2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Do we really want to be remembered as a generation that buried its head in the sands that fizzled while the planet burned?

Now, if you remember, in the last episode, we met our sister ship in the Canary Islands, which had been chartered by activists to sail to the climate summit, called the Conference of Parties 25, or COP25.

This would be the 25th yearly summit at which nations gather to discuss, and usually dodge responsibility, for the climate crisis.

COP25 was meant to take place soon in the Chilean capital of Santiago.

But Santiago was the battleground of a nation being reborn, and definitely could not host a summit to tackle the supernational problem of climate change.

Spain offered Madrid as an emergency backup location, and the Chileans moved the entire operation to Madrid on two weeks' notice.

World leaders, climate experts and activists are meeting in Madrid as global climate change talks kick off.

The UN Climate Summit, also known as COP25, will take place over the next two weeks.

What do you, as a collective podcast, but also as individual, you know, researchers and community organizers and advocates and activists, what are you trying to get from Climate Week? I always look at Climate Week as like this kind of grand kind of event that kind of brings around dignitaries to talk very high level about climate solutions and change and impact.

I, I don't get the community-driven emphasis from those that speak at these events, at Climate Week or at COP25 or wherever we're talking about in terms of gathering people together to talk about these issues.

And so what are you trying to get as you attend? What's your goal? What are you trying to communicate with your content while you're there? Tell me about that.

Dr. Wilson go ahead, so.

It's a declaration, so a commitment that governments sign up to, and it was developed by UNICEF and launched in 2019.

It comes off the back of COP25, which was in Paris in 2015, and the commitment to achieving or holding global warming to 1.5 degrees.

And it's a commitment by governments to include children and youth in climate action, which I'm sure you can appreciate the importance of that.

75 countries have signed up, five of them are in the Pacific and Vanuatu, which was signed by the Minister for Climate, Minister Ralph Regan Banu signed just last week as the fifth country in the Pacific, which is terrific.