Brighter Green Participates in COP27 UN Climate Conference

Brighter Green Participates in COP27 UN Climate Conference


Brighter Green was at COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. We weighed up whether to attend, given the host country’s terrible human rights record and severe limits on environmental activism. However, we decided it was important to be present to emphasize the connections among human rights, the climate crisis, the treatment of the nonhuman world, environmental sustainability, and the many problems associated with intensive animal agriculture.

As part of our agenda at COP, Brighter Green is a partner in the first ever Food4Climate Pavilion, which brought food system transformation and sustainable diets to the heart of COP27, mainstreaming a transition toward diverse and resilient food production and consumption systems. The Pavilion hosted programs focusing on proven climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions, including the shift towards plant-rich diets, adopting sustainable and resilient agricultural practices, and reducing food loss and waste.

Brighter Green co-hosted three panels at COP27, along with a number of partner organizations (see names below). First, was an official COP27 side event (available to watch on the UNFCCC’s side events YouTube):

And at the Food4Climate Pavilion, along with the Global Forest Coalition, we’re presenting these two panels (also available to watch live or on video on the Pavilion’s livestream):

  • Friday November 11, 14:30–15:45 (EET). No More Omissions: Real Policy Action on Land Use, Animal Agriculture & GHGs—with a Focus on Methane. (Co-hosted with Global Forest Coalition.) Watch online here.
  • Monday November 14, 12:30–13:45 (EET): Livestock and Feedcrops Impact Women and Communities: Achieving Climate and Gender Justice through Intersectional Policies and Programs. (Co-hosted with Global Forest Coalition.) Watch online here.

In these and other presentations at the Pavilion, Brighter Green and its partners draw attention to the intersections of women’s rights, sustainable diets, climate justice, public health, forests and other ecosystems, and food justice, and to the need to address all of these through ending methods of animal agriculture that account for 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions and adopting alternative sources of protein.

More Information

  • Judy Muriithi, our colleague in Kenya, went on CNBC Africa to discuss the impacts of agriculture on climate change. She compares traditional animal farming in Kenya with factory farms, highlighting the increase in environmental impacts of industrial animal agriculture. Watch the interview here.
  • Brighter Green joined World Animal Protection in calling on COP 27 to recognize the role small-scale farmers play in building climate-smart agriculture. Read the full statement here.