GEI Session: ‘The growing climate justice movement and how events are supporting it’

When it comes to the topic of climate change, what can realistically be done?In this session, our expert panel will focus on alternative technologies and solutions for event organisers that can make a renewable and clean energy supply a very real and available option, right now.Chaired by editor and activist, Jamie Kelsey-Fry, we will take look at current climate science and its implications on a political, as well as environmental, landscape. Jamie – who is also the co-author of Rax Active Citizen Toolkit (a publication aimed at GCSE-level citizenship studies) – will also be discussing contemporary youth activism.Joining Jamie will be green activist Shane Collins who will outline the perils of runaway climate change and the post-Paris carbon budget, and the urgency with which this controversial topic should be broached.Environmental scientist Rob Scully, who has achieved clean energy across a multitude of events over the last two decades, will add his voice to the panel, along with Marie Sabot, founder of We Love Green Festival in Paris, who will prove that a major event that attracts 60,000 people, can still work in harmony with the environment, and provide a hub for eco-friendly initiatives and ideas.Finally, we will ask what can really be done to reduce the impact of events on the environment? With so much conflicting information, knowing which way to turn for the better can be confusing and overwhelming.This panel - oozing with green expertise - will bust some of the common myths relating to sustainability, and help event organisers to make informed decisions and take positive action in the greening of their events.BiographiesJamie Kelsey-FryJamie Kelsey-Fry is a contributing editor at New Internationalist; one of the original members of the Occupy movement and Reclaim The Power; a co-founder of Talk Fracking; a regular news commentator; and an advisor to the International Modern Media Institute in Iceland.The Daily Mail hates him. Shane CollinsCllr Shane Collins is the director of the Green Gathering CIC; leader of the Green Party at Mendip District Council; and is a long-time green activist with past involvement with anti-roads protests, CoolTan Arts, Reclaim the Streets, Legalise Cannabis March and Festivals, Urban Green Fair, and is a core participant in the current undercover police Public Inquiry.Shane lives in Frome, Somerset.Rob ScullyRob Scully is an environmental scientist. He became “accidentally” involved in festivals and events over 20 years ago, whilst helping to run the Croissant Neuf area at Glastonbury Festival – one of the longest established venues on the site and an area that is completely solar-powered. Since then, he has become an experienced freelance event production and site manager; an environmental sustainability advisor to a number of UK festivals and events; and is a senior assessor and sustainability consultant at A Greener Festival.For the last two years, Rob has run the UK and Ireland arm of ZAP Concepts, working closely with promoters, event managers and power-supply companies to help festivals and events to increase the sustainability of their onsite power (and save money in the process).Marie SabotAs director of We Love Green Festival and associate director of We Love Art, Marie Sabot has been making both the electronic and alternative music scenes buzz for the past 20 years.After studying law and communications, she went on to work in production and scheduling for several Parisian venues such as the Élysée Montmartre and Divan du Monde; organised huge secret parties for ‘Les Templiers’; managed large events for corporate Parisian agencies, and worked on the artistic direction for the Athens Olympic Games.In 2004, she founded We Love Art, which in the space of ten years, has established itself as a major catalyst in the arts and cultural industries.