Hope, Love, Nature, Diaspora – London Climate Action Week 2025 Highlights

Jaz Cummins, Co-Founder

This line really stuck with me, taken from a short Wellcome Trust film shown at the LCAW opening reception. I’m really interested in hope at the moment, and how we can reframe the climate narrative during this pivotal period for action.

I also enjoyed the titling of as the “Glastonbury of climate weeks”, thanks to London’s Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Mete Coban MBE, who spoke about cleaning up London’s air and how “the communities in London, and across the world that have least caused the crisis, are suffering most”.

I had missed that King’s College told Sadiq Khan that it would take 193 years to bring London’s air within lawful limits, but they’ve done it 185 years early in 2025! Hope!

It was particularly powerful to hear from Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples, ahead of COP30. She affirmed: “We indigenous are connected and committed to do what we do best, protect nature and biodiversity”.

Angharad Francis – Account Director

At the ‘Shifting the Climate Narrative’ webinar, hosted by Parents for Future UK and the Potential Energy Coalition, I learned about their historic achievement as the first UK climate group to get TV advertising approval for explicitly advocating away from fossil fuels.

What hit me wasn’t just their success (39M impressions, 19 broadcast segments achieving an audience reach of approximately 3.5M, and 11% lift in climate support), but their approach: parents talking to parents about protecting children’s future.

Their lesson was clear, that when we lead with love rather than fear, people actually listen. That applies way beyond climate advocacy. (See my recent blog for more on love! Has the Climate Emergency Backfired?)

This precedent-setting campaign proves that strategic comms combined with authentic storytelling can break through and build the broad-based consensus needed for climate action.

Check out the campaign here.

Ally Appau-Bonsu – Paid Media Manager

I attended the ‘Moving Roots: Diaspora Communities x Climate Action’, hosted by ‘Climate Outreach’ as part of LCAW and Refugee Week.

After serving some amazing vegan food, the event opened with a keynote speech from Zamzam Ibrahim from  Somalis for Sustainability. She spoke powerfully about how her dad’s love for his heritage, and perseverance during his journey as a refugee, left an important mark on her work as a climate activist. For Zamzam, it underscored how important it is that migrant communities leverage their knowledge in the fight against climate change.

This was followed by a brilliant panel of speakers from East African, South Asian and Eastern European diaspora organisations, who discussed the connections between climate issues and the importance of driving action within diaspora communities. Key topics included how different diaspora/migrant communities are directly impacted by climate change, the importance of climate literacy among diaspora communities, and finding ways to marry different types of cultural knowledge.

They also spoke about how brands and comms teams need to develop media strategies that avoid toxic language and fear mongering in favour of championing underrepresented voices – without contributing to the buzzword-ification of words like ‘decolonial’. The key takeaway? Make sure you’re not using words without truly understanding their meaning.

As well as Zamzam, speakers included:

• Fahmida Miah, Climate Outreach
• Farah Ahmed, Our Diaspora Futures
• Jebi Rahman, Bangladeshi Diaspora Climate Action (BDCA)
• Ania Drewniok, POMOC

Ben Matthews – Co-Founder

The climate crisis is transforming every sector – and the creative industries are leading the charge.

As part of LCAW, I attended a session which brought together leading voices from the advertising world who are integrating serviced emissions into the heart of their business. 

Serviced emissions are defined as greenhouse gas emissions arising from or impacted by client activities that are informed, enabled, or influenced by the advice or services of a professional service provider.

The Service Emissions framework isn’t just about compliance – it’s about recognising the true scope of our influence and using that power responsibly.

Read my full write up, including practical steps for agencies looking to engage with serviced emissions.

After meeting him at the Welcome event, I read Nicolò Wojewoda pre-event take in the New Internationalist on the train home – “London Climate Action Week won’t be the launchpad for these [mass] mobilisations—but it can be a moment to regroup, refocus, and strengthen our resolve.”

And with expectations set, and interests followed our team do feel strengthened and engaged after the events.