Last week I had the honour of attending the Climate Action Leadership Summit hosted by Royal Roads. This was an especially important week for me as it marked the end of my 2.5 years completing the Masters of Climate Action Leadership program, and I was extremely lucky to have the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishment with my professors, mentors, and many in my cohort in person after two long years working in a virtual environment.
The summit itself focused on Climate Leadership in its various forms, including decolonizing solutions (as per an incredible panel featuring Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Clayton Thomas-Müller, Lori Saunders, Chevaun Toulouse, and Dr. Shauneen Pete), relational accountability (led by Dr. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti) and even through art via a collaborative painting project led by Dr. Bruno de Oliveira Jayme. Two full days in-person also provided space for and facilitated deep and often difficult conversations regarding our individual roles as leaders facing the wicked problem of climate change.
I was also privileged to view poster presentations given by my cohort and present my own final poster presentation to my cohort and others who assist with facilitating the Climate Action Leadership program. The breadth of knowledge that was displayed throughout those poster presentations was extremely impressive, and I have to say I was incredibly proud of how far we have all come within the program over the last two years. In many ways, we have all emerged as climate action leaders within our specific fields, and though we may not always feel this way, the poster presentations were proof of all the hard work and passion we are bringing from this program into the real world.
There were many inspiring and important moments to be gleaned over the week, but personally, I found the webinar titled Indigenous Climate Action: Decolonizing Solutions led by Eriel Tchekwie Deranger to be incredibly encouraging, even as she spoke to us all the way from a rather bleak feeling (at that time) COP28.
In an exercise I found extremely powerful from the in-person portion of the Summit, the facilitators asked us to consider our own fears, compensatory desires, and entitlements, and consider which of these we could hospice on our way to becoming leaders. The term ‘hospice’ was described to us as “gently letting go of”, or “composting that which no longer serves, helping it to die well while cultivating the space for something different to emerge” (Climate Action Summit, 2023). This exercise has stuck with me, and I find I am asking myself this question often in the days since the summit. It was suggested that this concept might be a practice that we cultivate, one that allows us to evaluate qualities that might no longer be serving us and the communities we work within.
Overall, I felt the Summit was incredibly well organized, and was thoroughly impressed with the facilitators, who were able to hold space both in person and virtually during difficult conversations and while asking us to consider important questions about our own work within this space. It was incredibly rewarding to be in a room filled with so many passionate and dedicated professionals, all working to tackle the issue of climate change from so many different perspectives. Holding space with these individuals, listening to their fears and triumphs and struggles was one of the most enriching things about the Summit, and I made many connections that I hope to foster in the coming months and years as I move forward as a climate leader.
I look forward to next year’s Summit and to seeing how the MaCAL program develops as it becomes a staple of the School of Environmental Studies at RRU!
References:
Climate Action Summit. (2023). Fears – Compensatory Desires – Entitlements [handout]. Royal Roads University.
Deranger, E., Thomas-Müller, C., Saunders, L., Toulouse, C., Pete, S. (2023). Indigenous Climate Action: Decolonizing Solutions [webinar]. Royal Roads University. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpCJ4MEOgSs&t=20s