Monthly Archives: November 2015

#ArtCOP21 at the Gaîté lyrique : the Summit on culture during #COP21

ArtCOP

Photo Credit : Mel Chin, The Arctic is Paris. © Ben Premeaux, 2015

ArtCOP21, the Summit on culture during COP21 at the Gaîté lyrique

Everyday, from the 1st to the 11th of December

For 10 days, COAL and the Gaîté lyrique offer an in-depth and varied program that will explore the cultural challenges of climate change.

On this occasion, more than 250 artists, professionals, scientists, thinkers and doers come together to imagine other narratives and perspectives to reinvent new worlds. Meetings, interviews, a two day long professional workshop, screenings and performances punctuate COP21, making the Gaîté lyrique the headquarters of culture for climate.

The regular appointments on the Plateau Média also raise this issue while a resources space (books, magazines, films, documentaries) allows to deepen all discussions.

With : Tomás Saraceno, Encore Heureux, Eva Jospin, Frédéric Ferrer, Kathy Jetnil Kijiner, Gideon Mendel, HeHe, Emilie Hache, Mel Chin, George Steinmann, Lucy + Jorge Orta, Jeremy Leggett, Dominique Bourg, 350.org…

This event is co-produced by COAL and the Gaîté lyrique

Find all the events on artcop21.com, the cultural Agenda of the COP21, an initiative of COAL and Cape Farewell for the COP21.

ON THE AGENDA OF ARTCOP21 AT THE GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE

The Summit of Creatives

Hundreds of designers, artists, architects, scientists and international thinkers, come together to respond to COP21, and imagine together fresh narratives and perspectives to reinvent new worlds at the Summit of Creatives.

This event is co-produced by COAL and the Gaîté lyrique +

  • Everyday from the 1st to the 11th of December. From 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
  • Plateau Média of the Gaîté lyrique
  • Open to the public, free and fully streamed on gaite-lyrique.net and rebroadcast on artcop21.co

The Professional Workshop ArtCOP21

For two days, 150 professionals from thirty countries, in Paris for the Conference for Climate, share their actions and acknowledge the leadership of the cultural sector and its ability to generate answers and stories for the future.

This event is organized by COAL, On the Move, Julie’s bicycle, IFACCA +

  • The 3rd and 4th of December, all day
  • Auditorium and Plateau Média of the Gaîté lyrique
  • Some sessions are closed to the public, the workshop is fully streamed on gaite-lyrique.net and rebroadcast on artcop21.com

More at the Gaîté lyrique

A resources space on ecology and climate will be available at the Gaîté lyrique ; a book signing by Maja & Reuben Fowkes of the Translocal Institute group on the 4th of December at 6:00 pm ; a performance by Heidi Quante and Alicia Escott “Bureau of Linguistical Reality” on the 6th of December from 12:00 am to 7:00 pm ; screening of the film “World Brain” on the 8th of December at 6:00 pm+

  • From the 1st to the 11th of December, Gaîté lyrique

 OTHER ARTCOP21 EVENTS IN PARIS FOR THE COP21

Breaking the Surface by Michael Pinsky at La Villette

Michael Pinsky brings out from deep waters domestic waste dumped by local residents in the Ourcq canal in Paris, revealing the consequences of the trivial gesture of throwing things away, reproduced throughout society.

An event by COAL and La Villette +

  • La Villette, on the Ourcq canal, 25th of November – 3rd of January

RAR, The tree ceremony by Ackroyd & Harvey at Jardin des Plantes

Following the work « 7000 oaks » by Joseph Beuys, the two artists Ackroyd & Harvey perform a monumental installation of a majestic oak in front of a grass drapery in order to celebrate the role of trees in enabling cities to adapt to climate change.

An event by COAL and the National Museum of Natural History of Paris +

  • Jardin des Plantes, 3rd – 12th of December

 Antarctica by Lucy + Jorge Orta at the Ministery of Culture and at the Grand Palais

As part of COP21 Lucy + Jorge Orta will issue tens of thousands of new Antartica World Passports and visitors will be invited to sign a commitment charter for the protection of the environment and for peace.

A co-production by COAL +

  • Ministry of Culture and Communication, Valois street, 16th of November – 3rd of December
  • Grand Palais – Solutions COP21, 4th – 10th of December

The COPBox

This public pop-up space allows citizens to share their ideas about climate change, by recording a personalized video message. Hundreds of messages addressed to the negotiators from 195 countries who are gathering at COP21 will be screened at Espace Génération Climat.

Project designed by COAL and lemoal&lemoal Architects +

  • Tara Pavilion « Ocean & Climate »,
  • Espace Génération Climat, Le Bourget, 30th of November – 11th of December
  • Grand Palais – Solutions COP21, 4th – 10th of December

Urban DataScape by Olga Kisseleva and Etienne Delprat at the Grand Palais

Urban DataScape allows individuals to connect to their urban environment and reveal their collective dimension and systemic issues related to climate. After being presented this summer along the Banks of the Seine, this interactive installation uses QRCode, which offers individuals at the Grand Palais the opportunity to go further on climate issues.

A production by COAL and Berges de Seine +

  • Grand Palais – Solutions COP21, 4th – 10th of December

ARTCOP21 ONLINE – THE GLOBAL CLIMATE ART FESTIVAL

DISCOVER THE CULTURAL PROGRAM OF THE COP21 ON THE PARIS CLIMAT 2015 CULTURAL AGENDA ARTCOP21.COM

Installations, shows, exhibitions, concerts, performances, meetings, screenings, workshops and actions in Paris and right across the globe.ArtCOP21,conceived as a platform for promoting artists and cultural actors involved in the climate challenge, connects thousands of people to climate issues through its online agenda which includes more than 400 events in 50 countries. All these events highlight the need for governments to support major climate action and the end of the fossil fuels era. To make climate change a citizen a people problem, not just one left in the hands of politicians.

ArtCOP21 Paris Climat 2015 Cultural Agenda proposes an exhibition on the windows of the Ministry of Culture and Communication (3, rue de Valois – 75001 Paris)

ARTCOP21

ArtCOP21 is a major global program of actions and artistic and citizen mobilisations, initiated by COAL with its British counterpart Cape Farewell for the COP21. Organized around five strands of action, ArtCOP21 proposes works in the public space, an artistic journey bringing together the best cultural initiatives around COP21and a political agenda of the engaged culture.

PROJETCOAL.ORG – CAPEFAREWELL.COM

More information on ARTCOP21.COM

Unauthorised arts festival in Tate Modern during Paris climate talks 4-6th December #artcop21 #cop21

ArtCOP, Cape Farewell
  • Deadline Festival @Tate takes place exactly a year before Tate’s BP sponsorship deal expires
  • Free programme of events includes poetry, video installations, Caryl Churchill play, artist panels, film screenings, theatre and a ‘seedbombing’ session

Platform London is curating an unauthorised arts festival inside Tate Modern on 4-6 December.[1] Deadline Festival @Tate marks the middle weekend of the COP21 UN climate talks in Paris and the start of Tate’s final year of BP sponsorship under the current deal.

The public programme of events includes video installations, poetry, gallery tours, pop-up theatre, kids creative workshops, film screenings and artist debates. Deadline Festival will use Tate’s gallery spaces to debate questions usually excluded from the gallery, and discuss cultural institutions’ role in tackling climate change. The full programme will be available next week on www.deadline.org.uk

Festival highlights include

  • Capital Culture Climate: with Doreen Massey (Emeritus Professor, Open University), Selina Nwulu (London Young Poet Laureate 2016) and Loraine Leeson (Artist, director of Director cSPACE)
  • Art & Politics – with Julie Ward MEP (Labour), Natalie Bennett (Green Party), Sonia Boyce (artist, Professor)
  • Tickets are now on sale, a short play by Caryl Churchill
  • Performance & Power: with Michael McMillan (playwright, artist, educator), Lucy Ellinson (actor, Grounded), and Feimatta Conteh (sustainability manager, Arcola theatre)
  • Naomi Klein’s climate justice film This Changes Everything
  • Unofficial Translation by Ivo Theatre – COP21 negotiations live translated into performance
  • An open invitation to seed-bomb the plant beds erected in Tate’s Turbine Hall as part of Abraham Cruzvillegas’s Empty Lot

Festival curator Mika Minio-Paluello said “Deadline Festival will be cheeky, serious and unauthorised, and marks Tate’s one year deadline to come off BP sponsorship. We will use Tate’s gallery spaces to debate London’s responsibility to break with fossil fuels and our colonial heritage. We’re bringing together artists and actors, professors and politicians to explore the creative process of building a fossil free culture.”

Tate’s controversial sponsorship deal with BP runs from 2012-2016. Earlier this year, a three-year freedom of information court battle forced Tate to reveal that historically BP’s sponsorship fees amounted to £150,000-£330,000 a year – under 0.5% of Tate’s annual budget.[2]

In September, over 300 artists and cultural organisations including London’s Royal Court Theatre signed a commitment to reject fossil fuel funding.[3]  In November, the Science Museum confirmed that Shell is being dropped as sponsor of its climate change exhibition.[4]

Tate director Nicholas Serota has publicly confirmed that Tate Trustees will be reconsidering BP sponsorship during 2016.

Anna Galkina of Platform added “We’re posing a mainstream cultural challenge to oil sponsorship of our arts. As politicians gather in Paris to discuss planetary deadlines for coming off fossil fuels, and London debates its own role, Tate risks being left behind.”

Contact: Festival Curator Mika Minio-Paluello mika@platformlondon.org / 07733466038

[1] Deadline Festival @Tate is being curated by London-based arts & research organisation Platform, and organised by the Deadline Festival committee and Art not Oil coalition.
[2] http://platformlondon.org/p-pressreleases/tate-forced-to-reveal-bp-sponsorship-details/

[3] See FossilFundsFree.org

[4] http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/13112015-science-museum-has-no-plans-to-renew-deal-with-shell

Hialeah sea level rise exhibit from Xavier Cortada during Art Basel, Paris Talks #artcop

ArtCOP

CLIMA features new environmental works by Xavier Cortada, as well as a broad range of earlier works by the artist–including paintings, drawings, videos, digital art and his polar installations.

The solo show will run from November 30th, 2015 through January 29th, 2016 at the Milander Center for Arts and Entertainment  4800 Palm Avenue, Hialeah, FL.  Hialeah, Florida’s fifth largest municipality, is one of the state’s most vulnerable cities:  A four-foot rise in sea level will flood 70% of the population.  During the first twelve days of the exhibit (which coincide with the Paris Talks), Cortada will convene a series of daily participatory performances and panel discussions addressing sea level rise, global climate change and biodiversity loss.

The CLIMA exhibit is presented by the City of Hialeah in partnership with Florida International University Sea Level Solutions Center (SLSC), Florida International University College of Arts & Sciences School of Environment, Society and the Arts (SEAS), the Florida International University College of Architecture + The Arts (CARTA), and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy –with special acknowledgement of the support from the Rauschenberg Residency/Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

CLIMA will feature the following works by Cortada, who serves as Artist-in-Residence for Florida International University‘s College of Arts & Sciences School of Environment, Society and the Arts (SEAS) and FIU’s College of Architecture + The Arts (CARTA):

OPENING RECEPTION:

Join us at 7 pm on November 30th for the exhibit opening and the screening of Cortada’s Five Actions to Stop Sea Level Rise film!

PANELS / PERFORMANCES
Monday, November 30th – Friday, December 11, 2015

The panels will be will be streamed live (www.cortada.com/clima/livestream).

Milander Center for Arts & Entertainment
4800 Palm Avenue, Hialeah, FL 

The daily panels  will coincide with the Paris Talks  and address global climate concerns.
During this time period Cortada will also be painting related images directly onto three solar panels onsite.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 30
6 pm panel | 7 pm reception and film screening

Sea Level Rise in Hialeah
What causes sea level rise? How will sea level rise impact Hialeah? What can be done now to prepare?

Opening Reception and Film Screening:
Film screening of Cortada’s 5 Actions to Stop Rising Seas and Awash (created during the artist’s participation in the Robert Rauschenberg Residency Rising Seas Confab 2015)

WAIST (Western Antarctic Ice Sheet Threat) Line: Using the “Eyes on the Rise” app, participants will determine their homes’ elevation, find out what the impact melting glaciers will have on their property. They will be use a blue tape to mark the WAIST (Western Antarctic Ice Sheet Threat) Line on their home.  They’ll bring photo’s of their homes’ WAIST Line of the exhibit.

Melt: Blocks of ice will melt at the steps of the Milander Center for Arts and Entertainment.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 1
10 am panel

Underwater?
Policy makers, economists, lawyers and realtors will discuss the impacts on property values and tax base as sea levels rise.  How will society confront increasing infrastructure costs (e.g., desalination plants, water pumps) as the tax base decreases?

Afloat: Participants will bring a print out of their property record (downloadhere) and make paper boats and float them in the interior fountain.

The Ostrich Game (an “imagined performance” by Xavier Cortada): Participants will emulate an ostrich’s gait as they race around a sandbox in the ballroom. Winners will step into the sandbox and shove their head in the sand, if they so choose.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 2
10 am

(Un)Healthy World
What are the implications of global climate change on human health?  The panel will discuss how environmental changes can lead to the rise of infectious diseases and alterations in the microbiome that directly affect the health of humans, animals, crops and other plants. The panel will also discuss the positive effects of nature on the human psyche and the mental health challenges brought about by environmental degradation and loss.

PsychoAnalysis of Climate Change (an “imagined performance” by Xavier Cortada): A psychoanalyst will put the patient on the couch and explore early childhood experiences that may have led to present-day dysfunction.

EnvironMental Therapy Session: Participants will engage in a group therapy session to address grief due to their (environmental) loss and focus on cognitive behavior responses to confront their daily challenges.

Eco-Medication: Participants will take a pill to make them immune from all the dangers of global climate change.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 3
10 am panel

Green Generation
How are future scientists, engineers, architects, and other thinkers going to innovate new technologies and find creative ways  to bring solar power, wind energy and new efficiencies into the mainstream of American life?  How are our schools, universities, and cultural institutions educating our future generation.

The Creative Cube: Participants will think outside the “box.”  They will then turn the box inside out and make it into a sphere.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4
10 am panel | 7 pm party

Powering the Sunshine State
What is the status of Solar Energy in Florida? What is the Solar Ballot Initiative about? What impact would widespread use of solar energy have on our state’s economy and climate?  What opportunities does clean energy bring for cost savings and job creation?

CLIMA and Cortadito (10am): Drink a cortadito brewed with our solar Cubancafetera.

Solaring (all day): Participants will come to the panel in their bathing suits, then soak the sun rays on the Milander terrace. (Note: Cabana boy will be available with sun tan lotions)
(Tirandonos) pa’l Solar (7 pm):
A party celebrating Solar Choices and Art Basel week, including live music, a Solar Petition Conga Line, and Solar fashion show featuring designs by Lea Nickless.  The event will feature Cortada’s:

SOLAR, a triptych on three solar panels in support of a ballot initiative proposed by Floridians for Solar Choice (see http://cortada.com/events/2015/SOLAR),

Painting a Brighter Future: a political/environmental performance art project, and

Sky high:  a participatory art project where participants will bring their FPL bill to make and fly paper airplanes — seeing if they can make them soar as high as their fossil fuel based utility rates.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5
10 am

Waning wilderness
How are climate change, habitat destruction and introduction of exotic invasive species changing the ecology of South Florida? What do we have to do proactively to protect our ecosystem, restore native habitats and protect our biodiversity?

Wilderness Wake: Eulogy and memorial service for the end of the wilderness.

The Sacrifice: 
Participants, including members of the Faith community, will come together in a circle and engage in an altogether different type of animal sacrifice.  Their offerings will be for animals struggling to survive across each of the Earth’s 360 longitudes.  One by one they will speak the names of 360 species on the brink of being forever removed from Earth.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 6
4:00 performance and panel | 6:00 pm Mass

Moral Nature: Faith in the face of a Global Climate Crisis
An ecumenical group will discuss the faith community’s response to environmental degradation, and particularly its impact on the poor and generations not yet born.

Longitudinal Installation:
Attendees will engage in the performance of the “Longitudinal Installation“ and record video of their “25th quote” (see http://www.xaviercortada.com/?25th_upload)

South Pole Communion:
The Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida will host several events as a faith-based response to the environmental issues highlighted in CLIMA.

South Pole Communion around the Diocese:  The 77 churches and all of the Episcopal schools of the Diocese, which stretches from the Palm Beaches to the Keys, will be given and invited to use ice the artist brought from the South Pole in their Sunday Eucharist Celebration, in a symbolic communion with an environmental message designed to resonate across the Diocese during CLIMA and the Paris Talks.

South Pole Communion (): The Right Reverend Peter Eaton, the Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese, will celebrate an environmental mass and share communion which includes ice the artist brought from the South Pole at the Milander Center following the CLIMA panel and performance.  This momentous service will be graced by the music of the Anglican Chorale of Southeast Florida, directed by Matthew Steynor.  All are invited.

MONDAY DECEMBER 7
10 am

Louder than Actions Alone
Literary community and environmental activists will explore approaches aimed at using words and actions to grow a more educated and engaged eco-citizenry.

Words | Deeds: Environmental activists and writers will meet in small groups to co-inspire each other and develop work (e.g., slogans, poems, language) to further their mutual efforts in protecting the environment.

Eco-Slam: Spoken word performances to be delivered by community members addressing climate change concerns.

Oil Change (an “imagined performance” by Xavier Cortada): Car mechanic to receive facial, manicure and pedicure at his shop.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 8
10 am

The chemicals between us
How does runoff from agriculture, our industry, our cars and our homes adversely impact our beaches, our waterways, our bay and our Everglades?

Spelling Bee: Students will be asked to spell the names of chemicals found in pesticides that are destroying pollinator populations in gardens and farms across the state.

Repentance letters: Participants will hand write a letter to Mother Nature asking forgiveness for committing an environmental error. They will end the letter by writing a sentence fifty times promising not to commit that error again: “I will not… “

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9
10 am

BeeWare
What is the impact of climate change  on Florida’s agriculture?  What are the implications for pollinators and the food industry?

The Flow (an imagined performance by Xavier Cortada): Ninety-nine mothers will nurse their babies on the edge of the water along the Miami River valley.

Flower Force: Attendees will participate in a FLOR500 “Tiled Flower Drawing” project– receiving wildflower seeds, and promising to plant a wildflower garden at home. More at www.flor500.com

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10
10 am

fresH2O
How is our fresh water supply impacted by salt-water intrusion from rising seas and over consumption due to population growth?

Moving Water:  Attendees are invited to BYOW (bring your own water) and participate in a procession. Water should be collected from the area and include a label with the following information: individual’s name, source of water (e.g., from a canal, from rainwater), date of collection, description of the site and brief explanation of one’s connection to the site or planned connection. After the procession, the water will remain as an installation at the exhibit.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11
10 am

Paris Talks | Local Action
Policymakers will discuss the politics of climate change at the local, national, and international level. They will also provide their perspective on what the future will bring based on what happened at the Paris Talks.

Trial by Jury: Does human activity impact climate change? A jury trial with battling lawyers, expert witnesses and a sitting judge will settle this answer once and for all!

OTHER PANELS / PERFORMANCES after the Paris Talks
Monday, December 13th, 2015  – Friday, January 29th, 2016
TBA

Programming for CLIMA will continue after the Paris Talks and will include the following participatory and performative works.

Attendees will engage in the performance of the “Longitudinal Installation” (http://www.longitudinalinstallation.org) and record video of their “25th quote” (see http://www.xaviercortada.com/?25th_upload)

Native Flags: Participants will bring exotic invasive plants they removed from their lawn and receive a native sapling and green flag for them to plant in that very location. www.nativeflags.org The exotic plants will be chopped and placed in a plastic cube onsite at the gallery.

Closing Reception: TBA

All work is the intellectual property of Xavier Cortada.
Copyright 2015 Xavier Cortada

www.cortada.com/clima

Clima Sponsor Bar

Jason deCaires Taylor The Rising Tide sculpture at the Eden Project | #ArtCop21 #cop21

ArtCOP, MELD

This post comes from MELD

A stunning work of art which sends a powerful message about climate change  is coming to the Eden Project on Sunday November 29 as part of Eden’s first-ever Festival of Hope.

The Rising Tide is the latest work by world-renowned sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor and forms the centre-piece of Eden’s one-day event held on the eve of the climate negotiations in Paris (COP21).

The installation depicts a series of horses with riders, referencing working animals while drawing attention to an ongoing dependency on fossil fuels and the potentially apocalyptic outcome of climate change.

Each of the horses has a different rider, either a male suited figure or a young teenager. The suited figures illustrate an attitude of denial or ambivalence towards our current climate crisis whereas the young riders represent hope in effecting future change. The sculptures provide a stark reminder of both urgency and hope.

The artwork is to be installed right in front of Eden’s Core building where the Festival of Hope takes place on Sunday (November 29). The sculptures will remain at Eden until the end of February.

The Rising Tide was first commissioned by the Totally Thames festival, which celebrated the River Thames during the month of September and was funded byLumina Prime8 and Art-Biosphere.

Eden Co-founder Sir Tim Smit said: “The Rising Tide by Jason deCaires Taylor is a fabulous work of art and we are very proud to host it here at Eden. In a world where every slight achievement is shouted into hyperbole, how refreshing it is to have a work of such beauty, power and substance come to grace our Festival.

“It feels like dare  I say a genuine homecoming to a place where thoughts about a future foretold are fired with angry muscular hope, not limp acquiescence in the face of a challenge that feels too big.

“It is now  that we have to prove that the name we gave ourselves – homo sapiens – is not a joke. It is a challenge we feel we can rise to and we thank Jason for trusting that we might rise on that tide of his imagination.”

Eden’s estival of Hope on Sunday will feature leading companies and groups who are paving the way to a low-carbon sustainable future. Appearing on the day will be the likes of electric car manufacturer Tesla, ethical clothing company Finisterre, sustainable manufacturer Interface, coffee recycler bio-bean Ltd, and others.

Coupled  with music by DJ collective Upstairs Downstairs and a selection of Eden’s favourite workshops, the festival promises to be a day of hope, and a reminder of how everyone can be part of the solution, whatever happens at the climate negotiations.

The  Festival of Hope takes place in Eden’s Core building where speakers, stalls and music will be on between 11am and 5pm.

Entrance to he event is included within the price of admission to Eden. Those who live in Devon and Cornwall can visit with a Locals’ Pass. Good Energy customers, plus one guest, can enter Eden free of charge on the day by bringing  a recent energy bill (or a welcome confirmation email) to the ticketing desk.

Twitter users who are attending can join the conversation by using the hashtags #ephopefest and #COP21. The Festival of Hope can also be found on Facebook

The post, Jason deCaires Taylor The Rising Tide sculpture at the Eden Project | ArtCop21, appeared first on MELD.
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meld is an ongoing interactive global art platform and collaborative catalyst to commission, produce and present ground-breaking and evocative works of art embedded in the issues and consequences of climate change. meld invites exceptional artists and innovative thinkers dedicated to the moving image and committed to fostering awareness and education to join us in our campaign for social change. Through a collaborative dialogue, we hope to provoke new perceptions, broaden awareness and education and find creative solutions concerning climate change, its consequences and its solutions.

meld was formed by a devoted group of individuals guided by a passionate belief in the power of art to convey personal experience and cultivate social progress. meld is inspired by the idea that when art melds into the public realm, it has the power to reach people beyond the traditional limitations of class, age, race and education and encourage public action.

Go to MELD

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ENVISION: Closing Celebration of VisionLA Fest ’15

Announcements

ENVISION, the closing celebration for VisionLA Fest ’15, is a convergence of artists, environmentalists, and concerned citizens from all across Los Angeles who believe the creativity and ingenuity of the Arts & Cultural sector can help manifest a truly sustainable future. Join us as we celebrate our collective efforts, recognize some of the artists and producers who have presented work at VisionLA Fest, and award local leaders for their passionate stewardship of our environment.

The event will feature music from DJ Jedi as well as a full installation dance / concert from Los Angeles based String Theory Productions. L.A.’s Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez will kick the evening off with an original piece. Enjoy food from Mama’s Hot Tamales, wine and beer, all INCLUDED with the price of admission.

This ZERO WASTE event is hosted by Arts Earth Partnership – authors of the first state-recognized arts and cultural green business certification program in the world, based right here in Los Angeles. Come mingle, network, and help celebrate the transformative power of the arts!

Have questions about ENVISION: Closing Celebration of VisionLA Fest ’15? Contact Arts Earth Partnership

BOOK TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/envision-closing-celebration-of-visionla-fest-15-tickets-19198593510

 

THE FESTIVAL OF CLIMATE IDEAS & FUTURECOAST BRIGHTON

news

What will the future of climate change feel and sound like?  How will people live, and how will they be affected by a climatically changed world?  How can stories from our possible futures help us to understand climate change in the present?  

As part of a global digital storytelling project about the effects of climate change, ONCA and University of Brighton Media Researchers are running FutureCoast Brighton and FutureCoast Youth – innovative projects that ask participants to imagine a range of possible futures through play. ONCA is also collaborating with the ARTS Project– an EU initiative hosted by SPRU at University of Sussex – on FutureRoots, capturing voicemails from people running extraordinary grassroots projects in Brighton.  Inspired by FutureCoast– an innovative online cli-fi game created by US-based experience designer Ken Eklund – players record their own ‘voicemails from the future’ via the FutureBooth – a specially modified phone booth (or simply call 07940 954541 to leave a message). The FutureBooth can be visited at ONCA in the weeks leading up to COP21 in Paris: there are plenty of opportunities for people to record and share ideas about the future.

FutureCoast Youth is a collaboration with Dorothy Stringer School, which aims to empower young people, and culminates in a Young People’s Climate Conference at ONCA on November 30th.

ONCA Festival of Climate Ideas: Understanding issues – making connections – engaging with solutions – celebrating positive action

Nov 30 – Dec 6 2015  

Screen Shot 2015-10-02 at 00.22.01

Daily from noon in the gallery:

  • FutureBooth: What future will you imagine today? Visitors to the gallery are invited to make a call from the FutureBooth, and leave a message from the ‘cloud of possible futures’.
  • Climate Ideas Cafe: Drop in anytime to catch up with the latest from Paris. Tea and toast, newspapers, screenings, and live links to COP21 – news, analysis and artists in Paris. Celebrating grassroots transition initiativesin Brighton and Hove. Audio/ visual installation CASCADE, a chroma.space initiative. Lounge around on the ASSEMBLE PROJECT collaborative sofa by Amelia Kidwell & Lois McKendrick.
  • Climate Chambers: In ONCA’s basement and crypt, artists Ellie Liddell-Crewe and Alexa Povey create spaces for the difficult feelings that climate change arouses.   The bedroom: Is the world that humans are making sometimes too frightening to face? Do you ever just want to make a den or hide under the duvet?   The altar: In a secular scientific culture, can prayer be a valid response to the climate crisis? What is it like to kneel and ask for help? This installation is part of Climate Chambers, a longer term investigation by Feral Theatre into climate change and mental health.
photo: Emily Cowan

Events:

Monday November 30th

From noon in the gallery: Climate Ideas Café/ Climate Chambers

11.30am -2.30pm:  Kicking off the festival, FutureCoast Youth participants will present their ideas in role as members of a conference delegation, to coincide with the COP21 UN climate convention in Paris, communicating with their audience their ideas and feelings about climate change, and what they believe should be done to address it. Futurecoast Youth climate delegation – 11.30am-2.30pm, with presentation to invited audience 1.30-2.30pm. Audio recording to be shared with Place To B, Paris.

6pm: Toll the Lost Species Bell. In a simple ritual outside the building, we will toll the newly-cast Bell on Remembrance Day for Lost Species.  For more info on this initiative see the Facebook event page. Followed in the gallery by a conversation on biodiversity and climate change.

Tuesday December 1st

From noon in the gallery: Climate Ideas Café/ Climate Chambers

6.30pm: ‘This Changes Everything’ dir. Avi Lewis. Screening by Brighton Radical Film Festival

Wednesday December 2nd

From noon in the gallery: Climate Ideas Café/ Climate Chambers

7pm: Duncan Blinkhorn, Time to Ride/ BrightonCAN in conversation with
Howard Johns, Energy Revolution.

Johns_EnergyRevolution

Howard Johns, author of ‘Energy Revolution’ is an energy engineer, entrepreneur, business leader and activist. After a formative involvement in the environmental protest movement, he set about building solutions, eventually founding Southern Solar – a national solar energy company – and Ovesco, a locally owned renewable energy cooperative. He chaired the trade body representing the UK solar industry, once again becoming a campaigner around energy policy. Howard is convinced we have all the technology and money we need to implement the climate and energy solutions we need.    Duncan Blinkhorn is a Brighton-based cycle activist and founder of Brighton Critical Mass and the Bike Train movement. He will be going to Paris as part of Time to Ride. 

8pm: Film Screening – Just Do It.

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For one eventful year, filmmaker Emily James gained unprecedented access to document the work of a group of environmental activists engaged in nonviolent direct action campaigns across England. Embedded in the activists’ clandestine activities, she captured the triumph, setbacks, secret planning sessions, and feverish passion of a group of remarkable characters. They blockaded factories, attack coal power stations, and glued themselves to the trading floors of international banks — despite the very real threat of arrest. Just Do It gives a thrilling inside look at direct action campaigns, showing how everyday people can use the tools of civil disobedience to make meaningful change.

Followed by discussion about the Climate Games/ COP21/ D12: how has the climate/ protest movement evolved since the making of this film in 2010-11? And, what are the implications of the November 15th attacks on Paris for the planned civil disobedience around the Paris summit?

Thursday December 3rd

From noon in the gallery: Climate Ideas Café/ Climate Chambers

6-8pm: Thrivability workshop with Bridget McKenzie. 

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This event is part of FutureRoots.  Bridget McKenzie is a researcher and evaluator of cultural and ecological initiatives. If you get funding, you have to do evaluation. Even if you don’t get funding, evaluation is useful to help you reflect, improve and share what works. Bridget is frustrated by standard thinking about evaluation, which either assumes economic goals for success or seeks to show that you haven’t wasted public money. Come and help Bridget develop a new, more integrated and positive framework for evaluating cultural and ecological practice. The key concept of the framework is thrivability, aiming for more generative, biodiverse, mutual and creative communities. We will explore and play with words and pictures to help us define thrivability, and discuss how we can use evaluation to better advocate and spread our practice. How might you use this new framework? How could it be improved? How could it have an impact?   Bridget McKenzie, cultural consultant, more onhttp://aboutbridgetmckenzie.wordpress.com

Please book your space here >>

8.30pm: Film Screening – Beasts of the Southern Wild (12A)

Faced with both her hot-tempered father’s fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love. Directed by Benh Zeitlen.

Friday December 4th

From noon in the gallery: Climate Ideas Café/ Climate Chambers

5-7pm: Collaborative Futures workshop with Ben and Annabelle Macfadyen.

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This event is part of FutureRoots. If you are working towards sustainability, equality and social change, or simply holding a vision of something you care about, then this hands-on creative workshop is for you. There are many possible futures. How can we acknowledge both the challenging and the positive ones, and relate to them with creativity and resilience?  How do we move towards making the Brighton and Hove we want to see, and what can we learn from each other along the way?  In this collaborative workshop we will draw from Joanna Macy’s Active Hope process and use materials to inspire us in an exploration of positive steps we can take forward. Over the two hours, we will assemble a web of ideas across the ONCA gallery, creating connections and giving shape to our visions. Annabelle and Ben are collaborative artists using performance and visual art to build community and engage with themes of social change and sustainability.  They both trained as ‘Be the Change’ facilitators and bring their shared passion for creativity and positive change from across generations as mother and son.Please book your space here >>

8pm: Cosmo Sheldrake and friends.

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Cosmo is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer whose work is concerned with play, nonsense and the sonorous environment. Cosmo composes for film and theatre and tours internationally, performing solo and with several bands including Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit, and the Gentle Mystics. Based in London, he has composed music for the Young Vic theatre and for children’s hospitals and hospices. He has released a single and an E.P. on Transgressive Records and is currently recording an album.Other acts include:

Keith Ellis and the Clarinet

Little Switch

Bar by local fermentation legends Old Tree Brewery.

Saturday December 5th

From noon in the gallery: Climate Ideas Café/ Climate Chambers

12-1.30pm and 2 -3.30pm: World Soil Day! Celebrating CCANW’s Soil Culture and Year of Soil Make a botanical garden out of cardboard. Free workshops for all ages.

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Help artist Davide Di Tarantio transform the gallery into a cardboard botanical garden complete with flowers, insects and soil microbes in celebration of World Soil Day and all things soilish. As we cut and stick, we’ll talk about how healthy soils protect climate and are the foundations for flourishing ecosystems. Come with ideas for plants or creatures you would like to make.Spaces are limited so book yours here>> 

7.30pm: Somehow by this Darkness – a solo play without words by Rachel Porter.  Actor and director Rachel Porter co-founded Feral Theatre in 2007 and devises and directs with Feral.  She has created and toured two other solo shows: Papusza and Songs for Waiting.  In Somehow by the Darkness, sexuality is explored as an ever–present influence on the soma of popular culture. Codified movements are examined, magnified, expanded and pushed to extremes.  Shadowy aspects of the feminine are given permission to emerge. A woman is gradually pulled down from the lofty mantle of her heeled strut. What happens when she meets the ground – when the earth seeps in?  What happens when the goddess calls?

Followed by bar and post-show conversation with the artist.

Sunday December 6: Climate Change Theatre Action

From noon in the gallery: Climate Ideas Café/ Climate Chambers

4pm onwards: Climate Change Theatre Action performances.

 Harrietbreen, TrygghamnaIn collaboration with NoPassport, The Arctic Cycle, and Theatre Without Borders, ONCA is delighted to be part of Climate Change Theatre Action CCTA. This is a worldwide series of readings and performances intended to bring awareness to, and foster discussion around, climate change during the months of November and December 2015, supporting COP21.  The main goal of the project is to invite as many people as possible, who may not otherwise pay attention to this history-in-the-making event, to participate in a global conversation. CCTA draws on the expertise and resources of local artists, while being global in scope and uniting multiple countries and cultures around a common issue.  As Elaine Avila, one of the co-organizers, notes, “Coming together to tell stories is one of the best ways we have to organize and educate ourselves, to feel and to understand.”  The collection of 1-5 minute plays, poems and songs by 50 writers from all six livable continents, curated by playwrights Caridad Svich, Chantal Bilodeau, and Elaine Avila has been made available to collaborators worldwide.

The Festival of Climate Ideas is part of Coming of Age, a UK-wide programme of events and exhibitions by artists and arts organisations responding to the climate change discussions that are taking place in Paris this December.

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Harrietbreen, Trygghamna

Measure
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CLIMARTE at ArtCOP21 Paris, Melbourne, New York #artcop #cop21

ArtCOP

With the support of Creative Victoria and Bank Australia CLIMARTE is curating an exhibition as part of ArtCOP21, the cultural response to the COP21 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. The artwork we have selected is an impressive video work – Counting One to Four: Nature morte by Melbourne artist Debbie Symons.

Counting One to Four: Nature morte visualises the predicted consequences of our warming atmosphere on the Earth’s biodiversity in a seven-minute video. This ground breaking work is also being screened as part of ArtCOP21 in Paris, Melbourne and New York.

By presenting Counting One to Four: Nature morte at ArtCOP21 we call on delegates and the peoples of the world to take bold and hopeful action at COP21 Paris for a safe climate and a sustainable future.

Paris: 12 November to 9 December 2015, at PRODROMUS gallery, 46 Rue Saint-Sébastien, 75011 Paris.

Melbourne: 21 November 2015, 6pm-6:30pm; then 10:00 am daily, 30 November to 11 December 2015, at Federation Square, Cnr Swanston and Flinders Streets, Melbourne, 3000.

New York: 14 September 2015, 6:30-9:00pm, Streaming Museum at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, E 47th St, New York, NY 10017.

         

From Eco-Art to Biopolitical Struggle on the Eve of COP21 – The Brooklyn Rail #artcop #cop21

ArtCOP

Here is an interesting read on ArtCOP from the Brooklyn Rail by Yates McKee:

The timing of this questionnaire is canny. It appears at a moment in which we are witnessing the daily intensification of climate crisis, the strengthening of the climate justice movement, and the radicalization of artists in the orbit of insurgent political formations over the past few years including Occupy, Rising Tide North America, and Black Lives Matter. In just a few weeks, thousands of activists will descend upon the streets of Paris to antagonistically highlight the limitations of the UN’s COP21 and advance visions of what Naomi Klein calls a “just transition” from carbon-fueled capitalist growth to a planetary commons for all informed by principles of racial justice and climate reparations. Artists will have substantial presence in these mobilizations, ranging from the neo-Situationist street tactics of Climate Games to the launch of a new coalition that includes the Natural History Museum and Liberate Tate targeting art institutions as sites for an emerging “cultural divestment” front, which in tandem with the broader fossil-fuels divestment movement recently made inroads with universities, churches, and municipalities.

Read the Full article: http://brooklynrail.org/t/11295

IMAGE: Climate Games, preparatory sketch of Tools for Action deployment at COP21 Summit, Paris, December 2015 (image courtesy of Climate Games)

ARTPORT_making waves at #COP21 UN Climate Change Conference #ArtCop21

ArtCOP

Paris, November 30-December 9, 2015
Le Grand Palais, Columbia Global Center, Le Bourget, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, École Massillon.

ARTPORT_making waves will present COP21 ARTPORT_Satellites, a series of art interventions, workshops, and panels to propose creative solutions for a more sustainable planet at COP21 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, one of the most critical conferences on climate change to date

PROGRAM

JOURNÉE BONNE BOUFFE

A DAY OF SCREENINGS, WORKSHOPS, TALKS ON SUSTAINABLE FOOD
November 30, 2015
Columbia Global Centers | Europe
Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris

10 am-6 pm

Screening of Cool Stories For When The Planet Gets Hot IV
Free and open to the public

Cool Stories IV is a collection of the winning videos from the fourth international biennial competition of short art videos and animations on climate change launched by ARTPORT_making waves. This edition focuses on food production and consumption.

12-2 pm

World Café Workshop: From Monoprix to Locavore

A workshop with students from the Columbia Undergraduate School will explore movements in France away from unsustainable foods and towards local food production that resembles Brooklyn’s farm-to-table trends. With Flore Cercellier, Associate Director, Positive Effect Consulting; Ana Islas, Project Associate, Teachers College Columbia University; and Eugenia Manwelyan, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Eco Practicum.

7-9 pm  

Panel Discussion: Creative Ingredients For A Sustainable Food System

Followed by a reception
Reid Hall
Free and open to the public

Experts from different disciplines will discuss creative solutions for sustainable food production and consumption as the world faces severe challenges due to climate change. With Corinne Erni, Co-Founder and Co-Director, ARTPORT_making waves; Eugenia Manwelyan, Co-founder and Co-Director, Eco Practicum; Maxime de Rostolan, Founder, Fermes d’Avenir; George Steinmann, Artist; Emily Dilling, Founder, ParisPaysanne.org; and Patrick L. Kinney, Director, Climate and Health Program, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University (moderator).

GEORGE STEINMANN

Symbioses of Responsibility
November 30–December 8, 2015
Le Bourget (closed to the public) and Grand Palais (open to the public),
3 Avenue du Général Eisenhower, 75008 Paris
What is an artist’s role at a political conference? George Steinmann, who works at the intersection of art, science, and politics, will answer this question at the COP21 UN Climate Change Conference and produce mind maps, drawings, and photographs which will be posted online and exhibited.

OLAFUR ELIASSON

Little Sun-Light is Life Chain
December 3, 2015, 6-8 pm
École Massillon, 2 Quai des Célestins, 75004 Paris

Private event, for press please rsvp to communication@artport-project.org

March and renewable light chain at École Massillon (since public marches are banned from the streets of Paris due to recent events, we changed the location).  Hundreds of Little Suns—small, solar-powered lamps—will be carried by children to light up the Ecole Massillon and to draw attention to the importance of low-cost, grassroots solutions. Organized in collaboration with the École Massillon.

BARTHÉLÉMY TOGUO

Bandjoun Station, Film Screening and Workshop
December 7 & 8, 2015, 12-6 pm
Espace Forum at Grand Palais, 3 Av du Général Eisenhower, 75008 Paris
Free and open to the public

Screening of the documentary “Bandjoun Station” (dir. Thierry Spitzer), about the integrated artist residency and farm created by Toguo in Cameroon, and workshops to create a collective artwork with students from the Lycée Maximilien Vox. On December 8 only, photographer Maxime Riché – founder of Climate Heroes – will conduct an introductory Climate Heroes photo workshop.

COOL STORIES IV
FOR WHEN THE PLANET GETS HOT

SCREENING and PANEL ON FOOD PRODUCTION
December 9, 2015 Doors open at 7 pm.
Screening at 7:30 pm, Panel at 8 pm.
Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, 62, rue des Archives 75003 Paris. Open and free to the public.
Reservation requested at conf-expo@chassenature.org

A screening of Cool Stories For When The Planet Gets Hot IV will be followed by a panel discussion on sustainable food production with Marion Guillou-Charpin, Director, Agreenium (TBC); Anne-Marie Melster, Co-Founder and Co-Director, ARTPORT_making waves; Kevin Morel, agronomist engineer; Maxime de Rostolan, Founder, Fermes d’Avenir; Barthélémy Toguo, artist; moderated by Anne De Malleray, Director of Billebaude, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature.

FURTHER EVENTS

Summit of Creatives, ArtCOP21
La Gaïté Lyrique, 3bis rue Papin 75003 Paris
December 1, 2015, 2:30-5 pm
Open to the public. Reservation requested under info@artcop21.com

ARTPORT_making waves Co-Founder and Co-Director Anne-Marie Melster will participate in the opening ceremony talk together with speakers like – Cynthia Rosenzweig, climatologist (GIEC, NASA), David Buckland (Cape Farewell) and others.

Summit of Creatives, ArtCOP21
La Gaïté Lyrique, 3bis rue Papin 75003 Paris
December 4, 2015, 5-6 pm
Open to the public
Face à Face with the ARTPORT_making waves artist George Steinmann who will talk about his role and responsibility as an artist at the intersection of art, science and climate change.

ABOUT ARTPORT_making waves

ARTPORT_making waves is an international curatorial practice that raises awareness about environmental issues, with a focus on climate change, through art exhibitions, video projects, residency programs, advisory and educational programs as well as collaborations linking the arts, science, and politics with the aim to inspire social and policy change. www.artport-project.org

PARTNERS

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October Green Tease Reflections #artcop21

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The Green Tease events are a monthly opportunity for people interested in arts, sustainability or both to come together and discuss various ways in which the arts can engage with sustainability issues. This month, we invited individuals to hear more about the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris and learn how art can play a role in climate change and sustainability.

For those who missed the event, we decided to sit down with our director, Ben Twist, to help us fully understand what COP is and what we can and can’t expect to see at the conference.

What the UNFCCC is COP21?

COP 21 is the 21st annual Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the UNFCCC). (Other meetings of sub-groups also take place but the COP is the main event.) The UNFCCC was adopted at the Rio (or Earth) Summit in 1992 and entered into force in 1994 once governments (rather than summit representatives) had ratified it in 196 countries. The UNFCCC is ‘broad but shallow’, in that it was deliberately made undemanding in terms of action against climate change so that nearly every country in the world could sign up to it: the aim was to get consensus. But it was quickly realised that action was necessary so a sharper-toothed agreement was negotiated in 1997 which is ‘narrow but deep’: the Kyoto Protocol. It committed countries listed in Annexe 1 (ie the developed world) to reduce their carbon emissions by 5% against 1990 levels by 2012. There was much controversy over the Kyoto Protocol (KP), at least partly because the US senate wouldn’t ratify it. Eventually in 2005 (eight years later!) it was ratified by enough countries to cover 68% of the world’s carbon emissions, which was required by the KP for it to come into force. But even that took a deal with Russia which allowed them to join the World Trade Organisation in return for their ratifying the KP – the climate change talks are all about geopolitics.

But even as the KP came into force, it was realised that time was short and a new treaty was needed for the period after 2012, when the agreement to reduce carbon emissions would run out. So the negotiations on post-2012 started in 2005 and COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 was meant to be the occasion when a new agreement would be reached. However, it ended in chaos as the parties failed to agree post-2012 targets. COP15 was marred by accusations of a lack of transparency because a last ditch deal, ‘the Copenhagen Accord’, was stitched together by the US, China, Brazil, India and South Africa then presented as a done deal to the rest of the world. COP15 was also riven with division because the rich world was focusing on climate change and carbon reduction whilst the poorer countries were saying ‘we need to develop, get clean water and electricity for the 20-25% of the world’s population which don’t have them’. They also wanted more focus on adaptation to the effects of climate change, which their people were already feeling, and more financial support to help them transition to low carbon economies.

Copenhagen; however, in my view, wasn’t a total failure, as it provoked much discussion and action – and probably the expectations before the COP had been too high (the same is true this year). In Cancun in 2010, development and adaptation was much more in focus and importantly the COP agreed a target of a maximum global temperature rise of 2°C – no target had ever been set before. It also agreed on a Green Climate Fund and technology transfer mechanisms to enable poorer countries to develop along a lower carbon pathway. And the discussions at the COPs became much more transparent and inclusive.

Since 2010, there has been much work on developing binding carbon reduction agreements in place for 2016 onwards – and this is what COP21 aims to finalise.

For anyone interested in a more detailed history of the climate change talks (and it is interesting, in a geeky sort of way), I’d recommend looking at the Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary of the most recent interim talks at http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb12644e.pdf.

What happens at a COP?

The COP aims to finish negotiations on a text which can then be agreed by all parties – the UN works by consensus rather than majority voting. In between COPs, there are ‘intercessional’ meetings at which negotiators hammer out the broad framework so that at the big meeting the details can be agreed. Before the COP, they will confirm with their governments what they can commit to at the COP and in the first week or so of the COP, they will try to finalise the text which the politicians can jet in to sign off during the ‘high level section’ which takes place towards the end of the conference. What follows is a bit of the text for COP21. The square brackets […] indicate bits of text which aren’t yet agreed. The job of the negotiators is to get rid of all the square brackets so the text is acceptable to all. As you can see, there is quite a lot of work to do.

[The Parties to this Agreement,

Pp1`Being Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, hereinafter referred to as “the Convention”,

Pp2      In furtherance] [pursuit] of the objective, [principles and provisions] of the Convention [as set out in Articles 2, 3 and 4], [including the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities^ and respective capabilities in light of different national circumstances,]]

Pp3      Recalling decisions 1/CP.17, 2/CP.18, 1/CP.19, and 1/CP 20,

Pp4      [Taking account of the [particular vulnerabilities and specific needs of][particularly vulnerable][urgent and immediate needs and special circumstances of] developing country Parties, especially [those that are particularly vulnerable, including] the least developed country (LDC) Parties[ and other Parties identified in Article 4.8 of the Convention], small island developing states (SIDS) [, small mountainous developing states] and Africa, [and the central American isthmus]][Taking full account of the specific needs and special situations of the least developed countries and small island developing states arising from the adverse impacts of climate change],

There will be separate groups working on different bits of the text in different rooms, with groups of delegations trying to work out common positions on certain areas. Every now and then, everyone will come together in the main plenary sessions to discuss where they have got to. Not much work gets done in the plenary sessions, which are very unmanageable with 196 countries all wanting to have their say (in many different languages – there is simultaneous translation always available). The action is all in the smaller groups.

Of course, it’s in the nature of negotiations that nobody cedes much ground until they have to at the very end of the process and the negotiators – who will be constantly in touch with their governments by phone – are not able to make concessions that they don’t think their Prime Ministers and Presidents will be able to get through their parliaments. In the end, only the top dogs can do the final deal. So although the plan is to get everything sorted before they arrive, it won’t happen. The politicians will fly in (and for COP21 they are being encouraged to arrive earlier than normal) and then the horse trading will start. Although the COP is due to finish on Friday 11 December, the negotiations will continue through the night until Saturday and probably Sunday, with exhausted politicians being brow-beaten and deals being done in side rooms.

What to look out for:

Here is my list of some of the important things to look out for which will be discussed and we hope agreed at COP21

  • Carbon reduction &/or adaptation targets for each country (INDCs) Will they be realistic and achievable; and will they be ambitious enough? (no, and no is the answer)
  • Increasing the ambition of the process See above
  • Adaptation (costing $150/yr (2030) – $500bn/yr (2050)) This may be one area where agreement is possible.
  • Financing for developing countries ($100bn/year from 2020) This will be provided by the rich countries. This may also be achieved, we are hearing.
  • The transition to low-carbon economies ie finance and technology transfer (ie rich countries letting poor countries have access to their new and more efficient technology at reduced rates)
  • The UN Sustainable Development Goals An interesting development is the fact that the SDGs were agreed by the UN earlier this year and they have bearing on all the development issues above. Unlike at Copenhagen in 2009, development will be high on the agenda.
  • Binding ‘legal’ commitments This is tricky, because the US Congress will be reluctant to let Obama agree to binding commitments, but the rest of the world wants them
  • Transparency Has the process been fair and transparent.
  • ‘Common but differentiated responsibilities’ This is the term in the UNFCCC which notes that although this is a joint problem, some countries (the rich ones) have the ability to put more into the pot; that some (like the UK) emitted lots of CO2 in the past which is still causing the problem; and that some (like China) are becoming big emitters although that is relatively recent.

Although the process is flawed and much criticised, I think that’s perhaps unfair. It’s an impossible task. The whole UN process is about putting the world’s collective good above that of one’s own government, one’s own people. That isn’t generally in human nature, and the UN and the UNFCCC could be argued to be an attempt to be better together than we are on our own. At a time of great individualism, that’s a great and noble thing. It’s better to try than to give up. As Samuel Beckett said in Worstward Ho (1983): ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’

The post October Green Tease Reflections appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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