Emma Watson Instagram – SWIPE FOR SNEAK PEAKS OF #COP26 PANEL – STAY TUNED FOR THE FULL PANEL LINK COMING SOON ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 —From Sophie Lambin, @solambin “Climate Avengers take on COP26! Amidst all the noise and activity of #COP26, there was one event that really stood out for me. Young climate leaders gathered from around the globe for a surprise session The New York Times’s bewitching Conference of the Trees, to discuss the future of leadership in the climate movement. They exposed the systems and circles that place too much emphasis on single, iconic leaders, and not enough on the benefits of more diverse and well-distributed leadership models. We have been blinding ourselves, it seems, to the value of true representation, which simply cannot be borne from a single figure, no matter how charismatic. Leaders’ who are BIPOC or who have disabilities are often denied the recognition that ‘famous people’ receive by default. Does the climate challenge need celebrities, or diverse and inclusive voices to secure a fair and healthy future? The speakers condemned a widespread refusal, in our societies, to recognise the power of collective leadership, highlighting a tendency towards divisiveness, misrepresentation and exclusion. On the contrary, they argued: collective, coalition-led leadership is most conducive to the intersectional thinking that the climate challenge requires. Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Malala Yousafzai, Tori Tsui, Viviam Villafaña, Daphne Frias, Dr Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig D.Sc. h.c. and Dominique Palmer made it clear that they want their messages shared and spread – not fetishised and attributed to a single climate mascot on the global stage. We need urgent and radical systems change, they concluded. We must not let ourselves become overwhelmed by the many challenges and difficult conversations ahead. We must draw upon each other’s strengths, find our inner Avenger, and do what we can, together. Because everything we do is enough, so long we’re not acting alone.”