Marching, Talking, and Dancing: Climate Week NYC 2023 Recap
A frenetic week of climate activism and thought leadership demonstrated the commitment to halt planetary warming — and ended with a blowout dance party
During the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), there were speeches by 195 leaders inside UN headquarters, ranging from (the shortest) 7 minutes, 10 seconds, by Libya’s Youth Minister to (the longest) a hefty 37 minutes, 46 seconds, by Burkina Faso’s Minister of State.
March to End Fossil Fuels
But the most important voices of UNGA came from outside the UN, where, among 400 events, more than 75,000 loud protestors assembled for the March to End Fossil Fuels. That march — for which Blue Planet Alliance was a partner, and contributed almost 100 signs distributed to the assembled — was the “largest climate mobilization since the start of the pandemic.”
The march was perhaps the most newsworthy event of the week, part of the annual Climate Week NYC, a gathering that coincides with UNGA every year to put a focus on the climate issues that existentially threaten human life on the planet. Leaders from civil society, NGOs, and other citizens host their own events all over New York as the world leaders assemble on First Avenue (at UN HQ), amplifying the concerns of those who recognize the threat that climate change poses for us.
And that march was exemplary of what needs to be done now, as the future of the planet hangs in the balance.
Blue Planet Alliance’s Global Youth Ambassador Dinner and Reception
On Monday, the first day of Climate Week, Blue Planet Alliance put the focus on next-gen leadership, convening many of our almost 30 ambassadors in a celebratory dinner. Each ambassador got to share with the group what they are doing in their home country, including research in Trinidad and Tobago, turning the highly invasive sargassum seaweed into biofuel (Kneyone Murray), to projects in Barbados (Ashley Lashley) looking for solutions related to food insecurity and solid-waste management issues driven by climate change.
Up2Us 2023: A Better World is Possible
After the dinner, the team headed over to the New York Society for Ethical Culture’s annual Up2Us forum, featuring some of the biggest names in climate activism. Project Drawdown’s lead scientist Dr. Kate Marvel gave a keynote, then interviewed two incredible young leaders: Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the highly influential Sunrise Movement and 2019 TIME Magazine Next Gen Leader, and Wawa Gatheru, founder of Black Girl Environmentalist and Rhodes Scholar. Also giving their insights and leadership were Sage Lenier, founder of Sustainable and Just Future and 2023 TIME Magazine Next Gen Leader; and legendary climate activist and writer Bill McKibben. Blue Planet Alliance partner Brooklyn Story Lab’s Lance Gould handed down the Covering Climate Now Best Documentary Award to the producers of the South Korean film “Dystopia in Seoul,” and then interviewed Blue Planet Alliance founder Henk Rogers, who shared his vision for leading a bottom-up approach to ending the use of carbon-based fuel. “I don’t have hope,” said Rogers in a fiery talk. “I have determination!”
GF23 Global Futures Conference
Rogers and Blue Planet Alliance Global Ambassadors Kneyone Murray from Trinidad and Tobago and Rigoberto Amaya from Panama took the stage on Tuesday, as part of the GF23 Global Futures Conference at the Javits Center. Convened by Blue Planet Alliance partner Arizona State University’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, the conference brought together leaders from the public and private sectors, science and academia, Indigenous communities and youth from around the globe, “to actualize bold steps for governments, corporations, and multilateral institutions to push the boundaries of discourse on how we can — and must — act to save our planet.”
Blue Planet Alliance’s Jeffersonian Dinner
Another highlight of the week was Blue Planet Alliance’s Jeffersonian Dinner, which brought together leaders from Pacific and Caribbean islands with other experts to raise climate ambition and confer on matters in which the jurisdictions faced similar challenges. Among those challenges are that the citizens on these islands all over the world are the most vulnerable to — and yet the least responsible for — the climate change that imperils their future.
Blue Planet Alliance Climate Impact Talks
The week culminated in Blue Planet Alliance’s blowout event, “Climate Impact Talks” at the Hard Rock Hotel near Times Square. The evening was split, with a few hours of thought leadership followed by some mesmerizing musical performances.
The program started with a panel featuring the work of Blue Planet Alliance Global Ambassadors, and then shifted to a panel featuring five CEOs from Alliance member organizations committed to social good: Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, PYXERA Global, RecycleGo, the Global Warming Mitigation Project, and Brooklyn Story Lab. The CEOs focused on SDG17, Partnerships, and how collaboration can expedite our overcoming our biggest planetary challenges. This point was driven home later in the program when Henk Rogers signed new partnership agreements with Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, Greening the Islands, and PYXERA Global, bringing the total number of Alliance members to more than 100.
There were presentations from other amazing BPA partners, like Peace Boat US (which has an innovative plan for changing tourism), Greening the Islands (which promotes self-sufficiency and sustainability of islands worldwide), and the University of Guam (which hosts an influential island sustainability conference every year).
And the program’s thought leadership concluded with a keynote by Henk Rogers and a fireside chat between Rogers and Kiribati’s UN Ambassador Teburoro Tito, a charming storyteller who shared the granular details of how citizens on his island are impacted by the ravages of climate change (including how king tides contaminate the 33 low-lying islands’ limited fresh-water supply). Ambassador Tito, wearing a tie imprinted with the words “Be Loving,” also shared a story about why the islands of Kiribati is actually pronounced “Kiribas” — and it boils down to a Boston missionary with a faulty typewriter.
There was also a preview of what Blue Planet Alliance will be conducting in October. Our Executive Director Francois Rogers outlined the BPA Fellowship program that will be taking place in Hawaii, bringing together three or four delegates from eight island jurisdictions (from Palau to the Cayman Islands) — all courtesy of Blue Planet Alliance — to give them a one-week course in how we helped Hawaii pass a legislative mandate to transition away from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy. Twice a year, we’ll continue to bring a new cohort of 30-some delegates from another eight countries and territories, and slowly build a movement that brings us closer to ditching dirty energy.
The evening — and the frenetic week of more than 400 total events, far too many to mention here — concluded with musical performances by renowned acoustic singer-songwriter John Cruz (from Maui, which was notably devastated by climate-induced wildfires this past summer) and internationally recognized DJ Jez Pereira, who lit the dancefloor ‘til the wee hours of the morning.
