A week after the word leaders departed COP and left the stage to the dozens and scores of negotiators to hammer out a consensus agreement, one young 13 year old was hammering out his own initiatives too.
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Ismachiah Oduwole 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, pledging 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.

Then 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, to sign his ball. They include the CEOs of FedEx, Carnival Cruise, MGM Resorts, Hawaii Airlines, Marriott International, Ethiopian Airlines 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.

Before COP28 wound down last week on December 13th, three of the most powerful individuals in the world today in climate change space honored Ismachiah’s invitation to sign his climate footballs, despite their incredibly busy schedules.
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They are COP 28 President Dr 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 – giving him recognition and validity of purpose, 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.

He was then invited by President Wavel Ramkalawan to visit his beautiful Island country again, straight from COP28 in Dubai, to see the initiatives he had first pledged to initiate when he first welcomed Ismachiah to the State house in Victoria, in June 2023.

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