Phase 1 – The Istanbul Event

Phase 1 was the event in Istanbul, Turkey, 24-30 June, 2013. It included nearly 500 climate leaders from 134 countries with the following objectives:

  • Sharing and developing skills to organise movements and run hard hitting campaigns
  • Preparing and building upon existing plans to organise in-country Power Shift events back home after the kickoff event in Turkey.
  • Building political alignment, analysis, and a clear theory of change.
  • Sharing experiences and learning about different challenges faced by the climate movement in different countries/regions.
  • Formulating strategies to overcome those challenges.
  • Building relationships to strengthen regional and international cooperation and collaboration.

Here are the expectations that participants agreed to when they submitted the confirmation survey for attending GPS:

We expect that you are ready and able to commit a few hours every week in the months prior to GPS to fully take part in the preparations leading to GPS in Turkey (which will include kicking off the preparations for Phase 2 of GPS in your country or region).

We expect that you are ready and able to commit to working collaboratively and constructively with all other GPS participants, as well as with other individuals, organisations and networks relevant to your country’s and region’s strategic planning.

We expect that you are ready and able to commit that you will be present and fully engaged during the GPS Turkey event – including that you will do your best to attend all sessions on time and that you will contribute as much as possible to discussions and actions.

We expect that you are ready and able to commit a few hours weekly after the GPS Turkey event, to help organise and run a large scale national/regional climate event in your country/region as part of your national/regional strategic climate plan to shift the power!

In advance of phase 2 teams worked together to prepare for participation at Global Power Shift. Teams were linked with a member of our 350.org Global Field team who supported teams in the lead up to the event in Turkey.

These preparations included:

  • getting to know fellow team members and planning tasks and roles
  • ‘mapping’ and building relationships with national climate networks and building coalitions
  • mapping’ and profiling country (its climate politics, vulnerabilities, emissions, fossil fuel usage, etc)
  • reading and discussing a couple of movement strategy essays to deepen political analysis
  • using this mapping information to initiate strategic planning for what teams propose to do in the second phase of the Global Power Shift.
Kicking off on Monday night, 24th June, and closing on the evening of Sunday, 29th June, the GPS event in Istanbul was a combination of large group activities, skills trainings, regional breakouts for strategic planning, panel discussions, participant-led workshops, cultural presentations, and more! We participated in a climate action in Istanbul organised by local allies. It was creative, intense, fun, challenging and amazing!