Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is Jess Pepper, founder and director of Climate Café CIC, host of the global Climate Café network.
Happy new year. It is an honour to join you to—to quote from Edwin Morgan’s poem—“Open the doors” on a new year and to look ahead in this
“building which is more than a building.”
A new year can allow us to see a bigger picture, to appreciate this precious envelope of the natural world that sustains life and to reflect on the significance of this moment.
Our Goldilocks planet is not too hot or too cold for all the life it sustains. If I had a globe in my hands, our atmosphere could be represented by a layer of varnish, it is so thin. The millions of tonnes of global warming pollution dumped in our atmosphere every day are thickening it, trapping more heat and causing more devastating impacts as natural systems are disrupted. Storms intensify, droughts deepen, temperatures rise and health su?ers.
As Christmas lights twinkled here in December 2014, I saw Save the Children in the Philippines reminding families to put labels in their children’s clothing as supertyphoon Ruby, charged by increased heat in the ocean, headed towards them, just a year after 6,300 lives were lost and millions devastated by typhoon Yolanda. In 2024, the typhoon season there had six consecutive storm systems. From tropical cyclones to storms in Scotland, the most vulnerable su?er the worst and increasingly devastating impacts, having polluted the least.
This year marks 10 years since the world came together in Paris to make a global plan to reduce emissions. In 2020, the global panel of climate scientists warned that there was a decade left in which to act to avoid being locked into the most devastating impacts of climate disruption. The year 2025 is the mid-point for that decade of critical action—the cusp of two possible futures. Will we accelerate disruption and systems collapse or realise a vision of a fair, safe future for all? There is no time for denial or despair. Despite the challenges, there is hope and optimism for that vision. It is a choice.
Solutions exist, and transition to a cleaner economy is gathering momentum across communities that are connected across regions, states and nations, despite barriers that could be removed. I see momentum through a growing global network of community-led climate cafes, which are often led and informed by the youngest, by women and by our elders.
Carbon dioxide emitted today can remain in the atmosphere for 100 years. We may all be able to make some choices about what we do now and what we leave as our legacy for future generations. In this place, your decisions can enable everyone to have more choices.
In 2025, as we return to “Open the doors” in
“this great building, don’t let your work and hope be other than great”.
The significance of this moment is huge, and our choices will define the future.
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