COP29: A Crucial Moment for Change

Dear Artists,

We’re proud to announce our partnership with Extreme Hangout—a timely collaboration as climate issues face unprecedented risks. With COP29 approaching from November 11th to 22nd, the need for meaningful action on climate and biodiversity has reached a critical juncture. Recent developments hint at a future where environmental protections could be reversed, sustainable progress halted, and innovation curtailed.

This week brings particularly troubling news for climate efforts, highlighting three key challenges:

🌎 Potential Rollbacks on Environmental Safeguards: Emerging plans could scale back fundamental protections that guard our ecosystems and biodiversity, posing a direct threat to the habitats, species, and landscapes we strive to preserve.

🍀 Weakening of Climate Policy Commitments: Ambitious policy frameworks that unite countries in climate action may be weakened, hindering our ability to effectively address this global crisis and complicating our path toward a sustainable future.

🍃 Reduced Funding for Climate and Sustainability Initiatives: The focus on climate research, renewable energy, and biodiversity preservation may diminish, threatening critical projects and leaving innovative, green solutions underfunded.

In this pivotal moment, we need more than policies; we need voices that inspire, awaken, and mobilize. Artists are at the heart of this effort, illuminating the realities of the climate crisis and envisioning what a sustainable future could look like. Through their work, they reveal what’s at stake and challenge us to hold leaders accountable.

As we approach COP29, let us remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.”

This message is more relevant than ever. Even in the face of setbacks, we must continue to push forward and advocate for change.

A special thanks to the artists selected for #ArtSpeaksOut; your voices bring much-needed urgency to this conversation. Audiences can engage with these powerful works through the channels we’ve put in place, or catch a selection of the films showcased live at COP29 on the stage of Extreme Hangout, between two key panels.

This is not just a call to conference delegates but to each of us. Let’s harness the power of art to spark dialogue, evoke change, and ensure that this critical conference does not become another missed opportunity.

Artists, your voices are needed now more than ever.