COP27: Is this the persuading COP?

In June 2022, The UN campaign Race to Zero updated their criteria to include a commitment to ‘persuade’ meaning that within 12 months all external engagement should advance the goal of halving emissions by 2030 and reaching global (net) zero by 2050.

Could a commitment to persuade unlock the change the world needs to reach our carbon targets and advance the UN sustainable development goals?

The starting point to answering that question is exploring what persuasion means? A recent podcast in collaboration with BBC veteran David Eades investigates this and while there is not a tidy answer The Race to Zero’s reference to ‘external engagement’ provides a good starting point. 

Engagement is what happens when humans are connecting, collaborating, communicating and advocating. Another way to describe engagement is ‘an event’ (eg exhibition, meeting, AGM, product launch, training). Every business, association, university and government uses events, even COP27 is an event. So looking at how the event sector is taking action on climate change could provide insight into what the criteria ‘persuade’ looks like in practical terms.

The global event sector is  worth $890 billion.

It is a majority Small to Medium Enterprise supply chain and events is a cross cutting theme across all business sectors. There is a Race to Zero Accelerator Programme for event sector SMEs and a potential future Race to Zero partner exists in the form of a roadmap for net zero events which has been in creation since mid 2022. These structures mean it is possible for 100% of the supply chain that delivers your event to have made a Race to Zero commitment. The potential legacy for an event like COP27 or the Olympic Games could be the transformation of the host destinations event supply chain so they have the capability to deliver sustainably for all future events. Neither Glasgow or Sharm El Sheikh have delivered on this legacy potential - what needs to be in place for Dubai?

ISO 20121 the international standard for event sustainability will begin its annual review in 2023 which provides an opportunity for ISO to demonstrate action towards the London Declaration and provide an example of how a standard can be used to meet Race to Zero criteria. ISO 20121’s scope goes beyond carbon and there is potential for an increased focus on human rights (supported by guidance on the consideration of human and child rights from Unicef UK); materiality (with the potential to align with UNDP reporting standards) alignment with the UN SDGs; and of course address event specific opportunities including pre event bidding and post event legacy. The majority of the event sector supply chain are SME’s so ISO 20121 is an opportunity to explore how guidance and annexes can be used to build capacity and future proof SMME business.

Engagement is more than the delivery of logistics in the form of meeting rooms, hotels, speakers and refreshment.

Engagement is the human connection and serendipitous meetings that happen in the space those logistics create (how many readers have met a useful connection in the line for coffee during the break in speakers at a conference). UN SDG 16 indicator 7 ‘ ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory decision making’ reminds event professionals that engagement is a strategic focus and the number of people participating and included in decision making will be front of mind for any sustainability leaders acting on their external engagement strategy to meet UN SDG and Race to Zero criteria. Exploring the gap between voices being heard at the event and voices not represented could be the key part of achieving results through persuasion. Are all voices represented at COP? Is there an opportunity to take advantage of the zoom habits we learnt during lockdown and could events like COP include voices from society beyond the government, business and campaigners that crowd the pavilions at COP.

Will COP27 be the persuading COP? We don’t yet know the answer but as the first COP since The Race to Zero campaign has had criteria on persuasion one thing is clear: New approaches are needed to get to the solution and engagement is an obvious strategy. Events of the 2018 era could have been judged by the type of venue or food selection, events post 2022 are likely to be judged on participation, inclusion and their positive impact.