“Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.”
Rumi
“There is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.”
Amanda Gorman
Three years ago I wrote a blog on why I felt optimistic about COP 26. It was something I did for myself. Something I needed to process what the soul work I was doing in my personal life meant for my professional life. It was inevitable that my goal to become one percent better every day through daily meditation, mindfulness and walks in nature alongside attending workshops, working with coaches and so much reading would spill over to my work. It was in fact, part of the reason I worked so hard at it; to make bigger change in the world. But it was also a hugely vulnerable act as it was the first time I revealed publicly the beliefs that underpin how I live my life.
Like many, I believe that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I also believe that we get to decide what that human experience looks like. One of the ways we create our reality is by imagining the future we want to call in. Another is by focusing on all the good, all that’s going right in the world, with a gratitude practice, amongst other tools. And there is a lot of good in the world.
But if I’m honest, some of those prompts to focus on the good can also be confusing because I’ve spent my career working on Loss and Damage, the policy agenda focused on the manifestation of a failure to act when we first had the opportunity to do so. Instead we buried our heads in the sand. Well, some did. Others didn’t have that luxury.
Climate change has both arisen from inequality, with its roots in colonialism, and exacerbated inequality between countries in what we call the Global North and Global South. Delayed action to address climate change on the part of what we refer to in the UN process as “developed countries” has caused so much suffering. So much needless suffering, particularly in the countries least responsible for climate change. Households, communities and countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis are bearing its costs, both in economic and non-economic loss and damage.
The sad reality, one we’re all too familiar with as folks working in this space, is that it doesn’t have to be like that. We can mobilise trillions to address climate change. Developed countries have the tools to mobilise finance at the level of the needs. Yet they don’t deploy them. And now loss and damage has come to their doorsteps too.
Each day we are bombarded with stories from the frontlines as climate related loss and damage increases in frequency and magnitude. But more and more I’ve focused on all the beautiful moments in which the inherent goodness of humanity reveals itself each and every day. And the more good I expect, the more good I see. That’s the beauty of programming our reticular activating systems.
A few weeks after I wrote that first blog, at COP 26 developing countries came together to call for a Fund on Loss and Damage. While the Fund didn’t get created, a group of philanthropies stepped forward to dedicate 3 million USD to efforts to address loss and damage.
I wrote again about why I felt optimistic about COP 27 weeks before the Fund was established and again at COP 28 weeks after my mentor (and many of yours also) Saleemul Hug passed away unexpectedly. At COP 28, the Fund was operationalised at the start of the opening plenary
Now I want to be clear that I’m not saying that I created those outcomes. Developing countries had been working tirelessly behind the scenes for 30 years to call for more focus on Loss and Damage. I also want to be clear that all of those developments are profoundly short of what is required to address the needs on the ground. To celebrate incremental change when we need transformation feels hollow. It feels and is offensive to those on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
We must do more. But in order to create the kind of world we all want to live in, one in which all humans, all other species and all ecosystems are thriving on a healthy planet, we must remember who we are: one human family. Each of us is connected, not just to one another, but to everything around us.
Yet, with everything going on in the world, it seems like we’re moving in the opposite direction. Farther away from each other. As I write this there are dozens of armed conflicts waging across the globe. Over the last year more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2 million displaced. Approximately 1200 Israelis were killed in the attack that started the conflict and 1 million have been displaced since then as the conflict has expanded to Lebanon with more deaths expected as the conflict continues to escalate.
Meanwhile, over the past year and a half civil war has waged in Sudan, killing thousands and displacing an estimated 11 million people. Millions are being pushed to the brink of famine worldwide due to conflicts, climate change impacts and economic and political crises.
The other day I was making small talk with someone and one of the conflicts waging in the world came up. This person said to me, “I know how this ends.” The implication of their words was something I didn't want to contemplate. Yet I didn’t counter their argument with my own. Because I too know how it ends. It ends in the only way that anything can end, which is In coming back to love. Because love is the only thing that’s true. But how many more lives need to be lost, how much more loss and damage will manifest before we stop running away from that truth?
The reality of predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which once felt like far off possibilities, are now day to day realities. As I write this, Spain has just finished three days of mourning after flash floods left 158 people confirmed dead and many more lives feared lost. Warmer sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic culminated in stronger and more intense hurricanes this year with devastating effects on countries in their path.
In September more than 200 people died in floods in Nepal. Across Southern Africa nearly 68 million people have been affected by drought with Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe most affected. These are just a few examples of how climate change is wreaking havoc on communities and countries across the globe, with those least responsible most affected and with those vulnerable and least resourced bearing the greatest cost of loss and damage.
It’s easy to feel hopeless and sometimes I do. I can’t imagine what it's like for those truly on the frontlines of the climate crisis who live on the brink of survival. But I also know this: Climate change is presenting us with an opportunity to come back to one another. Disconnection got us here. The creation of the other fuelled colonialism and it sustains wars. Only connection will enable us to forge a path to a different world.
However, we’ve got some work to do to get there. To come back to one another we must grapple with how we have hurt one another, some more than others. Because, as I wrote above, climate change was fueled by colonialism which was enabled by the creation of the other. Developed countries must reckon with their past wrongdoings and then right those wrongs. To get to the world we want, we’re all going to have to feel that pain. And that’s going to be hard at first. I know this from personal experience.
For a very long time I was in a “good vibes only” mode. I pushed away anything that I labelled as negative, anything that felt uncomfortable. I thought that if I let myself sit with anything that didn’t feel “good”, I would create more of that in my life. But numbing out to the emotions I labelled as “bad” - like sadness and frustration - also numbed me to “good” feelings like joy and excitement. Then last year I took a course that introduced me to the power of alchemising emotions. I learned that when you push something down and don’t let yourself feel it, it then makes a home in your body wreaking all kinds of havoc. But when you feel the feelings you can transform them into something powerful.
In pursuit of wholeness and living a life that allows for the full spectrum of emotions and experiences, I’ve been letting myself feel things that are uncomfortable for over a year now. That looks like allowing and sometimes forcing myself to sit with feelings like sadness and then letting them move through my body. And what I’ve discovered is that if I sit with those feelings long enough and let them be without judgement, beyond them is invariably something beautiful: a peaceful, calm feeling of limitlessness.
Climate change is evidence of a collective numbing to the things we don’t want to feel. It’s proof that we’ve become disconnected, not only from the hearts of others, but also our own hearts. But there’s a movement underfoot to come back to one another in so many spaces and so many places. And that gives me hope that we’re moving towards a better future at a pace that is escalating.
As I write, the US election is underway. Today is the final day of voting. By the time you read this you will know the results. Today things are still in limbo but I feel so hopeful. Because over the past few weeks I’ve seen so many people across social media platforms stand up for connection. I’ve read so many posts that championed love over hate. Many people have also acknowledged that no matter what the outcome of the election, there is a lot of work to do to bridge divides and heal as a country. This is not just true for citizens of the United States, but also for the global citizenry.
Over the next two weeks we have an opportunity to start that global healing process. How can we do that? Well, in the wise words Dolly Parton:
“We can't just hope for a brighter day, we have to work for a brighter day. Love too often gets buried in a world of hurt and fear. And we have to work to dig it out so we can share it with our family, our friends, and our neighbours.”
We’re all going to have to work for a brighter future. To do so we’ll need to get out of our heads and be guided by the wisdom of our hearts. Those of you in Baku for COP 29 will need to look for love, to dig it out from where it’s hiding in the crevices and bring it out into the light. Folks representing developed countries are going to have to look into their hearts and do what’s right. And what’s right is a new collective goal on climate finance that’s aligned with the needs, which means mobilising the trillions. In the corridors, you'll need to seek out connection with others and listen, really listen, to their stories. Figure out what love looks like, what love does, and do more of that.
If we do that, if we find our way back together, we can ensure an outcome of COP 29 that puts us back on a path towards creating the kind of world we all want to live in. The kind of world we want for future generations. We started that work last year in the Majlis, a high level meeting with a fireside chat like format, convened by the COP 29 president, Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, during COP 29. In that conversation Parties opened their hearts more than ever before in a public setting.
What I know for sure is that we’re on the right track. Increasing calls from folks of all walks of life and in all parts of the world to come back to love are building momentum and driving change. I have faith in us, the global humanity, the human family, that we will find our way back to ourselves and to each other. And I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together at COP 29 to take better care of one another.
Erin Roberts is the founder and global lead of the Loss and Damage Collaboration. She believes in the power of love and that humans are hardwired to connect to one another, a fact that the Loss and Damage Collaboration is built on.
