Category: International Political Engagement

QUNO Geneva Representative Lindsey Fielder Cook participated in the 65th Plenary Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 12 to 16 October 2026, under the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC). As an accredited observer to the IPCC, QUNO engaged in discussions on the future of the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), the organization’s budget, and the role of science in informing urgent climate action. 

The IPCC Plenary meeting was dramatic and suspended on Friday night.

A detailed report available below contains an analysis of the discussions, political dynamics, outcomes, and QUNO interventions. The unresolved questions surrounding the IPCC budget and AR7 timeline demonstrate the increasing political pressures facing climate science institutions. Despite these challenges, the Plenary reaffirmed the continued importance of the IPCC’s role in providing authoritative, policy-relevant scientific assessments. At a time when demand for credible, independent scientific assessment has never been greater, ensuring that the IPCC remains adequately funded and able to fulfil its mandate is essential.

QUNO will continue working with governments, scientists, and civil society partners to support the integrity of the assessment process and ensure that climate science remains accessible, credible, and responsive to the needs of present and future generations.

Building on the call for courage and compromise at the IPCC’s 65th Plenary Session, we are resharing a previous QUNO publication, ‘A Government Official’s Toolkit: Inspiring Urgent, Healthy, and Equitable Climate Action’ (2024 Edition), as a source of information and inspiration. It is available to read and download in Arabic, English, French and Spanish.

Shifting Military Spending to Climate Finance: QUNO Statement at HRC63

During the sixty-third session of the Human Rights Council (HRC63) in Geneva, QUNO’s new Programme Assistant in the Human Impacts of Climate Change Programme, Sarah Demicoli, delivered an official oral statement during the Council’s interactive dialogue on the Secretary-General’s synthesis report on mobilizing climate finance.

The statement highlighted the report’s attention to debt relief and tax justice measures while calling for an additional focus on shifting levels of global military spending, unprecedented since the Cold War, toward climate finance and other lifesaving efforts. Highlighting the devastating human and environmental toll of armed conflict and climate inaction, Sarah stated:

“Forests burn, crops die, glaciers collapse, people die in extreme heat, thousands die in war, and military emissions intensify existential global heating.”

Sarah closed QUNO’s address to the Council by posing a critical question for decision makers:

“How can we better engage our decision makers on prioritizing climate financing over military spending as essential to humanity’s safety and the full realization of human rights for all?”

Further details on QUNO’s engagement at the Human Rights Council can be accessed through our Newsroom Article, which includes a direct link to the live UN Web TV statement recording.

QUNO joins UN and interfaith partners to examine ethical pathways, tax justice, debt relief, and value-based multilateralism for climate finance during the Human Rights Council

The need for sufficient global climate finance featured prominently at the sixty-third session of the Human Rights Council (HRC63) in Geneva. QUNO’s Human Impacts of Climate Change programme helped organize and speak at an official HRC63 side event, stressing the moral call to provide sufficient climate finance to enable the full realization of human rights for all, and the urgent need to shift military expenditure to lifesaving efforts, including climate finance.

Discussions were informed by the thematic study of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development on climate finance, vulnerability, and responsibility, alongside the UN Secretary-General’s synthesis report examining pathways, challenges, and opportunities for mobilizing sufficient climate finance.

At the side event, QUNO’s Representative Lindsey Fielder Cook joined UN and interfaith colleagues in offering actionable and fair multilateral solutions. Reflections ranged from debt relief and debt cancellation to climate damages taxes grounded in the Polluter Pays Principle, the redirection of fossil fuel subsidies, Common Good Wealth taxes, aviation and shipping levies, financial transaction taxes, a fairer allocation of Special Drawing Rights, and shifting military spending away from destruction toward lifesaving efforts, including climate resilience.

Highlighting how political will and climate finance rebuild multilateral trust, Lindsey noted:

“In our multilateral work, we continually witness how support for sufficient climate finance is key to progress… Political will to deliver sufficient climate finance in turn builds the political trust so deeply needed to move beyond divisive superpower politics”

Lindsey encouraged participants to reimagine how climate finance is understood and communicated across society:

“I ask you to reimagine how we understand and communicate the meaning of climate finance. Where climate finance is as important to the health of your family as it is the health of the receiving family, and critical for the full realization of human rights for all people”

Further details on QUNO’s engagement at the Human Rights Council can be accessed through our Newsroom Article, and the recording of the side event can be found here.