Saturday October 24  — Session 10  —  18:00-19:00  UTC  Strand: SDG 13

As the novel coronavirus spread across the world, social activity grounded to a halt in many countries. Governments in dozens of nations instituted social distancing measures meant to slow the spread of the virus. This included the closure of restaurants, mask mandates, and bans of gatherings with substantial numbers of people, including sporting events and concerts. The implications for global climate activism are obvious. How do you execute a mass mobilization-based strategy in a social distancing context? How do you express virtually without taking to the streets? How do you maintain interest in an issue that has often taken a back seat to others in the middle and post world of a pandemic?

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Neeshad Shafi is an environmentalist, speaker, and founder of the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar. He was distinguished as one of the ‘World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Policy 2019.’ Neeshad holds a master’s degree in Energy and Environmental Engineering and is based in Doha, Qatar. He has over five years of experience in analyzing global environmental politics and climate policies with a special focus on the Middle East. An active member of several global environmental youth groups and contributed actively in international summits notably United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations at COP21, COP22, COP24, COP25, World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos 2019, World Economic Forum Middle East 2019, Global Landscapes Forum Bonn 2019 and UN Youth Climate Summit 2019.