Climate vulnerability (& how we value it) will shape the future
Climate vulnerability (& how we value it) will shape the future
NEWSLETTER, April 2023—International finance reform; Earth Diplomacy training; Talanoa Dialogue; volunteer updates; upcoming events; sign a petition; endorse a treaty; you have climate rights.
Climate impacts are spreading, compounding, and accelerating. We need an accelerated cooperative response that is integrated and holistic; we need to work between industrial sectors and across treaty processes and areas of law. Every human being has a right to expect the wider human response to crisis will afford them a livable future. Institutional reforms at all levels should invite participation and reward the delivery of healthy, just, and sustainable outcomes.
CCI brought citizens’ voices to the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF
The Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which took place in April in Washington, DC, centered on efforts to reform international finance. Stakeholders from 31 countries sent personal letters to the Executive Directors representing their country or region, ahead of the Spring Meetings. They asked that four core principles be honored:
Support the Bridgetown Initiative of the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley. It is gaining support and beginning to work.
Ground all reforms in human rights and gender equality.
Give citizens the opportunity to share meaningful input into the reforms. This must go beyond the World Bank Civil Society meetings.
Investigate how money can be dispensed directly to households in need and then develops an implementation plan to do so.
CCI staff attended the Spring Meetings, and carried this ask to leaders in the Bank, the Fund, other multilateral institutions, and to allies across civil society. A Bretton Woods Action Team is now carrying on this work, to ensure stakeholder insights from volunteer chapters and their communities are considered in the formal reform process at the World Bank, and in Bridgetown-related debt reform efforts.
CCI & The Fletcher School team up to host Earth Diplomacy Leadership workshops
The May-June 2023 cycle of Earth Diplomacy Leadership Initiative workshops will focus on the SB58 round of United Nations Climate Change negotiations. This year’s trainings will build on success and substance of the Pre-COP27 round, and will include four segments:
Pre-Bonn – May 18-26
In-session (Bonn) – June 5-15
Post-Bonn – June 20-28
Ongoing Thematic Work – hosted virtually through networked discussion threads on the People’s Pavilion digital platform
Registration for these workshops is free of charge. Our aim is to empower and sustain a growing community of skilled multidimensional negotiators and observers, representing people of all backgrounds, from all geographies.
Talanoa Dialogue for Climate Ambition highlights stakeholder voices, empowerment
This year our Earth Week Citizens’ Forum was a Global Talanoa Dialogue for Climate Ambition, designed to share insights on stakeholder experiences of climate impacts and the hard work of mobilizing climate action, from the local level. Participants were asked to take stock of our climate situation, outline a vision for a livable future, and share strategies for how to get there.
There was a common theme across diverse experiences: that climate emergency is a shared crisis, and so we need a shared space for visioning a livable future. We heard that vulnerability is a present-day concern—impacting people now, in many ways. We heard recognition that we are facing a global state of emergency, with impacts affecting every aspect of human experience.
Volunteer Updates
Canada
Two Canadian Citizens' Climate Lobbyists, Alex Neufeldt and Sophia Mathur, alongside five other youth and their lawyers are suing the Ontario government for weakening Ontario's greenhouse gas targets. The case was launched in November 2019 and made history twice when it survived a motion to strike and an appeal by the Ontario government. The case finally went to trial in September 2022. On Friday, April 14, 2023 we learned that the court dismissed the Mathur et. al. case.
Though this is not a win, the court did find the plaintiffs’ case is ”justiciable”, which means it's an appropriate legal question for the courts to weigh in on. Additionally, in the words of the court, it’s “indisputable” that due to climate change, Ontarians are experiencing increased risk of death and harm and by enacting a weak GHG emissions target, Ontario is contributing to that risk. This recognition is important. These "findings of fact" (a.k.a.) the "record" will stay with the appeal whereas the judge's legal decision will not. The youth and their lawyers are undaunted and determined they will appeal the decision.
Côte d’Ivoire
Roland Olivier Dedi—our CCI volunteer leader Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire—has been selected by the World Bank as a youth delegate for the fifth meeting of the World Bank Group's International Corruption Chasers Alliance, which will be held in Abidjan from June 14 to 16! Roland was one of the first to send our "Bretton Woods" Letter to the World Bank.
France
In April CCL France launched an action team to send media releases and opinion editorials to French newspapers, responding to what is in the news. This action is based on a proven theory of change that working with our media can build the political will for climate income. This was a major thrust of CCL Canada's plan to get Climate Income as their national policy.
CCL France Communiqué de presse: Les citoyens canadien reçoivent l’argent issu de leur taxe carbone nationale (Media Release: Canadian citizens receive the money from their national carbon tax)
Germany
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Germany joined with German Zero and the Together For Future alliance—including Fridays for Future, Parents for Future, Scientists for Future, as well as Entrepreneurs for Futures, Architects4Future—to co-organize a nationwide online day of climate democracy, on April 29.
Congratulations, Jacques Kenjio!
Jacques W. Kenfack Kenjio, the tireless coordinator of CCI support to Francophone volunteers, defended his PhD thesis in April. Along the way, Jacques and his wife welcomed two boys to the world, as well. The focus of his research was Land Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa: Exploring Interested Parties’ Perspectives on Cameroon’s Land Law Reform Process.
A future of fair, just, and sustainable outcomes, for people across Sub-Saharan Africa will require a change in practice, reducing government-driven land dispossession and rewarding sustainable stewardship and local participatory processes. We congratulate Jacques on his thesis defense, and celebrate his example of leadership as a volunteer advocate doing serious work while empowering many others.
Upcoming Events
Get-to-know-us calls
For over thirty years the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and United Nations Frameworks on Climate Change have laid down the tracks for a liveable world. We at Citizens' Climate International have been listening deeply in countless meetings, seminars, and conferences. We have a keen understanding of what some of those tracks are. To get humanity on those tracks, we need you on our team. On Wednesday, May 17 learn more about us and how you can help create political will for evidence-based and socially-just climate action.
CCL Canada invites you to a special event on Friday, June 2, 2023
What do human rights have to do with the climate crisis? A lot - because the courts have powers to protect us at this time of massive change. This will be a unique event. Parliamentarians from across Canada will be invited to ask questions of our special guests including. Check out who is invite in the image above.
CCI Onboarding for Nigerian volunteers
Since 2015, Citizens' Climate International in Nigeria has been training and empowering people to speak with politicians about pricing greenhouse gas pollution.
Currently, 49 countries are pricing greenhouse gas emissions. Countries such as Canada and Austria give the money back to the people.
Why are they doing it?
Because it is the most economically efficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and income inequality at the same time.
Join our CCI Nigeria volunteer onboarding calls on Tuesday, May 23, at 2:00 pm WAT to find out more.
Calls to Action
Take Action on Global Financial Reform
In alignment with our work to push global financial flows towards a thriving and equitable planet, we are supporting Global Citizens' petition to world leaders and financial institutions demanding they Power Up the Planet. The climate crisis and inequality crisis are not separate issues, but are deeply interconnected. We cannot solve one without addressing the other.
Sign the petition that calls on world leaders and financial institutions to prioritize the urgent need for global financial reform to power our planet and create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.
Take Action on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Join the World Health Organization, 3,000 scientists and academics, 600 parliamentarians from 79 countries globally, 101 Nobel laureates and 2,000 civil society organizations, in saying it’s time to stop polluting the atmosphere, destabilizing the climate, and degrading our common future.
Endorse the Treaty as an individual or on behalf of your own organization.
Every human being has a right to a clean, healthy environment. Last year, 196 nations formally signed up to that universal principle.
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