Cafe Conversation - What does Copenhagen mean for us and our practice?

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Comment by Belina Raffy on January 13, 2010 at 8:42am

Sorry guys - would love to be there but ironically I am now delivering a sustainability workshop now on the 26th. Sounds like some brilliant people are going. Enjoy! Please post a discussion about what happens.
Best wishes,
Belina

Comment by Penny Walker on January 13, 2010 at 9:14am

A great shame that we won't see you there, but you're right - there are some very interesting people coming along, in addition to Bruce who has RSVPd here.

Hope your workshop goes well!

Best wishes

Penny

Comment by Penny Walker on January 19, 2010 at 9:46am

What do we make of Copenhagen?

Here are some contrasting views, first a commentary on what went wrong, from the BBC’s Richard Black with – as Bruce Nixon says -

“some interesting news of tectonic shifts in the international relations between countries which need time to digest.”

Richard’s analysis?

1. Key Governments do not want a global deal.
2. The US political system.
3. Bad timing.
4. The host Government.
5. The weather.
6. 24-hour news culture.
7. EU politics.
8. Campaigners got their strategies wrong.

Next, something to cheers us up. Forwarded to me by Dave Sharman, this quote comes from the blog of Roger Harmer.

“For three days, the mayors and leaders of a hundred major cities discussed the challenges of climate change, their ideas, plans, projects and responses and their shared focus on action and delivery.

At no point did anyone question the need for urgent action or question their own individual – and shared – responsibility and there was a quite remarkable lack of competing, showboating or criticism.

There was no carping about the levels of adopted targets or about who was at what stage – even though Copenhagen plans to be carbon zero by 2025 and Los Angeles daren’t mention what their carbon emissions are likely to be 25 years later!…

This looked and felt like a team!”

Who’s coming?

As well as the people who have RSVPd on the AMED site, we are expecting people who:

* cycled part of the way there raising funds for adaptation projects and delivered pledges from a 350 event in his home town;
* helped set up a sustainable tourism and education project in Nicaragua;
* wrote a book on sustainable business and is currently writing another;
* set up a consulting practice around sustainable development, and whose teenaged daughter went to Copenhagen;

Perhaps you’ll be there too?

What’ll we talk about?

The purpose is to share reflections and perspectives on what the outcomes of Copenhagen were, and what they mean for us and our practice as consultants, facilitators, organisational developers and the various other hats we wear.

Comment by Penny Walker on January 20, 2010 at 8:56am

Hi Sue

Glad you're coming along. Really looking forward to hearing about Issy's experiences as part of the Youth delegation to Copenhagen.

Penny

Comment by Penny Walker on January 20, 2010 at 8:57am

Hi Marc

Sorry you won't be joining us - hope your work goes well.

Warmly,

Penny

Comment by Caroline Coyle on January 22, 2010 at 9:37am

Sounds as though there are some very interesting people coming - I look forward to seeing you then.

Comment by Penny Walker on January 22, 2010 at 10:21am

Hi Caroline

Very glad you're coming along too! See you then.

Warmly

Penny

Comment by Penny Walker on January 26, 2010 at 9:14am

Thanks very much to everyone who came along to this event: Nazreen, John, Caroline, Peter, Maggie Jo and Fiona.

Thanks also to Bruce, Belina, Tony, Dave and Gerald who had hoped to come, but whose competing commitments kept them away - thanks for letting me know.

We enjoyed the relaxed, convivial surroundings of the Rising Sun again, and plan to hold some longer more structured event / workshops there, in their upstairs room.

We structured our conversation around four questions:
- What brings you here today?
- What did come out of Copenhagen?
- What does it mean for ourselves and our practice?
- What next?

There were a couple of key points which really struck me in the conversation - others will add their own perspectives.

* What did come out of Copenhagen?

We had a range of views from anger and disappointment, to optimism and satisfaction. The politicians let us down, but this was only to be expected. The processes leading up to Copenhagen, and going on around it, were the things that really mattered.

* What are the implications?

The key thing that struck me was the sense that wheras a few years ago, mentioning climate change as a key consideration in client work might have seemed eccentric and illegitimate, doing so now would not be surprising or strange: Copenhagen has made climate change a legitimate agenda item in all our client work.

* What's next?

There was an appetite to network more, perhaps through an action learning set (face to face or virtual). There was energy to explore bilateral possibilities, complementing each others' strengths. There was a proposal that Fiona might run a workshop sharing and taking us through exercises from Joanna Macy's work on despair and reconnection.

I hope Peter, Maggie Jo and Nazreen will join this site, so that e-conversations can continue.


Thanks again to the staff at the Rising Sun.

Comment by Penny Walker on January 26, 2010 at 9:15am

Oh, and Marc of course who also wasn't able to come.

Comment by Fiona Ellis on January 27, 2010 at 5:17am

Great to meet everyone and reconnect with AMED and the network. A sense of its good being able to share interests and aspirations to work in this area, and frustrations with how to communicate to the sceptics.Agree that the issue has really moved so that we can now recognise a lot of consultancy and work in organisations on these issues- but we may still need to improve clients' understanding of the value of our change and leadership development skills in the sustainability arena.Thanks to Penny for setting up and facilitating and very happy to do a Joanna Macy session in feb/ march.

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