Supporting local climate impact through arts and youth engagement

At every COP (Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC), world leaders have the opportunity to meaningfully advance climate progress. To complement the official negotiations and actions at this year’s COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Bloomberg LP will build on the approach taken last year at COP26 in Glasgow by engaging our long-term partners in the region and mobilizing our employees to inspire climate action on the ground. Through innovative arts and youth focused education programs, our COP27 partnerships aim to raise awareness of climate issues and encourage community engagement now and into the future.

Raising climate awareness through artistic partnerships

At COP27, we will embark on several artistic partnerships to raise awareness of climate issues in innovative ways.

Through our partnership with the non- profit Africa No Filter, we are excited to collaborate with South African artist Mbongeni Buthelezi on a series of artworks that focus on the destructive impact of single use plastics in our oceans. Integrated throughout Bloomberg’s from the UNFCCC pavilion to the Bloomberg Climate Hub, Buthelezi’s visually arresting images of oceans utilize a unique technique that sees him working with a paint made from melted waste plastics sourced in partnership with climate non-profits. Bloomberg will also donate art and music supplies to students and young people in Kwa-Thema (Springs), Soweto and Orange Farm (Johannesburg), three communities in the greater Johannesburg area that Buthelezi works with to support emerging talent and to inspire ongoing creative responses to the local climate emergency.

Bloomberg is also supporting Art D’Egypte, an innovative contemporary arts organization committed to engaging local communities and young people across Egypt in safeguarding their cultural heritage and taking action to protect their natural environment through culture. Launched to coincide with COP27, Forever Is Now II, is a large scale, site-specific public art installation, curated by Art D’Egypte, that brings together twelve international and regional artists to respond to the specific environmental considerations of Egyptian heritage, from the Pyramids of Giza to the archaeological treasures at the Sharm El Sheik Museum that is located close to the COP27 conference site. This builds on Bloomberg’s long-term commitment to supporting public art alongside COP – from Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch in Paris and London to Gabriella Marcella’s Waterworks in Glasgow.

Building future climate leaders through youth education

A key goal of Bloomberg’s work at COP27 is to foster the next generation of climate leadership through educational programming, grants, and creative initiatives. As part of these efforts, Bloomberg is partnering with African based non-profit Children’s Radio Foundation to train and mentor six young people on climate reporting, radio debates, and podcasting. These youth reporters will cover COP27, host live broadcasts and produce a podcast series on climate change that will air on twenty community radio stations in East, West, and Southern Africa. Building on the estimated listenership of 5,522,000 in Africa for the podcast and live broadcasts, the content will also be aired across major listening platforms reaching millions across the globe.

To develop climate leadership in the region, Bloomberg is also collaborating with our long-term education partner, African Leadership Academy, working alongside a pan-African delegation of students to share local climate concerns and solutions at the Climate Change Conference on Youth at COP27. Through our Entrepreneurial Leadership curriculum and climate-focused student enterprise, we’re partnering to promote long-term opportunities in the green economy and to produce youth-led policy recommendations and advocacy.

As part of the existing Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa’s Community Media Fund, we will also support the launch of a new round of grants focused on environmental reporting. The grants will be administered by Hivos East Africa and will focus on sustainable finance, local climate action, impacts on oceans, agriculture and food security and renewables.

Effective climate action requires engagement across communities and geographies. Bloomberg will build on our partnership with the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC) – an alliance of 15 top global universities – to advance climate change solutions by connecting young people with change-makers in business, non-profit and government sectors. The partnership began at COP26 where Bloomberg was the convener of GAUC’s Global Youth Summit on Net-Zero Future and reached over a million students worldwide. This year, Bloomberg joined GAUC in integrating African universities into its global network as well as launching the “Climate x” campaign including a series of events and forums to help turn ambitious ideas into tangible solutions.

In London, we’re building on our partnership with the Mayor of London on the second iteration of the Climate Kick-Start program, which provides five £10,000 grants to innovative climate solutions pioneered by schools across London. You can learn about last year’s visionary winners and see how we’re aiming higher this year here.

Engaging employees in climate action

Bloomberg employees play a central role in driving local action on climate. Complementing a range of company-wide sustainability measures, almost one thousand employees across 37 cities have committed to taking measurable steps to reduce their carbon footprint through the Count Us In challenge over the last year, saving 56,000 kilograms of CO2 in the process.

Support for communities is core to life at Bloomberg: working with innovative non-profit organizations including Food & Trees for Africa, Water for the Future and Play Africa, our employees will support community tree planting, river clean-up, and community education projects in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Springs and will host events to create educational kits for children in South Africa to learn about STEM and climate-related issues. Colleagues across Bloomberg planted over 11,000 trees last year; this year, employees are leading a range of sustainability activities across our offices globally, including tree planting, horticultural work and activities to inspire and educate young people through our work with the Earthshot Prize.

While world leaders meet next week at COP27, there is more we can all do to engage local communities and train the next generation of climate leaders. By working with our long-term partners, engaging young people, and using the power of the arts, Bloomberg LP and all of our employees have the opportunity to join the international community at COP27 to work together to fight climate change and protect the environment.