For many, the advent of the 29th UN Cop has elicited as much despair as hope – especially with the long shadow of the US election result darkening proceedings. Add in the grim irony of its setting in Baku, Azerbaijan – capital city of a petrostate maxing out on fossil fuel production – and it didn’t take a no-show by Greta Thunberg to conclude (to paraphrase Kafka) that there’s hope … but not for us.
Yet there’s a new kid on the block, the GFCBCA – one more acronym to add to proceedings already blighted by alphabet soup. The Group of Friends of Culture-Based Climate Action is an initiative by a series of states seeking “a place at the table” for culture in the final conference statement. Sorry guys, I’m not holding my breath.
It’s easy to be cynical about Cop-culture. But these summits are the only game in town for global collective action so the GFCBCA initiative is welcome, even if its manifesto offers some pretty meagre rallying cries. “Scaling up culture- and heritage-based strategies for enhancing adaptive capacity” hardly makes the heart sing.
