff did you have? Did you already know about climate change?

And what about in the following years? Did you read about the IPCC reports in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, or the COPs in these years? Did you talk about Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth with your friends and family?

And a few years later? Were you still using the same amount of space, or had your lifestyle and consumption expanded to match your age and income? Still driving the same car? When did you join an air miles club?

And what about when smartphones hit the market and social media took off from 2010 onwards? Did your consumption surge? 

And how did you react to the 2015 Paris Climate agreement? Did it make you feel safe, like 'they' were going to do something so you didn't have to?

And in the last few years, as we've started to live the scientific climate prediction, what have you done for your climate future? Have you reduced your consumption of fossil fuel, shifted to a plant-based diet, demanded your political party fund serious global climate policies, supported green initiatives, talked about your feelings as you watch climate disasters unfold on your news feed, moved your investments out of the fossil fuel industry?

And I'd like you to imagine now that you are doing all you can for the climate future of your loved ones, as are all the people who attend COP and who work in governments and the industries driving climate change. And I'd like to finish this journey by noting how that feels, to know that enough of are doing enough to keep global temperatures down to a liveable level for your loved ones.

Pause

That's the end of our quick trip down memory lane. Perhaps not so pleasant. Like most of us, your COP map probably looks like an X - personal climate impact has increased over the time that science has been telling us to reduce. 

So, over the next 2 weeks and beyond, whenever you hear and read about COP, think quickly about your own COP web - regardless of whether you're a part of COP decision-maker or simply a financially stable citizen of a high-income country whose lifestyle choices matter.

We can always find a good excuse not to do what's possible as workers, citizens, consumers and investors: It's too hard. And why should I bother when my neighbours and China aren't doing anything. It's up to governments to regulate us.

But there's a reality that trumps our excuses. Our loved ones - and yes, you're allowed to include yourself in that list. We have a moral responsibility to leave our loved ones a liveable climate future. And although it's difficult, we know that a liveable climate feels right, it feels good.

Turning the COP lense on ourselves is confronting. But if we don't do so now, our loved ones will do so in the future."

You will, of course, have to make the link to what comes next. Please feel free to adapt it and use it - let's find another way to make COP impactful!

Together, we've got this.