A love supreme – ACT and faith at New York United Nations week
“A love supreme!” With these words, Cornel West, well-known US commentator on anti-black racism, ended a multifaith ceremony just before the September 17 New York Climate March to End Fossil Fuels. The ceremony was to create a “sacred space” among marchers in the faith hub part of the march.
West drew on his own faith background saying he “followed the tradition of the Jesus… who ran out the money-changers from the temple, and we need to run out the fossil-fuel profiteers to make sure there’s air we can breathe and community we can connect to.”
He called the global climate crisis “the blues all the way down. But we have solidarity in the face of catastrophe. Let us dance… a love supreme” referring to US jazz giant John Coltrane’s song of that name.
The Climate March drew 75,000 creative, passionate souls from around the world, of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, to the streets of Manhattan. Their message to US President Joe Biden was to keep fossil fuels in the ground. It was also directed to the decision-makers who would appear at United Nations General Assembly, particularly at the special September 20 Climate Ambition Summit called by Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
ACT, its partners and its members made their voices heard in the march and in a series of special presentations throughout the week, on topics as diverse as migration and climate change, adaptation needs and issues, the COP28 Global Stocktake, faith-based perspectives on the SDGs, gender, and support for sexual and reproductive rights. Following the Sustainable Development Goals Summit September 18 and 19, it was a busy week for faith actors near the UN.
Here are a few of the events of that week. You will find social media posts for some events under the hashtag #ACT4Climate, others under #headwayforadaptation or #allrightsallpeople. All are available on social media site X (formerly Twitter).
The Trilateral Partnership of Regional Faith-based Networks for the SDGs (Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean), including ACT Regional Representative Alwynn Javier, hosted speakers on the topic of Inspiring faith, Hope and Transformative Action to Accelerate Progress towards the SDGs.
September 20
Taking Stock of our Ambition: Faith-based Action at the UN. Hosted by the Episcopal Church, this workshop encouraged faith groups to look at their own climate actions. It featured an overview of the UNFCCC Global Stocktake process by Athena Peralta of WCC and a faith-based perspective on COP28 by Julius Mbatia of ACT.
ACT member Church World Service hosted a panel presentation by people with lived experience of displacement.
The Multi-Faith Advisory Committee (MFAC), which ACT General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria has co-chaired, hosted their annual Kofi Annan Briefing with speakers from all faiths.
September 22
The UNFPA launched the High Level Commission on the Nairobi Summit’s third and final report on the sidelines of UNGA78. ACT General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria was a member of this commission. Tweets use the hashtag #allrightsallpeople: https://twitter.com/ACTAlliance/status/1705216622439305639
ACT Honduras Forum condemns attack on environmental and human rights defender
The ACT Honduras Forum issued a statement condemning the attack on José Ramiro Lara from ASONOG, the Forum Coordinator, on September 15. Ramiro Lara had been working with a community in the “La Hondura” micro-watershed, denouncing the degradation of the forest which has in turn contributed to a water crisis in the region. He and his family were targeted and attacked. Fortunately, they survived the attack.
The Forum is calling on the Honduran government to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators. “We urge the government of Honduras to conduct a thorough investigation into the attack against José Ramiro Lara and to ensure that both the material and intellectual perpetrators are held accountable,” the statement reads.
The full statement in Spanish and English can be found here.
Business as usual no longer an option
By Mattias Söderberg
On September 20 the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, invited the world to a Climate Ambition Summ-
Using creativity for a serious message at the March to End Fossil Fuels, New York City, September 17. PHOTO: Simon Chambers/ACT.
it. The headline is good, because we do need more ambition if we, as humanity, are going to manage the current climate crisis. But leaders have been talking about increased ambition for many years. It is now time for them to turn their words into real action.
While the climate crisis is a reality, the majority of world leaders continue with business as usual. This is no longer an option. All of creation is at risk, and it is now time for bold, even drastic, initiatives.
Such initiatives will influence how we live, and how our countries develop. Fossil fuels must become a solution firmly left behind, and our future must become green and sustainable. This has implications for the kind of energy we use, but also for how we travel, how we live, and what we produce and consume.
These drastic changes will be part of our efforts to adapt. Droughts, heatwaves and floods are part of a harsher new reality, especially for vulnerable communities in the Global South. We must develop all our communities so that they are robust and adapted to this new reality. That may well have implications for where and how we live, how we produce our food, and how we build infrastructure and communities.
A future where we have learned how to handle the climate crisis is not bad, but it will be different. Business as usual is no longer an option. If leaders want to show real leadership, and talk about real ambition, they must show a willingness to transform our way of life.
Speeches about a new and ambitious tomorrow must be turned into concrete decisions, real actions and concrete budget allocations. Fossil fuel subsidies must be cancelled. Restrictions to ensure that both public and private investments contribute to a sustainable future must be introduced. Scaled-up climate finance, to be delivered by the global north to vulnerable countries in the global south, must be introduced in the next budget review.
I listened to the speeches at the Climate Ambition Summit, and I hoped the ministers would make bold and ambitious commitments. I hoped they would talk about how to reform their countries, and how to correct the current, unsustainable development path. But all talk about ambition must be turned into real action!
Mattias Söderberg of DanChurchAid is the co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Reference group.
Meeting the needs of people displaced by climate change
Farmer James Kuony Malual in Akobo, South Sudan can no longer depend on the weather. The rains don’t come when they used to, and when they do, they cause worse flooding than he’s ever seen. PHOTO: Paul Jeffrey/ACT.
By Sabine Minninger, Dr. Katherine Braun, and Christian Wolff
The Climate Action Summit on September 20, part of the UN General Assembly, will draw policymakers, academics and civil society from around the world to New York. That’s why ACT Alliance, Bread for the World and the Open Society Foundations are hosting the workshop Addressing the Protection Gap – Human Mobility and the Climate Crisis in International Frameworks in New York on September 19. It will raise awareness and encourage collaboration among a variety of stakeholders in the international community.
To meet the needs of people on the move, to protect climate-affected communities and individuals, and to ensure they can move with dignity, we must reimagine current frameworks and create new ones. Those who permanently lose their land or livelihoods should have access to alternative long-term solutions which include socioeconomic rights and preserve their cultural life.
People fleeing the effects of the climate crisis because their livelihoods are destroyed must be supported and protected, as must those who elect to stay. To address the current protection gap, international responsibilities must respond to the needs of both.
Climate (in-)justice
Global warming has led to more intense and frequent weather events around the world. Slow onset weather events such as sea level rise and desertification and sudden events such as droughts, tropical storms and hurricanes, heavy rainfall and floods disrupt the lives of millions. Most will not be able to move.
Industrialized nations and emerging economies with high levels of emissions are primarily responsible for the climate crisis. Although they have contributed the fewest emissions, the countries most affected by the impacts of climate change are the so-called least developed countries (LDCs).
Within them, those most affected are those groups that are already the most marginalized. They are constrained by their geographic location, but also by limited coping and adaptation capacities: the lack of financial, technological and technical resources, insufficient social protection systems and poor governance. Most will not be able to move. Those who can, lack sufficient international protection and regular pathways.
Human mobility and climate change
The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), notes that 3.3 to 3.6 billion people worldwide live in environments vulnerable to climate change. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates that since 2008, 288 million people have been displaced within their own country’s borders due to climate-related disasters. In 2020, 30.7 million people in 149 countries were displaced for this reason. An unknown number of people have had to leave their homes due to slow-onset processes such as drought or sea-level rise.
The worst impacts have yet to be felt. The IPCC Special Report “Global Warming of 1.5°C” notes that climate change will significantly speed up migration. By 2050 more than 140 million people will be threatened by drought, desertification, crop failure, storm surges and rising sea levels just in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Under the most optimistic scenarios, slow-onset processes and extreme weather events will drastically impact the habitability of the most affected areas of the world.
The climate crisis amplifies and interacts with already existing threats and security risks, exacerbating humanitarian crises, social and political conflicts, economic insecurities and existing vulnerabilities, compelling more people to move.
What is human mobility in the context of climate change?
Human mobility in the context of climate change (HMCCC) includes internal displacement, seasonal and permanent cross-border migration and planned relocation.
The impacts of climate change can affect human mobility both directly and indirectly. Climate change can reinforce, decrease or redirect existing movements of people, often from rural to urban areas. It influences temporary and seasonal as well as permanent migration patterns.
Human mobility in the context of climate change (HMCCC) is determined by the nature of the hazard, and social, economic, political and demographic factors, among others. Women, children, LGBTQI,, the elderly, people with disabilities and members of ethnically and racially marginalized groups have the fewest resources to prepare for and protect against the impacts of climate change and disasters.
Tailored solutions are necessary to respond to the needs of affected populations, especially people living in vulnerable situations. They should not be left behind.
Human mobility can be an adaptation strategy, if….
Human mobility can be an adaptation and risk reduction strategy and may help reduce vulnerability, but only if human and social rights are protected and if movement is voluntary, safe, and orderly. This was confirmed in the Sixth IPCC Assessment Report on Vulnerability and Adaptation. The higher their freedom of mobility, the greater is the potential for individuals, their communities of origin, and host countries.
The protection gap
International protection and the freedom to move remain severely restricted. We are far from realizing the principle of “migration in dignity.” Climate migrants are not covered by the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention. The absence of regular pathways for migration forces people to take life-threatening migration routes and exposes them to human rights violations, labour exploitation and gender-based violence, and other threats.
Planned relocation processes are often accompanied by non-economic loss and damage and human rights violations, including to economic and cultural rights. Internal displacement is insufficiently addressed and lacks financial resources and institutional capacities.
Regular pathways for migration support coping strategies which protect lives and prepare communities for future losses and damages. Yet people who wish to stay should be able to.
It is the responsibility of the international community to protect people affected by the adverse effects of climate change, to assist with adaptation measures, and to address loss and damage to ensure all lives are lived with dignity.
A people-centred human rights- and equity-based approach
A large and rapidly increasing number of climate migrants and displaced people, and those at risk of displacement, must fend for themselves without protection to ensure their rights. HMCCC is also increasingly seen as a security risk. We are far from closing existing protection gaps for affected people.
A people-centred, human rights- and equity-based approach to “averting, minimizing and addressing displacement” requires policy frameworks that respond to the rights, needs and aspirations of people whose lives and livelihoods are directly affected by the impacts of climate change. This is especially the case when those impacts (combined with other stressors) make them particularly vulnerable.
This approach demands diverse, coherent policy approaches to ensure that people can stay in the face of a changing climate or can migrate freely and with dignity within or across borders.
HMCCC has been part of climate negotiations and UNFCCC mechanisms since the 2010 Cancun Agreement but is not yet sufficiently included in climate policy. There is far too little funding available, especially regarding cross-border migration, displacement and planned relocation as adaptation.
What is needed
To protect people threatened by climate-related displacement, states should ensure the full implementation of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming at 1.5°C and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the UNFCCC goal. Human mobility should be more effectively included in UNFCCC processes by strengthening existing international initiatives and including HMCCC in workstreams on adaptation and Loss and Damage.
Climate finance should support action on displacement and migration. States should be supported by the UNFCCC in addressing HMCCC. The financial architecture must be improved to meet different needs, for example through differentiated, targeted funding streams.
Human mobility should be a pillar in proposals to international climate financing instruments, including adaptation scenarios. According to the polluter-pays-principle, and to implement climate justice, a needs-based Loss and Damage Fund should secure additional funding for mitigation, adaptation, Official Development Assistance (ODA) and humanitarian aid.
To address the rights and needs of people displaced by the climate crisis, cross-silo strategies in Climate Action, Disaster Risk Reduction, International Protection and Migration Policy are urgently needed. The effective participation of affected communities and civil society organizations is essential.
The protection gap for displaced persons and migrants affected by climate change must be effectively addressed in migration policy. Host countries of internally displaced persons need greater support. Where planned relocations are needed, planning must be inclusive and human rights must be respected.
States should improve migrant protection in situations of vulnerability by applying more predictable and human rights-based frameworks based on regular and legal pathways.
Additional protocols to protect climate-induced cross-border migration must meet international human rights obligations.
Industrialized countries should fulfil their commitments to dedicate 0.7% of their GNIs towards Official Development Assistance (ODA). Some can be dedicated to financing measures to address HMCCC. They must avoid conditionalities that link the provision of ODA to the establishment of restrictive border and migration policies. All financial support should favour grants over loans, particularly in interactions with LDCs and especially climate vulnerable countries and be accompanied by swift and effective debt relief for these countries.
Sabine Minninger is Senior Policy Advisor on Climate Change with ACT member Bread for the World. Dr. Katherine Braun is Migration Researcher and Policy Advisor for Refugee Affairs and Human Rights with the Church of Northern Germany. Christian Wolff is the ACT Alliance Policy Advisor on Migration and Refugees. They are co-authors of the ACT/Bread for the World study: Addressing the Protection Gap – Human Mobility and the Climate Crisis in International Frameworks, released in March 2023.
ACT General Secretary brings greetings to the LWF Assembly in Kraków, Poland
15 September 2023, Krakow, Poland: ACT Alliance general secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria shares greetings as Lutherans from around the globe gather for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Thirteenth Assembly, held in Krakow, Poland on 13-19 September 2023 under the theme of ’One Body, One Spirit, One Hope’. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, ACT Alliance’s General Secretary, is in Kraków, Poland attending the Lutheran World Federation’s Thirteenth Assembly, which is bringing together 355 official delegates as well as associate members, ecumenical guests, presenters, ex officio members, volunteers and staff under the theme One Body, One Spirit, One Hope.
De Faria addressed the Assembly on September 15, bringing greetings from the ACT Alliance:
I extend my warmest greetings to the esteemed members of the Lutheran World Federation Assembly 2023. As the General Secretary of the ACT Alliance, Action by Churches Together, I convey my heartfelt regards on behalf of our alliance’s entire membership. I wish you wisdom and courage as you engage in these important deliberations. It is both a pleasure and an honor for me to participate in the 13th General Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), convened here in the historic city of Kraków, Poland, under the theme “One Body, One Spirit, One Hope.” The theme of this Assembly carries profound significance in today’s world. It underscores the imperative of unity and collaboration among diverse churches, individuals, and communities. It also underscores the pressing need to work collectively in addressing global challenges such as social injustice, climate change, and conflict. This theme emphasizes the interconnectedness of humanity, highlighting that a shared sense of purpose and hope can serve as a catalyst for positive change. Ultimately, it encourages us to recognize our common humanity and unite in our efforts to create a more inclusive, just, and sustainable world. My connection with the LWF dates back to 1992, during my time in Brazil. In total, I have been engaged with this organization for 31 years, with 18 of those years spent as a dedicated staff member in the Department for World Service. I vividly remember my first attendance at a General Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in 1997, held in Hong Kong. The issues we contemplate today are markedly different from those of 1997. Presently, the world faces escalating polarization in our societies, coupled with the emergence of new anti-rights narratives that challenge the principles underpinning human rights, inclusion, democracy, solidarity, and justice. Ethical and social norms are being reshaped to accommodate ideologies that perpetuate exclusion, prioritize economic systems, and normalize violence as a determinant of societal behavior. Democracy is under threat in many regions, and the convergence of religious, economic, and political fundamentalisms fuels polarization, discrimination, and exclusion in our societies. The world grapples with a profound moral and ethical crisis, underscoring the crucial role that churches and faith-based organizations play in addressing its root causes. The Lutheran World Federation, a founding member of the ACT Alliance, has evolved significantly since its inception, firmly establishing its presence in multilateral political arenas by championing human dignity and justice, while recognizing the pivotal role of faith communities and local actors. As ACT Alliance, we recognize the urgency of intensifying our efforts in areas such as climate justice, linking it to the importance of humanitarian preparedness, as well as advancing gender justice and tax justice. As champions of justice, unity, and humanitarian endeavors, we celebrate this opportunity to collaborate in our shared commitment to effecting positive change in the world. Your integral role within the ACT Alliance amplifies our collective voice for justice, compassion, and transformative action. Together, we can shape a world that truly reflects our shared values. May our joint endeavors inspire meaningful change and pave the way for a brighter future for all. I extend my best wishes for a successful and productive Assembly.
New York Climate Summit to focus world’s attention on climate crisis
By Fred Milligan
Plans for New York Climate Week (September 17–24, 2023) will coincide with the opening week of the United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA). But this year is different in several ways. In addition to the normal UNGA activities, a special High Level Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) summit will evaluate each of the 17 SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015. UN General Secretary Antonio Gutierrez has called a one day Climate Ambition Summit for Wednesday, September 20th in connection with the SDG summit. This is not simply UN “business as usual” but an effort to focus the world’s attention on the pressing issues connected with the climate crisis.
ACT Climate Justice Ambassador Cornelia Fullkrug-Weitzel (l) joins ACT, WCC, LWF and other ecumenical bodies with tens of thousands marching through the streets of New York City in an earlier Climate Strike for climate justice. PHOTO: Simon Chambers/ACT
Against this backdrop, civil society, including the interfaith community, will lift up their voices on the streets of New York City so that they cannot be ignored by those within the walls of the UN buildings. A coalition of over a dozen national and international organizations, including ACT Alliance, are organizing activities for participants as they arrive from across the US and around the world.
Civil society activities have included almost daily classes in civil disobedience preparing for several actions related to financial institutions such as the Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange. They’ll be scattered over the week preceding as well as during Climate Week, ecumenical and interfaith worship gatherings and during the March to End Fossil Fuel on Sunday the 17th.
The March could bring tens of thousands of concerned citizens together to speak as one voice to the US government. It is an urgent call for more ambitious actions on the part of the US to thwart climate change. One demand is halting subsidies to fossil fuel companies. Another is curtailing further expansion of oil fields and instead developing a more robust infrastructure for renewable sources of energy production and use.
ACT Alliance, in collaboration with Bread for the World and the Open Societies Foundation is also sponsoring a presentation on the intersection of Climate Change and Human Mobility on Tuesday September 19th. Look to ACT News and ACT’s social media account for updates on climate- and SDG-related activities throughout the week.
Acting together, we can make a difference.
Rev. Fred Milligan is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and member of the Act Alliance Advocacy team who lives in New York City. He assists ACT as a liaison with local climate justice activities.
ACT Global Advocacy: for a future where everyone thrives
“We bring members in the Global South to speak to the UN in New York and at other global forums. Equipping them to tell their own powerful stories is a central part of our advocacy work,” says Alison Kelly, right, with ACT members at the United Nations in New York. PHOTO: Simon Chambers/ACT.
We spoke with Alison Kelly (UK) the ACT Alliance Representative to the United Nations, based in New York, and Dr. Marianna Leite (Brazil), ACT Alliance’s Global Advocacy and Development Policy Manager about their goals and hopes for ACT’s global advocacy work.
By engaging in effective advocacy at local, national, regional and global levels, ACT Alliance contributes to positive and sustainable change in the lives of people affected by poverty and injustice. ACT’s advocacy work is faith- and rights-based, grounded in evidence and rooted in the experience of forums and members.
Q: Why is advocacy important for ACT Alliance?
“I think everyone should carve out at least ten percent of their time to think about advocacy,” says Dr. Marianna Leite, ACT’s Global Advocacy and Development Policy Manager.
Marianna Leite (M): It’s our responsibility to fundamentally change how things are now and envisage a future where everyone and the planet thrives. Policy and advocacy are deeply connected to humanitarian and development work. There is also a theological aspect to it – really believing in our prophetic voice and raising a faith voice and the voices of the communities we serve.
Alison Kelly (A): There’s an increasing sense of urgency. With climate now being seen as an existential issue, there’s an urgency to advocate for transformational change.
M:We need to make some waves – positive waves of change. ACT has a role both in attending to urgent needs and striving for everyone to be able to enjoy basic rights in future.
A: Transformation also means switching our thinking. The economy is a human system that should work for people and the planet. Our advocacy strategy is solutions focused. That’s really important. We know what works from our members’ experience in their communities.
M: And we are all advocates. We all try to influence each other; it’s part of being human. One of the things we say in the ACT Advocacy Academy is that advocacy can be as big as your creativity can reach.
A: It’s opening the discussion. Advocacy can be local, it can be behind the scenes, it can be private; there are all these different mechanisms.
M: Informal and silent advocacy can be much more impactful than any visible external advocacy. It is crucial for members to consider when to say yes or no to advocacy and to do a risk analysis.
Q: What are the challenges and opportunities facing ACT’s global advocacy programme?
M: A major challenge is the toxic anti-NGO or anti-civil action narrative that now permeates society. Governments are cutting funding for the lifesaving work we do. The same negative undertone comes from fundamentalist groups that are backtracking hard won human rights. It’s hard to avert more damage because a narrative has a life of its own. Yet this is also an opportunity for ACT. We are a faith actor promoting human rights as part of a transformative approach to sustainable development. We can push back against the pushbacks. ACT is unapologetic about our support to International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, and their principles.
A: We speak to the moral and ethical dimension of issues, and we have the technical expertise to be credible. Holding faith and rights together gives us a strong platform.
M: How to maintain hope is also part of our role as faith actors. We can hope for a better future, and we can be the change that we want to see in the world. I see that as part of ACT being prophetic.
Recent global advocacy initiatives
Addressing COVID vaccine inequity
By early 2022, it was clear that global COVID-19 vaccine distribution was not as rapid as the virus’ mutation and spread. Most doses of the vaccines were acquired by and administered in developed countries. The most vulnerable people, especially in developing nations, were yet again left behind.
ACT responded by continuing to advocate for vaccine equity and addressing vaccine hesitancy. We published resources and hosted regional workshops on Vaccine Equity and Hesitancy in the Africa and Asia Pacific regions. ACT called on governments to support the creation of a binding treaty on pandemic preparedness. ACT’s General Secretary, as a civil society representative to the COVAX facility, pushed funders to make sure that vaccines reach those in developing nations.
New Advocacy Package
Developed over three years with ACT’s advocacy and policy reference group, an approvals process for all documents produced under the ACT banner was piloted in 2022. Created for forums and all groups of ACT Alliance members that want to do joint advocacy, it is part of a new advocacy package meant to ensure that ACT always speaks with one united voice with coherent and mutually reinforcing language.Member suggestions led to adjustments and user-friendly resources and design templates along with a forum-centred advocacy guidance, all part of the final package to be launched in 2023.
This interview appears in the ACT Alliance Annual Report 2022, available in English, French and Spanish.
New Climate Justice Framework a collaborative work
Hot off the presses! The Climate Justice Advocacy Framework position paper 2023-26 is now available. “This framework position sets out ACT’s resolve and ambition to advance climate leadership and action in this critical decade of action,” says Julius Mbatia, ACT’s Climate Justice programme manager. “This framework position will help ACT members around the world engage with their national decision makers,” says Mattias Söderberg, chief advocacy officer of DanChurchAid and co-chair of ACT’s Climate Justice Reference Group. “It will amplify our call for climate justice as we speak with one voice.”
The 20-page document was created through a collaborative process with members from around the world who are part of the Climate Justice Advocacy and Programme groups, with guidance from the Reference Group. “The process in which the position paper was developed allowed for the voices from various continents and nations to be heard, especially those from the Global South,” says Dr. Ahmad Safdi, head of mission for Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe in the Middle East, and a member of ACT’s Climate Justice Reference Group. “This made it possible to reflect more deeply on the intersection of climate change impacts, and issues of ultimate importance to the Global South such as the right to development, Indigenous people’s rights, gender equity and equality, colonisation, resilience, and adaptive capacity building.”
The document begins by exploring the values and principles guiding ACT’s climate justice work, then links these values to the struggle for full human rights, gender rights, and community resilience as supported by finance for adaptation and loss and damage. “This framework is a good milestone, providing guidance and inspiration for ACT and the ecumenical family to collectively continue the fight for climate justice,” says Mariana Paoli, Global Advocacy Lead at Christian Aid and a member of ACT’s Climate Justice Advocacy group. “Based on principles of equity and reparations, it calls for ambitious climate action, which is long overdue.”
Speaks to all members
Both those who are new to ACT’s Climate Justice work and those with more experience will find the document useful in articulating a Christian perspective that can be used to promote climate justice in forums from the local to the global. “Our position stresses that we need a green transition, where all fossil fuels are phased out, and where our growth and development become sustainable,” says Mattias Söderberg. “This is also aligned with our Christian beliefs, where we are committed to the care of creation.”
Due to its collaborative writing process, “the position paper grew much more representative of the voices of humanity at large,” says Dr. Safi. “It strives to be the voice of the voiceless including other creatures and ecosystems.” The document and its collaborative process “demonstrate our unwavering commitment to a fair, equitable and responsible multilateral climate regime that delivers on the needs of vulnerable communities,” says Julius Mbatia.
The document underlines the urgent need for concerted action by all ACT members in building a global movement for climate justice and provides clear action points. “Rich countries must urgently phase out fossil fuels while providing their fair share of finance,” says Mariana Paoli. “This will enable the poorest countries to adapt, address loss and damage and drive a just energy transition leapfrogging to a clean future.”
The document notes that ACT Now for Climate Justice Campaign provides a ready vehicle for effective joint climate action. “The core message in this paper is clear,” says Mattias Söderberg. “We need climate justice, and we need it now. There is no more time to waste as we all face a climate crisis.”
Swiss Church Aid ensures access to clean drinking water in Ethiopia’s community
Through ACT appeal’s response to the prolonged drought in Horn of Africa , ACT member Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER) implemented an emergency drought response project in the Hudet Woreda region of Ethiopia. The rehabilitation of a traditional well, improved access to safe water for the communities in the region. The well was non-functional for the last five years, due to technical problems with the generator. This had created enormous challenges for the people living in that area. HEKS/EPER upgraded the system to a solar-powered submersible pump, installing six solar panels and repairing 50 meters of pipelines to improve water distribution. Now the well is benefiting more than 5,000 people.
Halima Mohamed , a mother of five living in Hudet Woreda, who earns a small income notes that access to clean water was very challenging for her family during the drought.
“We used to collect water as far as 5 km away from traditional wells but also ponds for our daily consumption. It was not safe, but it became a matter of survival” Says Halima. She would send her daughters to collect water so that she could take care of the house and her newborn. This meant that her daughters could not attend school on a regular basis.
“I was worried about their future, that they will end up like me, staying home with no income and dependent on others“ she adds. The lack of access to clean drinking water affected the health of her children, as they were continuously ill.
Halima’s family is one of the households that benefit from HEKS/EPER’s project. She is now able to easily fetch water in her neighbourhood. ‘Now I can keep my children healthy and we can drink clean water. I don’t need to keep my girls at home to support me with the house works. They started going to school, which gave me so much relief, now am seeing a bright future for me and my children.”
“Dignified Assistance in Every Crisis”: CWSA’s campaign to promote quality and accountability in humanitarian action
In June 2023 Community World Service Asia (CWSA) launched a digital campaign to promote quality in humanitarian action. The campaign “Dignified Assistance in Every Crisis”, which is still running, aims at strengthening the understanding of humanitarian principles among field workers, emergency responders and local civil society.
« As a regional and national focal point for quality and accountability standards, CWSA is focusing on activities that aim at strengthening the capacity of local NGOs, as well as the availability and use of contextualised resources, techniques, and procedures to reinforce systemic and cultural changes, » said Palwashay Arbarb, Head of Communications at CWSA.
Although focused on the local context and translated into local languages, the English version of the campaign, which is currently running on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, is available for all ACT members to circulate.
« We really urge our partners in ACT Alliance, and its network in Pakistan, to widely circulate the content of this campaign to ensure humanitarian response in the country at all levels is safe, people- centered and dignified. », concluded Palwashay Arbarb.
