QUAKERS & CLIMATE CHANGE WORLDWIDE
A portal for Quaker climate action across the globe
Lindsey Fielder Cook (Programme Representative Human Impacts of Climate Change, QUNO) has written an article summarizing and analyzing what happened during the COP25 in Madrid, Spain. She writes that “the COP25 was a sign of shifting pressures even in this tense geo-political environment. And this is important to note, since a COP is a reflection of national politics; essential work for progressive positions begins at home.” The article can be found here.
On December 3rd, Quaker United Nations Office and Quaker EarthCare Witness, together with Franciscans International, Brahma Kumaris, and World Council of Churches, hosted a side event at the COP25 in Madrid, Spain. This event was entitled “Inspiring Courage to Act and Adapt in a Climate Emergency”. The discussion was to explore ways to transform lives, communities, politics, and economics in our global efforts to mitigate, adapt, and foster resilience. The panel featured voices from state delegations, indigenous communities, faith-based organizations, science, and international organizations. The incomplete broadcast can be found here, and will be updated once technological issues are resolved.
At COP25 in Madrid an alliance of interfaith organizations released a statement highlighting the specific urgency and clarity faith voices bring to climate change. This statement covers an ambitious and essential range of standing in solidarity with those most affected by climate change, the need for a just and inclusive transition, and the necessity of rights-based approaches to climate change. It was signed by Britain Yearly Meeting and Quaker EarthCare Witness. You can watch the press conference itself here, and watch an additional press conference regarding Interfaith communities and climate change here. The statement itself can be accessed here.
A Government Official’s Toolkit: inspiring urgent climate action, with 12 concise cases and 231 quotes referenced to over 100 published papers (now including the IPCC Special Reports on: Global Warming of 1.5C Climate Change and Land Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate) is now available online. This update is written to support government officials—at local, regional and national levels—who are concerned about the impact of climate change on their citizens, their country, and the planet. It offers a range of concise cases to help you engage with different concerns, and integrate scientific, rights-based, and Indigenous knowledge and approaches throughout the Toolkit.
This toolkit serves to empower citizens to give and send to their government officials to inform and encourage calls for stronger climate action.
On Saturday, the 22nd of February, Friends World Committee on Consultation is organizing a global online conference to bring together Friends around the theme of sustainability. Specifically, this conference aims to bring Quakers together without creating a large carbon footprint to determine where we stand as Quakers regarding sustainability, and how to move forward in ways that align with our faith and practices. For more information, please visit the FWCC website, which also includes information on time-zones and available languages. To register please click this link for the registration page, and direct further questions or concerns to sustainabilty@fwcc.world.
As the disastrous consequences of climate change become increasingly apparent worldwide, it is important to address the way vulnerable groups are particularly impacted. During Geneva Peace Week, the Environmental Committee of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, with support from the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), gave voice to experts on climate justice, vulnerable populations and decision makers working to include climate justice concerns in national and international policies through the event “Creating a Future for All: Climate Justice and Peacebuilding”. The event highlighted the importance of integrating gender in all aspects of climate change work and peacebuilding, the multiple ways climate change impacts peace internationally, and the necessity of public participation in all climate change and peace-building processes.
QUNO, under the Friends World Committee for Consultation, is the only faith-based organization accredited as an observer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which collates the most recent climate science findings to advise all countries. While government representatives cannot change the underlying scientific text in the reports, they can negotiate language in the Summary for Policy Makers (SPM), so long as the integrity of the findings is not affected. From the 19th to the 24th of September states gathered in Monaco to discuss a special report which focused on the state of the ocean and the cryosphere, which refers to places on earth where water is in solid form such as glaciers, permafrost, and ice sheets. This report was particularly significant as it explicitly discussed some of the processes already occurring due to climate change, such as coral bleaching, ocean acidification, and glacial melting, alongside future projections of further change.
Lindsey Fielder Cook, QUNO’s representative for the Human Impacts of Climate Change programme, made a number of interventions concerning adaptation limits, human impacts and permafrost melting, and worked with negotiators to ensure the rights language of public participation in climate policy was included. This report contains significant urgency for it is speaking to what many are already experiencing, particularly those most vulnerable such as the inhabitants of Small Island Developing States and indigenous Arctic communities. The report highlighted the difference between urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – manageable change – and continuing with insufficient action – unimaginable and unmanageable change to glaciers, biodiversity and marine life, and the ability of access to drinking water for billions of people. the report urges international action.
