The COP26 Global climate talks in November will shape how governments respond to the climate crisis. The COP26 Coalition have organised a global day of action on Sat 6 Nov, which brings together movements form across the world to build power for system change, including indigenous movements, frontline communities, trade unions, racial justice groups, youth strikers, landworkers, peasants, NGOs, grassroots community campaigns, feminist movements, faith groups – to name a few.

For this Friday talk, we’ll be re-sharing Zoe Rasbash’s talk, 'A Creative Just Transition?' which demystifies the role of arts and culture in a just transition by exploring the fundamentals of what that strategy could look like. She will trace the history of a just transition, a term rooted in solidarity, and explain how the arts are as important as science in this transformational process.

A just transition describes the transformation to a green and equal society, leaving no one behind. Popular with policymakers, it’s lauded as a key tool for building a fair, climate-neutral economy. While this will require scientific and economic innovation, we must acknowledge environmental challenges are, in fact, often cultural at their root.

A true societal transformation needs a shift in the values and norms which underpin how we live. Arts and culture are uniquely placed to kickstart this, but to do so, those working at the intersection of culture and climate need to get serious. Beyond ‘raising awareness of climate change’, we need a bottom-up cultural strategy which centres inclusion and emotion at the heart of climate work.

Zoe Rasbash is climate justice organiser, writer and currently, a researcher at Watershed, working to co-develop a framework for climate action for the creative sector in the South West.

Find your local COP26 Coalition hub here.

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