Artist Irina Björklund, in collaboration with The Shubie Brothers and Central Line Entertainment, is starting up Haikus For Humanity: a multilingual musical project spanning all continents, spreading awareness of biodiversity loss, and channeling resources into forests and reforestation.

“My life changed the day I read Sir David Attenborough’s A Life On Our Planet.

I needed that kick to realize how close we are to losing the most precious tool we have for saving the future of our humanity, our beautiful forests and biodiversity.

I felt my responsibility as an artist to spread a message around the globe to help our planet heal.

The pandemic has shown us that we humans are simple creatures of habits, and those habits can be changed easily, if only the rules and availability of things are changed.

People around the world are ready and willing to change their habits, for the future of our planet, for the future of humanity.”

Meteorologist Kerttu Kotakorpi sees the effects of our changing climate in her work every day.

“We have extreme temperatures, extreme weather happening all around the world. We see the catastrophic consequences of rising temperatures and growing precipitation.

Now it’s really time to act.”

Dr. Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi, a Saami researcher from Enontekiö, North Finland, focuses on Saami culture, language and livelihoods, as well as environment, biodiversity, the Arctic, climate change and protection of traditional knowledge. He has studied climate adaptation of Saami people during the SAAMI research project.

“Adapting to climate change is about the future of Saami culture. The reindeer livelihood maintains the Saami identity, language and culture. They are the roots that unite different generations and create cultural continuity.

My message for COP26 is: make good decisions for the climate, environment, and for us all. And respect the holders of traditional knowledge.

Climate change equals cultural change for many indigenous people. They should be given means and resources for cultural adaptations.”

Timo Kuusiola

“I have been involved in climate and environmental issues for the last ten years. I spent the first six years working on the municipal sector mainly on energy issues. I have to say that I have not always been so conscious about the complexity of the problem and the effects that environmental disasters would have. Although the evidence has been there for a long time. Ten years ago there was not so much knowledge about the complexity of the problem. The IPCC report in 2015 spurred a huge change in my own behavior and level of knowledge. After that, I have started systematically to decrease my own climate footprint and started to critically examine the ways we are trying to tackle the problem.

I have always steered my career in a direction where I believed I could make the biggest impact. After the IPCC 2015 report, I started to be more interested in political influencing. Since 2017 I have been self-employed and started a couple of projects and initiatives that have been focusing on political influencing on environmental issues. In 2018 we started a think tank with my friends called Creatura. The primary idea for Creatura is to understand how the problems we face are interlinked – and thus to focus on a systemic approach to environmental and social problems. The initial hurdle of founding a new entity has not been very easy because there is not much funding for projects working towards visualising systemic change.

My wish for COP26

My wish for COP26 is a systemic change towards a fair and ecologically sustainable world.

COP26 is going to be a crucial turning point and an opportunity for a systemic change. Currently we are heading for the end of our current civilization and I think that is a thing that needs to be said out loud. We also need to start to treat this problem as a systemic crisis, not as a separate climate crisis. The Covid pandemic has shown us how interdependent we are with nature and each other. That is why it is not sufficient to look only at countries’ emissions and actions within national boundaries. Inequality within and between nations will be a crucial question when solving the systemic crisis. That is why wealthy countries have to closely consider all of their actions’ impact on this issue, and to always whether their actions contribute to further inequality.

The biggest question for me is the country’s emission reduction pathways which are dependent on decoupling on economic growth and environmental problems. That has been proven to be a very dangerous path because it is very unlikely to succeed if want to tackle inequality, biodiversity loss, and climate disaster. This is why wealthy countries should call into play a climate and natural resource budget that has limits to cumulative climate emissions and natural resources for the years 2020-2050 based on the newest research. There should also be some kind of sanction mechanism. One option could be that every five years that some country does not succeed on their emission targets they have to pay a sanction to the climate fund that is directed to help poor countries on their green development targets. That would be in addition to the climate funding that wealthy countries have already promised in the Paris Agreement.”

It’s time to start the transformation of global food system

“Current food systems generate more than 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions and change in how we eat, how we farm, how we produce and how much food we waste is needed. Paulig, as an international food & beverage company, is committed to limiting the global temperature rise to a maximum of 1.5°C.  Paulig is among the forerunner companies in the food industry, and we have science-based climate targets from our own operations and value chain which are approved by the Science Based Targets initiative.

Systemic changes are needed to fix the prevalent sustainability issues in our industry. To make them possible, we need ambitious climate goals, supporting policies and regulatory frameworks, which would stimulate climate actions and investments towards zero emissions across global food supply chains.”

Medical professionals in Ilmastolääkärit (Doctors for Climate) bring attention to how the climate crisis poses a direct threat to human health.

Finnish medical organizations declared a climate emergency in January 2021 and called for rapid actions to mitigate climate change. They represent more than 30 000 medical professionals.

“Without a healthy Earth we do not have a prospect of a good and secure life for ourselves or future generations. It is no longer possible to sustain our living standards on overconsumption.

We request you, the decision makers, to make the difficult and unpleasant but necessary decisions that are needed in the transition towards a sustainable society.”

The small community of Ashton Hayes has achieved renown as a pioneer of climate action, starting on the path to carbon neutrality in 2006 through the Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project. Kate Harrison and Roy Alexander tell us the story: the project inspired community members to act, cutting the community’s carbon footprint considerably over the first five years and for example installing solar panels.

“People just went home and followed the advice that they’d been given at the initial meeting and from there the project grew and grew.

One of the things we’ve recently been struck with in the village is flooding. And as we’re expecting warmer wetter summers, which is what we’ve had this year, I think it’s going to be something that we have to be concerned about for the future and it is clearly a concern across the world.

So we’re hoping that one of the results of COP26 is that people take notice of the threats to our ways of life and do something about it.”

Hycamite develops technology for producing clean hydrogen to decarbonise industries’ energy use.

“Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, so there’s no chance of us running out. And it produces zero greenhouse gas emissions when it’s used as a fuel.

And this is why we founded Hycamite. Our innovation can produce large volumes of hydrogen, with zero emissions, at an affordable price.

Hydrogen is the energy of the future and the only way to win the fight against climate change is to have the industry convert to hydrogen. It is time to act now.”

Denise Baden, Professor of Sustainability at the University of Southampton

“Academics write articles about a sustainable future, but how many people read them? We commonly look to science to address the climate change crisis, but it is the arts and stories that fire imaginations and reach the wider audience.

I research and teach in the area of sustainability at the University of Southampton, and became increasingly worried that most communications on climate change and green behaviour were preaching to the converted, and looked for ways to reach a wider audience.

I thought back and remembered that it was the satirical action novel ‘Stark’ by Ben Elton that had aroused my green awareness and wondered whether fiction could be a way in. I researched how people respond to green issues in fiction and discovered that showing positive role models engaging in pro-environmental behaviours that are easily imitated appeared to be the most motivating kind of story. Thus in 2018 I set up a series of free green stories writing competitions encouraging aspiring writers to look at the green solutions presented on our green stories website and integrate them into their story. There are two key criteria:

1. story telling ability – the story should be engaging and
2. incorporate green solutions e.g. by
   • showcasing what a green/sustainable society might look like and/or how we might get there.
   • smuggling green solutions into a story aimed at mainstream readers – this can be quite subtle.

We have now run 12 competitions across several formats (novel, stage play, radio, TV series, screenplay etc.)

Sponsorship from Orna Ross who set up the Alliance of Independent Authors has allowed us to offer generous prizes for the next few years (£1500) including help towards publication. Two previous entries are now being published as books along with an anthology of the 20 best entries into our short story competition.

As a free competition, one issue was that most entries didn’t fit the criteria, misunderstanding the difference between a green theme and green solutions. For example several followed eco-activists in Indonesia fighting rainforest destruction. However who isn’t aware that rainforest destruction happens and is bad thing? Raising awareness on its own doesn’t help and none of the entries incorporated potential solutions readers could engage in such as cutting back on beef, sustainable sourcing of wood etc. To address this I began my own book ‘Habitat Man’ –based on Tim who gives up his accounting job when they turn down his proposal for costing for nature accounting and becomes Habitat Man – advising on making gardens more wildlife friendly. In the process of his journey to find love and meaning and deal with the secrets from his past, readers are exposed to a host of green solutions from wildlife gardening, composting toilets, green funerals, seasonal, low carbon food, how to campaign effectively on green policies, the sharing economy and others.

My wish for COP26 is please give us some cause for hope.”

In Wales, Scouts Cymru takes practical action in their operations to increase sustainability. The global conservation badge, for example, is teaching young people globally about the environment and humanity’s impact on it.

“Here in Wales we have young people from the ages of six all the way up to twenty-five, who are keen to make a difference and look after our planet.

We have an amazing opportunity to change, and we need to change. Let’s create this world to be a better place.”

Glasgow, the city of COP26, is ready to meet the challenges of the climate emergency head-on, addressing long-standing social, economic and environmental challenges while meeting science-based climate targets. Councillor Susan Aitken discusses the city’s declaration of a climate emergency, as well as its Green Deal, Greenprint projects, and the Sustainable Glasgow Partnership.

“Our net zero future is about safer communities, warm and efficient homes, sustainable jobs and a prosperous economy. Transition has to be about the future of our planet but also the social and economic well-being of Glasgow and our people.

We can match ambition and achievement, combining a green and successful economy with green inclusive and healthy communities, and a safe and secure city.

The success of COP26 will in large part be measured by how cities can take the practical steps necessary to secure the future of our planet. The climate emergency really is the issue of our times. This November Glasgow can show the world we are becoming the city of our times, on the issue of our times.”

Values and fairness are central to behavioural changes needed to tackle the climate crisis. Lorraine Whitmarsh, Professor of Environmental Psychology and Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST), discusses how CAST works with all of society, to understand how to motivate and enable people to change, so that they can take part in this societal transformation.

“This isn’t about small and incremental steps. It’s about transforming behaviour in society. But this won’t only avoid dangerous climate change. This will improve people’s wellbeing.

Our work shows that positive messaging that links to people’s values, to what’s important to them, can engage people with climate change, and that we need to remove the barriers to behaviour change, to make it easier, cheaper, more attractive and more normal for people to take action.

Our wish for COP26 is that governments engage with the public and together create a positive, net zero future, where we not only radically cut our emissions but we have better health and wellbeing, green jobs, more inclusivity and equity, and stronger ecosystems.”

The European Forest Institute international organisation conducting research and providing policy support on forest-related issues, connecting knowledge to action.

Junior researchers of EFI discuss their research, sharing their wishes and insight for COP26.

Blasius Schmid hopes COP26 recognises the potential for economic and ecological prosperity that forests and forest bioeconomy offer.

Climate change is a major threat to biodiversity both in Finland and globally. Climate change is already affecting the Finnish nature. That’s why WWF Finland is running multiple campaigns and projects with a strong focus on climate issues:

• The Climate programme is doing advocacy work on EU and national level.
• The EU funded project Eat4Change is run by our Food programme in 11 countries across Europe and Latin America. The project is engaging citizens, in particular youth, and pushing for a shift toward more sustainable diets and food production practices.
• We are supporting projects based on Nature based solutions in developing countries in Africa and Asia.
• We are promoting conservation and management practises maintaining and strengthening the carbon sinks of forests.
• We are raising awareness about how climate change is affecting our unique nature already today and potentially even more severely in the coming decades.

Our wish for COP26 

We want to see All hands on deck! All parts of the society should join forces and do their own share of climate action.

WWF Finland urges all governments to set aside their short-term national interests and contribute in a constructive manner to a bold agreement on how to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Natural Resources Institute Finland, LUKE, works towards a carbon neutral society where resources are used sustainably. LUKE provide new solutions towards the sustainable development of the Finnish bioeconomy and the promotion of new biobased businesses, helping build a society based on bioeconomy.

“The research in LUKE focuses on renewable natural resources, which in practice means the use of forest, peatlands and agricultural areas.

The goal of our research is a carbon neutral society which uses its resources in a sustainable and acceptable manner. To achieve this we develop models, methodologies and policy views that help the forestry, agriculture and food system sectors to reach the carbon neutrality targets and adapt to climate changes.”

The Finnish Climate Change Panel is a multidisciplinary advisory council providing scientific advice for policy making to tackle climate change.

“Our aim is to help to build a sustainable future for Finland with the help of the best available scientific knowledge. The Panel was asked by the government to advise on what kind of targets should be set for Finland to put in a fair and just effort towards the Paris agreement and its goals.

Our Panel isn’t just about natural or engineering sciences, but social sciences too.

We have looked at the equity effects of the energy transition: How to include justice in climate policy making and what kind of behavioural changes are possible for a more climate-friendly future.

In COP26 we wish for the messages of the IPCC to guide the strengthening of NDCs and science-based policy advice to spread across the world. The upcoming launch of the International Network of Climate Councils, which the Finnish Panel has taken part in establishing, will help countries without councils to get a head start in science-based climate policy.”

Jan Wahlberg, Finland’s Ambassador for Climate Change at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, discusses Finland’s climate action and his hopes for COP26 to keep the 1.5 degree target alive.

“As Finland’s ambassador for climate change I am heading to Glasgow with a hopeful mind. Most of all it is vital that we close the gaps on both climate finance and raising climate ambition.

We owe it to our children. We must keep 1.5 degrees within reach. ”

David Moran, COP26 Regional Ambassador for Europe, describes COP26 as the best hope for tackling runaway climate change, and the chance to consign coal to history for good.

“A successful COP26 is our best hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and building a brighter future of green jobs and cleaner air.

The single most powerful thing we can do to get there? Consign coal to history – one of my top priorities.

The world deserves a cleaner, more prosperous future.  We must help deliver it.”