June 2026 Walking Forest Climate Action Month : Part II

Who’s at the COP climate talks?

Monarch butterflies, two species of sea turtle, a terrapin and damselfly, chipmunk, gum Arabic (Sudanese acacia) jasmine, carder bee, wild boar, golden fig – crawling, seeding, leaping, paddling, fluttering, floating, flowering, snuffling, fruiting, buzzing their way into the reflective marble halls of the UN in Bonn where humans thrash out day after day, breath by breath, word by word the micro-machinations of global climate agreements.

Meet the Honouring Cloth. Slowly twisting apart embroidery threads of 100 different colours with squinting eyes to thread needles, we spread out a sea of recycled fabric for people to sit with and stitch something precious from our world that is called through them to take a place on the cloth. In the heatwave we sit beneath the Indian bean tree in a handkerchief square of a garden or in the thoroughfare between venues where the intense and detailed work of wording the future is occurring.

Sideways looks that over moments, hours or a day open into questions, conversations and storytelling. Using our hands to draw, stitch, attend to and remember, the welcome softness in this space seems to take each of us by surprise – relief, laughter, delight, convivial silence as people invest their time with the Honouring Cloth between negotiations, bilateral conversations, forums and press conferences.

So many share memories of watching a parent or grandmother stitch with different traditions, patterns and stitching customs from across the globe. So many have never before worked with needle and thread in this way but agree to give it a go. And if someone hasn’t enough time to finish their wild being, we commit to finding other hands to carry on the careful work that they have started – indeed there is a bird’s nest with precious eggs which has already seen three people’s hands work in it but is yet to be finished.

‘I imagine people come here and take a deep breath’ ‘It’s truly life giving’ and ‘Politics and stitching – 300 times yes!’ were amongst the comments while our friends at the Entertainment + Culture pavilion launch the crucial Culture Global Stocktake for Climate Action in conference room Nairobi 4 to acknowledge the vital role of culture in adaptation, loss, climate action, heritage and binding communities together. Here at the edge of the conference, along the corridors of power, we were busy making culture together with folk from around the world.

With much thanks to Marie-Claire Graf, Climate Youth Negotiators Academy, Bonn Climate Camp and Bundeskunstalle for hosting us.

Alongside the Honouring Cloth, Walking Forest was seed gifting and working hand in hand with the Entertainment and Culture pavilion to support the evolution of the Culture Stocktake. Working with E+C and YOUNGO we created a half day retreat for young climate negotiators and activists to relax and reenergise in the glorious treescape of the Bonn riverside park. You can read more about this in Bonn 2026 Part I.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOST THE HONOURING CLOTH?
The Honouring Cloth was first stitched in Glasgow at COP 26, 2021 then in 2024, 2025 and 2026 at the Bonn Climate Change Conference Cop climate talks where delegates from around the world gather at the UN World Conference Centre to do the preparatory work and negotiation for the United Nations’ climate change conference each winter – the COP.

The cloth has also travelled to Egypt’s COP27, and COP30 in Belem, Brazil, carried by our partners Climate Youth Negotiators Academy where it narrowly escaped a fire in the Entertainment and Culture Pavillion, as well as heading to Marrakesh overland with Lucy for the first drafting of the Culture Global Stocktake earlier this year.

We have also attended a wild variety of places and events, with stitching groups, at festivals and holding workshops with community groups throughout the UK.

If you would like to host a Walking Forest Honouring Cloth workshop with your group over the next two years please get in touch for more details. The cloth will be part of a celebratory event marking the climax of our 10-year art project in 2028, coinciding with the centenary in the UK of Universal Suffrage after the first votes for some women was granted in 1918 after a long and hard-fought campaign involving thousands of people. (see suffrage blogs.)