COP27 vs. Radical Collaboration
There was widespread press attention about who would show up to COP27 and who wouldn’t. But there was considerably less scrutiny about ‘how’ people showed up. Throwing together people and organisations from around the world into a crowded and noisy space can often have the effect of transforming a multilogue into a monologue. Without an alternative design for the context of hosting conversations, COPs and other global conferences risk becoming an opportunity for recycled ideas to be amplified on competing broadcast frequencies. Some who have been part of this process for years are now suggesting that we should call time on the current format of COP. Indeed, it is not just the failure of outcomes that lead to some who are challenging stubborn optimism, but also the failure of constructive dialogue.
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, who represents the World Indigenous Peoples’ Initiative, described how her plenary session was stalled because one country’s negotiation team complained that some of their delegation had stepped out of the room. With these antics, hidden away from public view in the inner chambers of COP negotiations, it is easy to become cynical. Retaining positivity on the potential for better results is conditional on a better process.
And, yet, the centres of power may also be shifting from the country negotiation tables to some of the less likely congregations at the fringes, driven by more entrepreneurial action and open collaboration. The outgoing UN High-level Climate Champion, Nigel Topping, has been one of the most effective change agents in the climate space in recent years. In guiding initiatives, like the Race to Zero, he has been a relentless motivator of activity amongst the non-state actors and continuously shines a spotlight on breakthroughs. In his closing speech at COP27, he outlined the scientific reality and the evidence of change. But, he also described the underlying driver for change: radical collaboration:
The truth is that 1.5 degrees Celsius is not a target. As Earth systems scientists remind us: 1.5 degrees Celsius is a limit. A limit anchored in physics: beyond which we unleash tipping points to hell.
[…]What gives me hope is the evidence of change […] From renewables that are now the cheapest form of electricity almost everywhere in the world to EV sales increasing over 60% each year. We’re seeing this same story of exponential transformation in sector after sector — from steel to shipping, hydrogen to cement. But we don’t see this in reports because it still flies under the radar.
[…] Momentum is driven by the power of radical collaboration, when governments at all levels, the private sector and communities unite around shared goals and shared values and share resources and unique skills and expertise to problem solve together.
Many of us instinctively know that momentum is driven by radical collaboration, and, yet, it is hard to measure in a linear system that struggles to make sense out of complex interactions. Radical collaboration (‘working together’) can only be reached by bringing together the necessary diversity of perspectives, rapidly evolving a shared purpose by openly exploring common challenges, stepping out of institutionalised roles, and participating with full presence. To thrive, ‘collaborators’ need to be given the right conditions in which to come together – disrupting embedded patterns of behaviour and encouraging exploration outside familiar comfort zones.
Not everyone in a system transformation plays the same roles in achieving ‘critical mass’. Indeed, it is often system changemakers acting as ‘critical yeast’, under the right conditions, who give energy and direction to the critical mass. Critical yeast (a term coined by conflict transformation expert, Dr. John Paul Lederach) is defined as a small group of people, in unlikely combinations, operating in new qualities of relationship.
The Climate Safe Lending Network exists to create the conditions for, and cultivate, the ‘critical yeast’ for the banking sector. By bringing together diverse and motivated participants, we’ve witnessed unlikely alliances forming, unleashing systemic transformation - often under the radar of the abundance of heralded industry ‘initiatives’. These are everyday changemakers— meeting with their CEOs to change the frame of their climate strategy, constructively challenging their colleagues on the conditions placed in their financing agreements, campaigners using data-driven evidence to influence bank lending policy reform, mobilising customer agency as a lever for change, or innovators continuously developing new ways for banks to accelerate their clients’ transitions. Individually, they can achieve a lot, but in unlikely combinations, operating in new qualities of relationship, their potential is exponential.
Collaboration beyond familiar norms is a cultural change, not a linear process. It does not have a clearly defined endpoint, when someone can ‘ring the bell’ and declare it done, nor meaningful KPIs that can track its progress. If we are ever going to reach the critical mass of breakthroughs required for a successful transition, then creating the optimum conditions for radical collaboration are indispensable.