“Facts will not stop those who cannot drag their hearts and minds away from nomenclature wars…”

November 22, 2023

Illuminem.com

‘What happens when you put a fossil fuel exec in charge of solving climate change’ – screams a headline. The challenge is not about climate deniers alone. It is also an ever-evolving jargon and a seemingly never-ending analysis paralysis. Then there is a lot that believes something ought to be done but procrastinate. Caught in this bind, how do we move ahead? What will it take to break out of this inertia?

Twice this week we’ve seen the planet’s temperature briefly surpass 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels for the first time in recorded history.

Over the last two years, as a backgrounder to the #COP, I have had the pleasure of hearing from outstanding upcoming women leaders. Focus being diversity and inclusion, given the serious gender bias. This time I had the privilege of speaking to renowned international leader Dr. Gillian Marcelle, PhD. She is super excited and keen to address the biggest existential crisis we have ever faced.

Gillian has vast experience in the design and implementation of blended finance strategies that often involve partnerships, #ecosystem strengthening and #designing architectures for #transformational change. At the helm of Resilience Capital Ventures (RCV) it is her endeavour to support efforts to restructure #internationalfinancialsystems in ways that benefit the #developingworld.

“Therefore, the relevance of COP28 UAE, in my view, is that these conferences continue to move the world forward by providing an albeit imperfect process of figuring out how to solve problems that extend beyond national boundaries”, says Gillian.

“This media and Western NGOs display a very different posture from the UK, where the Glasgow hosted COP26 was presented as the venue where the private sector would swoop in and take over climate finance. We all know how that turned out”, she cautions.

Gillian’s bold prescription: “Narrative change in finance and economics to place responding to the #polycrisis at the center of economic and investment strategies; movement building to tap into the knowledge of #climate and #social #justice advocates and activists around the world; and activating all forms of capital at scale with ecosystem strengthening efforts done in parallel”.

#Bridgetowninitiative

Mia Amor Mottley