Quakers address COP27 on climate

Lindsey Fielder Cook, QUNO’s representative on the human impacts of climate change outlined priorities for ‘urgent international cooperation on holistic and integrated policy approaches’.

Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) was invited to address negotiators representing over sixty-eight countries, and all civil society constituencies, at COP27 in Egypt last month.

Lindsey Fielder Cook, QUNO’s representative on the human impacts of climate change, spoke at the event for the 2023 Global Stocktake.

In the address, Lindsey outlined priorities for ‘urgent international cooperation on holistic and integrated policy approaches’.

‘“Holistic and integrated” refers to approaches which address the root causes driving climate change, while also helping heal related planetary crises – including existential rates of species extinction; chemical pollution; soil erosion; and ocean acidification – and which prioritise people and protection of nature, over profit and power interests.’

The following approaches could ‘scale up climate action dramatically’, Lindsey told the gathering. These include: ‘Integration of human rights-based approaches in climate policy. Policies experienced as fair and beneficial to the community are more likely to be supported than rejected, for without people’s support, we are lost, and without a healthy and fair vision, our people are lost.’

Lindsey also recommended truthfully engaging with people about what is happening, and why, and how they can help. ‘Globally, households with income in the top ten per cent contribute about thirty-six to forty-five per cent of global greenhouse gases (GHG) and one fifth of GHG emissions is linked to human diets, yet discussions on the role of meat and dairy are usually suppressed.’

Genuine engagement on sustainable and just economic systems, and sustainable agriculture transitions, should also be a priority, she urged. ‘Economic growth has been identified as the top driver of CO2 emissions, while the Paris Agreement calls for “sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and production”.’

Greater support to community-based, bottom-up climate action should also be encouraged. This was as well as ‘urgent emissions-reduction at source, not reliance on carbon off-sets’. There should also be a recognition that ‘real human security is a livable and sustainable planet’, and military funding should be shifted away from weapons towards energy, agriculture, and transport transformations.

The address also recommended including debt relief to counter the sovereign debt crisis. ‘Climate finance can be raised through polluter pay taxation, such as taxing fossil fuels at extraction, international aviation, and financial transactions,’ she said. The talk also highlighted regulating bank investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, and shifting billions out of fossil fuel subsidies and into climate action, as well embracing the ‘language of responsibility’. Finally, she said, ‘stop the arrest and killing of environmental defenders. They are our prophets. Silence them, and we silence our future’.

The address can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/fbyS9JRQIB0.

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