COP28 – Rewrite COP: Rewriting Our Future with Arts and Science in Climate Policy Spaces

CVF-V20 events at COP28  

Wednesday, 6 December 2023

Rewrite COP: Rewriting Our Future with Arts and Science in Climate Policy Spaces

Theme: Culture

Venue: Sri Lanka Pavilion, Blue Zone

Time: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Hosted by the Climate Vulnerable Forum and V20 Finance Ministers,
the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, and
The Climate Reality Branches in Africa and Philippines

Draft Version 16.11.2023

Overview 

In 2021,  the When Is Now campaign was launched which is a creative collaboration of poets, scientists, visual artists, and emerging leaders, calling for stronger climate action. The campaign’s focus is to widen – and revolutionize – the climate conversation through storytelling and art. The When Is Now campaign is a global poetry and art movement mobilized by the 58 vulnerable countries of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), Agam Agenda, and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC).

In 2022, The Climate Reality Project Africa, Canada, and the Philippines collaborated with Agam Agenda to launch Poets for Climate as a response to When Is Now. Poets for Climate is a collaborative project that aims to harness humanities and the arts in amplifying actions against the vicious cycle of loss and damage experienced by vulnerable communities. Last year’s campaign focused on how people live in relationships with specific places, defined as shared bioregions of our earth.

Since its launch, Poets for Climate has generated more than 100 poems from youth leaders, climate advocates, and poets from Cameroon, Canada, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zambia. It has also unveiled murals in Johannesburg in South Africa; Montreal in Canada; and Iloilo City, Isabela City (Basilan), and Municipalities of Palapag (Northern Samar) and Guiuan (Eastern Samar) in the Philippines.

This year, the Climate Reality branches in Africa and the Philippines, and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) intend to intensify efforts to bridge the arts and humanities in policy spaces for climate action, specifically in the upcoming 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) slated at the end of the year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This year’s COP is expected to tackle the following, among others:

1. Loss and damage mechanism. Governments agreed in COP27 to set up a “transitional committee” for the Loss and Damage Fund. The said committee, which is expected to meet for the first time before the end of March, will make recommendations on how to operationalize the fund at COP28.
2. Climate finance. Developed countries committed to a collective goal of mobilizing USD 100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries. To date, this goal has yet to be achieved.

Moreover, following the inclusion in the final COP27 decision of an official call for a revamp of multilateral development bank practices and priorities to ensure simplified access to climate finance, there is growing pressure for these institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, to reform and expand for their resources to be directed to projects and programs aligned with development positive climate action by aligning with the Paris Agreement.

1. Global stocktake. The first Global Stocktake — which is a process for taking stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement globally — will also come to an end at COP28. The process, which began at COP26, is currently in its second phase: a technical assessment period ending in June.

Yet, this stocktake is expected to tell us what we already know — that we are collectively off track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

A 2022 report commissioned by the CVF showed that current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement will lead us to a 3ºC world. Further inaction will lunge us deep into the climate crisis.

The release of the result of the stocktake in COP28 is an opportune time to call countries to ramp up their NDC ambitions in time for the next round of NDC submissions slated in 2025.

Everyone has a say in shaping their future, especially the youth who will inherit this Earth. Leading up to COP28, RewriteCOP invited people in climate-vulnerable countries to intervene in policy and decision-making on climate solutions through storytelling, art, and creative expression. The campaign is an offshoot of When Is Now, a global poetry and art movement started by the Climate Vulnerable Forum in 2021.

By creatively rewriting COP, we aim to provide world leaders with stories that speak to the urgency of the climate crisis and showcase the diversity of pathways to creating resilient futures.

Event Objectives: 

The event will serve the following objectives:

1. Explore how artistic and poetic approaches are able to support the work of climate activists to push for meaningful actions and systemic changes; and
2. Facilitate a comprehensive panel discussion to put a spotlight on ways in which artists use their creativity and innovations to advocate for climate action and environmental protection.

Key Outcomes

The following outcomes are envisaged from the event:

1. Galvanize participants and contributors from around the world to create lines of poetry and other forms of creative expression that communicate what people from climate-vulnerable countries want COP28 to deliver on the issues of equity, climate finance, loss and damage fund, and fossil fuel phaseout;
2. Integrate Rewrite COP outputs into the official COP28 statements and speeches of the CVF presidents and negotiators representing CVF countries; and
3. Showcase Rewrite COP outputs in COP28 through pavilions and side events.

Format & Participants 

The exhibits will emphasize how the poetry and art are linked to one another through shared lines and imagery. The exhibit will also have an interactive online space or boards (QR codes) for people to write their responses to the poems and art.

The panel discussion will be in a talk show/ question-and-answer format. The resource speakers are encouraged to share photos which we can flash during the discussion segment.

Participation in the event is open to the public, particularly to the following delegations and representatives:

• Representatives from the CVF/V20 Member States
• CVF/V20 Secretariat
• Environmental and Climate Campaigners and Advocates

Detailed program

Moderator:  Nazrin Camille Castro, Branch Manager, The Climate Reality Project (TCRP) Philippines

Key Contacts

Alexandra Jewel Rosas

V20 Secretariat

[email protected]

Nazrin Camille D. Castro

The Climate Reality Project Philippines

[email protected]