'Malawi@COP26' Zoom Meeting:

On the 5th November, the SMP hosted the second in its series of 'Malawi at COP26' stakeholder meetings, with active input from key stakeholders across Malawi and Scotland.

The SMP is committed to facilitating a platform to help coordinate Scottish civic support for Malawi’s involvement in COP26, the global climate conference taking place in Glasgow in November 2021.

You can read our updated 'Malawi at COP26' strategy HERE.

For more details on the 'Malawi at COP26' campaign CLICK HERE

Watch the meeting:

The full video of the meeting can be found HERE. Alternatively, clicking the below timestamps allows you to link through directly to each of the sections of the meeting, for ease of reference.

0:04 Welcome and introductions - David Hope-Jones, SMP Chief Executive Key input from Scotland:

12:58 Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) International Group - Ben Wilson, Chair, SCCS International Group

20:04 Climate Fringe and wider COP26 coalitions - Nick Cullen, COP26 Coalition

33:52 Research summary: Malawi's experience at previous COPs - Isabelle Rayner

39:31 Scottish Government climate work - Charlie Goodwin-Smith, Climate Justice Fund Manager, Scottish Government

46:34 Q&A Key input from Malawi:

50:21 Malawi Young Leaders Climate Change Project - Chinsisi Kazuwa, Project Officer, Malawi Young Leaders Climate Change Project

59:51 Understanding climate change in Malawi - Maggie Ngwira, Coordinator, Climate Challenge Programme Malawi (CCPM)

1:10:58 Malawi civic society priorities for COP26 - Julius Ng'oma, Coordinator, Civil Society Network for Climate Change in Malawi

1:21:11 Q&A Planning: Support for Malawi at COP26:

1:32:30 Open sharing of any other existing plans or updates

1:35:54 SMP priorities and next steps

2:05:57 Stakeholder mapping

2:10:14 Summary of SMP next steps - David Hope-Jones, SMP, Chief Exec

Outcomes from the Meeting:

The meeting agreed that this stakeholder group would aim to meet monthly between now and COP26, likely on the first Thursday of each month. Between now and the next meeting, the SMP was asked to:

(a) Work with the Association of Malawians in Scotland to encourage and support active diaspora involvement.

(b) Begin a programme of work aiming to get 26 short videos of young Malawians and Scots talking about the impact of climate change and what they want from COP26.

(c) Explore having a webpage/website to share Members’/stakeholders’ digital content in this area

(d) Secure and disseminate a clear list of Malawian priorities for COP26 from the Malawi Civil Society Network on Climate Change and the Government of Malawi, with broad consensus.

(e) Establish a clear understanding of the critical processes/timescales for Malawi to have influence in the run up to COP26, and where Scottish support could be of assistance in this pre-COP process.

(f) Firm up agreement in principle to have a Malawi-focussed event during COP26 in the Glasgow City Chambers, with the Glasgow Lord Provost and President of Malawi.

(g) Expand the stakeholder database to include: more contact points in the Government of Malawi’s COP delegation, private sector, media, academia and possibly Scottish Youth Parliament.

(h) Establish programme of monthly meetings (first Thursday of the month), working with MaSP to see if Communication and Resource Centres can be used to facilitate no-cost Malawi digital participation.

(i) Connect with SCCS, the COP26 Coalition and the Alliance, to ensure the SMP’s work is not duplicating any others’.

Updates since the previous meeting:

We last met to discuss COP26 on the 7^th February, you can read the minutes here. After 7th February there was a slight hiatus while we have prioritised the coordination of Covid-19 response and in which COP26 has been pushed back from Nov 2020 to Nov 2021.

There were a number of exciting updates between the February and November 2020 meetings:

• We met with the Lord Provost of Glasgow shortly before lockdown and discussed COP26. The Lord Provost, as Hon Co-President of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, was enthusiastic about the idea of some kind of significant event during COP26, in the Glasgow City Chambers, to welcome, engage and amplify the Malawian delegation and celebrate the many Malawi-Scotland projects working on climate justice and related themes.
• We were really interested to read Isabelle Raynor’s excellent Masters Thesis which looks back at Malawi’s experience historically at previous COPs. We think this provides really useful analysis, to inform our thinking about how best to amplify Malawi at COP26 and we are working closely with Isabelle to build on this research.
• The really outstanding 2050 Climate Group, which supports youth-led climate action in both countries, has had its funding extended by the Scottish Government for another year.
• Finally, and perhaps most significantly, President Lazarus Chakwera addressed the SMP’s AGM on the 3^rd October and he used his keynote speech to set out three very positive ‘challenges’ for Scotland. The third of these was to: “ignite a movement of climate change activists amongst our peoples, to capture the imagination of Malawian youths.” He said:

“I am aware that Scotland is preparing to host the 26^th UN climate change conference in November 2021. You can count on Malawi’s full participation … I believe the time has come to escalate the sense of urgency among our people regarding the threats to our indispensable relationship with nature. For that reason, I am eager to see this partnership between us become an example to the world of two nations approaching climate change with the sense of urgency, and in the spirit of collaboration, commensurate with the existential threat this truly is.”

We are keen to step-up to the challenge set by President Lazarus Chakwera and set up strong digital channels for regular, sustained communications between Scotland and Malawi to help us make this challenge a reality and to ensure Malawi gets the maximum possible benefit from COP26.