Hope Is a Verb: My Take Home from AlterCOP 30

Speaking at AlterCOP 30 Australia was a real privilege. Walking my bike into a space filled with people who had chosen to spend three days thinking, feeling and acting for the climate reminded me that active hope is alive and well. This wasn’t a meeting of passive spectators. It was a community of people hungry to learn, ready to listen, and determined to roll up their sleeves and do the work that this moment in history demands of humanity.

What inspired me most was the diversity of ways people are already taking action - from grassroots organising and community education through to policy work, research, changing the politics and reimagining how we live, move and power our lives. So many of the conversations were practical and solutions-focused: less about “if” we can change, all about “how” and “how fast”. That spirit of active hope - hope as something we do, not something we simply feel - ran through the whole evening.

I’m so grateful to the AlterCOP 30 team and People for Nature volunteers for inviting me, and for the warmth and care they put into creating the event. Standing on stage with them, surrounded by all that energy and commitment, I felt something we don’t hear enough about in the climate conversation: genuine, grounded hope. If this is a glimpse of the community that will carry us through the climate crisis, then our future is worth fighting for.