I have been hopeful so far

By Jacob Wieser, DKA

Text in German

Der UN-Klimagipfel neigt sich dieser Tage dem Ende zu. Wir sind nicht beim offiziellen Teil dabei. Wir treffen, besprechen und vernetzen uns abseits der Staatschefs. Wir, das ist die Zivilgesellschaft – NGOs, Glaubensgemeinschaften, Engagierte aus dem globalen Süden, dem reichen Norden, dem Osten und dem Westen. Wir, ein weltweites Netzwerk verschiedenster Gruppierungen, kämpfen für ein gerechtes Abkommen.

One week after the Climate change Paris agreement, looking back at the 196 Chairs Summit

by By Inès Bentolila, CIDSE 
 
People’s Climate Summit, Montreuil, Sunday 6 December

A few days after the end of the UN Climate Conference and the adoption of the Paris climate change Agreement, let’s look back at the 196 Chairs Summit. This peculiar meeting took place during the People’s Climate Summit / Village of Alternatives in Montreuil on Sunday 6 December.

“Do not go over the yellow line"… “The event will start soon, those who should sit on the chairs, come here!” … Jean Jaurès Square in Montreuil is gradually getting busy.

The alternative Tour in Paris – a story of hope

By Inès Bentolila, CIDSE 

As a Parisian who grew up in the South of Paris, I was glad to discover the northern part of the city and its cosmopolite 19th arrondissement under a “sustainable alternative” aspect. Indeed, this part of Paris is better known for its multiculturalism and for its people living often in precarious conditions rather than for its climate action.

Let's think and decide

The following text is a post-COP21 reflection on the importance of living a sustainble lifestyle, one that is respectful of people and nature. It is written by Natalia Lázaro Prevost, a Manos Unidas' volunteer from the delegation that participated in the Paris Program ofthe Campaign "Change for the Planet - Care for the People". The article is followed by a poem written on the ocassion of the Mass held on Sunday 13 December, by Laura Menendez, another volunteer from the Manos Unidas delegation.

Texts entirely in Spanish.

Climate justice cannot be achieved simply by addressing 'environmental' issues

By Brian O'Connell, volunteer, CAFOD

The pale, dim sentiment in the language of the final Paris agreement does not even begin to reflect the spectacular and dazzling opening lightshow from the Eiffel Tower two weeks ago. But the outcome of this summit was never going to match the expectation generated by the pre-conference spin and campaigners should celebrate the small progress which has been made. When you put nearly two hundred countries around a negotiating table, any progress is going to be slow. Nevertheless, this is the first time in history all the nations of the world have agreed a single document on how to tackle climate change.

Workshop on post-mining societies

By Stefan Reinhold

The difficulty to find a seat at the "Speak out on destructive extractives" workshop on Friday afternoon, shows great interest from the public to learn more about the issue of natural resources' extraction and possible alternatives to an extractives-based model of development. 

Ecology and Spirituality

By Margarida Alvim, FEC Portugal

It was really good to have yesterday an "Ecology and Spirituality" time to put our hopes and expectations in the right mode, the mode of the Spirit. Beyond our efforts, the Spirit moves us towards a better World! We have to count on it! But I feel that it's very easy for us to forget it. And that's why, in this journey for justice, we can feel frustrated...

2015 did not deliver, frugal abundance will

By François Delvaux

2015 will soon be over. During this year, two major documents that were supposed to shape our common future were adopted – and as this blog post is being written, negotiations in Paris are slowly coming to an end.

Taking the leap: who will jump first?

By Lorna Gold, Trócaire

The heat is on now at the climate negotiations here in Paris. It has been an interesting two days. I arrived yesterday and was surprised to find everyone in good spirits. After nearly two weeks of negotiations the mood was calm, almost buoyant. These negotiations can be depressing affairs but the French have done well to keep everyone in good spirits. Compared to other places, the working conditions (including comfy sofa beds!) are great.

Moving towards sustainable lifestyles

By Margarida Alvim, FEC, Portugal

10 December 2015 - Today we celebrate Human Rights day! The right day to have the CIDSE workshop "Moving towards sustainable lifestyles". It was a really good experience, that in fact began early in the morning, walking together through Paris, trying to reach the place that welcomed us; step by step, metro station by metro station, it was the opportunity to know better each other, all so different, but all so similar in the same hope to reach climate justice. We are more than 100 participants from several countries, several of us came in pilgrimage from far far away. Some of us are experts in climate issues, others know something about...all of us feel deep in our heart this commitment with the Care of our Common Home and we feel real happy to have the possibility this time to have Pope Francis and the Church leading this big mobilization.

Climate March in Ostend mobilizes 14.000 people

By Karel Ceule, Broederlijk Delen

The climate march organized by Climate-Express on 6 December in the Belgian city of Ostend became an inspiring and peaceful event. Despite the fact that the venue and dates had to be altered several times due to terrorism alerts, 14.000 people organized themselves and managed to show up a week later! They urged for a strong climate agreement in Paris.

What the climate movement does post- Paris is really important

By Brian O’Connell, volunteer with CAFOD

As the COP21 Paris climate change summit moves into its final hours, the French presidency at the talks has been steadily increasing the pressure on negotiators to get a final deal by the anticipated close of business on Friday evening. But with new drafts of the latest text being circulated every few hours it is becoming clear that this declaration is going to fall far short of what had been anticipated.

A 1.5C degree goal means nothing without a plan on how to achieve it.

by Rob Elsworth, CAFOD

The climate talks in Paris, COP21, are nearing the end of the second week and the French Presidency is working to maintain momentum and ensure a structured process. The latest on the ‘Paris Outcome’, as it’s currently being called, came out on the 9th Dec at 15:00. Encouragingly a temperature limit of 1.5C is being put on the table, but it doesn’t mean anything until we get a clear plan on how the world would achieve it.

A visit to the Centre Centquatre (and beyond)

By Karel Malfliet, Broederlijk Delen

While ministers are negotiating in Le Bourget, I decide to pay a visit to the Cultural Centre Centquatre, this week the headquarters of   'Coalition Climat 21' in Paris.

The atmosphere inside is relaxed and busy at the same time. There is an exhibition, there are workshops going on, schools have been invited to pay a visit, and activists meet here to exchange and prepare concerted action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FHRATQs6YM

One of the issues in the exhibition is food production and urban agriculture. An ingenious looking four wheel machine attracts attention. It is designed to be used in horticulture, following the 'lowtech' principles that are put into practice by enthusiast inventors nowadays.

By coincidence, as I leave and walk along the Rue de Flandre, I see an example of this urban gardening. A sign tells me that this garden is maintained by people living in the quarter. They are part of a larger network of  'jardins partagés' (shared gardens). They can be found at http://www.jardinons-ensemble.org/.

Later on I walk to the Pantheon, near to the Sorbonne. There, a Danish-Islandic artist named Olafur Eliasson put 12 big blocks of glacier ice in a circle, like a giant clock. He took them out of the sea, where they were floating after being broken from the huge amount of ice covering Greenland. During COP21 they are slowly melting away, as a visible warning to the world that urgent action against climate change must be taken. http://icewatchparis.com/

The same message came today from activists in the conference venue itself. Near the mini Eiffel Tower that is raised there, they asked negotiators again to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. With the actual INDCs,'  this goal would not at all be met. 3 degrees would be more likely, and that is a doom scenario.

Time nearly up for global leaders to seal the Paris climate deal, illegitimate and immoral even before it is sealed?

by IBON

(Paris, France, December 10, 2015) - The Paris Climate Summit, happening from 30 November to 11 December, is due to conclude a new international agreement to limit global average temperature rise and avoid the most dangerous consequences of climate change.

Telling my mum why I am in Paris for the COP21

By Silvia Sinibaldi, Caritas Europa

7 December 2015 - A few days ago my mum called me. It was not clear to her the reason why I should expect to go to Paris at these times and to the COP21, specifically. Even more, she was wondering what Caritas had to do with it, since Caritas is a CSO working on poverty, social issues, migration, humanitarian crises. War, maybe. For sure not an environmental NGO.

Redefining vulnerability and dodging responsibility: the more things change, the more they stay the same

By Tetet Nera-Lauron, IBON

7 December 2015 – The 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), meeting in Paris with the objective of coming to an agreement on global efforts that will respond to the increasing impacts of climate change, entered its second week of negotiations yesterday.

People First - Paris COP21

By Javier Fornell

I'm leaving for Paris tomorrow as part of the Manos Unidas delegation to participate in the activities organized by CIDSE on the occasion of COP21.

CIDSE is a network of which Manos Unidas is a member. It can be defined as "an interantional family of catholic development organisations that work together for social justice, to serve the poor, call on the power of global solidarity and generate transformative changes that tackle poverty and inequality. We challenge an unjust and unequal system that destroys nature. We promote alternatives for a fair and environmentally sustainable world, and we believe that every human being has the right to live in dignity."

Change the model!

By Paula Sendin, Jesuit European Social Centre

7 December 2015 - A three-session workshop on environmental choices and changes was held over the weekend at the Climate Citizens' Forum in Montreuil, organised by CCFD-Terre Solidaire, CIDSE's French member organisation.

Climate Change and COP21: our role as citizens

By Alan Silayan*

7 December 2015 - As ordinary citizens, it is sometimes difficult to see how we can engage in the climate change debate, which is very broad and very complex at the same time. It is often much easier for us to leave it to the professional negotiators of our government institutions to do the homework and negotiations for us.

Art 3ter. New Carbon Markets under the name of Sustainable Development

By Pablo Solón, Fundación Solón, Bolivia

A draft climate agreement and decision with 48 pages and 939 brackets has been presented to the ministers in Paris on Saturday 5th of December. Many things can be said about this text. For example, the words “fossil fuels” don’t appear once. There is no proposal [in brackets] to limit coal, oil or gas extraction in the coming years, and no proposal to halt deforestation. Also, as was expected, no text [in brackets] from any country addresses the issue that current INDCs (Intended Nationally Determine Contributions) will actually increased the greenhouse gas emissions gap from a surplus of 12 Gt CO2e in 2020 to around 25 Gt CO2e by 2030.

Not just an agreement, but a just agreement needed

By Ibon International

December 3, 2015, Paris, France – Three days into the 21st Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), negotiations are nearing fever pitch as the December 4 deadline for a revised draft text of the Paris climate agreement looms.

Climate negotiations: where we stand after one week

Article by CIDSE

The CIDSE delegation at COP 21 has been following the development of the climate negotiations from inside Le Bourget conference centre, advocating for a fair and just deal, convinced that addressing climate change is essential to tackle poverty and inequality.

Today we broke the routine, and some of us took the metro in the opposite direction to join the Citizens’ summit organized by the Coalition Climate 21 in Montreuil, where several actions, debates and initiatives organized by the civil society are underway. This morning our Secretary General Bernd Nilles spoke at the event “Just Transition, a dialogue” organized by ITUC, International Trade Union Confederation. Another busy day in Paris!



One of the installations inside Le Bourget conference centre

The largest climate mobilization in Spain's history!

December 6, 2015 - Joining the call of the Climate Alliance (Alianza por el Clima), Manos Unidas, among other organizations, participated in a historic climate march where thousands of people took the streets of Madrid and several other cities to demand world leaders strong commitments at COP21 negotiations in Paris. About 20.000 people mobilized accross the country reaching and unprecedented record.

VIDEO | Ireland's Climate March

December 4, 2015 - Thousands join the climate marches organized accross Ireland, by Stop Climate Chaos Network, which includes Trocaire. Over 4,500 people participated in different cities such as Dublin, Belfast, Galway and Cork, reaching a historical number of marches in Ireland's history of demostrations and greatly reflecting the increasing concern of the Irish population for climate issues.

A walk to remember: Development and Peace members march in Ottawa and across Canada

By Development and Peace

Montreal, December 1, 2015 - As world leaders descended upon Paris for the COP21 climate negotiations on November 29th, 785,000 people marched worldwide to tell them that it is time to take real action on climate change. Here in Canada, 25,000 people gathered in Ottawa, while other marches took place from Antigonish, Nova Scotia to Vancouver, B.C.

5000 took to the rainy streets of Edinburgh for Scotland’s Climate March

By Grace Buckley, SCIAF Ambassador for Glasgow Archidiocese

It was a grey and miserable day as I travelled from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and the forecast was for heavy rain. The big question was – would people turn up?  The answer was “yes”.  The day may have been grey but the people turned up in their thousands and turned the Meadows gathering point into a sea of colour and flags/banners.  

CAFOD's hopes for COP21

By Rob Elsworth

After much anticipation the Paris climate negotiations, or COP21, are finally upon us. It is no exaggeration to say that governments, businesses, charities and faith communities have been working towards this point for years. Failure to secure a meaningful agreement on climate change in Copenhagen in 2009 made many decide to work differently, building political will from the ground up.

More ‘hot air’ from Heads of States as Climate Summit opens

By IBON

Over 130 Heads of State have arrived in Paris in an attempt to sign a new global agreement, amidst high expectations of people all around the world for urgent and meaningful action to respond to the climate crisis. Just over the weekend, the world saw the biggest ever climate marches of almost 1 million people gathering in 175 countries demanding leaders to come to an agreement that is binding, ambitious, durable and just, to replace the Kyoto Protocol and to take effect in 2020.

Fast for the Climate

By Paula Sendin, Jesuit European Centre

An inspiring conference about the initiative fast for the climate took place at the Climate Generation Areas of COP 21 yesterday; fasting goes beyond political negotiations and appears as a wonderful way to build bridges. 

Thoughts from the Global Climate March in Rio 2015

By Ibase

Translation by CIDSE

Rio de Janeiro, 30 November 2015 - Joined by a fanfare, about 400 people participated in the Global Climate March in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this past weekend. Different political trends from Rio's environmental movement were present.

In Rio, as in all the corners of the country, the tragedy of Mariana was highlighted in the banners and the performances that animated the march. The Samarco mine burst caused important human and environmental damages, as it swept away the town of Bento Rodrigues, and sent a significant amount of toxic iron-ore downstream and into the Atlantic ocean, contaminating the water supply of hundreds of thousands of residents. It has been considered the major environmental disaster of the mining sector in the history of Brazil.

Brussels makes a stand for Climate Justice!

By Angela Ocampo

Brussels, November 30, 2015 – About 4000 people mobilized yesterday during the human chain for Climate Justice in Brussels. Despite the many attempts to halt the marches due to the given state of alarm after the Paris Attacks, many citizens took the streets and sidewalks of the city center – from the Palais de Justice to the Bourse – holding hands in solidarity for climate justice and peace. Change4Planet was present among the festive crowd!

In search of a new concept of development

Article by Ivo Lesbaupin, Abong, first published in Spanish here

We have to overcome the current model of predatory development, destroyer of the living conditions of humanity. To do this, we need to build a new concept of development that allows people to live well, in harmony with nature and in collaboration with other human beings.

The Philippines also marched for Climate Justice!

By Sammy Gamboa

November 29, 2015 - As in many cities around the world, citizens took the streets to make a stand for climate justice and global solidarity. In the Philippines around 15,000 people mobilized, coming from different sectors in Metro-Manila alone, including the Church, the urban poor, women, mining-affected communities, staging a very successful 'Climate Walk'. 

Resistance needs no permit: COP 21 opens with climate marches all over the world and the arrest of around 200 in Paris

Article by IBON

Article by IBON
 
The 21^st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened today in Paris, where the world’s leaders are expected to come to an agreement on actions to solve the climate crisis.

From La Paz (Bolivia) to Manila (Philippines) and to Fiji (Pacific Islands), hundreds of thousands of people have participated in various People’s Climate Marches all over the world in the last two days to step up the pressure on the world leaders to agree on a meaningful outcome for the Paris Climate Summit.

The human chain for climate

The CIDSE delegation today took part in the human chain for climate organised in Paris. Here are some of our thoughts and our pictures of the day are uploaded here. 

Unfortunately, we could not march today in the big avenues of Paris as I was waiting for since months. I was quite sad this morning when I woke up but, as always, people’s power has creativity and courage! Together with colleagues and friends, I took part at the big human chain and I feel encouraged now travelling back home! I feel empowered by colleagues shouting close to me “what do you want? Climate justice!”, by groups of French volunteers gathering in small groups before the mobilisation to exchange on how important it is being in Parisian streets today; I feel empowered by grandparents stating they are present because they feel the responsibility of the planet in danger they are leaving to their grand children; I feel empowered looking at the colourful banners plenty of slogans showing that solutions for a more sustainable world are possible and already existing! Now it’s time to continue keeping this voice strong and heard…because each of us can Change for the planet – Care for the people! - Chiara Martinelli, CIDSE

Delivery of climate petitions, signed by an impressive number of people!

Part of the CIDSE delegation is already in Paris! Today we attended teh event "Faith in climate justice", during which the petitions by faith groups, urging political leaders at the COP 21 to achieve a strong and fair deal, have been presented to political leaders. 

A brief report of the pilgrimage in Italy

Some days ago, the pilgrimage “Una Terra, Una Famiglia Umana. In cammino verso Parigi” left Italy to continue the walking towards Paris.

The pilgrimage, covering by walking more than 800 kilometers, stopped off at 26 Italian cities: during this path the pilgrims brought their message to about 500 students from 10 schools, they met more than 15 representatives of various municipalities and received the support and the warm welcome of more than 70 civil society organizations, in their different forms at local, regional and national level.

Walking towards Paris

To get ready for Paris, we report the story of some of the people that have been getting ready for it for a while...a lot of time to think while walking! 

Pilgrimage for climate change in Austria 

by Rembert J. Schleicher

To walk means to be ready for change. Four People (Anja Appel, Ferdinand Kaineder, Rembert Schleicher and Silvia Wieser) walked the whole way from Vienna to Salzburg in 21 days.

Article by Rembert J. Schleicher (PILGRIM)
About 330 people joined us for some hours, a day or even several days to walk together for climate justice. We saw marvellous landscapes but also places where people destroyed the nature and where we could see the consequences of soil sealing for example. We took part at encouraging meetings, discussions about climate change and the consequences for our planet. Sometimes we felt fear and anger about the situation of our planet but at the same time also hope and power.

Did you already take your four steps for the planet?

If you still didn't do it, walk with us!

Why four steps? Each step you take represents one core message of this global campaign. They evoke both the transformative change we need for the planet and for the people, as well as what we expect from decision-makers in Paris.