Why even pro-climate action organisations may pull in different directions

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Tobin, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Manchester

This year’s UN climate summit (Cop30) in Belém, Brazil, begins with a familiar dilemma: how can we tackle a highly political, long-term problem that involves every country of the world?

Governments, experts and activists have been trying to address climate change since the early 1990s, yet global greenhouse gas emissions remain at record levels.

Emissions growth may be slowing, but even pro-climate action strategies seem to be pulling in different – or even, antagonistic – directions. Our new book presents these antagonisms as a choice between “stability” and “politicisation” in climate governance.

According to those favouring stability, governments should lock in steady, long-term policies that place us on a predictable and gradual track to much lower emissions. Creating policies that commit us to a certain path should help businesses to invest in ways that meet this predictable trajectory.

However, if it is weakened and made inadequate by pro-fossil fuel lobbyists and governments, then the stable path can still meander into climate catastrophe. This is the course we are presently on.

On the other hand, for those pursuing the politicisation of climate action, it is better to encourage political conflict and protests that constantly create pressure for more significant and rapid policy change.

Such strategies can disrupt pro-fossil fuel lobbyists’ grip and expose strategies used by some political figures to dismantle the hard-fought climate goals already in place. But by encouraging increased politicisation of these issues, we may open the door to anti-net zero populists and others seeking to slow or stop climate policy action altogether.

Both schools of thought – stability or politicisation – have their supporters and detractors. Both have benefits and downsides. However, these have rarely been discussed in conversation with one another, until now.

At Cop30, these distinct strategies will be under the spotlight.

The stability or politicisation dilemma helps to explain why building a strategy that works over years and decades creates difficult questions, not only about policy design but approaches for different organisations and states. These challenges change according to which level of government, which country, and which economic sector is in play.

For instance, it is easier to push for politicisation and conflict when you’re not a member of a marginalised or racialised community already facing myriad hurdles to political participation.

Conversely, it is hard to avoid having to engage in politicisation and conflict in areas where there are deep historical power structures that need to be challenged. For example, in the UK, land ownership concentration blocks peat restoration – both because landowners want to keep peat moors dry to maximise their grouse shooting revenue, and because the land concentration means they are very powerful within the British state.

graphic on blue earth, man in suit standing on top looking through telescope — It is hard to avoid having to engage in politicisation and conflict in areas where there are deep historical power structures.
AndryDj/Shutterstock

Tension between timeframes

Our book traces these dynamics across a range of cases, from the fossil fuel industry in the US to strategies used by the insurance sector and central banks; from China’s industrial policy to environmental justice social movements in Germany; and from arguments about Norwegian oil extraction to Brazilian and South African renewable energy generation.

International relations expert Jennifer Allan explains that previous UN climate summits have been shaped by this clash in strategies, right back to the Kyoto protocol, the 1997 agreement that set emissions targets for economically developed countries.

Whereas the EU was previously the driving force behind depoliticisation of negotiations, more recently, countries such as India and China are also pursuing such strategies. As Allan warns, this may delay the implementation of climate policies as more states debate how best to progress.

In Belém at Cop30, similar dynamics will be at play. Efforts are ongoing to implement the 2015 Paris climate agreement agenda and process. Core issues remain on how to ensure regular reporting of emissions, alongside questions around who pays for the consequences of climate change.

At the same time, there will be a continued politicising push by certain countries and social movements. States such as the US, Saudi Arabia and their allies will be trying to politicise the negotiations to stymy progress. Meanwhile, social movements will be protesting to keep the pressure on negotiators and promote climate justice for those who are hardest hit by climate change.

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Paul Tobin has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

Matthew Paterson receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK). He is a member of the Green Party of England and Wales.

Stacy D VanDeveer as received funding from Independent Research Fund Denmark, MISTRA (Sweden), Research Council of Norway, Uppsala University (Sweden), German Marshall Fund of the United States, US National Science Foundation

– ref. Why even pro-climate action organisations may pull in different directions – https://theconversation.com/why-even-pro-climate-action-organisations-may-pull-in-different-directions-261047

November 5, 2025

Vaping might seem safer than smoking but your heart could tell a different story

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Preeti Mahato, Lecturer in Global Health, Royal Holloway, University of London

You may have heard that vaping is the “safer” choice than smoking. But what if the very thing designed to protect your health also puts your heart at risk?

Vaping does not exist in isolation. It is part of a wider story about smoking, inequality and the growing burden of heart disease in the UK. Even after years of public health campaigns, smoking remains common in England’s most deprived areas.

The reasons are complex. People living with financial strain, insecure jobs and chronic stress are more likely to smoke. Targeted marketing and limited access to stop-smoking services make it even harder to quit. At the same time, one in two UK adults have high cholesterol, and many do not know it.

Reports show that people in the poorest communities have the highest rates of smoking and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including raised cholesterol.

As vaping becomes more common in these same communities, a new form of nicotine use could be replacing one heart risk with another. Many people now switch from cigarettes to vapes to reduce harm, but growing evidence suggests the benefits may not be as clear-cut as once thought.

Research shows that vaping can help some people quit smoking more effectively than other methods, but newer findings challenge the belief that e-cigarettes are a harmless substitute.

Several studies have now linked vaping to arterial damage in both the brain and heart, even among people who have never smoked traditional cigarettes. The cells that line our blood vessels, known as the endothelium, keep arteries supple, regulate blood pressure and stop fatty deposits from sticking to the walls. When these cells are damaged, arteries lose elasticity and blood flow becomes less efficient, raising the risk of cardiovascular problems.

One study found that regular vapers had impaired blood vessel function. Their arteries could no longer expand and contract properly. Other research on humans and animals exposed to vapour showed less flexible arteries, higher blood pressure and damaged endothelium in both the brain and heart. This arterial stiffening increases the likelihood of heart attack, stroke and dementia.

So what is behind this damage? When someone vapes, the vapour carries nicotine, chemicals and microscopic particles into the bloodstream. These trigger inflammation and oxidative stress, meaning the body’s defences go into overdrive and start attacking healthy tissue. Vaping also reduces nitric oxide, a molecule that helps vessels relax, while increasing harmful free radicals. Together, these effects make arteries less able to do their job and more prone to disease, increasing the risk of heart problems.

Vaping can also raise blood pressure and heart rate, even after a single session. Over time, this mix of irritation, inflammation and stress wears down the arteries, even in people who have never smoked before.

The UK’s NHS Health Check programme mainly screens people aged forty and over for heart-disease risks. Yet vaping is most common among people under 40, and routine screening is not designed to detect early vessel injury in this age group. Young vapers may therefore carry silent artery damage for years before any problem appears on standard tests. Evidence suggests that vaping can cause early artery changes similar to those caused by smoking, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life.

That is why education and prevention are so important. Schools and public health campaigns play a vital role in showing young people that vaping carries long-term risks, including damage to the heart. Programmes that combine classroom learning with interactive activities have been shown to make a real difference. Initiatives such as Catch Your Breath and Essex’s Break the Vape aim to stop young people from vaping before they start, and to support those who want to quit, reducing their future risk of heart disease.

The wide differences in heart disease deaths across England show that prevention efforts are still not reaching everyone equally. A whole-system approach to CVD prevention is essential. Schools, councils, NHS services and local communities need to work together to tackle shared risk factors such as smoking and vaping.

Screening cannot yet detect early artery damage in younger adults, but education remains our best defence. Helping young people understand how vaping affects the heart can protect the next generation from the hidden dangers of nicotine addiction and cardiovascular harm.

Anusha Seneviratne previously received research funding from the British Heart Foundation.

Preeti Mahato does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Vaping might seem safer than smoking but your heart could tell a different story – https://theconversation.com/vaping-might-seem-safer-than-smoking-but-your-heart-could-tell-a-different-story-268612

November 5, 2025

Hidradenitis suppurativa: the painful skin condition that can hide in plain sight

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

You may not give much thought to your armpits, apart from checking whether they need another swipe of deodorant. But this small, often overlooked patch of skin is one of the body’s busiest crossroads. Beneath those folds lies a complex network of glands, nerves and lymph nodes that keep you cool, fight infection and even influence how you smell to others.

The armpit’s design allows flexibility and free movement of the arm, while serving as a vital passageway for blood vessels and nerves that link the limb to the torso. It is also home to sweat glands that regulate temperature and release pheromones, and to clusters of lymph nodes that drain fluid and help defend the body against infection.

Yet for some people, this humble underarm becomes the site of something far more troublesome than a bit of body odour. A distressing, recurring condition called hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) can turn these hidden hollows and other areas where skin rubs together into a source of chronic pain, infection and scarring. Once thought to be rare, HS is increasingly recognised and diagnosed, though still widely misunderstood.

Several conditions can develop within the tissues of the armpit (or axilla, as it is known anatomically). One of these is the rather bewilderingly named hidradenitis suppurativa.

The name translates to “inflammation of the sweat glands with pus,” and that is essentially what the condition involves. HS is a chronic condition that affects areas of the body rich in sweat glands and hair follicles, particularly where the skin folds and rubs together. This means it can appear not only in the armpits but also in the groin, around the breasts and buttocks, and in the perineal area. Friction in these regions may make the condition worse.

The inflammation appears to be driven by a process similar to autoimmunity, where the body mistakenly attacks its own tissues. It seems that blockage of the hair follicles occurs first, which then triggers involvement of the sweat glands. The condition is estimated to be nearly three times more common in women than in men and may also run in families. Other risk factors include increased levels of androgens, which are hormones such as testosterone that increase after puberty, as well as smoking and obesity.

Research also shows that people of colour are disproportionately affected. Both UK and US studies have found that HS is more common and often more severe among black and Hispanic patients. These groups are also more likely to experience delays in diagnosis or have their symptoms mistaken for other infections or boils. The reasons are complex and include differences in healthcare access, underrecognition of how HS presents on darker skin tones and broader structural inequities within medical systems. Early recognition and equitable care can help prevent advanced disease and reduce the burden of pain, scarring and stigma that HS can cause.

HS symptoms

Inflamed and blocked glands appear on the skin as hard nodules or swellings. Infection can turn these into abscesses that may grow to significant sizes. Prolonged inflammation and infection can lead to the formation of sinuses, which are tunnels beneath the skin that connect nodules, and to scarring. This can cause painful, oozing or foul-smelling skin, sometimes restricting upper limb movement if scar tissue forms.

These processes resemble those seen in acne vulgaris, which is the medical term for common acne. In fact, one of the alternative names for HS is acne inversa, referring to the inverted skin folds where it occurs. Like acne, it is not caused by poor hygiene and it is not contagious, despite common misconceptions.

When it comes to managing HS, some treatments overlap with those used for acne. Antibiotics such as lymecycline, which have both antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, can help prevent flare-ups. Lifestyle changes are also recommended, such as wearing loose clothing and losing weight to reduce skin folds and friction.

In some cases, HS can cause large abscesses, sometimes five to ten centimetres across, which may require surgery to drain the pus or remove scar tissue. Because of the long-term nature and scarring associated with severe disease, new biological therapies such as adalimumab, which work by calming the immune system’s overreaction, are now being used to manage more advanced cases.

HS diagnoses are rising each year. This could reflect an actual increase in numbers or simply better recognition. It may seem surprising that such a condition could be so often missed or misdiagnosed, but it happens.

HS can mimic other skin conditions that affect the folds. It is common to experience irritation from sweating or shaving in the armpits or groin, leading to folliculitis, which is inflammation of the hair follicles. Because HS lesions tend to flare and then subside, sometimes improving with short-term antibiotics, they are often mistaken for other problems and treated incompletely, sometimes for years.

Historically, HS has been poorly recognised. Its variable symptoms and the embarrassment and stigma that often surrounds skin changes in intimate areas have contributed to delays in diagnosis. Early detection can prevent progression to severe disease, so any recurrent skin changes are worth discussing with a doctor.

The armpit may seem insignificant, but for those affected by hidradenitis suppurativa, it can shape daily life in painful and isolating ways. Too many people live with the condition for years before receiving a diagnosis or effective treatment. Recognising it as a medical condition rather than a hygiene problem is a crucial step in changing that.

Dan Baumgardt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Hidradenitis suppurativa: the painful skin condition that can hide in plain sight – https://theconversation.com/hidradenitis-suppurativa-the-painful-skin-condition-that-can-hide-in-plain-sight-266651

November 5, 2025

Children’s books feature tidy nuclear families – but the animal kingdom tells a different story

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Louise Gentle, Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent University

Do animals really live like sylvanian families? Jeff Whyte/Shutterstock

Animals in children’s stories are often depicted as living in neat mum, dad and children family units. Examples include Fantastic Mr Fox, 101 Dalmatians and, more recently, Peppa Pig and Bluey. But, this might leave people feeling like outsiders if they don’t come from a traditional nuclear family set-up.

In reality, there is a huge diversity in what family looks like within the animal kingdom.

In biparental care, a male and female animal raise their offspring together. This type of parental behaviour is predominantly seen in birds and is rare in invertebrates, fish and mammals.

Mute swans are a good example, where mum and dad can share the responsibilities of incubating eggs, feeding the cygnets and teaching them to be independent.

Single-parenting represents the most common form of family in the animal kingdom.
Usually, males compete for access to females. This is because the female invests more in reproduction than the male. For example, in a typical mammal, the female is pregnant, suckles the young and raises it.

In some cases, such as leopards, the female raises the offspring completely on her own. In fact, single mothers are found in around 90% of mammals.

Such single-parenting is seen in children’s books like The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. Although, there are few stories where the mother chooses to single-parent, unlike in the animal kingdom where females of some species benefit from raising offspring alone.

For example, animals who are left in a nest while their parent or parents look for food may be safer from predators if only one parent is leaving scent trails as they come and go.

Sometimes the male raises the young on his own. This is more frequent in fish and amphibians, where the offspring hatch from eggs. The male midwife toad wraps his fertilised eggs around his back legs and carries them with him until they are ready to hatch.

Darwin’s frog has an alternative parenting tactic where the male carries his tadpoles in his vocal sac for six to eight weeks, until they are developed enough to face the world.

These types of behaviour allow the females to focus on feeding, which means she can produce more eggs for the next batch of young. Male parenting is also much less common in children’s books, but a popular exception is The Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson.

White toad with grey splodges carrying eggs on the back on his legs — Male midwife toads do the heavy lifting of parenting.
Pablo Mendez Rodriguez/Shutterstock

Homosexuality

Scientists have observed same sex couplings in over 500 species, including vultures, dolphins, giraffe, bonobos, geckos and dragonflies. Although life-long homosexuality in the wild is rare, in which animals forego heterosexual relationships, permanent male-male couplings have been seen in sheep.

Also, female albatrosses are known to sometimes reject males once their eggs have been fertilised, choosing to raise offspring in female-female relationships.

One of the most famous cases of homosexuality in captivity is that of Roy and Silo, a pair of chinstrap penguins from Central Park Zoo in New York, who formed such a strong bond in the early 2000s that the keeper gave them an egg to hatch and raise.

This story was turned into a popular children’s book And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson. Unfortunately, Silo’s head was turned by a female named Scrappy, ending his six-year relationship with Roy.

Same-sex parenting can be extended to species where large family units develop, such as elephants. Generally, elephant family units consist of several related females and their calves, led by an older matriarch. Sisters and grandmothers undertake allomothering, babysitting the youngsters, teaching them foraging, vigilance and defence, and sometimes even take on communal suckling of infants.

The story of one of the most famous communal parent species, the honey bee, has been turned into a novel for adults. The Bees by Laline Paull is the story of worker bee Flora 717, who helps feed her newborn sisters, and her life in the hive.

Communal parenting doesn’t have to be restricted to one sex, though. Many animals, including meerkats, are cooperative breeders. The young stay at home to help their parents to raise their baby siblings rather than go off and breed on their own. Most cooperative breeders are totipotent, which means they choose to help out temporarily. But some, such as naked mole rats are permanent helpers, foregoing their own reproduction.

Fostering and adoption

There are plenty of cases of animals being manipulated into raising the young of another. The most famous case is the common cuckoo where the female lays its egg in the nest of a different species, leaving the foster parent to raise the chick.

This deceptive brood-parasitism also happens within a species. For example, sometimes female starlings dump their eggs in the nests of other starlings.

Deliberate fostering and adopting is surprisingly common in the animal kingdom. Occasionally, adoption even happens between species. In 2004, a wild capuchin monkey was seen caring, for a common marmoset although it is not known how long this relationship lasted.

One of my favourite children’s storybooks is The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett, where a mallard adopts an egg that eventually hatches an alligator.

There are also many animals that hang out in friendship groups for a decent part of their adolescence. This is common among long-lived species, such as red deer, where bachelor herds often stay together until they reach sexual maturity.

Like humans who are orphaned early, estranged from their parents, or just leaving home, animals find family among their peers, learning from them, and creating strong bonds. Young, swifts form “screaming parties” for protection while looking for places to breed in future years.

The final type of parenting seen in the animal kingdom is one that is, thankfully, rarely seen in humans – no parenting. The young of these animals are generally numerous, to ensure that some survive. They are also born to be independent of others.

This parenting style is typical of species such as fish and reptiles, and invertebrates including butterflies and spiders. Some types of solitary wasp trap paralysed grasshoppers in their nest, plug it shut and then abandon the nest.

This ensures a food supply for their young when they hatch. But, if their mother hasn’t provided enough food, larger wasp larvae will snack on their siblings instead. Three quarters of wasp larvae in nests end up as food for their siblings.

So, nuclear families are definitely not the norm when it comes to the animal kingdom. Species adopt a variety of parental care methods to ensure that their genes are passed on to the next generation.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Louise Gentle works for Nottingham Trent University.

– ref. Children’s books feature tidy nuclear families – but the animal kingdom tells a different story – https://theconversation.com/childrens-books-feature-tidy-nuclear-families-but-the-animal-kingdom-tells-a-different-story-265532

November 5, 2025

Booker prize 2025: the six shortlisted books, reviewed by experts

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sojin Lim, Reader in Asia Pacific Studies, Co-Director of the International Institute of Korean Studies, University of Lancashire

From 150 titles to a longlist of 13, six novels have been shortlisted for the 2025 Booker prize. Our academics review the finalists ahead of the announcement of the winner on November 10.

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

Middle-aged Tom waits 12 years to keep his promise to leave his unfaithful wife when their youngest child starts college, then embarks on a roadtrip across an American landscape both vivid and commonplace.

Tom recounts the journey and his memories, his voice fluctuating between disclosure and holding back. The reader is the silent party, compelled to reflect: do you resemble the wife craving emotional impact, the son constructing amicable distance, the daughter thrust into change, the ex-partner successful but unsatisfied, or Tom himself? There is nothing really extraordinary, and yet the story is captivating.

Despite one significant obstacle, Tom never expresses regret for risks not taken. He has unanticipated glimpses of alternative paths, and learns the joys of routine, a steady career and ordinary family life. A film adaptation is inevitable; its challenge will be to capture the gentle melancholic tension of this thoughtful novel.

Jenni Ramone is an associate professor of postcolonial and global literatures at Nottingham Trent University

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

An atmospheric domestic drama set during 1963’s “Big Freeze”, the novel follows the lives of two married couples – Eric and Irene, Bill and Rita – in the south-west of England over a few bitter winter months. Due to the intensity of events taking place over a short period of time with just a few characters, The Land in Winter feels claustrophobic, almost soap opera-like.

The wives are both pregnant and they bond, albeit tentatively, over impending motherhood. Despite being the novel’s protagonists, Rita and Irene feel like characters who have things done to them, rather than having their own agency.

Their pregnancies compound this, presented as inescapable obligations as opposed to happy, wanted circumstances. In a novel thick with metaphor and symbolism (the women’s friendship begins when Rita gifts Irene freshly laid eggs) it is perhaps unsurprising that a third pregnancy, that of a cow on Bill and Rita’s farm, foreshadows the trauma and tragedy experienced by the novel’s end.

Stevie Marsden is a lecturer in publishing studies at Edinburgh Napier University

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Susan Choi’s Flashlight opens with a disorienting event. Ten-year-old Louisa and her father Serk walk along a seaside breakwater at dusk, a flashlight in hand. By morning, Louisa is found barely alive. Serk is missing and presumed drowned. Instead of offering immediate answers, the novel follows three intertwined lives – Serk, Louisa, and Anne – across continents and decades.

What begins as a mystery expands into intimate family drama that takes in broader historical shifts, spanning across the Pacific and from the 1970s onwards. Serk, an ethnic Korean born in Japan, emigrates to the US and navigates a life shaped by statelessness and historical upheaval. Anne, Louisa’s American mother, embodies another thread of rupture and inheritance. Together, their stories form a constellation of absence and unresolved loss.

Choi illuminates the hidden currents of identity, migration and disappearance with remarkable skill. Flashlight is an ambitious, emotionally resonant work that rewards close reading.

Sojin Lim is a reader in Asia Pacific studies at University of Lancashire

Flesh by David Szalay

The titles of Szalay’s two Booker-nominated novels, this year’s Flesh and 2016’s All That Man Is, could be interchangeable. Both explore contemporary European masculinity, but where All That Man Is did this through nine short stories, Flesh is a novel about the eventful life of one Hungarian, István, from aged 15 to mid-life.

Here is sex, infidelity, murder, war. But the novel is spare rather than voluptuous, trimmed to the bone rather than fleshy. István’s thoughts and tragedies are often absent from the writing. We don’t hear about his time in a young offenders’ institution or anything at all about his father, for example. We learn that he is physically brave and attractive to women. “Flesh” then refers to the way he is seen, as only a body, a member of the new working classes whose lives are defined by precarity.

Kept outside, overhearing only his bare responses – “Okay” – readers become complicit in this failure to consider all that man is. And it is precisely this innovatively spare narration which makes the novel so deeply affecting.

Tory Young is an associate professor of literature at Anglia Ruskin University

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

At 35, Kiran Desai became the youngest female author to be awarded the Booker prize when her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, won in 2006. The follow up, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, has been twenty years in the making.

Set between the 1990s and early 2000s, Desai’s elaborately structured novel deftly traverses the US, India, Italy and Mexico as it spins the tale of two Indian-born migrants: aspiring novelist Sonia Shah studying in Vermont and struggling journalist Sunny Bhati in New York. Their thwarted romance is instigated by their respective meddling north Indian grandparents, who reside in mouldering mansions symbolic of their declining fortunes and a decaying colonialism, making this 667-page love story an epic, multi-generational family saga.

It dramatises how nation, class, gender, race and history shape its large cast of characters, each explored in detailed vignettes. Desai shows formidable insight as she ponders the cultural values of the US and India, the nature of loneliness, ruthless liberal individualism, postcolonial disintegration and violence, but also creativity.

Ruvani Ranasinha is a professor of global literature at King’s College London

Audition by Katie Kitamura

Katie Kitamura’s Audition (2025) consists of two seemingly contradictory parts. In the first, a stage and screen actress in her late 40s meets a much younger man in a Manhattan restaurant. He has asked for the meeting because he suspects he may be her secret son, given up for adoption as a baby. She reveals that this cannot be: she had an abortion.

In the second part, the young man is the woman’s son, and has grown up with her and her husband, although he has, as an adult, argued with them and left home. Now he wants to return with his girlfriend.

These two seemingly contradictory scenarios are balanced, played against one another, and the tension between these “sliding doors” variant realities throws into relief the uncertainties, intermittencies and variabilities of existence. A pared-down novella, directly written and intriguingly characterised, this is a memorably ambiguous meditation on parenthood, performance, relationship and commitment.

Adam Roberts is professor of 19th-century literature at Royal Holloway

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Booker prize 2025: the six shortlisted books, reviewed by experts – https://theconversation.com/booker-prize-2025-the-six-shortlisted-books-reviewed-by-experts-267508

November 5, 2025

Why Canada must transform its long-term care system

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Denise Suzanne Cloutier, Professor, Health Geography and Social Gerontology, University of Victoria

With Canadians now living longer than ever, the question of who will care for them — and under what conditions — when they can no longer care for themselves has become one of the country’s most pressing issues.

According to 2021 census data, the population aged 85 and over and 100 and over are growing at rates much faster than other population cohorts.

And the reality is that the longer we live, the more likely we are to experience chronic, multiple and complex health conditions like hypertension, osteoarthritis, heart disease, osteoporosis, chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia.

While most older people will continue to “age in place” in their own homes and in relatively good health, about eight per cent, or roughly 528,000, will require the specialized care provided in long-term care (LTC) or assisted living facilities.

This is especially true if they are experiencing progressive and intense illness or disease, disabilities or injuries, and if home care and family supports are limited.

The LTC workforce under pressure

As the demand for long-term care grows, Canada is simultaneously witnessing an exodus of LTC workers through retirement or by seeking employment elsewhere due to chronic and sustained sector challenges, including lack of funding and the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roughly 14 per cent of the Canadian health-care workforce, or just over 50,000 people, are engaged in LTC. This number does not include every member of the care team but does include those who spend the most time providing care at residents’ bedsides.

These practitioners include personal support workers, licensed practical nurses (LPNs), registered nurses (RNs), nurse practitioners and occupational and physiotherapists — most of whom are racially diverse and female. Many feel overwhelmed and unheard.

Caring for the care providers

It is a well-worn but still valid cliché to say the pandemic shone a spotlight on longstanding challenges within LTC, including rising privatization trends and rigid hierarchical organizational structures.

During and after the pandemic, workers said they felt pulled in all directions. Overtime hours, absenteeism, mental-health issues and sick time escalated as staff performed dual roles as both workers and acting family members due to restrictive distancing protocols.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information reported that in 2023, the number of LPNs, RNs and occupational therapists declined by 6.1 per cent, 2.1 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively. Despite of these conditions, the LTC workforce is known to go above and beyond the call of duty in providing care.

In the same year, a government consultation aimed at developing national standards for quality of care and safety in LTC reported that LPNs, aides and allied health professionals were calling for action on working conditions, emphasizing the importance of job stability, equitable wages, training, advancement opportunities, reasonable workloads and limits on mandatory overtime in support of their health, well-being and job satisfaction.

Sociologist Pat Armstrong, a leading Canadian expert in transforming care for older adults, has said that “the conditions of work are the conditions of care.” This is a poignant reminder of the critical relationship between workers and each LTC environment in the care of residents.

Her words underline a hard truth — without attending to this relationship adequately, the level of care for residents becomes compromised.

A new model for aging well with dignity

The costs of providing LTC in large-facility settings bear further scrutiny.

The Conference Board of Canada suggested that 199,000 additional LTC beds will be needed between 2018 and 2035, an investment of $64 billion in capital spending and $130 billion in operating expenditures.

A 2021 survey of about 2,000 Canadians conducted by Ipsos and reported by the Canadian Medical Association noted that 97 per cent of those aged 65 and over are concerned about the state of Canada’s LTC system. Over 95 per cent of those same seniors said they will do everything they can to avoid moving into a LTC home.

Older people want to remain at home for as long as possible. But when they cannot, a growing global movement advocates for the development of smaller, less institutional, more home-like environments, including dementia-friendly communities, to care for older people, especially those living with dementia.

These new models are expanding across Canada, based on the De Hogeweyk Care Concept developed in the Netherlands in the 1990s, with the first village established in 2009. These villages offer settings that support social interaction and engagement in everyday life, provide access to outdoor spaces and gardens and help people retain dignity and autonomy for as long as possible.

For people living with dementia and older adults who desire to remain at home as long as they can, this is a silver lining.

Evidence is growing that these inclusive, age-friendly, home-like settings not only give residents a greater sense of comfort, control and autonomy; they also also provide an environment for direct-care workers to thrive and do meaningful work that makes a difference in their lives and in the daily lives of those they care for.

Creating environments that better support the conditions of care — quality of life for residents and workers, and having care labour recognized, respected and adequately remunerated across all sectors, with opportunities for training and career advancement — will encourage long-time workers to remain in the sector and help ensure that new health-care graduates continue to see LTC as a viable and rewarding career path.

If Canada wants to ensure dignity in aging, it must treat care work as essential infrastructure.

Denise Suzanne Cloutier is part of the C.A.R.I.N.G Dementia Collaborative funded by the University of Victoria, Aspiration 2030 initiative.

– ref. Why Canada must transform its long-term care system – https://theconversation.com/why-canada-must-transform-its-long-term-care-system-267285

November 5, 2025

Le succès des applis de scans alimentaires à l’ère de la défiance

Source: The Conversation – France in French (3) – By Jean-Loup Richet, Maître de conférences et co-directeur de la Chaire Risques, IAE Paris – Sorbonne Business School; Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Portées par la popularité de Yuka ou d’Open Food Facts, les applications de scan alimentaire connaissent un réel engouement. Une étude analyse les ressorts du succès de ces outils numériques qui fournissent des informations nutritionnelles perçues comme plus indépendantes que celles présentes sur les emballages et délivrées soit par les pouvoirs publics (par exemple, l’échelle Nutri-Score) soit par les marques.

La confiance du public envers les autorités et les grands industriels de l’alimentaire s’érode, et un phénomène en témoigne : le succès fulgurant des applications de scan alimentaire. Ces outils numériques, tels que Yuka ou Open Food Facts, proposent une alternative aux étiquettes nutritionnelles officielles en évaluant les produits au moyen de données collaboratives ouvertes ; elles sont ainsi perçues comme plus indépendantes que les systèmes officiels.

Preuve de leur succès, on apprend à l’automne 2025 que l’application Yuka (créée en France en 2017, ndlr) est désormais plébiscitée aussi aux États-Unis. Robert Francis Kennedy Jr, le ministre de la santé de l’administration Trump, en serait un utilisateur revendiqué.

Une enquête autour des sources d’information nutritionnelle

La source de l’information apparaît essentielle à l’ère de la méfiance. C’est ce que confirme notre enquête publiée dans Psychology & Marketing. Dans une première phase exploratoire, 86 personnes ont été interrogées autour de leurs usages d’applications de scan alimentaire, ce qui nous a permis de confirmer l’engouement pour l’appli Yuka.

Nous avons ensuite mené une analyse quantitative du contenu de plus de 16 000 avis en ligne concernant spécifiquement Yuka et, enfin, mesuré l’effet de deux types de signaux nutritionnels (soit apposés sur le devant des emballages type Nutri-Score, soit obtenus à l’aide d’une application de scan des aliments comme Yuka).

Les résultats de notre enquête révèlent que 77 % des participants associent les labels nutritionnels officiels (comme le Nutri-Score) aux grands acteurs de l’industrie agroalimentaire, tandis qu’ils ne sont que 27 % à percevoir les applis de scan comme émanant de ces dominants.

À noter que cette perception peut être éloignée de la réalité. Le Nutri-Score, par exemple, n’est pas affilié aux marques de la grande distribution. Il a été développé par le ministère français de la santé qui s’est appuyé sur les travaux d’une équipe de recherche publique ainsi que sur l’expertise de l’Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (Anses) et du Haut Conseil de la santé publique (HCSP).

C’est quoi, le Nutri-Score ?

Le Nutri-Score est un logo apposé, sur la base du volontariat, sur l’emballage de produits alimentaires pour informer le consommateur sur leur qualité nutritionnelle.
L’évaluation s’appuie sur une échelle de cinq couleurs allant du vert foncé au orange foncé. Chaque couleur est associée à une lettre, de A à E.
La note est attribuée en fonction des nutriments et aliments à favoriser dans le produit pour leurs qualités nutritionnelles (fibres, protéines, fruits, légumes, légumes secs) et de ceux à éviter (énergie, acides gras saturés, sucres, sel et édulcorants pour les boissons).

De son côté, la base de données Open Food Facts (créée en France en 2012, ndlr) apparaît comme un projet collaboratif avec, aux manettes, une association à but non lucratif. Quant à l’application Yuka, elle a été créée par une start-up.

Des applis nutritionnelles perçues comme plus indépendantes

Ces applications sont vues comme liées à de plus petites entités qui, de ce fait, apparaissent comme plus indépendantes. Cette différence de perception de la source engendre un véritable fossé de confiance entre les deux types de signaux. Les consommateurs les plus défiants se montrent plus enclins à se fier à une application indépendante qu’à une étiquette apposée par l’industrie ou par le gouvernement (Nutri-Score), accordant ainsi un avantage de confiance aux premières.

Ce phénomène, comparable à un effet « David contre Goliath », illustre la manière dont la défiance envers, à la fois, les autorités publiques et les grandes entreprises alimente le succès de solutions perçues comme plus neutres. Plus largement, dans un climat où rumeurs et désinformation prospèrent, beaucoup préfèrent la transparence perçue d’une application citoyenne aux communications officielles.

Dimension participative et « volet militant »

Outre la question de la confiance, l’attrait des applications de scan tient aussi à l’empowerment ou empouvoirement (autonomisation) qu’elles procurent aux utilisateurs. L’empowerment du consommateur se traduit par un sentiment accru de contrôle, une meilleure compréhension de son environnement et une participation plus active aux décisions. En scannant un produit pour obtenir instantanément une évaluation, le citoyen reprend la main sur son alimentation au lieu de subir passivement l’information fournie par le fabricant.

Cette dimension participative a même un volet qui apparaît militant : Yuka, par exemple, est souvent présentée comme l’arme du « petit consommateur » contre le « géant agro-industriel ». Ce faisant, les applications de scan contribuent à autonomiser les consommateurs qui peuvent ainsi défier les messages marketing et exiger des comptes sur la qualité des produits.

Des questions de gouvernance algorithmique

Néanmoins, cet empowerment s’accompagne de nouvelles questions de gouvernance algorithmique. En effet, le pouvoir d’évaluer les produits bascule des acteurs traditionnels vers ces plateformes et leurs algorithmes. Qui définit les critères du score nutritionnel ? Quelle transparence sur la méthode de calcul ? Ces applications concentrent un pouvoir informationnel grandissant : elles peuvent, d’un simple score, influer sur l’image d’une marque, notamment celles à la notoriété modeste qui ne peuvent contrer une mauvaise note nutritionnelle.

Garantir la sécurité et l’intégrité de l’information qu’elles fournissent devient dès lors un enjeu essentiel. À mesure que le public place sa confiance dans ces nouveaux outils, il importe de s’assurer que leurs algorithmes restent fiables, impartiaux et responsables. Faute de quoi, l’espoir d’une consommation mieux informée pourrait être trahi par un excès de pouvoir technologique non contrôlé.

À titre d’exemple, l’algorithme sur lequel s’appuie le Nutri-Score est réévalué en fonction de l’avancée des connaissances sur l’effet sanitaire de certains nutriments et ce, en toute transparence. En mars 2025, une nouvelle version de cet algorithme Nutri-Score est ainsi entrée en vigueur.

La montée en puissance des applications de scan alimentaire est le reflet d’une perte de confiance envers les institutions, mais aussi d’une aspiration à une information plus transparente et participative. Loin d’être de simples gadgets, ces applis peuvent servir de complément utile aux politiques de santé publique (et non s’y substituer !) pour reconstruire la confiance avec le consommateur.

En redonnant du pouvoir au citoyen tout en encadrant rigoureusement la fiabilité des algorithmes, il est possible de conjuguer innovation numérique et intérêt général. Réconcilier information indépendante et gouvernance responsable jouera un rôle clé pour que, demain, confiance et choix éclairés aillent de pair.

Marie-Eve Laporte a reçu des financements de l’Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR).

Béatrice Parguel, Camille Cornudet, Fabienne Berger-Remy et Jean-Loup Richet ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.

– ref. Le succès des applis de scans alimentaires à l’ère de la défiance – https://theconversation.com/le-succes-des-applis-de-scans-alimentaires-a-lere-de-la-defiance-267489

November 5, 2025

Canadian universities must do more to ensure their branded clothing isn’t made in sweatshops

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Judy Fudge, Professor Emeritus, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University

From hoodies and T-shirts to baseball caps, apparel with university and collegiate names and logos is a booming business in Canada and the United States.

Colleges and universities earn revenue each year by licensing their trademarks to major apparel companies, including Lululemon and Fanatics. These companies, in turn, rely on vast supplier networks located primarily in countries with weak labour protections and regulations.

The result is a disconnect between the values many universities espouse and the practices they enable. Canadian universities have a critical role to play in the advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 8, which promotes sustainable economic growth and decent work for all.

Yet workers who make university-branded apparel often receive low wages, face gender-based violence and harassment, experience retaliation for union involvement and work in unsafe buildings.

As an expert in labour exploitation and modern slavery in supply chains, I believe universities and colleges have a responsibility to ensure these workers have decent working conditions.

Rise of student activism and monitoring

Concerns about labour conditions are not new. Since the late 1990s, student activism has led many universities to adopt codes of conduct for licenses for upholding workers’ labour rights. However, finding out if these rights were actually being upheld was challenging.

Universities turned to certification programs and social auditing firms to monitor compliance, but research shows these programs are often lax and fail to disclose violations. These monitors are too close to the companies they work for, leading to conflicts of interest and limited transparency.

Because of this, the student anti-sweatshop movement pressed for independent monitoring. In 2000, United Students Against Sweatshops established the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent organization that was initially set up to help colleges and universities enforce their manufacturing codes of conduct. It also performs independent investigations for other organizations and companies when asked to do so.

Unlike most corporate social auditors, the WRC is the only independent organization serving the university community that isn’t affiliated with the apparel industry.

It investigates factories based on worker testimonies. These investigations can be triggered by reports from universities, workers or local non-governmental organizations. Investigations are designed to ensure transparency through public reporting, and the WRC works with apparel brands and factories to secure remediation.

According to the WRC, it has helped more than 700,000 workers through factory investigations and helped them win more than US$150 million of legally owed back pay. It has also helped reverse terminations for 1,810 workers who were wrongfully fired for exercising their right to associate.

Lessons from Rana Plaza

The importance of independent monitoring of corporate labour rights codes was highlighted by the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in April 2013, which killed 1,131 workers. Factories in the building produced garments for several major brands, including the Loblaw’s Joe Fresh line.

Despite some of the brands having codes of conduct and audits, none identified or corrected safety violations in the months before the collapse.

In the aftermath, the WRC helped implement and enforce the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, a five-year independent, legally binding agreement between global brands, retailers and trade unions to build a safe Bangladeshi garment industry. Reports of the accord show significant improvements in fire and building safety.

Expanding the fight for workers’ rights

Beyond Bangladesh, the WRC has devised ways for brands to use their economic leverage to persuade suppliers to address systemic problems like gender-based violence and harassment in the garment sector.

Its investigations led to two agreements to eliminate these issues: one in Lesotho in 2018 and one in Central Java in 2024. The WRC’s university-affiliate program was crucial in Central Java, since the supplier produced university-logo goods.

This work shows that reducing and addressing labour abuse in global garment chains is possible. The WRC’s success stems from its institutional features that enhance its legitimacy: independence from unions and corporations, its investigative nature and its focus on workers.

Why university participation matters

University affiliation is crucial for the WRC’s success. While many universities have signed on, the number of affiliates has declined from 186 in 2010 to 154 in 2025.

To become an affiliate, a university must adopt a manufacturing code of conduct, incorporate it into contracts with apparel companies, share a list of factories involved in producing their merchandise and pay an annual affiliation fee.

Only six Canadian universities are affiliates: McGill University, Queen’s University, Thompson Rivers University, the University of Guelph, the University of Winnipeg and the University of Toronto. McMaster University, where I taught in the School of Labour Studies until this year, recently withdrew after 23 years.

For Canadian universities that market themselves as global citizens and champions of the sustainable development goals, affiliation should be seen as a moral obligations. By choosing to become an affiliate, universities demonstrate their commitment to protecting the rights of workers producing the apparel and goods that carry their names.

Judy Fudge receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

– ref. Canadian universities must do more to ensure their branded clothing isn’t made in sweatshops – https://theconversation.com/canadian-universities-must-do-more-to-ensure-their-branded-clothing-isnt-made-in-sweatshops-266330

November 5, 2025

From nerve-racking to welcome: How mindfulness helps people engage with feedback to improve

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Erin Isings, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information & Media Studies, Western University

Imagine you’re awaiting important feedback. For professionals, this could be a performance appraisal from your boss. For students, it could be written comments and a grade on an important paper.

For many people, this waiting period involves dread, anxiety, stress and other negative emotions. And once the much-anticipated feedback arrives, its reception may be clouded in emotions that result in a disengagement with the feedback process: shock, rejection or confusion. It’s an emotional blow that can really affect the feedback recipient’s well-being and sense of self.

Although feedback can sometimes feel painful, it might be the best gift to help our learning and growth.

Receiving feedback helps us to gain an accurate awareness of our actual performance in relation to the expected or needed outcome — whether that’s on the job or in school.

Feedback helps us understand how to close that gap between where we are versus where we need to be and improve our skills. Without the guidance that comes from feedback, we’re fumbling in the dark.

Feedback literacy

With proper feedback, we can clearly see our strengths and our opportunities for learning. Yet feedback literacy — the process of engaging with feedback and using it to improve — is a skill that is rarely taught in school.

Feedback literacy typically involves four phases:

Accepting feedback: Having an open mind and recognizing that feedback is valuable and we can grow from it.
Reflecting upon feedback: Considering how the feedback shows gaps in performance and can act as guidance to bring us closer to the desired outcome.
Engaging with the feedback: Making sense of the feedback, including asking clarifying questions. It’s at this phase that emotional reactions can derail the feedback literacy process.
Applying feedback: Using feedback to make changes to subsequent performance.

Benefits for lower stress

As university educators who teach students in communications, dentistry and undergraduate medical sciences, our previous research on feedback literacy showed that students who have higher levels of feedback literacy also have higher levels of mindfulness and lower levels of overall stress.

From this, we wanted to look at whether students would benefit from learning more feedback literacy skills — and at the same time, have their well-being and emotions supported through mindfulness.

We developed a program to teach students how to become more literate with feedback, while managing their stress responses to that feedback.

Teaching feedback literacy

To support managing feedback-induced stress, we thought that perhaps mindfulness, or focusing on the present moment without judgment, would help minimize the negative emotions around receiving feedback. Without being distracted by the emotion, students could focus on the feedback and improve their learning.

Working with a multidisciplinary team, we designed a “co-curricular course” — an online module that could be completed by students in different disciplines to support core curriculum. This entails six 30-minute lessons that apply mindfulness to feedback literacy, made available through Western University’s online learning management system.

We then met with students who went through the lessons to ask them about their experiences. While we had hoped to hear that they were able to see past the negative emotions when receiving feedback, and develop an appreciation for it, we found some unexpected results.

Students reframing their outlook on feedback

Beyond students no longer focusing on the negative emotions around feedback, they went as far to report that skills from the course helped them reframe their views on the whole feedback process.

Instead of feedback being a painful and nerve-racking experience, students reported that they began to welcome and seek out feedback. One student reported looking forward to receiving it and asking her supervisor at a clinical placement to give her as much feedback as possible.

Another student who had previously avoided speaking to professors out of fear of being seen as a “problem student” began to ask for clarification to decode assignment feedback. Students reported they began to eagerly ask questions to deepen their understanding of the feedback they received and consequently improve their learning.

Another focus group participant, a dental student, reported using the mindfulness techniques to help her stay calm while performing a dental procedure on a patient, recognizing that she needed to stay focused to avoid upsetting the patient and to complete the tooth procedure.

How students used mindfulness

A further surprise was that students reported applying the mindfulness techniques to minimize stress and increase their well-being in scenarios such as:

Navigating transitions (from post-secondary school to their first professional job)
Using mindful eating practices to notice what foods they’re consuming
Slowing down to enjoy a morning cup of tea
Realizing that post-secondary years are the “best years” and the need to enjoy the time
Managing emotions such as anxiety when returning to their hometown
Using mindfulness to notice their physical surroundings (houses and stores on their street)

Overall, focus group participants reported increased well-being due to stronger coping mechanisms for stress in academic work and in other life aspects.

This research contributes to understanding short- and potentially longer-term benefits of learning about feedback literacy or mindfulness as a complementary part of academic study or professional training.

Feedback literacy tips

Whether you’re walking into a performance appraisal, or your child is anticipating a grade return, here are some things to remember:

Feedback is not a personal attack. It’s a gift to help improve your performance.

Accept each feedback moment as an opportunity for personal growth.

If feedback is disappointing, try to put the emotions aside to see where there is actionable guidance.

Seek feedback whenever possible. The more you ask for — and receive — feedback in everyday situations, the easier it is to welcome it.

Take time to celebrate the wins. Reflect on what worked for you and how you can build on that momentum.

Erin Isings receives funding from SSHRC.

Cecilia S. Dong receives funding from SSHRC.

Christine Bell receives funding from SSHRC.

– ref. From nerve-racking to welcome: How mindfulness helps people engage with feedback to improve – https://theconversation.com/from-nerve-racking-to-welcome-how-mindfulness-helps-people-engage-with-feedback-to-improve-261826

November 5, 2025

The problem with ‘mega-COPs’: can a 50,000-person conference still tackle climate change?

Source: The Conversation – France in French (3) – By Dr Hayley Walker, Assistant Professor of International Negotiation, IÉSEG School of Management

Governments from around the world will soon descend upon Belém, Brazil for the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and with them, many actors from industry and business, civil society, research institutions, youth organisations and Indigenous Peoples’ groups, to name but a few. Since the adoption of the Paris agreement on climate change in 2015, COP participation numbers have ballooned. COP28 in Dubai was attended by 83,884 participants – a record – and while numbers fell to 54,148 at COP29 in Baku last year, they remained well above those at COP21 in Paris.

These events, which have been described as “mega-COPs”, have come under criticism for the enormous carbon footprint they generate. Research I conducted with Lisanne Groen of Open Universiteit on the participation of non-state actors identifies two further problems. First, the quantity of participants is undermining the quality of participation, as large numbers of non-state actors have to compete for a limited number of meeting rooms, side event slots, opportunities to speak publicly, and chances to engage in dialogue with decision makers. Second, the “mega-COP” trend is driving a widening gap between these actors’ expectations of participation and the realities of the process.

A fair way to downsize

When it comes to the first problem, the obvious solution is to downsize the COPs, but this is not so easy in practice. The decision to hold COP30 in the Amazonian city of Belém – difficult to access and with only 18,000 hotel beds – was thought to be an attempt to move beyond “peak COP”. With tens of thousands of people predicted to attend, some participants appear undeterred by the remote location, but the limited supply of beds has caused prices to surge, raising concerns about costs and their potential effect on the “legitimacy and quality of negotiations”, as reported by Reuters.

As the COPs have grown in size, they have generated more and more political and media attention, so that they are now seen as “the place to be”. This creates pressure on nongovernmental organisations and other non-state actors to attend. Just as the gravitational force of large bodies of mass attracts other objects to them, the mass of “mega-COPs” attracts increasing numbers of participants, in a self-reinforcing cycle that is difficult to break.

The fairest way to downsize the COPs, we argue, is by shining a spotlight on the little-known “overflow” category of participants. This category once allowed governments to add delegates to the events without their names appearing on participant lists, but these names have been publicly reported since the introduction of new transparency measures in 2023. At COP28, there were 23,740 “overflow” participants. These are not government negotiators, but often researchers or industry representatives who have close connections with governments.

COPs are intergovernmental processes: they are created by governments, for governments. Consequently, priority goes to government requests for access badges. Only once all government requests have been met can remaining badges be allocated to admitted non-state actors, which are known as “observers”. Overflow participants are therefore benefiting at the expense of these observer organisations. Pressuring governments to either limit or remove the overflow category could free up many more badges for observers while still reducing the overall number of COP participants in a more equitable manner.

An ‘expectation gap’

The second problem – the expectation gap – relates to a growing misconception of the role of non-state actors in the climate policy negotiation process. Sovereign states are the only actors with the legitimacy to negotiate and adopt international law. The role of non-state actors is to inform and advocate, not to negotiate. Yet, recent years have seen increasing calls among certain groups of non-state actors for “a seat at the table” and the expectation that they will be able to participate on an equal footing with governments. This framing is reproduced online, including via social media, and inevitably leads to frustration and disappointment when they are confronted with the realities of the intergovernmental negotiations.

We see these misaligned expectations particularly in non-state actors who are newcomers to the process. The “mega-COPs” attract more and more first-time participants, who may not have the resources, including know-how and contacts, to effectively reach policymakers. These participants’ growing disillusionment undermines the legitimacy of the COPs – a precious commodity at a geopolitical moment when they are facing challenges from the new US administration – but also risks wasting the valuable ideas and enthusiasm that the newcomers bring.

Focusing on implementation

We see two solutions. First, capacity-building initiatives can build awareness around the intergovernmental nature of the negotiations, and help new participants to engage effectively. One such initiative is the UNFCCC’s “Observer Handbook”. Many organisations and individuals produce their own resources to help first-time participants understand how the process works and how to get involved. Second, and more fundamentally, we need to channel the political, media and public attention away from the negotiations and toward the vital work of climate policy implementation.

COPs are much more than just negotiations – they are also a forum for bringing together the many actors that implement climate action on the ground to learn from each other and drive momentum. These activities, which take place in a dedicated zone of the COP called the “Action Agenda”, are of the utmost importance now that the negotiations on the Paris agreement have concluded and a new chapter focused on implementation begins. Whereas the role for non-state actors in the intergovernmental negotiations is rather limited, when it comes to implementation, their role is central. The actions of cities, regions, businesses, civil society groups and other NSAs can help bridge the gap between emissions-reduction targets in government pledges and the cuts that will be necessary to reach them.

The key issue, therefore, is to divert energy and attention toward the Action Agenda and policy implementation, to make them big enough to exert their own gravitational pull and set in motion positive, self-reinforcing dynamics for climate action. We are heartened to see the Brazilian presidency labelling COP30 as “the COP of implementation” and calling for “Mutirão”, a collective sense of engagement and on-the-ground action that does not require a physical presence in Belém. This addresses both problems with the “mega-COPs” and offers exciting encouragement to channel the groundswell of energy to where it is most needed.

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Dr Hayley Walker ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. The problem with ‘mega-COPs’: can a 50,000-person conference still tackle climate change? – https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-mega-cops-can-a-50-000-person-conference-still-tackle-climate-change-268944