• Indigenous and rural women make up more than half of the up to 2.5 billion people who use and rely on the world's collectively held lands.
• Indigenous and rural women are advocates, leaders, and experts on issues like food security and climate change. Recognizing their rights is not only a matter of justice but also critical to achieving global climate and development goals.
• Yet for too long, global development agendas have overlooked their specific needs and contributions, or chose to view them only as victims.
• In a new video, advocates from around the world speak out on why land rights hold particular significance for indigenous and rural women.

“The earth is what gives life. It is that which gives food; It is the dispensation of traditional medicines. And for people who depend on forests in their territory, it is very important because without it there is no health, there is no education, there is no collective life for Indigenous Peoples, and above all for women.”

— Fany Kuiru, indigenous Uitoto leader (pictured above)

Some of the most forceful and moving voices heard at the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland belonged to the world’s youth, who are stepping up like never before to galvanize action against global warming and get the international community back on track to meet the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement of 2016.

As part of the Talanoa Dialogue, a Fijian boy named Timoci Naulusala and a Polish girl named Hanna Wojdowska took the podium together to deliver a moving Call for Action. Alternating in their speech, the two young delegates advocated for a renewed focus on climate both within and without the political realm, holding governments accountable while also reminding everyday people and independent organizations of their own power to make a difference.

The young speakers did not shy away from the responsibilities of their own demographic. “We call on the youth of the world to mobilize at a larger scale,” Wojdowska asserted, “to ensure that the future is secure.”  “We call upon everyone to act with agency and recognize that we are in a race against time,” Naulusala said.

In the first week of COP24, an entire day, the Young and Future Generations Day, was set aside for the sharing of young voices and young ideas for a sustainable future. Consistent across the various youth delegate presentations was a sense of resolve in the face of crisis, a bravery for which younger generations too rarely get credit. UN Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake emphasized that “Young people continue to fight, and there is a responsibility on the part of policymakers to [ensure] that young people can meaningfully and effectively participate in these discussions.”

The World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate program supported numerous activities at COP24 to bring youth messages to life, not least of all presenting sustainable T-shirts that read: “Youth Unstoppable Stepping Up Climate Action.” At the Joint MDB Pavilion, where Connect4Climate was broadcasting daily interviews on Facebook, a youth-focused discussion, “Connecting to Accelerate Climate Action: Youth Unstoppable,” brought youth climate leaders and the Fijian Climate Champion Minister Seruiratu together for a productive dialogue.

Greta Thunberg, the 15-year-old Swedish activist making global headlines for her unflinching stance on climate action, put it well: “You are never too small to change the world.”

The power of youth to band together to fend back climate change is the subject of the just-released documentary Youth Unstoppable, which presents youth climate movements from all across the globe in a vivid first-person perspective. The director of the film, Slater Jewell-Kemker, who also took part in Connect4Climate events, has received round accolades for her work.

Jewell-Kemker has become a role model for many in the youth climate movement. When introducing her film, she explained: “The reason why I took ten years to make the film was because young people have really come into their own, not only as storytellers, but as leaders. Young people have really risen to the challenge of recognizing that we are in a very particular moment as human beings, choosing what kind of world we want to live in, choosing what kind of people we want to be, in the face of a challenge that is essentially asking us how we want to survive. I find this incredibly exciting. We get to embrace each other and our relationship with the planet as a positive way to move forward.”

The Youth Unstoppable documentary trailer was presented at COP24 during the Youth Climate Action Awards Ceremony, and the film was screened in its entirety for large audiences in Katowice and Warsaw as part of the Climate Film Festival.

The impactful intersection of film, youth, and climate was further celebrated at COP24 with the announcement of the winners of the UNFCCC-led Global Youth Video Competition on Climate Change, which drew 300 heartfelt submissions from young people in more than 100 countries. Ferzina Banaji, Communications Lead for Climate Change at the World Bank Group, congratulated the creators of the video submissions: “It is inspiring to see what you are doing…and it should motivate all of us and inspire all of us to do more. It really demonstrates to us that climate action is unstoppable, and that youth are unstoppable.”

One of the winners was Andrea Sofia Rosales Vega, whose film centers on the Mexican youth group Eco Urban. Eco Urban recovers urban waste, sells it to green-minded recycling plants, and uses the proceeds to support the Economic Fund to Help Children’s Cancer. The other winner, Vikas Yadav, hails from rural India. In his movie, Yadav presents some of the ways in which Indian farmers are blending traditional and innovative agricultural techniques to minimize their greenhouse footprint while keeping true to their cultural heritage.

The most memorable youth moment of all was probably Greta Thunberg’s forceful speech in the COP24 plenary, where she told negotiators they are not mature enough and do not care enough: “You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular…You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet…You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.”

“You only speak of green eternal growth because you are too scared of being unpopular...you are not mature enough to tell it like it is, even that burden you leave to us children...we cannot solve a crisis without treating it like a crisis.”@GretaThunberg at #COP24 pic.twitter.com/CIbcVLmthG

 

— Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) December 12, 2018

The poise and commitment of young people all over the world taking a stand against climate change is enough to restore hope that, if we all band together, we really can get the job done and raise ambition, accelerating climate solutions and preventing our world from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. Thunberg embodied the conviction of the youth movement, declaring: “We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time. We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

At the end of last week, countries from all over the globe convened online in an unprecedented Virtual Climate Summit hosted by the Marshall Islands, leaders of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF). The aim of the Summit—which aligned with the general mission of the CVF—was to raise awareness of the extent to which a couple degrees of global warming can devastate low-altitude and otherwise at-risk nations.

This “couple of degrees”—2 degrees Celsius—is not an arbitrary number, but rather the maximum net global warming (vis-à-vis preindustrial levels) permissible under the Paris Agreement of 2015. Participants in the Climate Vulnerable Forum stressed that even this 2-degree benchmark is not ambitious enough, and that any warming beyond 1.5 degrees will have deadly sea level and coral bleaching ramifications for low-lying and ocean-dependent communities.

The Virtual Climate Summit communicated these ideas through emotional documentaries, poems and call-to-action videos, live panel discussions and head of state video messages. And in addition to highlighting disproportionately affected nations, the Summit called attention to disproportionately affected strata of society, with a special focus on women and their tendency to bear the brunt of global warming effects.

The Summit was not a pessimistic event but rather a realistic one, laying out the direness of the current situation and proactively offering solutions moving forward. The Marshall Islands set the tone of the Summit by stepping up and announcing concrete plans to raise climate ambition, declaring a commitment to 100% renewable energy and zero net emissions by 2050. Fiji joined the Marshall Islands by announcing an enhanced country climate action plan by next year and the Summit welcomed similar pledges from other endangered nations looking to set a sterling example for the rest of the world.

The official outcome of the Summit, particularly the “Jumemmej Declaration” will feed into the agreed mechanism to promote enhanced action by all nations party to the Paris Agreement dubbed the “Talanoa Dialogue” and sends a powerful call to arms to all leaders and non-state actors to enhance ambition by 2020. During the Summit Vanuatu also announced they may be seeking legal action against fossil fuel companies, taking the climate battle to the courts.

This event was the perfect way to set the stage for the 24^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), which commences this week in Katowice, Poland and will continue through mid-December. COP24 is bringing together delegations to reassess the demands of global warming and to ramp up support for climate action in light of the IPCC Global Warming of 1.5 °C report, which emphasizes that current country climate action commitments are not enough. Building on the spirit of the Talanoa Dialogues, which personalized climate action through emotional story-telling and strive to raise ambition, COP24 aims to unpack a “Just Transition” for industries and economies by changing together.

The Virtual Climate Summit was an impactful reminder that even 2 degrees can be deadly, and yet the latest data suggest humanity is well on its way to 3 degrees of warming by the end of this century. COP24 will be an opportunity to take to heart the concerns laid out by the Vulnerable Climate Forum last week and redouble international commitments to the goals of the Paris Agreement.

With global carbon emissions at an all-time high in 2017 according to the WMO, leaders on climate agree that it’s now or never if we as a global community need to step up to have a shot at preventing global catastrophe. The IPCC tells us we have 12 years to make the global transition, decarbonize economies by 45% by 2030 from 2010 level, while also ensuring those most affected develop resilience to increasing climate impacts. Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. Entrepreneurs and investors in the private sector have shown an eagerness to contribute to the sustainable development sphere, and pricing carbon is seeing wider and wider adoption rates, while subsidies for fossil fuels are being removed.

The message of COP24 is not that we’re doing nothing right, but rather—in line with the arguments of the Virtual Climate Summit—that we need to seize on what we are doing right and do much more of it in the years to come. This will require novel strategies, a renewed sense of urgency, and wide-ranging teamwork, all of which are attainable if we keep our eyes on a brighter future.

Connect4Climate will be at COP24 from 3-14 December. Follow the daily Facebook live broadcasts from the Joint MDB Pavilion and look out for our call-to-action videos. Join the discussion, we are stepping up climate action.

Banner and thumbnail photo credits to the Climate Vulnerable Forum