Friends witness at Paris climate change conference
Quakers among those in Paris for COP21
Quakers came from all over the world to attend the international climate change conference (COP21) held this week in Paris.
Lindsey Fielder Cook, represen-tative for climate change at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva, was one of the Friends at the event. She said that the conference was ‘an historic chance to adopt a universal climate change agreement applicable to all countries’. She explained that ‘there is still time to avoid catastrophic climate change, but not much time’.
The present global greenhouse gas emissions are rising at a rate that would threaten all eco-systems, freshwater supplies and the ability to grow food and work outdoors.
Friends in Paris handed negotiators a one-page summary of climate science, ending with quotes from the Britain Yearly Meeting 2009 Minutes, and quotes selected from the Quaker Statement on Climate Change (see ‘Thought for the Week: A call to conscience’ and ‘Facing the challange’).
A large coalition of French organisations was mobilising to challenge the corporate agenda at the Paris summit. They intended to use the moment to build a stronger climate justice movement.
The mass protest that had been planned in Paris at the end of the talks on 12 December has been cancelled by the police for security reasons.
