Our purpose

Our purpose is to bring together people from different countries, governments & cities, companies, NGOs, faith groups, universities & schools, and friends & family in order to:

Educate each other on climate challenges and action;
Forge a sense of solidarity;
Connect with like minds; and
Catalyse action.

We will do this through mass participation and engagement centred around a virtual journey from Glasgow to Sharm El-Sheikh.

Why?

Climate Change needs to be acted on by us all; now, individually and together.

The science is indisputable, the impact of climate change is being experienced now, and levels of concern are high; and yet global emissions continue to rise. Urgent action is required.

COP26 was disappointing to many BUT it did bring together more organisations, and more people from different backgrounds, than previous COPs. We want to keep climate action at the forefront of the world's agenda and help make COP27 a success. It's a public good, it's there for us to make the most of.

Our framing of climate change is analogous to that of the UNFCCC Climate Champions; it is viewed through the critical and required outcomes of:

Net-zero: driving down Green House Gas emissions to the lowest levels possible;
Resilience: ensuring people and planet can thrive despite the inevitable increase in average global temperatures and related changes in weather patterns;
Justice: ensuring climate action is fair and inclusive; and
Circularity: designing the replacement systems we need in a truly sustainable way.

IPCC, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, publishes assessments every 8 years on Climate Change as advice to, and on behalf of, all governments. The current assessment, the sixth, has been published as 3 reports. A synthesis will be published in September. These reports have the highest level of integrity, being written and reviewed by eminent scientists worldwide: for example the second report on Impacts, Adaption and Vulnerability was contributed to by 270 experts from 67 countries.

Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, described the first report, The Physical Science Basis, published on 09/08/21, as a “code red” for humanity.
The second report, Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, published on 27/02/22, shocked many and the Secretary-General was moved to tweet: “I've seen many reports, but nothing like the new climate report, an atlas of human suffering & damning indictment of failed climate leadership. I know people everywhere are anxious & angry. I am, too. It's time to turn rage into Climate Action”.
The third report, Mitigation of Climate Change, published on 04/04/22, examines what has been promised in the past, what has been delivered, what works and what needs to be done. The Secretary-General tweeted: “the report is a litany of broken climate promises. Some government & business leaders are saying one thing, but doing another. They are lying. It is time to stop burning our planet.”

These reports are lengthy, but the key point is that the need for global, system-wide, and transformational action in the immediate term is demanded by the international scientific community. It’s real, it includes us all, and it requires urgent action.

The Virtual Journey

The journey from Scotland to Egypt will be represented by hybrid or virtual events in each of the countries on the way. This should help link COP26 to COP27, create the feeling of a journey with a specific route and length, and allow us all to benefit from a better understanding of the differences in challenges faced and solutions deployed in diverse national contexts.

**Townhall timetable**

A virtual or hybrid townhall meeting will be held in each country from Scotland to Egypt.
Each meeting will focus on the local climate challenges and solutions and have speakers and panellists from different types of organisations.
The Townhalls will be moderated by Walk2COP27 together with the local organisers and will include an update on the broader initiative including the progress participants are making.
Events will be marketed to all participants but will be public.
Each location may choose to put its own activity around these events.
Contact us if you would like to join a local working group.

Mass participation and engagement

Participants will sign up as individuals to atlasGO and then join a team (their organisation, or any other way they choose to organise e.g. nationality, or a group of friends). Participants can register with atlasGO, set up their teams, and fundraise from 1st September, but can only begin to enter the kilometres they have travelled when the journey starts i.e. the 22/09.

Organisations are typically thinking about this as a way to engage their employees and other stakeholders and can choose whether they just encourage their people to join or put their own events, activities and communication around their team.

Engagement is built across three types of activity: walk, talk and act.

Walk (run, cycle, wheelchair)

Each participant will be encouraged to walk (or run, cycle or wheelchair) as far as they can over 50 days, in their chosen locations.

Participant progress will be tracked on the platform atlasGO, trees will be planted by the Jane Goodall Institute for kilometres travelled, and team and individual leader boards will be published at the end of each stage.

The atlasGO platform enables participants to post pictures of their achievements into the feed for the entire community to see, check on individual/ team and total community progress, and chat within teams.

Talk (and listen)

All participants will be encouraged to attend the Townhalls and the Clubhouse sessions that will be run in between each Townhall meeting. They may choose to listen, participate as audience members, or lead a session. All content will be framed against the 4 critical climate action outcomes of Net-Zero, Resilience, Justice and Circularity.

The use of Clubhouse was trialled in this way during Walk2COP26 and proved a great way for participants to engage across organisations and stakeholder groups, forge solidarity and inspire each other.

Act

Participants will be encouraged to fundraise, provide input to a proclamation to be published for COP, and engage in local climate actions.

Any team or participant can set up a page on atlasGO and use that to fundraise. This will be expected from companies, but optional for all others. Funds raised will be raised for 2 international charities including the Jane Goodall Institute. If you want to raise for a different charity then get in touch.

A proclamation to the formal participants at COP 27 will be developed throughout the walk with input from participants, and then signed and delivered on completion of the walk.

Walk2COP27 is inspired by Walk2COP26.

A small group walked the 820 Kms from London to Glasgow in 26 days. We did this to inform ourselves and others on the challenges that climate change presents, the importance of COP26, and the importance of acting now - both together and individually.

On the penultimate day, we invited people all over the world to join us virtually via atlasGO. An absolute highlight.

We learnt the benefit of connecting to like minds, sharing great ideas, and forging a spirit of solidarity. We want to create that feeling again, on a greater scale, during Walk2COP27.

The plan

• Events: build panels, open registration for each event and build participation
• Walkers: recruit walkers onto atlasGO, team formation, initiate fundraising
• Continue to build Clubhouse inventory
• Marketing, media and comms: build interest on social media, initiate clubhouse sessions
• Events: execute events
• Walkers: keep walkers moving, attending events, checking into Clubhouse, fundraising
• Keep recruiting walkers, filling Clubhouse inventory
• Marketing, media and comms: promote all events, keep the spotlight on the walkers
• Build and deliver the proclamation

Our partners

We are a small core team building a coalition of partners to help maximise impact. Partners are sought who have extensive international networks, or can provide funding or resources or play another central role e.g. Tree Planting Partner like the Jane Goodall Institute. If you are motivated to get involved, then contact us now!

The Race to Resilience is the UN-backed global campaign to catalyse a step-change in global ambition for climate resilience, putting people and nature first in pursuit of a resilient world where we don’t just survive climate change shocks and stresses, but thrive in spite of them.

The Jane Goodall Institute is a global community conservation organization that inspires people to conserve the natural world we all share, and improve the lives of people, animals and the environment

The Institute is our tree planting partner, a charity beneficiary, and will encourage its community to participate

Ride For Their Lives is an international campaign to highlight the implications of climate change on health

This campaign is based primarily on hospital to hospital cycle rides and builds up to COP27

Tortoise is slow news.

We don’t do breaking news, but what’s driving the news. We don’t cover every story, but reveal a few. We take the time to see the fuller picture, to make sense of the forces shaping our future, to investigate what’s unseen.
Walk2COP27 is a community partner of Tortoise.

WiRE's mission is to advance the role and recognition of women and other under-represented groups working in the renewable energy sector.

WIRE is encouraging their network and others to participate.

atlasGO, a certified B Corp, is a digital community engagement platform that brings people together around impact and wellness

Participants will use the atlasGO platform to track their kms, chat within teams, post progress pictures and fundraise

The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce is committed to a future that works for everyone

The RSA is helping promote and coordinate events and provides access to its 30,000 community

Who we are

Walk2COP27 is an initiative of Change Drivers, a registered UK charity (#1181920). The core team is small, and consists of Sam (full time), Natasha and Laudie (part-time), plus part-time volunteers. The extended network working on this is broad and wide encompassing our partners, the in-country working groups we establish, and the organisations who want their communities to participate. Here’s some of the people who are contributing

Sam Baker

Sam has been a management consultant for almost 30 years, focussing on the intersection of business, society and the environment since 2015. He’s spending 2022 on Walk2COP27 in the hope of contributing in a small way to a better world for future generations.

Laudie Jamous

Laudie is a strong advocate of sustainability. Her main goal is to abolish energy poverty while deploying innovative clean technologies and effective strategies.

Ria Patel

Ria Patel is studying psychology at university. They are a trustee at LGBT+ Network for Change, volunteering as their Secretary and Public Relations Officer, and is a Student Trustee and the Vice-Treasurer at People & Planet, a student-led charity for social and climate justice.

Kishan's key responsibility is to help mobilize the tech sector in the run-up to COP27 as part of the WalktoCop27 initiative.His efforts aim to align the tech industry with the broader goals of COP27, fostering a collective push towards a sustainable and resilient future.