Are we all just fighting fires?

As COP29 Baku kicks off, know that climate solutions aren't created by people pumped up on adrenaline and caffeine!

As COP 29 proceedings kick off in Baku today, it is with a wicked sense of irony that I launch Climate Calm, a home for healthier climate conversations. For a climate professional, policy nut, or anyone with a sense of personal investment in the future it is probably the least calm two weeks of the year. The stakes have never been higher, and the time for global cooperation is now.

This COP (Conference of Parties) needs to close the gap between science and politics. Because the last one didn't. In Dubai last year Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the scale of pledges made, collectively fell far short in the level of ambition needed to limit global temperature rise to anywhere near 1.5 degrees. The gap stands at about two thirds.

For those who care, it is easy to internalise a sense of urgency, that what you do will never feel like enough. Fighting fires all of the time, as we grasp for one initiative after another. People ask, are you an optimist? Perhaps. But blind-positivity feels incongruous with the reality of the situation. Pessimism however is a slippery slope to inaction and overwhelm.

More likely I am a human with complex emotions. As a professional I worked with teams of passionate people running around putting out fires, with our clients doing the same. Then we would sit down at 3pm after hours of back to back con-calls and wonder why our solutions orientated workshop wasn't going so well. It's probably not what anyone at COP wants to consider right now, but climate solutions aren't created by people pumped up on adrenaline and caffeine.

So whatever you are doing right now, stop. Take a breath from your diagram. Yes, actually do it. Push your belly out as you breathe in through your nose, and let is sink back as you breathe out through your mouth. It only takes 3-5 breaths. You never know, it might give you a new perspective, and remind you what is important before you launch into the next task. Our you might just feel, for a moment, that little bit better. Either way, you've got nothing to loose.