Faith, climate justice and the UN General Assembly: a report

Faith groups marched against fossil fuels in NYC. PHOTO: Simon Chambers/ACT

By Rev. Fred Milligan

This year’s mid-September United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high level opening week featured two events that allowed the world to reflect on the progress made since the adoption in 2015 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. 

The first event was the SDG Summit of September 18-19, intended to renew the commitment of the world’s nations to press forward toward the goals they had adopted eight years ago. 

The second event was the Climate Ambition Summit of September 20, called by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to accelerate progress toward the goals of the Paris Agreement. This is linked to SDG 13 which urges the world to “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” 

SDGs and Climate Justice  

The linkage of the two events is particularly significant from the perspective of Climate Justice. The other sixteen SDGs address crises such as child mortality, gender discrimination and many other dimensions of human and non-human life. All the goals are complexly linked as parts of the solution to the climate crisis and vice versa. The solution to the climate crisis must include climate justice. As a student of cross-cultural theological ethics, I can attest that the 17 SDGs are congruent with visions for life on the planet which the world’s religions have long held.  

Many feel it will not be possible for the global community to make the kinds of changes necessary to fight global warming and achieve climate justice without the full engagement of all our cultural resources, including those of the religious community. But, according to some observers, the religious community has not been fully engaged in the UN SDG process, particularly SDG 13 on climate change.  

It was with this concern that I participated as an observer in various activities surrounding the UN high level week. With a growing sense of urgency, I listened to reports that there has been very little progress on any of the SDGs, including climate, since their adoption. In some cases, there has actually been retrenchment. 

UNGA-related events 

The first event was disappointing from my perspective. On Saturday, September 16th, I attended UN Mobilization Day events with Alison Kelly, ACT’s Representative to the UN. This included a forum on civil society inclusion and another on the role of youth and young adults in the SDG processes.  

I listened with great anticipation to Secretary-General Guterres’s remarks. I hoped he would include an acknowledgement of the important role of the faith community in achieving the SDGs, but alas, there was none. In fact, of all the interventions, only the moderator of one panel mentioned faith. She said that she represented many identities, including activist, young adult, person of color, woman and believer. While this acknowledgement of the spiritual dimension of human culture and identity was welcome, I was, to say the least, disappointed by its exceptional rarity.  

The next days, however, offered a more encouraging picture: 

  • September 17: The ACT Alliance team participated in the March to End Fossil Fuels with representatives from the World Council of Churches and hundreds of others in the faith section. Tens of thousands of marchers focused on US climate policies and practices and the global climate crisis.  
  • September 18: I attended Inspiring, Faith, Hope and Transformative Action to Accelerate progress Towards the SDGs, a high-level forum sponsored by the Trilateral Partnership of Regional Faith-Based Networks for the SDGs. The group represented Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and was led in part by ACT Alliance’s Asia-Pacific Regional Representative Alwynn Javier. 

My initial concerns about a disconnect between the UN’s SDG process and the faith community were confirmed when a panelist who had been part of drafting the original SDGs spoke of her disappointment that there had originally been no vision in those founding documents for how to constructively engage the faith community.  

Still, the presence on one of the panels of a high-level UN official gave me hope. Perhaps if we push the UN at a local level and do not receive the kind of collaboration we would hope for, we might still have assistance from those higher up the chain of command. I was also intrigued by the presence of Ambassador Hussein, a US State Department employee who focuses on interreligious cooperation. 

  • Wednesday, September 20: The Episcopal Denominational Stocktake presented a model for how faith communities could evaluate their own efforts and ambition on climate.  
  • Thursday, September 21: I attended the Kofi Annan Briefing sponsored by ACT Alliance and the Multi-faith Advisory Council to the UN Interagency Taskforce on Religion and Sustainable Development. Panelists spoke on the faith community’s role in effective implementation of SDG initiatives in countries where local knowledge and trust is essential for effective outreach. Yet some concern was expressed that the relationship between the UN and faith communities be that of co-creators instead of simply implementers of solutions to social and environmental ills. 
  • ACT Climate Justice Reference Group co-chair Mattias Soderberg of DanChurchAid organized a high-level meeting on Adaptation Finance. Sponsored by Denmark and Bangladesh, it included key decision-makers who will be at COP 28 and a member of the COP presidency.

Climate and US faith groups 

In the weeks following the UNGA high-level week, two publications offered further food for thought that were important from my perspective as a US citizen. 

October 4: Pope Francis released his second encyclical on climate change Laudate Deum (Glory to God). In this, his second pastoral letter on the climate crisis, the Pope says forcefully that while scientists have done their work faithfully in addressing our minds, the religious community has yet to effectively address the hearts of people. He singled out the citizens of the US for rebuke, saying that their per capita carbon footprint is twice that of Chinese citizens. While this reader would have appreciated more diligent sourcing of such statements in the document, the point is assumed to be a valid one, at least in historical cumulative terms. 

October 6: According to Kristoffer Tigue in Inside Climate News two recent studies shed light on the views of Americans in relation to the climate crisis. 

 “A Pew Research Center survey, found that just 44 percent of American Catholics believe in human-caused climate change,” he writes. “While 29 percent believe the warming climate is due to “natural patterns” and 13 percent don’t believe Earth is warming at all.”  

He further notes that “A second survey, by the Public Religion Research Institute found that ‘the higher someone values their religious beliefs, the less likely they are to believe that Earth is warming” due to human activity’.” 

Ways forward 

The foregoing leads me to four conclusions: 

  1. Many of the world’s religious leaders now realize that we can and should engage as a force to achieve sustainable development, climate change and climate justice goals. 
  2.  While many in the UN hierarchy seem ambivalent about the value of collaborating with faith-based groups, (no doubt for very good reasons in many situations), there also seems to be a growing openness to dialogue on how each sector’s strengths can complement the other. However, there is still much work to be done to ensure the inclusion of religious leaders and faith actors across the work of the UN. 
  3. We on the faiths side have much work to do to convince people within our churches that the SDGs and Climate Justice goals align with the deepest yearnings and demands of our traditions. 
  4. Finally, we in the faith community must encourage our leaders to keep reaching out across boundaries and engage with members of the UN to forge bonds of trust and collaboration. 

 

 

New York City, September 21, 2023- Fred Milligan at the Multi-Faith Advisory Council to the United Nations presentation. PHOTO: Simon Chambers/ACT.

Rev. Fred Milligan is an Act Alliance Global Climate Justice Advocacy Team member and local New York City volunteer for UNGA Week, September 17-22. 

 

 

 

New Climate Justice online platform

A graphic from the platform guides users to the examples of best practices that most interest them.

Do you need to develop an internal climate policy and want to know what other organisations have done? Or do you want to find out more about disaster risk reduction or locally led adaptation? Maybe you have a great adaptation project you’d like to share with other ACT members. 

Visit ACT’s new Platform for Climate Change and Programmes, meant to strengthen ACT’s Climate Justice members and networks. Available on the Fabo Learning site, the platform has several functions:

  • a one-stop learning site for climate change issues;
  • a sharing space for climate policy and members’ work on adaptation, resilience, loss and damage; and,
  • a digital space in which to network with and learn from other ACT members’ work on climate justice. 

“This is an opportunity for members to share their best experiences adapting to climate change,” says Tewaney Seifesellasie, co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Programmes team. The team focusses on the climate adaptation work of ACT members at the grassroots level and is also responsible for running ACT’s Resilience Award. They started designing the platform in March 2022.  

Four sections 

The platform, accessible to ACT members at https://fabo.org/act_secretariat/actclimate , is divided into four main sections.  

The first, Climate Programming, includes training opportunities and news on ACT Climate Justice opportunities such as the Resilience Award.  Users are invited to submit their own climate programme interventions addressing adaptation, resilience, loss and damage and/or low carbon transition. A template is provided. 

The second section, Internal Climate Policies, has examples of ACT member climate policies from DanChurchAid, Norwegian Church Aid and Christian Aid, a helpful slide deck on implementing such a policy, and a climate game to help members of organisations reflect on their climate change goals. 

Member policies can be downloaded from the platform.

Both of these sections feature a useful resources library with ACT and member publications on climate change and climate justice.  

The third section, Dialogue Forums, has two components. The Practice Forum invites ACT members to “collaborate, share examples of good practices, learn from others and exchange ideas or questions.” The  Networking Forum features photographs and short biographies of the members of the Programmes team and invites users to add their own profile. 

Graphics guide users to the dialogue forum of their choice.

 

 

 

 

 

“We want to increase networking among ACT members,” says Ruusa Gawazaa, co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Programmes team. “We can learn a lot from each other.” 

The final section gives an overview of ACT Alliance, and how users can participate.  Members of the ACT Alliance are welcome to join the community of practice, with possibilities for regular cooperation and exchange of ideas and experiences. 

ACT members are invited to share news of the Platform in their Forums and with their own members. “We can leverage our strengths by sharing them, and also strengthen the climate justice movement within the alliance,” says Tewaney.  

To access the site:  

https://fabo.org/act_secretariat/actclimate  

Step 1: Log in: https://fabo.org/my/  

Step 2: Access Climate ACT alliance platform for climate change and programs  

Step 3: Click, climate programming, dialogue Forum (on Tool Bar) etc or other forums 

To share experiences:  

Step 1: Log in: https://fabo.org/my/  

Step 2: Access Climate ACT alliance platform for climate change and programs  

Step 3: Click Dialogue Forum (on the Tool Bar)  

Step 4: Click on “DO YOU WANT TO SHARE EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR ORGANISATION? DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION? OR AN OPINION? CLICK HERE TO ENGAGE IN THE DISCUSSIONS IN A DIALOGUE FORUM” 

 

 

 

 

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).  

September 19

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.

September 21 

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 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

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.”

 

 

 Click here to download the English version. Click here for the Spanish version. 

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.” 

English version

Spanish version.

 

Join the Season of Creation September 1

The Season of Creation, the annual ecumenical celebration that encourages parishes to listen and respond to the cry of Creation, begins September 1 on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and ends October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

This year’s theme is “Let Justice and Peace Flow” and invites us to join others in working for climate justice.  A range of actions are suggested, from prayers to meeting with national climate negotiators to influence their decisions. The Season of Creation Celebration is intentionally scheduled just prior to the annual UN climate convention (the COP) to encourage climate action and advocacy in parishes. The Season of Creation Celebration Guide and promotional resources are now available in several languages.

The Season of Creation formally begins September 1 with a global ecumenical online prayer celebration at 09:00 New York, 15:00 Geneva, Johannesburg 16:00, 21:00 Manila, 01:00 Aotearoa. It will be streamed on the Season of Creation YouTube channel.

ACT members are involved in many different ways. The Celebration Guide is  available in Arabic thanks to translation provided by the Middle East Council of Churches. The Season of Creation has been “on fire” in the MENA region, says ACT MENA Regional Representative Rachel Luce.

Patricia Mungcal of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and co-chair of ACT’s Global Youth Community of Practice introduced the Advocacy section in June’s global online Celebration Guide launch. “This guide sharply unites us towards our advocacy goals,” she said. “For climate justice, now that we have the commitment for a Loss and Damage facility, we need to ensure that fair funding is allocated… with no colonial conditionalities for the Global South.”

Patricia was followed by a video of ACT General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria speaking of the power of united faith action on climate justice. “Together we can be a river that can move the mountains of injustice,” said Bueno de Faria. “As an ecumenical family, we can engage in these actions to ensure the web of life is preserved and cared for.” See video below.

ACT General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria

 

 

 

Loss and damage – we need a pragmatic and science-based approach

In 2022, massive monsoon flooding left over 6.4 million people in Pakistan needing humanitarian assistance. The increasing intensity of these kinds of events are due to climate change. PHOTO: Sahar Zafar/CWSA

 

The ongoing debate about climate-induced loss and damage is rife with conflicts. Different perspectives, political views, and ideologies make it difficult for parties to agree on a way forward.

Since 2019, the Danish NGO DanChurchAid has been monitoring projects, implemented by our local partners, that address loss and damage. I believe our experience can provide some helpful perspective for the ongoing negotiations.

As an NGO working across the humanitarian and development nexus, we were already monitoring, and reporting, on projects related to cutting emissions and adapting to climate change. However, we also wanted to learn more about the efforts to address loss and damage.

Loss and damage is a reality now. The people we meet in the drought-affected Turkana region in Kenya, the flooded villages in South Sudan, and the farmers who lost their livelihoods due to cyclones in Malawi, know what we are talking about. 

Defining loss and damage

At the international level, there is no agreed definition, and no accepted marker to identify projects. Our solution was to develop our own methodology. The support we give to communities to reduce exposure to climate-related hazards, for example by setting up an early warning system for cyclones, is labeled as ‘adaptation’. Meanwhile, the provision of emergency response, for example by delivering cash to families who lost their belongings, is labeled ‘loss and damage’.

One of the first lessons we could draw is that attribution is difficult. Is a drought climate-related or weather related? And are people being displaced as a result of the drought or due to local conflicts? It is not clear-cut and, in reality, it is often a combination of factors. For people on the ground, the label doesn’t matter. They are concerned about whether any support at all exists for them.

We have therefore chosen a pragmatic, but still science-based, approach. We talk about climate-associated loss and damage, rather than climate-induced loss and damage. A small but important difference that can determine whether a community will receive support or not from a future loss and damage fund.

Funding streams

Our monitoring indicates that the projects are funded from a variety of funding sources, both humanitarian and long-term development funds. That is relevant for the negotiations about ‘funding arrangements’ for loss and damage. Most of our support is directed to rapid-onset disasters, such as a hurricane, while few projects have a focus on slow-onset events, like desertification, and non-economic loss. The gap would need to be addressed by the loss and damage fund, as was agreed at the COP27 climate talks last year.

Another lesson relates to how the projects are designed. More than four-fifths of our activities include elements of both loss and damage on one hand, and adaptation or mitigation on the other. That indicates that the projects not only build back to pre-disaster situation after a loss, or damage, but that they do so in a way that improves conditions. It means that communities are more robust when the next extreme event strikes.

The UN negotiations must ensure a new fund will be eligible for cross-cutting activities, addressing both loss and damage and adaptation, to ensure the long-term perspective.

Local engagement

Finally, our monitoring makes it clear that it is  local communities and local actors themselves that are spearheading the work. They are the first responders, and those who stay behind when the hazard is under control. Yes, they need support, but they are best placed to know what kind of support is needed.

Even if the new loss and damage fund is negotiated within the UN, decisions about the actual destination of the money must engage the local communities that are affected. We need locally-led actions to address loss and damage, and this must be a priority when the new fund is operationalised.

is a chief advisor at DanChurchAid and co-chair of ACT Alliance’s climate justice group.

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