COP OF PLENTY

This year’s UN Climate Conference had peaks and valleys, but Blue Planet Alliance is better poised than ever to help islands implement transitions to 100% renewable energy.

As critics weigh in on the overall efficacy of COP27, the results have been mixed. Yes, there was an historic agreement made about the Loss and Damage Fund — resources specifically for developing nations vulnerable to the climate crisis, and a fund which many thought would never even come into existence. But many see the results as toothless and unenforceable.

For Blue Planet Alliance (BPA), however, COP27 was an inarguable success, the culmination of a year on the road, working to help islands transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045.

*Blue Planet Alliance team with Tuvalu Ambassador H.E. Samuelu Laloniu at COP27*

BPA spent much of the year making great inroads with island nations and territories, arming them with the information, the ambition, and the resources they need to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045.

BPA was in Palau for the Our Oceans conference in April, where Palau announced it would make the leap toward 100% renewable. Similarly, in Lisbon for the UN’s World Ocean Week in June, and in New York in September during UNGA, BPA developed into a key player in four UN SDG areas: SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy); SDG 13 (Climate Action); SDG 14 (Life Below Water); and SDG 17 (Partnerships).

*Blue Planet Alliance Director of Global Outreach Francois Rogers with Palau President Surangel Whipps, Jr. at COP27*

The table was set for COP27, and by the time the event in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh had concluded, BPA looked back at an ambitious and wildly successful 2022 in which it had:

Hosted or co-hosted 40 key thought-leadership discussions on climate impact
Seen its MOU partnerships campaign balloon to over 60 organizations, including Arizona State University, Dr. Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue, and Fabien Cousteau’s Proteus Ocean Group
Launched a global youth ambassador program in four countries/jurisdictions (with 24 ambassadors to date), and
Officially launched the “Blue Planet Climate Agreement” during COP27, signing Tonga and Tuvalu as inaugural BPA Member States.

The latter achievement is the beginning of an ambitious effort BPA is rolling out, to bring more and more island states into our alliance. The planet needs to wean itself off fossil fuels or face irreversible climate consequences — but without the ambition and the drive and the messaging about the need to do so, it just won’t happen. So officially signing two UN Member States into the Blue Planet Climate Agreement is just the beginning of a movement in which we have begun talks with scores of other island states, which could help move the needle on climate action.

BPA is hardly alone in this line of thinking. In fact, one of the most vocal and visible figures drawing attention to this development was one of just seven women leaders (out of 110) present at the conference. And her nation is tiny Barbados, the Caribbean island of just 166 square miles and a population of 287,000.

But Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, has become a trusted warrior for the Global South. She has led a charge that many have recognized — growing recognition that the World Bank and the IMF need to re-envision what it means to loan capital to developing countries, so they are not saddled with crushing debt and so that they can actually implement the necessary infrastructure to help achieve the global goals around climate.

Without the capital to pay for it, not only will these countries never be able to achieve their goals, but neither will the planet. And so it is in everyone's best interest to accelerate that capability.

This is part of the Bridgetown Agenda, named after the capital of Barbados and overseen by Mottley. And this was a key factor leading to the most noteworthy achievement of COP27: the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund, signed in the closing hours of the conference.

And this all creates interesting opportunities for organizations with climate solutions, who can stand ready to suggest and implement those solutions once the capital is received.

*Blue Planet Alliance founder Henk Rogers speaking at COP27*

Blue Planet Alliance (BPA) is doing just that, particularly evidenced by signing the Blue Planet Climate Agreements with Tonga and Tuvalu. With the momentum from COP27 to create an infrastructure for lasting change, BPA is poised to aid with the ambition of helping to meet these lofty goals and secure a 100% renewable energy future.

Tonga Leads the way

Power Surge