Sustaining All Life at the Paris Climate Conference
Our Sustaining All Life* delegation is making good progress in organizing for its participation in the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (called COP21) in Paris, France, November 30 to December 4, 2015.
We decided to send a delegation to these United Nations climate talks because they will define the main guidelines for a legally binding climate agreement for the 196 negotiating countries. There has never been such an accord, and it is very important that it be reached this year. We have a limited “window of opportunity” in which to reduce carbon emissions, transition to renewable energy, and provide needed assistance to developing nations. (For more information about Sustaining All Life and the United Nations climate talks, please see <www.rc.org/sustainingalllife>.)
Our delegation is a diverse, international group of twenty-five Co-Counselors supported by twenty-five RC volunteers. We will be communicating basic RC understandings and practices to people involved in environmental and environmental racism work, climate justice work, and other efforts toward a just and sustainable society. We will prioritize communicating what we understand about the connections between racism and other oppressions and care of the environment, and how work to end oppression must be central in the environmental movement. We’ve submitted applications to have an exhibit and an information booth and to lead the following workshops:
- Young People at the Forefront of the Climate Movement
- Eliminating the Effects of Racism on Our Work to Sustain All Life
- Sustaining Indigenous Life Worldwide
- Reclaiming the World: The Environment and People Raised Poor and Working Class
- Being Active Forever, Never Burn Out Again
The young people and young adults in our delegation will also attend the Conference on Youth on the Friday preceding COP21 and have applied to lead a workshop there: Young People Ending Racism in the Environmental Movement. Our whole delegation will be joining the march through Paris on Sunday, November 29, and carrying a Sustaining All Life banner.
Many Co-Counselors have contacted us saying they would like to come and be of assistance to our delegation. We will lead an orientation to COP21 and Sustaining All Life and have daily support groups for them, and they will help us bring people to our workshops, forums, and other events.
A Sustaining All Life pamphlet with our logo on the cover has been printed in English. (See ad on page 18.) Translations of it into Japanese, Norwegian, Dutch, French, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Swedish, German, and Finnish are in progress.
We are fundraising to support this effort. Please contact Ellie Putnam <ellieput@w-link.net> if you can assist.
Finally, we are asking all RC Communities to hold a Care of the Environment event in support of the climate talks, close to the time when Sustaining All Life will be in Paris. In Paris we will post a listing of all the RC events happening worldwide in support of the talks.
Diane Shisk
Seattle, Washington, USA
* Sustaining All Life is a project of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities, in which groups of Co-Counselors go to non-RC events and share what we’ve learned in RC about helping people take action to save the environment.