In Conversation with Ned Remington

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Join us for an 'In Conversation with…', this time with Ned Remington – Climate Activist, Writer and Official Observer at COP2929 Climate Summit in Baku.

Exeter Cathedral was proud to support 19-year-old Devonian, Ned Remington, as an Official Observer at the COP29 Climate Summit in Baku last November. His placement was part of the Christian Climate Observers' Programme (CCOP), which sends young observers from across the world to report back from the centre of negotiations to their local communities and churches.

On Sunday 14 September, Ned will share his experience of the conference and what we can expect from the COP30 Summit in November this year. He'll also talk about the role religion has played in inspiring him to be an activist and the power of faith to motivate constructive and effective change. The conversation and reflection will then be followed by a short service of compline.

Ned travelled most of the way to COP29 by land, and recorded his journey and his conversations with people he met along the way about climate change. Here's an excerpt from a post discussing the relevance of Christianity to the climate action movement:

"I'm a Christian, and I'm heading to COP29 in Baku as part of the Christian Climate Observer's Program, with other young Christians from around the world. Whilst I'm at the summit, I'll be meeting with Christian leaders and representatives as well as secular political diplomats, and I'm hoping to show the role the church can play in these sorts of intergovernmental negotiations. It can feel very awkward to talk about faith openly, especially as a young person. Moreover, for progressive, liberally-minded Anglicans, finding the smoothest possible connection between modern secular society and Christianity seems to be a key ideological motivation for our whole 'brand' of faith.

The concept of conventional evangelism seems very foreign to my type of Christianity, and I was always taught growing up that sharing God's word meant showing kindness and acting in a Christ-like manner rather than speaking directly to atheists and others about Jesus. It's almost a source of embarrassment to open up about your religion for those in my religious demographic, making this post very unusual for me, but I think it's a vital topic to cover in some detail."