CoP27 Students’ Workshop – Instruments of Hope

On Thursday 10 November, the Edmund Rice Office, England, assisted by Edmund Rice
International, Paul Turner from the Ministry of Eco Education and Youth Climate Activist
Niamh Purcell from Ardscoil na Mara, Ireland hosted a workshop for students on CoP27
entitled ‘Instruments of Hope.’ The intention was to explore the CoP process, its goals and
how we can engage with the CoP as a community of young people.

We took inspiration from Pope Francis’s words that urge our young people to be ‘instruments of hope’
for positive change in care for the Earth and for one another. We looked at translating feelings
of hopelessness and exasperation around the climate crisis into activism and creating a
wave of positive behaviour change through both modelling sustainability and bringing our
communities with us by showing examples of a greener, fairer less consumer-led world.
The invitation went to Edmund Rice schools globally but also to other Catholic Religious
Order schools through the ROE organisation. As a result, we had upwards of 60 schools
attending, representing 4 continents, 9 countries with students from both primary and
secondary settings. Joining our Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders community we had
schools from the Loreto, Salesian, Sacred Heart, Sisters of Charity and FCJ networks. We
heard from attending groups in a variety of ways; 4 schools presented a country briefing
which outlined the effects of climate change in their countries, how they are mitigating
against these effects and adapting to their changing climate. This information can be found
from www.climateactiontracker.org. Thanks go to CBC St John’s, Cape Town, South Africa,
St Anselm’s College, Wirral England, St Vincent’s High and Technical School, Asansol India
and Stella Maris College. Montevideo in Uruguay for their excellent statements read by
Ande, Tom, Kripa and Lucas.

Students used interactive whiteboards on zoom to share sustainability actions their schools
had been taking and they also completed a pre-workshop questionnaire. Very interesting
comments and questions were also communicated via the chat facility.

To accompany the workshop, students had a workshop guide where they could write in the
information they learned, a Padlet of extra background facts and lobbying materials.

Students were challenged to think globally and act locally; to lobby their parliamentary
representatives that day, to use social media and communicate their responses and
demands around the decisions required at CoP, to stop being one person and join other
campaigners and of course to take steps with their own community leaders and hold them
to account to make real changes and adopt more sustainable practices. A pledge is available
to download and adopt in schools.

Brother Kevin Cawley cfc opened the conference showing examples of fantastic young
climate activists, Ann Nichols demonstrated the CoP process and the current goals, targets
and shortfalls. Paul explained how positive language and demonstrating positive change can
be much more effective than telling people what not to do, Niamh shared her great
experience of how climate activism can work effectively in a school context.

Both students and staff reported having learned a lot, were inspired to take action and
gained an understanding of how to take that action.
One Voice for Earth Justice!

Our Padlet can be accessed here.