"Olivia Karp Leads the Charge on SDG 13 with 'The Climate Mobility Community Action Network' (CMCAN) Project"

Can you give us a brief overview of your project and how it addresses SDG 13?

The Climate Mobility Community Action Network (CMCAN) is a network that brings together various stakeholders and people with lived climate migration and displacement experiences to discuss innovative climate migration and displacement solutions through education, collaboration and participation.

What inspired you to tackle climate change as part of your project?

What inspired me to start this project was coming from a place of how climate change can impact everyone. I wanted to build an organization where we can bring people together and discuss solutions. It is improtant for climate action to be a collaborative process which is whhy I started The Climate Mobility Community Action Network.

What specific goals did your project aim to achieve in relation to combating climate change?

The Goals are:

- Collaborate with individuals, communities, and stakeholders on climate migration and displacement as a way to come up with innovative solutions.

- To educate others on the impacts of climate migration and displacement through research and relevant data.

- Work to provide a platform for those impacted by climate migration and displacement through participation globally and domestically.​

How did your project contribute to raising awareness about climate change or reducing its impacts?

Our organization has contributed in raising awarenss through hosting events, collaborations, making content and workinn on impacful projects. One of things we have done is make a video called What does Climate Mobility Mean to you. Which is where we got a bunch of advocates from all over the world who work on climate action and human mobility to estentially define what does the defintion of climate mobility mean to them. We did the video through recorded sessions and written a well.

Did your project focus on any particular aspect of climate change (e.g., mitigation, adaptation, education)? If so, could you explain this focus?

My organization focues on climate change and the way it can influence the human mobility of others.

What were some of the challenges you faced while implementing your project, particularly in addressing climate change, and how did you overcome them?

I think one of the challenges my organization has faced was trying to figure out what to focus on in the first place. The reason why this was hard becasue there were so many ways you can do work on addressing climate mobility. We decided to do work on events and blog posts where we talk about the topic and educate others on it.

Can you share any specific outcomes or impacts your project had in relation to SDG 13?

I would say we had the opportunity to do an educational event on Why you should care about climate mobility. We worked on SDG#13 in this event by having different speakers who either experienced the effects of climate change or were doing work on the area. Each speaker shared action points on how to tackle climate mobility and address it.

Did your project involve collaboration with other students, organizations, or community members? If yes, how did this collaboration enhance your project's effectiveness in combating climate change?

We involved people who were impacted by climate change themselves or different stakeholders. What makes CMCAN a great organization is how we have people from all over the world on this topic and have been impacted by climate mobility and displacement themselves.

What were some key lessons you learned from working on this project related to SDG 13?

I think I learned the importance of listening and working with others in order to build something impactful. What I meant by this is using SDG#13 to make tangable action and using it as a tool to achive good measures.

Looking ahead, how do you plan to continue your efforts to combat climate change beyond the scope of your project, and what role do you see yourself playing in future climate action initiatives?

I see myself in the future hoping to do more work where I work with those impacted by climate change and displacement on the ground. If we want to really understand what is going on with a particular event its important to go there and see it yourselves. Along the lines of also getting those impacted involved in way where it benefits them as well.