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COP27 Blog: Increasing climate change resilience in Palestine

Water-harvesting ponds like this one increase Palestinian farmers’ resilience and local food security. PHOTO: Paul Jeffrey/DKH

Dr. Ahmad Safi

Climate change is real. As I write this, it is happening at faster than expected rates. The negative impacts of climate change prompts hundreds of governments and heads of state to participate in the annual UNFCCC Conference of Parties; most recently COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Palestine has contributed almost nothing to climate change as Palestinians’ greenhouse gas emissions are minimal compared to those of others. Yet Palestine suffers from disproportionate impacts of climate change. According to the Palestinian National Action Plan, Palestinian lands can expect a temperature increase between 3 and 4.5 C° by 2050. Precipitation is also expected to decrease significantly and exacerbate the existing water shortage, especially in the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza Strip has suffered from a severe and worsening water crisis for decades, as the enclave is dependent on a coastal aquifer as its sole source of fresh water. High extraction levels have resulted in major deficits in the groundwater balance, leading to the possible collapse of the aquifer as a water source. The accelerating decrease of the coastal aquifer water level has also resulted in the deterioration of the quality of the groundwater. Seawater now intrudes from the Mediterranean Sea.

Increasing farmers’ resilience and food security

Water shortages and water quality deterioration result in diminished crop production and diversity, which in turn increases farmers’ vulnerability. Weather variability and extreme events damage crops and push farmers into bankruptcy. Combined with unpredictable market conditions, this makes Gaza Strip farming a very risky business. As a result, many farmers are abandoning their livelihoods, increasing food insecurity in the Gaza Strip.

ACT Alliance member Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has been working to enhance the resilience of the most at-risk communities and farmers in the Gaza Strip for many years. With our local partner organization, the Association for Agricultural Development (PARC), Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has been working with 17 of the most vulnerable communities using the community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) approach. Communities establish their own Local Protection Committees that are engaged in the full project management cycle, beginning with risk and needs assessments through to project design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Rainwater-harvesting ponds and low-cost technology

Building on local knowledge, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and PARC have established hundreds of rainwater-harvesting ponds. These range from individual farmer’s ponds and group ponds to communal ponds. They provide farmers with high quality water which meets a significant portion of their irrigation needs and allows them to enhance crop productivity and diversity. In addition, rainwater-harvesting ponds increase farmers’ resilience to frequent power cuts and have decreased flash floods in some of the targeted communities.

Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and PARC have also provided hundreds of Gaza Strip farmers with low farming tunnels, a low-cost technology that enables them to cultivate more crops. This also allows them more control on cultivation timing and more resilience to weather variability. With low farming tunnels farmers can use mesh or plastic sheeting to protect their crops from the spring heat and the autumn cold. Low farming tunnels increase productivity, crop diversity and give more control to farmers.

Dr. Ahmad Safi, an ACT COP27 Delegate, is the convener of the ACT Palestine Forum and a member of the ACT MENA Climate Justice CoP. He is the Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe Representative for Gaza/Palestine, based in Amman, Jordan. He has a PHD in environmental science and years of experience in disaster risk reduction, environmental action, humanitarian aid, programme management and research and writing.

COP27 concludes with a big breakthrough for the most vulnerable

Climate-induced loss and damage, situations where adaptation is inadequate or no longer an option, is a growing threat around the world, especially in vulnerable communities. Over 30 years ago small island states tried to bring this topic onto the UN climate agenda. At the end of the UN Climate summit in Egypt, COP27, we can finally celebrate that Parties have agreed to establish a fund and to mobilise support to address these losses and damages.

Mattias Söderberg, co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice group says: “ACT Alliance is very happy for this political breakthrough. Those most affected by climate change should no longer feel forgotten. The global community has acknowledged their needs and agreed to act.”

“We join all global south negotiators in celebrating the COP27 commitment to a loss and damage facility,” says Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, general secretary of ACT Alliance. “This is the result of their determined action over many years, supported by civil society and faith actors.”

However, there are few other results from the summit to applaud. “As faith actors on the front lines, we see the impact of inaction on God’s creation,” says Bueno de Faria. “We know that urgent action is needed to address the impacts of climate change, which more and more affect the poorest and most vulnerable people, those who have done the least to contribute to climate change. It seems that Parties at COP do not understand or are oblivious to the urgency of the climate emergency.”

Mitigation

Report after report has been released showing that mitigation actions currently announced by the countries of the world are nowhere near ambitious enough to keep global temperature rise to 1.5C. Yet the level of ambition at COP27 to accelerate these efforts slowed rather than increased. ACT is especially missing a clear call for the phase-out of all fossil fuels and clear shift to 100% renewables, which is not too astonishing given the extremely high presence of fossil-fuel lobbyists in Sharm el Sheik.

“It is not acceptable that the rights of Indigenous peoples and human rights have been sidelined in the new agreement on carbon markets,” says Dr. Marianna Leite of ACT Alliance. “Similarly, the back-and-forth on the need to ground solutions in international law and science was appalling. We need to move away from false solutions and call out parties which have been obstructing negotiations and pushing for clearly ineffective solutions such as the so-called ‘circular carbon economy’.”

Adaptation

COP26 in Glasgow laid the path for increased financial support to help communities adapt so they can better survive droughts, storms, and the changing climate. The proposed doubling of adaptation finance would help address the urgent needs of subsistence farmers, fisherfolk, and many other communities.

“It is inexcusable that a year after agreeing to double adaptation finance, that promise cannot be advanced at COP27,” says Kata Kuhnert, youth delegate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. “Support to help vulnerable states and communities adapt to more frequent and extreme weather events impacted by climate change cannot wait.”

Gender, Indigenous and Human rights

The rights of women and girls, in all their diversity, as well as the rights of Indigenous peoples and human rights were often sidelined in negotiations. These rights are virtually invisible in the texts agreed upon related to climate finance, mitigation and adaptation. “An intersectional gender lens cannot be an afterthought,” says Manal Shehade, ACT Alliance MENA Gender Community of Practice Chair and COP27 delegate. “The truth is that without finance, there will be no gender transformative climate action and without gender justice there is no climate justice.”

Action that does not address the gendered dimensions of the climate emergency can further exacerbate inequalities. At COP27, we needed to see gender-inclusive policies being mainstreamed. Instead, we witnessed the watering down of language and further delays. The discussions on the Lima Gender Work Programme and its Gender Action Plan were expected to be deferred to Bonn in 2023, due to disagreement between Parties on the related support required. This resulted in a pause in negotiations, and then in the final hours, an ‘agreed’ text was ‘bulldozed’ through.

Finance

The report led by Canada and Germany showed that developed countries had only managed to mobilize USD 83bn per year, rather than the 100bn promised by 2020. The expectation, that a clear plan for delivery of the shortfall so far and how to keep the promise in the upcoming years, would be established, was not met, only a vague call to meet the obligations remained. Efforts by parties to agree on which nations should be contributing funds to finance mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage work led to disagreement as historic emitters and middle-income countries with growing current emissions sparred over who should be included in the category of contributors.

There have been a number of pledges from states towards climate finance, but not at the scale needed to address the critical needs of communities and whether they are additional and new as requested – is questionable. In addition, there was little progress on climate finance, including adaptation and loss and damage finance. Without this finance, the Global South cannot adapt to the climate emergency and the debt situation will get worse.

“At COP27, there has been a lot of political posing with no real change to the status quo or accountability for the wrongs of the past,” says Prof. Cornelia Füllkrug-Weitzel, ACT Alliance Ambassador for Climate Justice. “At the end of the day, if polluters do not commit new and additional finance to tackle the current crisis—without further increasing the debt burden of vulnerable countries — their commitments will be nothing but empty words and they dramatically leave countries alone with the damages they have causes and continue to cause. This is irresponsible and lacks solidarity, regardless of their lip service to it.”

Conclusion

Savanna Sullivan, Program Executive for Youth for the Lutheran World Federation says that “To secure a safe planet for future generations, we need bold decisions for climate justice from all. We need to involve youth in the discussions. Not only do they bring important ideas and perspectives to negotiations and conversations now, but they are also the ones who will be in the room forty years from now. The investment we saw at COP27 in youth leadership and participation is an investment in the future of our planet.”

“Delays in international cooperation mean a delay in action in communities, where people are losing their homes, livelihoods, and even their lives every day. This cannot continue,” concludes Bueno de Faria. “We must keep our eyes on 1.5C and the deep emission cuts needed to get there, and on ensuring that climate justice is at the heart of all the work of this and all COPs.” And, equally important, Bueno de Faria added – “developed countries need to immediately operationalise and, therefore, mobilise new and additional finance for the newly created loss and damage funds.”

COP27 Blog: The struggle for gender justice in climate negotiations

By Manal Shehade

This last week at COP27 has been eye-opening, frustrating and inspiring. Most importantly, as we approach the final day and hours it ends with hope.

As a Palestinian woman, climate justice in my region and in my home goes hand in hand with gender justice and human rights. I see the climate-related impacts on my community, for example, in increased droughts and lack of water. I see how this disproportionally impacts women and girls in our community. The struggle for women’s rights, water rights, land rights, and fundamental human rights are interconnected struggles for justice.

It’s been eye-opening to see the different sectors, movements, countries and governments navigate a shared but unequal space. It has been exhilarating to engage with youth, Indigenous communities, gender movements, and country negotiating teams. In many spaces we’ve amplified a collective voice that there is no climate justice without gender justice and human rights. 

Yet, in the midst of all of this, there is that feeling of frustration. Outside the negotiating rooms there is a sense of urgency. Civil society is sharing the realities of the climate emergency that is happening now and sharing some of the creative ways that we can mitigate, adapt and fund gender-transformative solutions. Yet this is not reflected in the proposed text where gender continues to be de-prioritised.

Next week, the world will mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, and we will continue our struggle for gender justice. As with Gender Day at COP27, it is important to shine a spotlight on gender, recognising both how far we have come, and how much further we still need to go. But we cannot confine our work for gender to thematic days. We need to see gender mainstreamed into all our work. I am a firm believer in this.

We have the right to be a part of all decision-making processes. We are not victims; we are leading climate solutions and just transitions within and beyond movements and industries. We build on the gender movements that have gone before us, and the battles that have already been won for women’s rights, but the fight for equal rights and equal representation is far from over.

Despite my frustration, I remain hopeful. At COP27 I saw women at the negotiating tables, and leading media actions and side events. I saw younger generations of women from all walks of life come together to remind the world that decisions cannot be taken without them. No true change can occur without women and girls being part of the solution. 

Manal Shehade chairs ACT’s Middle East Gender Justice working group and is an active member of the Middle East Climate Justice working group. As programme officer for ACT members DanChurchAid and Norwegian Church Aid in Palestine, her work on humanitarian aid and gender is underpinned by a passion for climate justice. She is Palestinian and lives in Jerusalem and has previously worked internationally on peace and conflict management.

Press release: Faith leaders urgently call for increased ambition in closing days of COP27

November 17, 2022

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

Faith leaders from around the world at COP27 have watched with concern as the negotiations have stalled and not pushed for more ambition to prevent the drastic consequences predicted if global temperature rise goes past 1.5C, to support the most vulnerable communities and nations facing the brunt of climate change’s impacts today, and to ensure that human rights, a gender lens, and indigenous people’s knowledge are enshrined in the structures and work of the UNFCCC and its parties as they confront the climate emergency.

Faith leaders have issued today an urgent call for increased ambition in the final days of COP27.

“While negotiations stall, people are dying and livelihoods are being lost as a result of the impact of climate change,” the statement reads. “Time is running out and it is unacceptable if world leaders do not take clear and decisive action within the few remaining days of COP 27.”

The faith leaders, drawing on the call from the Interfaith Talanoa dialogue at the beginning of COP, the faith leaders are calling on leaders at COP27 to preserve all of God’s Creation by:

Recognizing the urgency of the crisis
Establishing a new funding facility for Loss and Damage
Richer countries meeting their commitment to $100bn annually for adaptation and mitigation
Wealthy countries canceling debt, provide adequate new finance, and a L&D facility
Ensuring gender is not siloed but a clear gender transformative climate action lens be applied in all climate work

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Media contact:
Simon Chambers, WhatsApp +1-416-435-0972

COP27 must deliver a loss and damage finance facility

ACT Alliance, Lutheran World Federation, Christian Aid and other groups engage in a media action calling for climate finance at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on November 10, 2022. Photo: Simon Chambers/ACT

The stakes for Loss and Damage have never been so high at a COP. Even before it started, negotiators spent hours into the night to agree on the agenda. For the first time loss and damage finance became a formal item on its own right due to huge, concerted effort from vulnerable countries with a strong support from civil society.

But this was not a reason to celebrate, especially as it calls for a decision to be made no later than 2024. It was the beginning of the work, not its end. Action on loss and damage is urgent and long overdue. Loss and damage is the litmus test of COP27.

ACT Alliance, together with the faith community and other allies have been working hard calling world leaders in Sharm El Sheik to ensure that a decision by the end of this COP is reached to establish a financial mechanism for loss and damage. It doesn’t matter what it is called – whether a facility or a fund – as long as it serves the purpose of ensuring that funding is provided and availed to communities suffering climate induced loss and damage.

We stand behind the calls from developing countries who have been united under the G77 and China who since COP26 in Glasgow have been calling for the establishment of a loss and damage finance facility under the UNFCCC.

Loss and Damage is at the heart of climate justice. A funding mechanism is essential to mobilize L&D finance, in line with a climate justice-oriented approach. Loss and damage funding must be new and additional to existing commitments, needs based, predictable and adequate, responding to the needs of the most vulnerable who are the most affected by L&D.

It will take real courage and leadership from the negotiating parties – and specifically the developed countries. As the ministers engage on this issue, the European Union, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and their developed counterparts must listen to the urgent demands from vulnerable countries.

Loss and Damage is the litmus text for COP 27, world leaders must deliver on it.

Mariana Paoli is the Global Advocacy Lead with ACT member Christian Aid.

Faith leaders urgently call for increased ambition at COP27

ACT, LWF, Christian Aid and other faith groups held a media action at COP27 calling for gender justice to be mainstreamed in climate justice work, recognizing the impacts of climate change on women and girls in all their diversity and demanding their voices be heard and seats at the tables at all levels of climate change decision making. Photo: Simon Chambers/ACT

Faith leaders from around the world are among the thousands of civil society members at COP27, the UN climate conference, taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. They have watched with concern as the negotiations have stalled and not pushed for more ambition to prevent the drastic consequences predicted if global temperature rise goes past 1.5C, to support the most vulnerable communities and nations facing the brunt of climate change’s impacts today, and to ensure that human rights, a gender lens, and indigenous people’s knowledge are enshrined in the structures and work of the UNFCCC and its parties as they confront the climate emergency.

Faith leaders have issued today an urgent call for increased ambition in the final days of COP27.

The faith leaders, drawing on the call from the Interfaith Talanoa dialogue at the beginning of COP, the faith leaders are calling on leaders at COP27 to preserve all of God’s Creation by:

Recognizing the urgency of the crisis
Establishing a new funding facility for Loss and Damage
Richer countries meeting their commitment to $100bn annually for adaptation and mitigation
Wealthy countries canceling debt, provide adequate new finance, and a L&D facility
Ensuring gender is not siloed but a clear gender transformative climate action lens be applied in all climate work

Read the full call here.

COP27 Interview: Latin American community solutions offer hope

Solutions such as planting trees improve the environment and give communities hope. “They are achieving important things and know that improvements are possible,” says Romario Dohmann. PHOTO: Hora de Obrar/ACT

Romario Dohmann, ecological coordinator for ACT member Hora de Obrar of Argentina attended the first week of COP27 as an ACT Alliance delegate. In an interview with ACT intern Pablo Sagrado Martin, he described Hora de Obrar’s ecological project the Pastoral Promotion for Care of Creation and the importance of local action addressing climate change.

The project, which ran from 2016 until 2019, worked with selected communities in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. It used theological reflection to encourage communities of faith to care for our common home, Earth, through innovations such as organic growing practices and fair trade.

A changing climate

“Local communities are experiencing the effects of climate change in their own flesh,” says Romario. There have been deep droughts in the southern cone over the last few years. The region’s large rivers have historic low water levels, and there is a water crisis. In summer wildfires affect forests and fields.

“Some communities have had to adapt by changing their planting dates,” says Romario. “But we have also seen that when we increase trees and use alternative agricultural production methods there is more resilience to the changing climate.”

Encourages alternatives

“The project developed to encourage alternatives to growing monocultures such as soy and depending on extractives for income,” says Romario. Such practices can damage soil and water and interfere with the production of nutritious food for local communities. “This met with resistance, as many local agricultural producers were exclusively dedicated to monocultures,” he says.

The project turned to theology to involve the communities, referencing ecotheology and ecological church policy. “We offered biblical reflection on the care of creation and how it could help communities live better,” says Romario. [They also developed materials for use in catechesis with children and in theological reflection with adults.]

Community members visited others that practice alternative agroecological production. “This helped people feel more comfortable working with agricultural technicians as they transitioned to a more sustainable type of agriculture,” says Romario.

The websites of both Hora de Obrar and the Evangelical Church of Rio de la Plata offer supportive material.

Results include Commission for the Care of Creation

The Commission for the Care of Creation grew out of the project and includes members from different districts, in particular women. “Seventy percent of the members of the Commission are women. They also make up 95 percent of those who educate communities,” says Romario.
They are also the ones who are most active in workshops about healthy eating and the impact of environmental issues on health.

“Communities can now assess how they produce food. The goal is universal access to healthy food through fair trade, based on theological and ethical perspectives,” says Romario.

“We were able to generate and accompany changes in environmental public policies in Misiones. A government platform of organic production was formed, with the mission to accompany producers who deliver healthy food,” says Romario of the Commission. “The role of civil society is sometimes to be where the state cannot be present and promote these types of initiatives.”

To COP27 decision makers: local solutions offer hope

“Local communities are engaged in concrete actions that may not have a big impact globally,” says Romario, “but are essential for them, as they are coming up with solutions.” Recently, money from the Green Climate Fund has arrived in Argentina. In Misiones, Romario’s region in northern Argentina, the funds are earmarked for recovery from fires, water shortages, for emergency funds, early warning systems and to improve water access for rural populations.

“Highlighting local actions offers hope,” says Romario. “The communities want to communicate the message of hope. They are achieving important things and know that improvements are possible.”

“They have a message of hope, but decisions must be made now, there is no time to spare.”

Pablo Sagrado Martin is an ACT intern based in ACT’s Brussels office.

A phase out of fossil fuels must be combined with scaled up climate finance for a just transition

All around the world, people are marching, they are chanting, advocating, demanding that world leaders do what it takes to Keep 1.5 alive. Negotiators at COP27 must heed those demands.

ACT Alliance, a global network of 147 churches and agencies doing humanitarian response, development and advocacy work in over 125 countries, is on the front lines of vulnerable communities who have done the least to cause climate change yet face the worst of its impacts.

“Even with global temperature rise at 1.2, the world is seeing more frequent and severe climate-induced disasters- droughts, storms, and more,” says Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, general secretary of ACT Alliance. “ACT members support communities in preparing for, surviving, and recovering from such events. We know the challenges. And the need of local communities.”

And the world needs action. Now. To make sure global temperature will not increase above 1.5C.

“A climate summit that gives up on 1.5 will be a failure,” says Mattias Söderberg, chair of the ACT climate justice group. “Just seven years ago in Paris, we committed to strive for 1.5. But each year we delay, we stall, we avoid, and the time horizon for urgent action shrinks each day.”

A big step towards achieving 1.5 would be to keep fossil fuels in the ground. While we desire a phase out of fossil fuels, ACT supports the reality at COP27 as some parties rally behind the idea of “phasing down all fossil fuels.” A phase down is one step closer to what is needed- phasing out fossil fuels and transitioning to renewables, but Söderberg notes,””Such a phase down will not be possible without commitments from developed countries to support developing ones to phase down fossil fuels.“

Many countries depend on income from fossil fuels, and a transition away from fossil fuels will thus have big impact on the economies.Global transformations are needed to keep 1.5 alive. Phasing down- and ideally phasing out- fossil fuels to keep 1.5 alive must be complimented by adequate finance commitments to support just transition in developing countries.

Bueno de Faria concludes, “We would like to see a COP27 outcome including commitment to the phase out of all fossil fuels. It should be accompanied by an equal commitment from developed nations to mobilise the needed finance to make it possible. This will be a big step towards keeping 1.5 alive, and meeting the needs of the most vulnerable, including women and girls, who daily face the consequences of inaction on climate change.”

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Media contact:
Simon Chambers WhatsApp: +1-416-435-0972 simon.chambers@actalliance.org

Call from voices of faith around the world to COP27

15 November 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA ADVISORY

Call from voices of faith around the world to COP27

People of faith present at COP27 and around the world joined together on November 6 for a Talanoa dialogue, discussing a variety of aspects of climate justice and their call for progress in the negotiations at COP27. Representatives of faith groups, including youth, indigenous, and voices from around the world, will share key aspects of the Talanoa. Participants at COP from faith backgrounds bring the experiences of communities on the front lines of the climate emergency, they bring a moral dimension to the debate, and they also bring technical expertise through their engagement in combatting climate change and in climate justice advocacy

84% of the world’s population ascribe to a faith tradition, and faith communities are part of all communities in the world. They work as part of these communities together with local leaders and communities to address the impacts of climate change. The Interfaith Liaison Committee brings together faith constituencies working to achieve climate justice to raise their voices together and share their stories from their traditions and experiences around the world.

What: People of faith representing a range of faith traditions, countries, ages, and gender share calls from the 100+ people of faith who took part in the Talanoa dialogue on Nov 6, 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Who: Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California (USA)
Ms. Maureen Goodman, Brahma Kumaris representative to the United Nations (UK)
Ms. Kata Kuhnert, Lutheran youth (Canada)
Imam Saffet Abid Catovic, ISNA Office for Interfaith and Community Alliance and Government Relations (USA)

Rev. Henrik Grape, Senior advisor on Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice for the World Council of Churches – Moderator

Where: Press conference room (Luxor) and online

When: Tuesday, November 15, 2022 16h30-17h00

Why: Faith communities bring concrete experiences of the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable people, including women and girls in all their diversity and people on the move, who have done the least to cause climate change and are facing the brunt of its impacts. Faith groups are on the front lines, responding to climate change through mitigation, disaster risk reduction, adaptation, and more.

# # # # #

MEDIA CONTACT
Simon Chambers +1-416-435-0972, simon.chambers@actalliance.org
Head of Communications, ACT Alliance

New Multi-Faith/Multi-Sector Alliance for Climate Action (MFSA) to launch at COP27

An innovative new alliance, the Multi-Faith/Multi-Sector Alliance for Climate Action (MFSA) will be formally launched at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh this Wednesday, November

ACT stunt drawing attention to gender justice asks at COP27. Photo: Albin Hillert/LWF.

16 at 14:00 Cairo time. For those at COP27, the event is at the IFRC Pavilion- Blue zone (beside UNFCCC and Egypt Pavilion). Those at a distance can join online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHKbYD_TtmM

The Alliance will be a neutral bridge between existing multi-faith actors and their coalitions, and key secular actors (including governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector, civil society organizations, and media). The goal is to explore and advance collaboration on specific areas for climate action. It is not intended to replace existing networks and coalitions, but rather to elevate and add value to existing initiatives.

MFSA will bring together key groups with specific projects which need support and engagement. Its strength will come from the diversity of events, projects and leadership it brings together. The expectation is that different groups will offer different foci for discussion, meetings, partnerships and practical projects.

MFSA will amplify ongoing secular initiatives by engaging faith networks in the following ways:

Systematically engaging faith-related media on climate issues
Framing and publicising the values parameters of investment funds to leverage public capital with the assets of religious institutions
Supporting the Global Energy Access Initiative by engaging faith networks through a faith sensitive communications campaign
Supporting the mobilisation of women and youth leaders in achieving carbon emissions goals through by engaging women faith leaders and their networks.

MFSA is currently engaged in the following projects:

A Faith-based Just Climate Transition Fund led by FaithInvest in collaboration with the Climate Investment Funds of the World Bank,
A Clean Energy Access communications and advocacy campaign led by Global Alliance for Clean Energy Access, Greenfaith and Faith for Earth,
Project Dandelion, a Women and Youth led global campaign to meet the carbon emissions target, led by Mary Robinson, with Religions for Peace Women of Faith Network
A fourth project, a unique cross-cutting programme actively researching the huge reach of faith-based media is also underway.

Speakers at the launch will include:

Mr. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, ACT Alliance

Ms. Pacifica F. Achieng Ogola, Government of Kenya

Ms. Jean Duff, Partnership for Faith and Development (video)

Ms. Amanda Burrell, Al Jazeera (video)

Prof. Dr. Azza Karam, Religions for Peace

Rev. James Bhagwan, Pacific Conference of Churches (video)

The following speakers will address the Alliance’s current initiatives:

Faith-based Just Climate Transition Fund

Ms. Mafalda Duarte, Climate Investment Funds, World Bank

Mr. Martin Palmer, FaithInvest

Joint Clean Energy Access Communications and Advocacy Campaign

Ms. Sandae, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, the Rockefeller Foundation

Rev. Fletcher Harper, GreenFaith

Women and Youth led Global Campaign to Meet the Carbon Emissions Target

Ms. Mary Robinson, Climate Justice Institute

Mr. Iyad Abumoghli of the UN Environment Programme will give the closing remarks.