Pedalling towards a better future.
By Jessie Stevens for Ethos magazine: issue 15| October 2021
In November of this year, the UN global Climate summit, COP26, will be held in Glasgow. Due to it being postponed by the pandemic last year, and the fact that we have entered the most decisive decade for climate action, this year’s summit will be one of the most important in its history.
As a youth activist living in the UK, I was excited by the prospect of being able to travel to the summit and, hopefully, attend in some shape or form. I believe it is so important that people of all ages and backgrounds are represented at these talks. With this in mind, I began researching the best way I could travel to the summit from my home in Devon. This was the moment I got ‘stumped’. It became clear to me that we still live in a society where the most polluting modes of transport (aeroplanes, cars etc) are the cheapest. To travel sustainably, it is extremely costly, either in time or money. And what’s more, even if I could get to Glasgow, getting into COP26, would be an extremely difficult and likely impossible process. It felt as though all the ‘doors’ to enter were closed to the average person.
This is why I decided to pedal and take one of the most difficult routes to Glasgow I could find, making as much noise about it along the way. I planned to cycle the 520+ miles from my home to COP26. Off the back of my decision to cycle, I realised that it should not just be me cycling up the country to Scotland, but that it should become a movement of as many climate-concerned people as possible cycling together in order to create a wider impact. The aim is to create a human-powered movement, consisting of individuals demanding people-led climate decision making, greener transport infrastructure and ultimately, climate justice. This was when the movement ‘People Pedal Power’ or #ride2COP26 was born. Whilst I am training to cycle the whole 520+ miles to COP26, I am hoping to gather lots of people to join me for just a few miles along the way or to support in other ways, creating a bold statement to the changemakers within the summit. We want to show that people have power when we come together, and that we want decisive climate action as an outcome of the COP.
I ask you to join me and get pedalling towards a better future.
Jessie Stevens is a 16 year-old climate activist. She is a keen writer and is passionate about getting the youth voice and perspectives into the media. This autumn she will be cycling from her home in Devon, to Glasgow, for the COP26 conference.
Keep an eye out for updates on #ride2COP26 on the Ethos website and our social media channels from Jessie.
