The past months have brought strong winds of social unrest, spreading among many countries and continents. People are rising demanding systemic change in diverse movements, and WECAN feels the urgency of this moment from social movements to climate actions.
In the coming week, the WECAN team is traveling with our outstanding delegation to COP26 in Glasgow to join civil society calls for governments and financial institutions to take meaningful and significant climate action.
This year at COP26 governments are to announce their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), informed by the Paris Agreement.
The recent IPCC report confirms what we already know to be true, which is not only is climate change "unequivocally" the result of human action, but that government commitments are nowhere close to mitigating the worst impacts of global warming. Government commitments to date bring us to a perilous 2.7 degrees temperature rise by the end of the century, far past the 1.5 degree target made clear by global scientists. Quite simply, current commitments are a death sentence for our communities and future generations.
The detrimental global systems of domination, exploitation, capitalism, patriarchy, colonization and racism continue to be deadly to our world communities, harming first and worse, women, Indigenous peoples, communities of color, and low-income communities, We need our governments to fundamentally transform in order to truly function and care for people and planet— that means, uplifting and including Indigenous, Black, Brown, Global South, and frontline women leaders in decision making spaces; supporting frontline communities who are building climate solutions; and ending exploitative policies and practices that are deleterious to communities and the planet.
As we head to Glasgow it is also vital to highlight once again the serious inequities playing out at this COP. Vaccine apartheid and COP26 leadership's failure to plan an equitable forum, has led to large numbers of advocates being locked out of participation at this vital international forum. Civil society leaders, many of whom are from the Global South, are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic. In September,
WECAN joined calls by civil society to postpone COP26, not because we wanted governments to slow progress, but because we know the voices and leadership of our colleagues and partners in the Global South are crucial for advocacy of equity and justice at COP negotiations. We will continue to do all we can to bring forth and uplift their leadership during our efforts at COP26.
Furthermore, the voices of grassroots, frontline, and Indigenous women and gender-diverse leaders could not be more important. Only 16% of the COP26 UK Leadership team is women. Women, feminists and gender-diverse leaders continue to be underrepresented in the international decision-making space. Since the COP26 announcement last year, we've been collaborating with the
SHE Changes Climate campaign to address the continued gender disparities at the UN Climate Talks.
WECAN International reaffirms our commitment to bring women and feminist voices to the forefront, as well as unyielding action to expose the roots of the climate crisis and help usher in just climate solutions commensurate to the level of the multiple interlocking crises we face.
This week, Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director, had the honor to speak at the urgent one-day High-level event entitled “Delivering Climate Action: for People, Planet & Prosperity” at the UN Headquarters in New York. During her intervention, Osprey stated clearly the power of our collective movements:
"As we head into COP26, please know, we are not willing to die or sacrifice future generations for truly pitiful reasons of corporate greed and political power and hubris. Rather we are willing to fight to use our imaginations, to be alive, to thrive, to be courageous, to be uncomfortable for positive changes, to be bold, and to win. We are willing to endlessly fight for policies that prioritize social, racial and economic justice, and Indigenous and human rights."
(To listen to Osprey's’ full remarks and the delivery of our Call to Action at the UN, please see below)
During COP26, WECAN will be advocating for Indigenous rights and sovereignty as key climate solutions, gender-responsive climate policies, forest protection, keeping fossil fuels in the ground, holding corporations and financial institutions accountable, defending land defenders, saying no to carbon offsets, supporting Rights of Nature, centering community-led sustainability solutions, and furthering systemic change. As we do each year, we will also be advocating with the powerful Women and Gender Constituency, please read
the WGC COP26 Key Demands here.
For more background on WECAN International's analysis at previous COPs, please see some of our previous UN climate negotiations blogs
COP25 -
COP24 -
COP23 -
COP22.
You can also find updates on our COP26 delegation and events on
our website here!
While it is vital to engage within the formal UN climate negotiations process in order to advocate for policies that support people and planet above profit and false solutions - our deepest hope lies with the people's climate justice movements organizing in magnificent diversity and strength across the world.
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