“If nature could invoice us for what is being used, it would drive change very quickly.”

This year, GLF Climate 2022 ran for two days alongside COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, as well as online as a hybrid conference that brought together hundreds of speakers and thousands of participants from around the world. If you’re looking for an overview of GLF Climate by the numbers, you can find that here.

The speakers at GLF Climate 2022 delivered inspiring talks and memorable panels. Here is a selection of notable quotes from some of the speakers that took to the stage this year.

Agents of change: Women, youth and local communities

“I’d like to make a call to action: A call… where humanity is at the heart of climate action, where land is at the heart of biodiversity, and biodiversity is beautifully linked to climate change, because simply put, we cannot de-link global environmental challenges, and people are at the heart of that fight, especially youth, local communities and women. They are the agents of change.” – Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, Arab Republic of Egypt

“We have been hearing from all these audiences – students, teachers, youth, artists – that they don’t just want to listen to or read about the climate crisis and deforestation issues. They want to be engaged, to be listened to, and above all… they want their voices to matter.” – Flora Pereira, International Education and Outreach Director, Pulitzer Center

“Seeing the interaction between trees, forests and the livelihoods of women will be key to achieving sustainable development, the sustainable management of forests, biodiversity conservation and fighting climate change.” – Cécile Ndjebet, President, REFACOF

“Young people have been screaming about loss and damage finance from the rooftops. It is a discourse around civil society. We have made it popular. At the same time, it is not being taken seriously at the negotiations.” – Ayisha Siddiqa, Co-founder, Polluters Out and Fossil Free University

Financing the fight against climate change

“Climate financing is one of the key discussions at COP27 because one of the biggest challenges is adaptation and, particularly, supporting the countries that have emitted the least but are on the receiving end of the biggest climate shocks.” – Nancy Saich, Chief Climate Change Expert, European Investment Bank (EIB)

“It’s important for all of us to understand how money moves, because we all fit into this diagram, we all need to know what our role is, we all need to know who we need to partner with, and we also need to know what might be missing.” – Jennifer Pryce, CEO, Calvert Impact Capital

“Sustainable financing for local climate action is crucial. This is where we can best see the impacts of climate emergency and how we can improve and create prosperity for local communities.” – Jimmy Skenderovic, Senior analyst, International Climate Finance Accelerator, Luxembourg (ICFA)

Indigenous rights

“The ability to listen and hear the voice of Mother Earth is the manifestation of Indigenous ways of being, knowing and learning. And these ways come from thousands of years of experience that Indigenous people have heard from their ancestors, and this experience is known as our traditional knowledge. Our traditional knowledge is the result of the symbiotic relationship between the land and its people.” – Galina Angarova, Executive Director, Cultural Survival

“It is important to remember that Indigenous Peoples are just 5 percent of the world’s population, but 82 percent of the world’s protected biodiversity lies within our territories. We protect it, and often we pay the price with our own lives. It’s important that those who defend nature the most have their rights respected, including the right to participate in decision-making spaces.” – Sônia Guajajara, Indigenous Politician and Congresswoman, Brazil

No more business-as-usual

“Rights are at the heart of both climate adaptation and mitigation. We need donors, investors and the private sector not only endorse but actually implement these principles to move away from business-as-usual. It is important to have principles, but unless they are implemented, there’s no systemic change.” – Solange Bandiaky-Badji, President and Coordinator, Rights and Resources Initiative

“Companies need to be givers and not takers in this world. The only acceptable method to run our companies, the only way to deliver our business models, is to think regenerative, restorative and reparative.” – Paul Polman, Businessman, Author

“If nature could invoice us for what is being used, it would drive change very quickly.” – Christopher Brett, FOLUR Program Lead and Lead Agribusiness Specialist World Bank

Looking forward to change

“We are also connected by hope, and hope is our greatest ally that we can adopt and maybe turn this thing around.” – John Colmey, Managing Director, GLF

“The window to keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is rapidly closing, but we know that the solution to this climate emergency is to transform every segment of society, whether it’s transport, energy, food production, buildings or manufacturing – all of them must be fundamentally transformed. The good news is that we have many of the solutions that we need. We just need to work for widespread adoption. Importantly, we each have the power to make the change happen.” – Ko Barrett, Vice-Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

“We need to start seeing land and nature as a community to which we belong rather than commodities to exploit. This is stewardship in simple terms.” – Ravi Prabhu, Interim Director General, CIFOR-ICRAF

“We need to advance climate change adaptation and mitigation, fight desertification and soil degradation, and improve food security. Holistic landscape-based approaches are a powerful lever for that.” – Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany