After breakfasting on acai jelly and successfully avoiding the falling mangos on the pavement (which the locals told us they take out car insurance against) to get to the bus, we arrived for a day of Just Transition themes, and a massive call for BAM! BAM! BAM! (not unlike the sound when the mango hits the bus roof!)

On route to the morning meeting, I noticed an art installation which seemed fitting to share on this Just Transition day; many, many hands cast in clay representing all the workers who built the COP. How nice that for once someone noticed the builders rather than just the authorities who gave the go-ahead; nothing could have happened without them!

We three teacher union reps joined up and took part in a live lesson beamed out from the COP by “Picture News” to over 1200 schools plus anyone watching the live stream on youtube! Children from all over the UK bombarded the chat with intelligent and curious comments and questions about COP and climate change, demonstrating that they know more than your average adult about the process- this was awe-inspiring! Thank you to all the teachers, TAs, union reps and climate network friends that rocked up!

After the lesson ended we celebrated how liberating it was to be able to teach about climate change from our own perspective, and to empower children to know that their voices count and are heard.

This, of course, is the essence of “just transition”; marginalised voices are empowered through a transition to a new way of doing things where young people, indigenous people, women, the global south and workers of all sectors are included and are key players in how to manage changes which affect them. All these groups, including the ITUC, are this year calling for the “BAM” (“Belem Action Mechanism”) on Just Transition. This would be a work programme as part of the UNFCCC COP process, which focuses not on talk and blah blah blah but on real action that protects people and planet (rather than the billionaires who are the ones causing and exacerbating climate change). We heard this evening that the G77 + China are supporting this!

So off we went to take part in an action to shout, sing and dance this out! This protest was vibrant and joyful, showing a new world is possible and desirable, and it took place right outside the government delegation offices.

From here, our merry band of lobbyists went on to the UK Pavilion for a meeting on “Education Resilience and Funding” which disappointingly had no educator on the panel, but we restored the balance as we added in comments and questions on listening to teachers, addressing child poverty and also I waved around the climate keys which I brought with me from Brent schoolchildren- to try to help unlock their futures!

The UK’s Youth Sustainability Champion Eliska Gooch (formerly of Fridays for Future and here with SOS-UK) was more than happy to take away our keys to her meetings with world leaders and the DfE. She spoke brilliantly in the meeting; having been originally empowered to act after her family home was impacted by escalating coastal erosion in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

An average of 2.4 schools days are lost per year to children in high income countries as a result of climate change disasters but for children in lower income countries the average rises to 18 days. Yet Brazil’s Education minister shared that 93% of their country’s climate finance budget went to the ministry of the environment and zero to education. 813 schools here have been destroyed completely by climate events but the impacts have been beyond simple loss in learning and extend into violence, anxiety, depression and self harm amongst students.

After two evening meetings on education resilience and the BAM, we were suddenly evacuated from the COP as an emergency- everyone was- to discover later that around 100 indigenous Amazonians had stormed the COP in protest at the forced development of their lands. The swift-ish security response, designed to protect the ministers and security staff, demonstrated a response far beyond anything that has been provided to protect the Amazonians when they have tried to save their lands from logging and development.

Back in our Nazare neighbourhood, we enjoyed a stroll “home” past the Basilica, the neighbour that lights up to show us the way each evening, and we bid Boa Noite to our actual neighbours!