Climate Fresk’s COP26 journey
Last November, during COY16 – the conference of youth – and COP26, 167 Freskers travelled to Glasgow to support the international roll-out of Climate Fresk. They fresked 775 people and trained 161 new facilitators from 66 different countries.
It all started in November 2020, with the first kick-off meeting which launched this new Climate Fresk adventure! The association and the volunteers had a year to prepare for their arrival in Glasgow. It has been a busy year indeed: dozens of volunteers planning our actions on the ground, searching for locations, accommodation, partnerships in the city, organising CEKOs (Climate Education Kick-Offs) around the UK, recruiting and onboarding newbies, managing the community, organising monthly community calls, writing newsletters…
Finally, on the 31st of October, after the first COY16 workshops, the Freskers arrived in Glasgow in great numbers. There were about 80 of them per day fresking around the city! On the first weekend, that number reached 117!
They facilitated workshops every morning and afternoon in the main hall of City of Glasgow College, and in partnership with other universities and NGOs.
They proposed Climate Fresk Quizzes in the COP26 Green Zone (the exhibition centre dedicated to organisations and companies), in COP26 Blue Zone (where the negotiations were held) and all around the streets of Glasgow. No less than 2,369 participants discovered the Climate Fresk Quiz!
They also launched the ‘Set 1 Challenge’ (an alternative to quizzing), making people do the first set of the workshop to introduce it, which sometimes happened in the most unusual settings. Our two winners in this category: the volunteers who challenged Scottish policemen at 3am after a night of dancing, and those who played with a Belgian couple in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. Set 1 was played with a total of 1,458 people!
Finally Freskers were also in the Blue Zone and the Green Zone, networking, meeting people and participating in conferences to advocate for Climate Education and promote Climate Fresk. They were able to make 1,200 new contacts in these places. Among them, several ministers, public figures, top level representatives from countries and organisations, young activists, scientists… Many of them showed great interest in Climate Fresk!
The Headquarter at Strathclyde University Student Union was where the volunteers met, discussed, and connected with other Freskers coming from France, the UK, Germany, Austria, India, Portugal, Switzerland, the USA…They also debated, learned, cheered, sang (we are working on an international anthem!), helped each other, participated in other climate education workshops, played together…
All in all, they reached people from 144 countries and welcomed many new Freskers in the adventure, from 36 different countries, including 12 countries where Climate Fresk wasn’t present before.
To all the volunteers who took part in this COP26 journey – thank you. It has been an amazing adventure, and an incredibly successful one. It has given a great boost to Climate Fresk’s international development, visibility and recognition, and contributed to push forward the need for quality and accessible climate education.