Climate justice and sustainability: countdown to COP26

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Dear Friends,

It’s September already, which means the UN climate talks we've been building towards - COP26 - are fast approaching!

Aside from preparing for COP, we’ve been busy taking much needed summer breaks and taking time to reflect and connect during our team reading week and Yearly Meeting Gathering. For those who weren’t able to join YMG, you can catch up with the epistle and minutes here. We also share an excerpt from Minute 33 on faith-based action for climate justice below:

Friends across the world have long held a concern for us to live in right relationship with creation. We stand now, looking back at minutes from our own Yearly Meeting in 2011, from worldwide gatherings of friends in Kabarak and Pisac, and looking ahead to the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Glasgow later this year. Events of recent weeks remind us that climate crisis is here, and that it affects us already. There is so much to lose, and so much to gain.
What more does love require of us here, and now?
To those gathering at COP 26 we offer our anger, our grief and our kinder ground, as well as our hope that they can share a vision of a better world. We ask them to renew and redouble their efforts, as we will do ourselves, giving no less than all we can to deliver a liveable planet and just societies.
From personal witness, let us build collective action. Those privileged by our current economic and political systems will not give up their positions without a struggle. To the extent that we hold privilege in these systems, we must also be ready to sacrifice this. We believe that our current political systems do not serve us effectively in this work. We pray that we will remain undaunted by obfuscation, delay and distraction in response to our work.
Seeking to reduce carbon emissions is an urgent priority, but without interrogating and disrupting our existing economic systems, this will only us back to an unjust system, and may encourage corporations, governments and individuals to delay necessary action and avoid systemic change.

As our community of Friends contemplates what love requires of us here and now, we’ll be focusing the next few editions on supporting your plans for action in the run up to and during COP26. Below, we’ve put a link to a timeline of events for COP26, information about mass mobilisations during COP26 and a very quick survey we’d love you to fill out so we can try to offer logistical support for your COP26 actions. Meanwhile for those interested in joining a ready-made action, scroll down to read more about a new coalition campaign we are launching for an international fund for loss and damage - ‘Make Polluters Pay’.

In Friendship
Rebecca Woo

COP26 timeline of events

We know the next few weeks in the run up to COP26 are going to be very busy and it’s hard to keep track of everything going on! To help navigate this, we’ve created a timeline that you can access on our countdown to COP26 webpage. We’ve included links to more information about each event and, where relevant, links to sign up.

We’ll be keeping the timeline updated with any new events we think you should know about so remember to check back in for updates :)

CORRECTION: In our last newsletter we shared information about the Vigil for COP26 that St John’s Waterloo will be hosting. This will happen on October 23, not September 23.

Tell us about your plans and what resources you need!

Are you joining an action in the run up to or during COP26? We want to hear about your plans and what resources you would find useful for this. This will help us to figure out whether it would be useful for us to e.g. organise coaches to the People’s mobilisations in Glasgow and London on 6 November, or print banners and posters for you to use wherever you are taking action.

Please take a few minutes to answer this short survey and let us know about your plans and resource wish list. If you know other Friends who don’t receive this newsletter please also forward the link to the survey so we can capture their input too!

For those who would like to put up a poster at home or in the window of your Meeting House, our friends in the Make COP Count coalition have also produced this series of posters about our shared policy priorities at COP26 – financing for loss and damage caused by climate breakdown and ending public funding for fossil fuels.

Quaker 'blocs' at COP26 Coalition day of action in Glasgow and London

On Saturday 6 November (the middle weekend of COP26), the COP26 Coalition is organising a Global Day of Action for Climate Justice. There will be mass mobilisations (which will take the form of a march) in Glasgow and London, as well as other events organised by COP26 Coalition hubs around the country. Quakers in Britain staff will be at the mass mobilisations in Glasgow and London and are working to coordinate a Quaker contingent within the faith and belief ‘bloc’ (i.e. a group section within the march). We’re working to find a meeting point and space for Friends to gather and reflect after the mobilisations and will share more details about this soon.

Would you like to join the faith and belief bloc with other Quakers? Get in touch with us at climatejustice@quaker.org.uk if yes to let us know. We’ll then add you to communication channels for the day.

* Loss & Damage Awareness Day 23 September 2021 *

We have a key date to get in your diary before COP26: Loss & Damage Awareness Day on Thursday 23 September 2021. It’s the first key moment for our new coalition campaign for an international loss and damage fund, ‘Make Polluters Pay’. Loss and damage is one of our two climate policy priorities at Quakers in Britain and we’re really excited to be working together with other charities and campaigners to raise its profile.

Loss and damage caused by climate change is a present reality for people around the world, and it’s getting worse every year. Despite being recognised in the Paris Agreement, there has been no progress on where money to pay for loss and damage should come from. It’s a priority for countries most vulnerable to climate breakdown, and it’s fundamental to climate justice.

We have lots of plans hatching for our new coalition campaign, including a petition (sign the petition here!) and a mass digital gathering on 23 September – featuring the launch of a new short film about loss and damage and why polluters must pay (register for the film screening and panel event here!). We’ve also put together this easily shareable leaflet about the day and we’re working on a conversation starter pack to help you talk about loss and damage with your friends, family and communities.

Please help us make a bigger splash about loss and damage!

As part of the Make Polluters Pay campaign, we’re calling on people of all faiths and none to come together and hold a vigil for loss and damage. Quakers have a long history of taking nonviolent action for positive social change. One of the most powerful actions in our social action toolkit is holding silent vigils and we’d love for Quaker vigils to make up part of the splash we’re building around loss and damage.

We’re looking for Friends who would like to hold a vigil for loss and damage before, during or after Loss and Damage Awareness Day in the run up to COP26. Together, we can send a clear message to the Prime Minister and global leaders: back an international loss and damage fund and ensure communities hit by climate-related loss and damage receive support or COP26 will be a failure.

We’ve put together lots of resources to help make it as easy as possible for people to hold a vigil. Check out our handy guide to holding a vigil for loss and damage for more information. If you decide to hold one, please email climatejustice@quaker.org.uk to let us know about your plans. We’re also happy to help support you or answer any questions you may have!

Quaker stories of action

Thank you for submitting your stories of climate action for the new online database we are building to help Friends connect directly! As promised, we are featuring one of the stories from the database below. For a reminder about what the database will involve and how to share information about action you are taking, have a look at our website here.

From Friends in Bournville Local Quaker Meeting, Central England Area:
We've shared a photo below of some of the knitters of our new Quakers for climate justice tree cosy!

We are all members of Bournville Local meeting and Central England Area Quaker Meeting. Some Bournville Quakers are members of Extinction Rebellion and take part in demonstrations, others hold a silent vigil each Tuesday outside Birmingham’s Cathedral to show their concern for climate change. Recently, one Friend suddenly realised that we could put up an installation on the huge cedar tree in our garden in front of the meeting house to draw attention to our concern in the run up to COP26.

The tree was planted on The 90th birthday of Dame Elizabeth Cadbury in 1948 and is used by the whole community each year as a giant Christmas tree, with lights supplied by the Bournville Village Trust. Local people, and especially children are very excited about the tree cosy and we have put up messages about the reason we have made it on railings beside our car park. We want visitors to take photographs and share them on social media.

Several Bournville Friends have learned to knit especially for this project and don’t want to stop so we are starting on panels for the Stitches for Survival scarf, which will probably be used locally during the Big Green Week next week. Visit centralenglandquakers.org.uk to see more about our action.