Cuppa for Climate is off to a great start!

To mark Earth Day this year, and to celebrate Friends of the Earth’s 49th birthday, we hosted our very first Cuppa for Climate in Bewley’s Cafe, Dublin, launching this exciting new initiative with our supporters.

We wanted to bring our community together to experience what a Cuppa for Climate is all about, and in doing that we hoped a few people might go and host their own Cuppa for Climate in their community. 20 people signed up on the day - making a commitment to bring a group of people in their community or workplace together to host a climate conversation and raise funds to support our work. And already we’ve been informed about two Cuppa for Climate gatherings being hosted in the coming weeks!

We kicked off the event with a panel discussion chaired by our CEO, Oisin Coghlan, with plenty of Bewley’s signature buns, coffee and teas to go around. After people were nourished, in all sense of the word, we invited people to take part in a climate conversation in small groups. Our Cuppa for Climate toolkit includes guidelines and talking points to help people have a structured yet friendly climate conversation. The conversation aims to support people in sharing their concerns on the climate crisis, highlight the great wins of the climate movement, identify what needs to be done to address the climate crisis in our local areas and create a pathway into action together.

 

We were really touched by all of the lovely feedback that was shared during and after the event. It’s so reassuring to know that Cuppa for Climate has an important role to play in climate action for bringing like minded people together in solidarity, creating space to share how we’re feeling about the climate crisis and for lifting each other up with our stories of hope and ideas for action - helping us all to keep going. 

 

Our fantastic guest speakers (pictured above with CEO Oisín Coghlan - Sarah O’Suilleabhain, Carol-Anne O’Brien and Molly O’Shea) spoke about their involvement in a number of climate action groups. 

Sarah is one of our amazing board members, who give us her free time to help steer and guide the work that we do, she is also an active member of her local One Future group. Sarah spoke about her journey in becoming active on climate and how she has been coming together with her neighbours to take action collectively.

Carol-Anne has been a close ally of ours through her work with B-OLD Climate Action Group, a group for older people to come together and take action on climate. Carol-Anne spoke about her early days of activism advocating for women’s rights and LGBTQ+ issues through her work with BeLongTo.

Molly O’Shea, also one of our amazing board members, is an active member of Young Friends of the Earth. She spoke about her involvement in the school strikes movement and how she loves how every person that joins the climate movement brings their own unique gifts and strengths. 

We are so grateful to all those that showed up on the day despite the pouring rain to take part join us for this special event and to those who put their hands up to host a Cuppa for Climate in their community. It really is our supporters makes our work possible, and their participation makes it powerful. When we come together for in-person for events like this we really feel that power.

If you’d like to bring a Cuppa for Climate to your community you can get your own toolkit (which we’ll send you when you register your interest in hosting a Cuppa for Climate) 

Check out the video below to learn more about what a Cuppa for Climate is all about!

 

Huge thanks to those who came along and for making it such a great day to celebrate the climate movement and our beautiful planet Earth! We are so excited for what comes next for our Cuppa for Climate initiative.