My story of hopefulness is a story about a woman who's really committed her life to helping us better understand the natural world and ensure that much of it is secured for future generations. Kris Tompkins was CEO of Patagonia, and then with her late husband focussed on how to secure large tracts of land and together created some of the largest protected areas in the world. Kris isn't coming from a traditional conservation career, she started in the private sector but always had a great reverence and respect for the natural world. She then went on to work with local communities and governments and help set up 13 national parks in Chile and Argentina, and protect almost 15 million acres. But what I most admire is her ability to communicate the importance of the natural world and our relationship with other forms of life and the need to get to know our neighbours and understand nature so that we truly respect, value and ultimately want to protect it. These challenges are immense and there's so many interests against securing the natural world. But to have an example like Kris who's just got up and done it is very inspiring.

One of the organisations I find inspiring is Julie's Bicycle who support artists to use their artistic-creative skills and communication to change the narrative on the climate crisis.

My story of hopefulness comes from an incredible organisation that I've known for many years called Galgael. They operate out of this huge warehouse just on the south of the river Clyde in a former shipbuilding community called Govan. They are all about giving people who have just come out of prison or tackling addiction or long term unemployment not just some skills in boat building but a sense of purpose, a sense of community and they call it a clan, giving them a sense of clanship. They use traditional shipbuilding techniques, so there's woodwork and joinery, the sound of hammers and a smell of wood being cut. It's the most amazing space to go into and what they're doing, I think is probably quite literally a suicide prevention work. They always recognise they're just a sticking plaster, they're very humble and very attentive to the nature of the wider economic system that is driving people to their doors, but I think they're just an extraordinary, very, very precious organisation.

My story of hopefulness is the former president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari. I lived in Finland for seven years and I feel I do have a good grasp of what many Finnish people are like, and I've met a lot of people who do things quietly, and yet initiate enormous change. Quietly, Martti Ahtisaari was one of those people. His organisation has been at the heart of peace deals in some of the most challenging of situations. What he was known for and what I love is that he was a good listener which is obviously the key for any peacebuilder, to be able to listen quietly and bring people together. He died in October 2023 aged 87 but is my hopeful story because of his humility and his passion for people.

My story of hopefulness is an organisation based in Ghana, that is focused on helping informal workers who do not have a fixed wage, pension or savings, to have a savings pot for their retirement. Informal workers make up about 70% of the African population so when I see this organisation pushing through this mission, and really finding a way for Africa's workers to have a pension it brings me so much hope. In addition to all the challnges of setting up the organisation, the founder caught COVID and died which was a profound loss, not just for the organisation, but for the world and this space. Many people thought that the mission would die with him, his name was Samuel, but they were completely wrong. His mission has remained active and since he passed away, there have been over 30,000 more savers come into this organisation maybe contributing one or two dollars a day towards their pension. So the mission lives on.

I'm going to take you into the realm of government and take you to Taiwan and back first to about 2012 when the government wanted to stifle and quieten the role of citizens saying effectively that 'we will look after everything that matters'. Taiwan had this thing called the economic power up plan in large part because they were starting to negotiate a big trade deal with Mainland China which would have ceded a lot of the country's sovereignty and agency to China. What happened at that time was a group of hackers started to organise. They called themselves gov zero and started to build parallel websites to the government websites in Taiwan to enable people to essentially participate in shadow government and vote and comment on things effectively saying that government isn't something that should be done for us, it's something that we should all be involved in. This grew over time and then 2014 came and a trade bill with China came to Parliament and started to be rushed through. An Occupy style protest started, students occupied the Parliament, and GOV Zero brought in a broadband connection and streamed into parliament the students debating the clauses of the trade bill. The critical moment came when the under pressure speaker of the parliament refused to stifle the voices of the students and suggested that this is what democracy looks like. Speaker Wang opened the space up and I think is a big hero. From that moment, the whole of the way Taiwan works has transformed with one of the leaders of the hacker movement becoming a mentor to a government minister then after the next presidential election in 2016, became a minister herself. She then led the country's response to the COVID pandemic, which was one of the most successful anywhere in the world and has been rooted in the principle of treating everyone in Taiwan as a participant and a source of ideas and energy.

Joe Murphy and I have been doing some research into the UN Convention on Climate Change and on the series of conferences that have defined the targets and represents a glimmer of hope for the natural world. We have spoken to the people involved from the UN Secretariat to the people creating the protocols that form the basis of international law around climate change which is incredibly inspiring. Kyoto was really the first time that 200 countries came together and agreed that something should be done. This idea that you can get so many people from so many different countries to agree is sort of unbelievably inspiring and gives us hope. We think there are a lot of lessons there at a time when it feels like we're not agreeing and the idea of consensus is out of our grasp.

Professor Paul Hawken and the team from Project Drawdown came up with the 100 best solutions to tackle climate change. This is a blueprint that society could put to work now and make great strides toward tackling climate change. Amazing changes are going on in the investment industry with many companies embracing ESG (Enviromental, Social, Governance) and the UN SDGs (Sustainable Developmental Goals). So much still needs changing, but knowing what the solutions to a lot of our challenges look like, and how we can do it, is a great encouragement to get on with it!