And so COP28 with more than 167 Presidents and Prime Ministers attending the first day in the Dubai finally closed on December 13th.
Some are still asking if this was the most ‘action packed’ COP or one of the most ambitious with the pledge of over $700 million in loss and damage funds to poorer countries most hit by the effect of climate change.
But thirteen year old Los Angeles boy and football player – Ismachiah Oduwole, was also at COP28. While he was not involved in the long negotiations between countries called parties, his mission was still equally powerful.
Ismachiah is the young boy, who was surprised with a FIFA world cup trip last November 2022, and thought of his idea of taking 2 footballs and having fans and officials and players sign the ball and pledge to do something about it when they got back home to their various countries. He successfully got people from 28 countries, including Brazil, Morocco, Ghana, England, South Korea, Tunisia, and many more, to sign.
He began to invite the CEOs of some of the world’s biggest companies and Presidents of countries, whose work and mission in the sustainability area showed measurable progress in our planets ‘Climate and Sustainability’ journey. They include the CEOs of FedEx, Carnival Cruise, MGM Resorts, Hawaii Airlines, Marriott International and the President of Seychelles – H.E Wavel Ramkalawan, President of Guyana – H.E. Irfaan Ali, Prime Minister of Fiji H.E. Sitiveni Rabuka and the UAE Minister of Climate Change & Environment – H.E. Mariam Almheiri.
From Sky News Arabia to Abu Dhabi TV, and a TV station for the next country to host COP – Azerbaijan, invitations began to come in for him to do LIVE TV Interviews.
They all found out that the three most powerful individuals in the world in climate change had all signed his ball despite their incredibly busy COP 28 schedules.
They are COP 28 President Sultan Al Jabar from the UAE, President Joe Bidens special envoy on climate and former US Secretary of State under Barack Obama – John Kerry, and the UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell from Grenada.
Each one of these gentlemen had not only signed Ismachiah’s climate ball with specific pledges or messages, but they were encouraged he was leading a global awareness campaign at the highest level of business and political leaders, while securing their pledges and commitments across the globe to save our planet from the climate crisis.
