Unexpected Voices

Grounding Climate Change: Design, Emotion, and the Power of Public Debate.

6 November 2024

written by Jasmijn Steneker

How do we make agreements on climate change? Negotiators, activists and researchers share their insights and strategies?

After settling into our chairs for the fifth and final event in the Unexpected Encounters series, hosted by Foundation We Are and Collaborations for Future, a small cooler was dragged onto stage. What lay inside was about to be revealed, as Kornelia Dimitrova, director of Foundation We Are, wrapped up her introduction. It’s fair to say that the Unexpected Encounters series has given a stage to many innovative design and research projects, where the potential of collaborating within these fields have been further explored.

This time, that potential appeared in the form of ice lollies.

As the icy treats were taken out of the box and passed around, the audience got surprised by the unexpected blend of salty and sweet flavours, as the ‘sea water’ melted in our mouths. It quickly became clear that these lollies weren’t about simple enjoyment. Instead, they carried a message—a sense of urgency addressing the melting ice on our Antarctic, highlighting the reality of our changing climate quite literally, in our mouths.

The project, developed by Merel Witteman and Roderik van de Wal, was one of many designs created in collaboration with Foundation We Are and Collaborations for Future. Here, design demonstrated its power to translate the often elusive issue of the climate crisis into something both tangible and felt.

The evening’s panel discussion expanded on this theme, with speakers sharing their firsthand experiences of being involved within climate negotiations. The event, having a focus on the complexities of agreement-making in this field, ended up covering a wide range of topics. Yet, every panellist touched upon a core theme raised by Dimitrova in her opening remarks: “Climate change is neither going to be saved scientifically nor creatively. It will be emotionally and politically as well”. This statement stressed the necessity of integrating not just scientific and creative solutions into mitigating this change, but also the need for political will and emotional engagement within this conversation.

Among the speakers were Nine de Pater, Jantijn Anema, Yann Robiou de Pont, Mert Kumru, Diewertje Wallaart, and Rob Weterings – negotiators and climate activists. Their insights highlighted the overwhelming role large companies play in both shaping and stalling progress, as their contributions to pollution remain among the largest on the planet.

Bringing Climate Change Down to Earth

Touching on the topic of climate negotiations, undergoing progress in a bureaucratic sense takes a lot of time and ‘big words’ in the first place, as emphasised by many of the evening’s participants. May it be to win a court case against massive polluter Shell, as Nine de Pater came to stress, or to get people well informed on the topic.

De Pater, being one of the campaigners as part of Milieudefensie in the court case against Shell, reached a landmark climate litigation in May 2021 as the Dutch court ruled that Shell must reduce its global CO₂ emissions by 45% by 2030 to align with the Paris Agreement. Shell was held responsible for contributing to climate change and the court ruled that it must reduce emissions across its entire value chain, including those of its suppliers and customers.

And yet, there is another side to mitigating change other than dragging big polluters to court, so noted De Pater. “However this win was enormous and historical, what is also very needed right now is a public debate to get into real action”. Because even though we cannot dismiss the enormous effect large corporations have on the increasing climate crisis, public debate also fuels the motor of change.

Listening to De Pater and the other panel members speak, I sensed a challenge within our climate debate: one of trying to keep the conversation down to earth. I can personally acknowledge that it can quickly feel as if the discussion around the latter is happening above our heads. This is equally emphasised by the way rhetoric takes place at large events like COP or in court cases at the ICJ, as conversations are often filled with big (and sometimes empty) words that distance and remove the conversation from our everyday lives, so stress Wallaart and Weterings. Hence, without a public movement, the conversation is at risk of becoming abstract and inaccessible, leaving many feeling disengaged from the urgent issue at hand.

Stubborn Optimism

This is where (social) design might be able to play a part, visualising climate change either in the form of ice lollies, or by gathering in places where our shared goals and awareness on the urgency of the topic can be felt collectively. According to Anema, the visualisation of what is possible in the end can generate the necessary engagement within the public themselves. Anema, working at Urgenda Nederland, shared his experience of The Climate Chain initiative, where thousands of people gathered on the Dutch coastal line to reinforce their concerns about climate change and to call for more climate action from the Dutch parliament. People turned up dressed in red, holding hands to chain together and claim the beach for as long as they could. The initiative turned out to be a big success, especially as it helped participants realise they were not alone in caring for the well-being of our planet.

As De Pater mentioned: “Everyone [in this room] may sometimes feel hopeless and alone, and then it can really help to hold onto those small moments that you did feel that power [of accomplishment]”. Hence, it should not be forgotten that also big accomplishments were only reached by staying optimistic, fostering perseverance.

On that note, there is a privilege to not feel overwhelmed by the disasters these changes can bring about yet, so noted Kumru. “Talking to my colleagues overseas, working in the Caribbeans for example, I hear and feel their hopelessness as they deal with their lands being ruined by the many storms and floods. That is why we have to remain stubborn optimists!”.

What I take away from this is that our emotions around this issue do not only fuel our own engagement, but also how the climate crisis will be taken on by the world around us. Let’s take a bit of stubborn optimism with us, especially at times when tackling this crisis feels all a bit too overwhelming.

Within Unexpected Voices, we ask people outside the Collaborations for Future programme to share with us their thoughts and insights on the research, the collaborations and the encounters. This time, you can read the thoughts of Jasmijn Steneker. Jasmin is a intern allround program designer at Pakhuis de Zwijger and guest author for the fifth edition of this ‘Collaborations for Future’ series.