Press conference at COP28: Global faith voices join together at Interfaith Talanoa Dialogue in Dubai
3 December 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: People of faith have been engaging in climate justice work for decades. Over 150 people of faith from around the world came together at the Interfaith Liaison Committee’s Talanoa dialogue on November 30 to discuss the three questions of a Talanoa: Where are we at, where do we want to go, and how do we get there in our work for climate justice at COP28.
As the World Leaders’ Summit has wrapped up, the ILC is working on its call to the COP for increased action to achieve climate justice and help keep global temperature rise to under 1.5C.
People of faith (Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Brahma Kumaris, and many others) 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 combating climate change and in climate justice advocacy.
85% 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 to the UNFCCC 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: Calls from people of faith from around the world for concrete action at COP28 towards achieving climate justice for the most vulnerable, and sharing stories of the impacts of climate change in communities around the world.
Who:
Sister Jayanti Kirpalani Additional Administrative Head of the Brahma Kumaris Rev. Chebon Kernell, Indigenous, World Council of Churches Ms. Lucy Plummer from youth from Soka Gakkai International Mr. Harjeet Singh, head – global political strategy, CAN international Ms. Valériane Bernard, Brahma Kumaris representative to the United Nations, Geneva- Moderator
Where: Press Conference Room 2 Zone B6 building 77 and online
When: Monday, December 4, 2023 13:30-14:00 Dubai time
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.
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MEDIA CONTACT Simon Chambers- WhatsApp: +1-416-435-0972, Email: simon.chambers@actalliance.org Director of Communications, ACT Alliance
COP28 Blog: Strengthening community resilience in Egypt
By Dr. Nahed Ayoub, Ph.D.
Climate change is a pressing challenge for all countries across the globe, including Egypt and the MENA region. Egypt is already suffering from water scarcity, and climate change exacerbates this problem. Rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns lead to more frequent and severe droughts, intense heatwaves, and flooding in coastal areas. This has a devastating impact on agriculture, food security, human health and well being.Moreover, the region’s unique ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangroves, and wetlands, are under threat due to the impact of climate change on cultural heritage, natural beauty, and the economy.
The bishopric of public and ecumenical services (BLESS), the developmental arm of the Coptic orthodox church in Egypt, has two interventions related to adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The agriculture program focusses on small farmers, and the environment program targets people living in poverty in areas all over Egypt.
The rural programme empowers marginalised groups of smallscale male and female farmers. It introduces knowledge and skills about new techniques that lead to greater production, more rewarding economic returns, and that preserve environmental balance. The programme also addresses interrelated impacts on climate and fresh water. It establishes eco-friendly agricultural practices and supports smallscale farmers with machinery and supplies to ensure better land productivity, crop efficiency, lower costs, and environmental maintenance.
The environmental programme improves the conditions of communities living in poverty to develop an environment free of pollution. BLESS believes that each person has the right to live in a clean and healthy environment. This programme ensures sustainable development and preserves environmental rights such as adequate, clean water, for future generations. This is achieved through encouraging positive environmental attitudes and behaviours, developing solutions and alternatives for environmental problems and promoting the use of low-cost renewable energy technology. The programme also increases community resilience by fostering adaptation to the impact of climate change.
COP28 is crucial in addressing the effects of climate change on Egypt and other countries. Key issues include reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, transitioning to low-carbon economies, and increasing adaptation finance.
Developing countries such as Egypt and others in the MENA region need significant financial and technical support to build resilience. This will require investments in water management, agriculture, and infrastructure. Decisions at COP28 can ensure a sustainable and resilient future for the region. It is essential that all countries work together to reduce emissions, support adaptation, and build a more sustainable and equitable world.
Dr Nahed Ayoub, an ACT COP28 Delegate, has a Ph.D. in water management, a master’s degree on the impact of global warming on food security, and a professorial master’s of gender and development. She is a BLESS program advisor on environmental, rural, and other development programs.
COP28 Blog: Building hope through action on the climate crisis
By Hanna Soldal and Sofie Ohlsson
A month ago, we sat in a room with Church of Sweden’s climate ambassadors. The group consisted of people of various ages, from different congregations and with diverse roles. But
Action: Faith groups marched to George Square in Glasgow on October 30, 2021, calling for climate justice on the eve of COP26. Photo: Simon Chambers/ACT
We talked about the urgent need for a change of values within our church, for us to be able to perform the activities needed to decrease our carbon footprint and to strengthen our voice for climate justice. Some suggested more church services focussed on the climate emergency. Others highlighted the role of the clergy to prioritise Creation in their sermons. Another idea was to arrange discussion groups on the topic.
Then one of the climate ambassadors stood up and said: “You have gotten it completely wrong. We don’t change values through an engaged sermon or by a group talking about it once more. Values change through concrete actions! We gain hope, and influence the values of ourselves and others, by actually acting upon the climate crisis.”
With the words of this climate ambassador a fresh memory at COP28 it becomes very clear what is needed: ACTION.
Fossil fuels must be phased out.
Climate migrants and defenders need increased protection.
The world’s rich countries must live up to their commitment of delivering USD 100 billion per year in climate finance.
These countries must also contribute to the financing of a loss and damage fund to compensate those who have already been affected by the climate emergency.
All of this must happen in a just and inclusive way. High-emitting, rich countries must act upon their responsibility towards the most affected, least-emitting countries. Locally-led action for adaptation must be supported. Women, youth, Indigenous and local communities must have influence in both the decision-making and the implementation processes.
If the parties at COP28 manage to agree upon these urgent needs, this could inspire climate action globally. In the same way, the actions of Church of Sweden’s climate ambassadors can spread like ripples on the water in their local contexts. By acting now we create hope and a change in values and behaviour long-term. Together we can create hope in action.
Hanna Soldal is the Advocacy officer at Act Church of Sweden and Sofie Ohlsson is a Youth volunteer and climate ambassador, Act Church of Sweden and Church of Sweden Youth.
Sofie OhlssonHanna Soldal. PHOTO: Gustaf Hellsing
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Countdown to COP28: ACT in the Middle East and North Africa
As the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region prepares to host COP28, we reproduce here our 2022 Annual Report interview with Rachel Luce, ACT Alliance Regional Representative for the MENA region and George Majaj, ACT’s MENA Humanitarian Programme Advisor. The interview will give you some insight into MENA issues and how ACT and its members address these issues during peacetime.
What are some of the key issues facing the region?
Rachel: There are several protracted crises in the region. Linked to that is mass migration. Educated people are leaving, as is the Christian minority. The Christian migration is really on the hearts and minds of our local members, as this is where the historic churches are located. We also see big changes in the social fabric, and you lose the value of diversity. Migration is a big concern for all the members, along with the conflicts and ongoing wars.
George: Most of the crises are becoming protracted. There are fewer political ways to end these issues – for example in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. There’s a lack of interest from funders and media. The political will at home and abroad is not there to solve the protracted crises in most of the countries in MENA, and that has a negative effect on communities.
How do members in the region work together?
In the Middle East, national forums meet monthly to discuss what they’re working on, joint areas of action such as training, what they’re hearing from other platforms they’re involved in, and how they might coordinate advocacy. The forums consist of country directors or their deputies. Iraq and Jerusalem have extended their forums so that faith-based agencies can join.
The MENA Communities of Practice (CoPs), such as Gender Justice and Climate Justice, are connected to the forums. Each national forum sends at least one delegate to a MENA CoP. These are usually the thematic experts. MENA CoPs meet monthly and discuss aspects of the work they want to do together. They go to in-person events, such as trainings, and then report back to their Forum.
What are the opportunities you see in the region?
The MENA Gender Justice CoP wants to influence change in Christian family law in the Middle East. For Christians, family law is governed by their church, and it covers inheritances, marriage, divorce, custody, and similar issues. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) changed their church’s family law a few years ago. The MENA Gender Justice CoP wants to see similar change across the region. They started with a study on Jordan’s church family laws. After hearing the consultant’s questions, the churches they interviewed decided to look into changing their laws. No one knew their own laws until they went to court to find out.
One of the MENA Gender Justice CoP’s goals is to ensure family inheritances are divided equally between men and women and that women aren’t pressured into signing away their inheritance rights. They also want family laws to be transparent and accessible. Changing these laws makes real, true change in the lives of people.
MENA’s Climate Justice CoP is growing every year. Season of Creation is on fire in the Middle East right now, which is amazing. ACT MENA members also invested a lot in Egypt’s COP27. Now they’re talking about how to engage after Dubai’s COP28 in 2023. They’re showing a commitment to global negotiations in the long term.
In MENA, we started by training members in country-specific multi-stakeholder dialogues where specialists reviewed adaptation, climate financing and mitigation. Once they understood climate justice at a country level, members engaged regionally because they could see the intersections. Now they’re making the link to the global level. They see how the fight at one UN COP can lead to additional financing and how they can push for climate ambition.
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A participant in the 2022 Season of Creation celebration sponsored by MECC. PHOTO: MECC.
Season of Creation “on fire” in MENA
The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration to pray and respond to the cry of Creation. The global ecumenical family unites to listen and care for our common home, the Oikos of God. It begins 1 September,
the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends 4 October, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. ACT Alliance has been part of the Season of Creation for many years. The Season’s initiatives encourage individual ACT members’ advocacy to influence decisions at global climate meetings such as the UNFCCC COP that follows shortly after the Celebration is completed. The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) translated the Celebration Guide into Arabic, a first, and encouraged its members to participate. In Lebanon, church youth walked in nature to “listen to the voice of creation.” Hosted by MECC, the activity inaugurated a series of celebrations throughout MENA.
Women learn sewing in Jordan. PHOTO: Paul Jeffrey/ACT
Local members advance advocacy at home
ACT Alliance welcomed a new Syrian member in 2022: GOPA-DERD (Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East). Local members are organisations indigenous to the region or country in which they work. “Local members engage very quickly in the CoPs. They see the value of advocacy and the ACT programmes,” says Rachel Luce, MENA Regional Representative. “They have been championing local voices here and internationally and they advance advocacy in their own country. They see this work as their long-term commitment to their country and to their people.”
Project profile: Restoring livelihoods for refugees
ACT Alliance member Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR) established a small business startup loan programme for Syrian refugees living in Jordan but found that the refugees’ high debt levels hampered success. DSPR decided to focus instead on helping refugees graduate from poverty, an approach that had been tried with Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Gaza. Programme participants now receive cash support for necessities for the first six to eight months and then receive training in topics such as life skills and starting a small business. They can then access loans and grants to establish a small business and are more able to repay loans.
Did you know? In the multi-faith Middle East, each religion has historically had its own family law. As well, each Christian church has its own church law. In Jordan there are six different church laws governing family issues like divorce, custody and inheritances.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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
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.
