Quakers in climate year of action
‘We are very pleased to be part of such an exciting and diverse coalition working for climate justice.'
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) joined more than seventy organisations in the COP26 Coalition to launch ‘a year of climate mobilisation from the ground up’.
In a statement released to coincide with the days when the COP26 climate talks were due to take place, the coalition highlights the power of grassroots action and vows to ‘hold politicians and corporations to account’.
The statement pledges ‘to demand climate action which truly addresses the nature and scale of the interlinked crises we face. In the face of escalating ecological breakdown, of which the pandemic is merely the first great disruption, we must be ready to respond as never before to the challenges of rising instability and growing inequality’.
The statement also set the stage for From the Ground Up, the COP26 Coalition’s global gathering for climate justice, from 12-16 November. The gathering included sessions on food systems, forests, a global Green New Deal, direct action and reparations.
Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship for BYM, said: ‘We are very pleased to be part of such an exciting and diverse coalition working for climate justice… Meaningful climate action must be rooted in justice, and must address the systems that perpetuate injustice: that is our key message for the UK government and for all those working on climate in the run-up to the COP26 talks in Glasgow next November.’
Olivia Hanks, economics & sustainability programme manager for BYM, said the From the Ground Up gathering was ‘a great opportunity to hear from activists across the world and to be part of a global movement. Learning from the wider movement can really help us to build an effective Quaker response to the climate crisis, before, during and after COP26’.
