COP28 – UN Climate Change Conference 2023
COP28 in the United Arab Emirates
As the 2023 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 28th session of the Conference of Parties (UNFCCC COP28) came to a close, climate justice leaders, representing impacted Indigenous and frontline communities, held a press conference.
Press Conference Speakers
Cheryl Kwapong
The Chisholm Legacy Project (a Climate Justice Alliance member group)
Cheryl Kwapong is a dynamic force hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, with roots originally from Ghana, West Africa. Her life’s journey has been fueled by a deeply ingrained personal mission statement: to help advance the global Black population in every way possible. Kwapong is part of The Chisholm Legacy Project, which serves as a vehicle to connect Black communities on the frontlines of climate justice with resources to traverse the path from vision to strategy to action plan to implementation to transformation.
Tom B.K. Goldtooth
Indigenous Environmental Network
Tom B.K. Goldtooth is a member of the Navajo Nation and has been Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network since 1996. As an activist, filmmaker, and speaker, Goldtooth has used his voice to urge politicians, businesses, and others to prioritize Indigenous rights and pursue economic and environmental justice.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a Dënesųłiné mother from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and the Executive Director and co-founder of Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), an Indigenous-led climate justice organization in so-called Canada. Deranger’s work focuses on Indigenous rights and building intersectional dialogue between Indigenous rights, climate justice and other social justice movements.
November 30 – December 12, 2023
The 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convened from November 30 – December 12, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates.
When Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) formed to create a new center of gravity in the climate movement, it was also due to the recognition that there was a need to strengthen democratic representation of frontline community leadership at national climate movement tables, as well as in international spaces such as the United Nations Climate Change conferences.
The yearly UN climate conferences are held in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was established in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its mission is to stabilize “greenhouse gas emissions at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”
The first formal meeting of the UNFCCC parties (Conference of the Parties, COP) took place in 1995 and established the Berlin Mandate, which declared portions of the 1992 Rio Convention “inadequate”. COP1 emphasized the importance of setting specified time frames, and acknowledged that developed nations must play a larger role. The Berlin Mandate led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, adopted at COP3. The Kyoto Protocol focused on reducing emissions and increasing contributions from wealthier nations, setting a goal of overall emissions reductions of 5 percent below 1990 by 2012, though militaries were given an automatic exemption from emissions reductions, following a pressure campaign by the US government, who never ratified it, citing potential damage to the US economy (watch a video of It Takes Roots putting demilitarization back on the agenda as a climate justice issue in a Grassroots Global Justice-led protest during last year’s COP27 in Egypt).
It Takes Roots delegation at COP21 in Paris.
The Paris Agreement followed at COP21 in 2015 and introduced efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C. While the agreement emphasized the need for mitigation and adaptation measures and the need for financial contributions, and technology transfer by developed nations to developing nations, the Paris Agreement never mentioned the need to curb let alone phase out extractive energy, and the goals it set were far below those needed to avert a global catastrophe. The agreement signed by 196 countries did acknowledge the global urgency of the climate crisis, a reflection of the strength of the climate movement. But the accord ignored the roots of the crisis, and the very people who have the experience and determination to solve it. It also relied heavily on “false solutions” such as carbon markets and other offset schemes (promoted in Article 6 of the accord).
COP26 in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland culminated in the Glasgow Climate Pact. The Pact committed to maintain the 1.5°C goal identified in the Paris Agreement, and for the first time in the history of the UNFCCC, the COP decision called upon Parties to accelerate the phasing down of “unabated coal and inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.” Specifically stating that fossil fuel emissions lie at the heart of global climate change is a step forward. However, confronting the climate crisis will require the complete phase-out of all coal and fossil fuel subsidies. False climate “solutions” such as carbon trading, carbon capture and storage, and market-based mechanisms are upheld in the Glasgow Climate Pact as well. Read the It Takes Roots statement on the COP26 decisions.
COP27 in 2022 in Sharm El Shaik, Egypt established a loss and damage fund at COP27 as a historic and welcome first step, but the conference failed once again to confront the vice-grip of the fossil fuel industry. Many countries named the root causes of the climate crisis in coal, oil, and gas, but a handful of Parties shut down needed progress. COP27 was attended by more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists linked to major oil and gas companies, a larger number than the delegation of any single nation. The naming of Sultan Al Jaber, the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (one of the world’s largest oil producers), to preside over COP28 doesn’t bode well for progress in the United Arab Emirates.
Climate Justice Alliance member groups and allies such as Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, Indigenous Climate Action, Just Transition Alliance, La Via Campesina, The Black Hive at Movement for Black Lives and others have played pivotal roles in strategic interventions during the conferences to demand strong international agreements that protect and benefit the people most impacted by the climate crisis. Together, we speak truth to power as we confront global leaders, help redefine climate leadership, and ensure that community voices are heard at the highest levels of decision making to keep false solutions off the table.
In order to achieve the policy shifts we need in these UN climate conferences, even the best inside strategies are not strong enough if we don’t organize powerful, grassroots pressure on the outside as well. True climate solutions are coming not from a formal UN negotiation process, but from the growing pressure and power of our collective struggle. Climate Justice Alliance is in unity with blossoming social movements across the globe, led by the people most impacted by the climate crisis. We are pressuring governments for more meaningful action, while implementing our own real solutions on the ground and planning for how vulnerable communities can best survive severe impacts of climate change.
At last year’s #COP27 over 600 fossil fuel lobbyists attended to protect the interests of some of the world’s biggest polluting oil and gas giants. This year, the head of an oil company was tapped to preside over #COP28 in the United Arab Emirates… 😖 https://t.co/YzBv2FWxoM
— Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) 🌻 (@CJAOurPower) January 13, 2023
End the Corporate Capture of COP28
Climate Justice Alliance joined more than 425 climate justice and civil society organizations in calling on the UNFCCC to Kick Big Polluters Out and end the corporate capture of COP28.
No COP overseen by a fossil fuel executive can be seen as legitimate. COP Presidencies must be free and independent of fossil fuel influence. It’s time for the UNFCCC to deliver the long overdue equitable phaseout of fossil fuels. Critically, addressing the real problem of polluting interests only begins here. In addition, we demand:
1 Big Polluters cannot write the rules. Big Polluters must not be allowed to unduly influence climate policymaking. This allows them to continue weaken and undermine the global response to climate change, and it’s why we are on the brink of extinction. The UNFCCC must urgently establish an Accountability Framework, including a regime-wide conflict-of-interest policy, that systematically ends this corporate capture.
2 No more Big Polluters’ bankrolling climate action. No Big Polluter partnership or sponsorships of climate talks or climate action. Not now. Not ever. Major polluters must not be allowed to greenwash themselves and literally buy their way out of culpability for a crisis they have caused. The UNFCCC will always fail to deliver so long as this is deemed acceptable.
3 Polluters out and People in. While civil society has always participated in the COP process, governments have made it more difficult each time for non-governmental organizations and climate justice movements to have their voices heard. We need equitable, meaningful inclusion of civil society. Climate action must center the leadership and lived experience of the people, especially those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. With frontline communities in the lead, we must end the funding and validation of dangerous distractions and false solutions that promote Big Polluters’ profits, enable their abuses, and guarantee decades more of fossil fuel use.
4 Reset the system to protect people and the planet, not Big Polluters. Big Polluters are destroying life as we know it. It’s time to build a new way of living and collaborating that works for people, not polluters, and that restores, rather than destroys, nature. We need real, just, accountable, gender responsive, community-led, nature-restoring, and proven and transformative solutions to be implemented rapidly and justly. We need a total and equitable transition off of fossil fuels. We need real solutions that center the rights of Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, workers, and the protection of those speaking up for justice. We need an end to the impunity of corporate abuses.
Click here to read the full letter that was initiated by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition.
Welcome to the Climate Justice Alliance’s COP28 Field Notes
November 30, 2023
Gender equality and women’s human rights are fundamental to combating #ClimateChange.
Listen to the strong analysis of Gina Marcela Cortés Vallderrama of the Women and Gender Constituency at #COP28 in the United Arab Emirates. pic.twitter.com/5BfcYCL9bx
— Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) 🌻🍉 (@CJAOurPower) November 30, 2023
Caption: “What does Just Transition mean when our children are being murdered?” asked Gina Marcela Cortes Valderrama of the Gender and Women Constituency. Constituencies in the UNFCCC are “loose groups of NGOs with diverse but broadly clustered interests or perspectives.” Watch her remarks at the Climate Justice Pavilion at COP28 today.
On a near daily basis (we need rest days), we’ll report straight from “Expo City” in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on what’s happening at this year’s UN Climate Conference (aka COP28).
We don’t claim to be comprehensive or omnipresent, but present these notes on what the CJA delegation is up to as a good faith effort to document for, update, engage, resource, and reflect the frontline environmental and climate justice communities that make up the membership of the Climate Justice Alliance.
First, a little background, simplified (skip ahead if you already know)
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began as an international treaty negotiated in 1992 to join countries in cooperation to fight climate change. Participating countries (parties) convene during a Conference of Parties (COP), or more simply put, the UN Climate Conference, to negotiate country commitments in response to climate change, first those set in 1992 at the Rio Convention, then in Berlin (1995), followed by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and now in the Paris Agreement negotiated in 2015. This year is the 28th Conference of Parties.
What this looks like on the ground…a bit overwhelming
Basically, the UN Climate Conference convenes world leaders, civil society, the fossil fuel industry, and others interested in influencing how we, collectively, as humanity, respond to climate change. This year’s COP, taking place November 30 through December 12 is the largest thus far with 70,000 registered participants.
Since a few years ago, there have been two zones: the “Blue Zone” for which official accreditation from the UN is required and an accompanying “Green Zone” that is open to the public. Negotiations amongst countries that shape policy and commitments to the global climate change response take place in the Blue Zone. It also holds exhibitor spaces and pavilion spaces for countries and civil society to hold press conferences, side events, and approved actions. The Green Zone has its own set of programs, exhibits, art and tech, and more. In short, there are many possible spaces to engage in.
It is a microcosm that reflects the same structural inequalities (read: racism) and extractive dynamics (read: capitalism) that created today’s climate crisis. But just like in society at large, there are communities fighting the bad and building the new, there exist such forces (like us) at COP28.
Broadly, the Climate Justice Alliance at COP28…
CJA has participated in multiple COPs, as part of the It Takes Roots Alliance, a delegation of North American frontline groups attending the conference to demand community solutions, climate reparations, and human rights be central to the global climate commitments made. This year the It Takes Roots Alliance is composed of Indigenous Environmental Network, Indigenous Climate Action, and the Climate Justice Alliance.
- There are valid arguments to divest from participating in the COP space more generally (and to instead build towards a People’s COP)—and in the COP28 space specifically. As CJA member UPROSE describes it, “COP was created to be an international space that breaks the wall between leaders, activists, educators, and youth to talk about climate change (including its cultural dimensions) to hold nation-states accountable. Instead, it’s become a space for elite representatives and fossil fuel corporations — especially from the Global North — to drown out our voices, water down climate change agreements, and wash away our futures.” Grassroots Global Justice, a CJA member and It Takes Alliance member, canceled its delegation this year, “given the escalating conditions in Palestine.”
- This year, we’re laser focused on monitoring negotiations (the loss and damage fund, the Global Stocktake, how climate finance is emerging – more on these later) and identifying intervention points to ensure that frontline concerns are top of mind in policy development, as well as continuing to build relationships that strengthen global solidarity. The delegation is pushing for concrete steps towards genuine climate commitments while putting an end to the fossil fuel industry. Frontline communities have consistently advocated for science-backed climate agreements, challenging false solutions like pollution trading, offsetting, bioenergy, and geoengineering. Rejecting market-driven approaches and unproven techno-fixes such as carbon capture and storage, we emphasize the need for genuine solutions over quick fixes. We argue that true progress involves prioritizing community-driven initiatives and human rights.
November 30 (and the days before)
- The Indigenous Environmental Network and Indigenous Climate Action, among others, participated in COP28 pre-meetings, submitting an Ethical Protocol for the Protection & Use of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge.
- The Indigenous Environmental Network held a press conference, “Defending the Sacred: Indigenous Peoples Against False Solutions and Article 6.”
- The Indigenous People’s Caucus released a statement in solidarity with Palestine and held a press conference.
- Good read from Grist: “Here’s what’s at stake for Indigenous peoples at COP28”
- Loss and Damage Fund: The US pledged a shamefully small $17.5 million sum to the newly established loss and damage fund meant to provide funding “for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters” that pales in comparison to the annual 20.5 billion in fossil subsidies– and to the $100 billion that Island Nations need over the first four years. This short video featuring Basma Eid of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights gives a good explanation on why the loss and damage fund operationalized today at COP28 doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Access all of our Field Notes and our documentation on our participation in COP28 here.
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December 1, 2023
Caption: Display of shoes in solidarity with Palestine on the COP28 campus. Photo courtesy of Tamra GIlbertson.
Wait, but where are we? Grounding in the UAE.
COP28 is hosted in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates is composed of seven emirates (emirates are territories ruled by emirs, which roughly refers to various sorts of male leaders): Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm Al Quwain. The city of Dubai is within the emirate of Dubai. Each emirate has its own ruler. Together the rulers are part of a governing body called the Federal Supreme Council which elects one of the emirates’ rulers as the president of the UAE.
Emiratis themselves are about 12% of the UAE population – the rest are mainly migrant workers, many who move here for easier access to jobs than in their home countries–and because it is easier to move to the UAE than to the US, we heard colloquially.
The location of COP is important – and always political. It’s beyond alarming that the COP28 President this year— Sultan Al Jaber—is also the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). This should be too much of a conflict of interest, yet, the UN has allowed him to stay in his position–as well as allow the conference to be hosted in Dubai. Just before COP28 began, the Centre for Climate Reporting revealed leaked documents showing that Al Jaber “sought to lobby on oil and gas deals during meetings with foreign governments.” What a win-win situation for the fossil fuel industry.
Additionally, the selection of the UAE, like last year’s selection of Egypt, drew huge flags from human rights activists.
Photo: Photo by Women and Gender Caucus. Green: MENA Leadership Day. (language in the WGC website and ig!)
Caption: A photo of folks in the Women and Gender Constituency. Constituencies are “loose groups of NGOs with diverse but broadly clustered interests or perspectives.” We wore green today in solidarity with MENA (Middle East and North Africa) feminists. Photo courtesy of Women and Gender Constituency.
A Day in the Life of a CJA Staff Delegate
- Today began at 6:30 am, when we met for breakfast to map out a game plan for which spaces we planned to be in.
- At 7:30 am, we departed for the COP28 venue via car and metro, arriving about an hour and a half later.
- Once we arrived, we faced a slight detour within the nearly 2-mile radius COP28 compound – all observers (anyone not directly involved in negotiations) had to walk an extra 20 minutes or so to reach a roundabout entrance to the Blue Zone, cordoned off from the entrance of the “world leaders.”
- After we made it inside the Blue Zone, we headed towards different panels, side events, press conferences, and negotiations meetings, and we tabled at the exhibit booth we share with the Indigenous Environmental Network and Indigenous Climate Action.
Photo: Negotiations space: meeting on Trust Fund – Clean Development Mechanism. Negotiations from different countries ask questions / share perspsectives on the managing of the fund.
Caption: A meeting in the negotiations space about the Trust Fund for the Clean Development Mechanism (aka UN’s carbon offsets program). Different countries asked questions and shared perspectives on management of the fund.
- We chose which spaces to participate in to achieve various aims – observing the negotiations process, gathering information and context about our international allies’ and kindred groups’ priorities, and more.
- Events continue late into the evening. We found rooms unused between events to rest (or nap) in.
- In the afternoon or evening, we begin to head back to the hotel to debrief our day over dinner, communicate with our CJA team members waking up across the U.S., upload our multimedia content, and strategize for the next day.
Highlights from Today
- Continued Debriefs and Reflections from Civil Society on the Loss and Damage Fund: The UNFCCC held a relatively self-congratulatory side event celebrating how far they’ve come since the loss and damage fund was first proposed. The Global South, Island nations, and allies reminded them that this is a victory, but does not go nearly far enough.
- On our mind: News that the UAE president announcing a $30 billion fund with problematic partners like BlackRock, especially as we’ve seen climate investments in the U.S. through the Inflation Reduction Act and other vehicles touted as victories, when a lot of the money is being claimed by dangerous distractions and false solutions and not reaching the vulnerable communities impacted first and worst by the climate crisis.
- This Just Transition Guide from Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) and others on Indigenous-led Pathways Toward Equitable Climate Solutions and Resiliency in the Climate Crisis. Watch this clip of Jade Begay, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the NDN Collective, talk about the importance of an Indigenous-led just transition at a COP28 panel hosted by ICA.
Just Transition: Indigenous-led Pathways Toward Equitable Climate Solutions and Resiliency in the Climate Crisis
Listen to Jade Begay @_jadebegay (she/her), the @ndncollective Director of Policy and Advocacy at an @Indigenous_ca panel at #COP28 pic.twitter.com/PwJ82YfeS1
— Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) 🌻🍉 (@CJAOurPower) December 1, 2023
Is the COP Complicit in the Climate Crisis?
CJA member group UPROSE organized a forum in September 2023 in NYC, to discuss and conceptualize what a People’s COP might look like in 2024.
A conversation on alternatives by the frontlines, with CJA Co-Chair and UPROSE Executive Director Elizabeth Yeampierre, Environmental Justice Organizer A.J. Hudson, and Moñeka De Oro, an indigenous Chamoru mother, climate/peace activist, educator and dedicated community organizer based in the Mariana Islands.
If you were worried about fossil fuel industry influence on COP27, then hold on to your freaking hat for COP28
Mobilization starts now@ScientistRebel1 @ScientistsX @IENearth @FightFossils @ExtinctionR @JustStop_Oil @Fridays4future @theclimatevote https://t.co/vP16hPPtZx
— Rose Abramoff (@ultracricket) January 12, 2023
READ 👇
More than 630 #fossilfuel industry lobbyists participated at #COP27. UAE hosted largest number of lobbyists in its delegation. Rachel Rose Jackson @StopCorpAbuse and Jean Su @CenterForBioDiv tell us why new #COP28 president is a terrifying choice.https://t.co/9g0dcP0zJn— Demand Climate Justice (@gcdcj) February 2, 2023
Even before the appointment of Al Jaber, the UAE’s track record demonstrates it is not serious about phasing out fossil fuels & keeping global temperature rise to below 1.5° Celsius. Its track record demonstrates it is central to causing the climate crisis, not solving it. #COP28 pic.twitter.com/Al3fGQaLKX
— Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) 🌻 (@CJAOurPower) January 27, 2023
Climate Justice Report from the June 2023 It Takes Roots Delegation in Germany
An It Takes Roots delegation was on the ground in Bonn, Germany at the intersessional UNFCCC meeting, where country negotiators set an agenda for COP28. Key topics included the loss and damage fund, carbon markets, Just Transition, and progress toward emissions reduction goals.
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, the Black Hive at Movement for Black Lives, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Just Transition Alliance shared the It Takes Roots analysis and demands.
Speakers: Adrien Salazar, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (Moderator); Alberto Saldamando, Indigenous Environmental Network; José Bravo, Just Transition Alliance; Peniel Ibe, The Black Hive at Movement for Black Lives; Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network
Listen to the conversation between Cooperation Jackson’s Kali Akuno and Kevin Buckland of the Artivist Network about what left social movements could and should do in the wake of the failure of COP27. The conversation was hosted by the Institute for Social Ecology.
Hoodwinked in the Hothouse
Resist False Solutions to Climate Change
Hoodwinked in the Hothouse is an easy-to-read, concise-yet-comprehensive compendium of the false corporate promises that continue to hoodwink elected officials and the public, leading us down risky pathways poised to waste billions of public dollars on a host of corporate snake-oil schemes and market-based mechanisms. These false solutions distract from the real solutions that serve our most urgent needs in an alarming climate justice moment of no-turning-back. By uncovering the pitfalls and risky investments being advanced by disaster capitalists to serve the needs of the biggest polluters on the planet, Hoodwinked also provides a robust framework for understanding the depth of real solutions and how they should be determined. As a pop-ed toolbox, Hoodwinked promises to be instructive for activists, impacted communities and organizers, while providing elected officials with critical lenses to examine a complex, technocratic field of climate change policy strategies, from local to national and international arenas.
Climate Finance
Indigenous Environmental Network released a new report on climate finance.
Say NO to Article 6
Carbon trading schemes enable emitters to continue polluting wherever they want, as long as they have the money to purchase permits. Learn about Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
Carbon Pricing Report
Carbon market systems will not mitigate climate change, will not advance adaptation strategies, will not serve the most vulnerable communities facing climate change impacts and only protect the fossil fuel industry and corporations from taking real climate action.
Visit CO2colonialism.org to download the toolkits that were created by Indigenous Environmental Network and the Climate Justice Alliance.
The People’s Solutions Lens
for Climate and Economic Policy Proposals at COP28
It can be difficult to keep up with the slew of climate solutions that are going to be discussed at COP28, and not all “solutions” are inherently equitable or just. Fortunately, we’ve identified five straight-forward questions that can help you separate false solutions from the real deal. Use the People’s Solutions Lens to determine whether the various policy proposals that are being brought forward at COP28 are rooted in justice for workers, frontline communities, and the environment:
1Who tells the story? Frontline communities and workers are impacted first and worst by the interlinked crises of climate change and the extractive, exploitative economy. We speak for ourselves, and hold the wisdom, vision, and organizing power to lead climate and economic solutions. Yet, often times, others claim to speak for us without necessarily representing our interests. As we often say, nothing about us without us is for us.
2Who makes the decisions? The environmental justice movement defines environment as “where we live, work, play, and pray.” Whether it’s the factory floor or the neighborhood, those closest to the problems will inevitably know the most about what the solutions need to look like. For any other climate or economic policy to truly work for Indigenous Peoples, Black communities, immigrants and refugees of color, and working class communities, it must embody the practice of community self-determination.
3Who benefits, and how? The climate crisis is ecological, but it has its roots in systemic inequity that is racial, gendered, and economic. To address these root causes, authentic climate and economic policy solutions must flip the existing dynamics around racial injustice, wealth extraction, and labor exploitation.
4What else will this impact? Sometimes environmental and climate policies or “solutions” can create new problems for other issues that we care about— e.g. workers’ rights, housing, economic development, immigration, policing, mass incarceration, etc. Real solutions must work for ALL of our issues. No false solutions. No more sacrifice zones.
5How will this build or shift power? To address the climate crisis at scale, individual and collective solutions must put us in a better position to pursue subsequent solutions. Transformative solutions, then, must do more than accomplish individualized goals, specific policies, or select elections; they must shift the landscape of political, economic, and cultural power such that subsequent goals become more attainable. Climate and economic policy proposals must be organizing tools that bring together a mass movement of people, workers, and communities. This is imperative to ensure the implementation phase is both inclusive and equitable.
This tool was based on a version from Labor Network for Sustainability and Climate Justice Alliance, adapted from the original People’s Solutions Lens—a collaborative creation by It Takes Roots (a frontline formation composed of Climate Justice Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network, and Right to the City Alliance) and their Funder Support Circle. For more information on It Takes Roots, and to view the original People’s Solutions Lens, visit: www.ItTakesRoots.org/peoplesorientation
COP27 in Sharm El Shaik, Egypt
COP26: The Net Zero COP
COP25 and the Cumbre de los Pueblos
The 25th UN Conference of Parties (COP25) took place from Dec. 2-13, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. Our work at COP25 included pushing back against Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which supports Carbon Pricing and offsets, exposing the threat of Geoengineering, building for a Just Transition, and coordination with others around Frontline Green New Deal work.
COP25 was initially scheduled to take place in Chile. However, a massive popular feminist and student uprising against neoliberalism, forced the Chilean government to move COP25 to Spain. Part of our delegation traveled to Chile nonetheless to stand with the courageous Chilean social movements, and to join the Cumbre de los Pueblos.
COP24 in Katowice, Poland
It Takes Roots threw down with the youth of SustainUS and organized an intervention during the US administration panel, which pushed for the continual use of fossil fuels and dirty energy. We interrupted Trump’s Energy advisor, Wells Griffith, with laughter then chanted “Keep It In The Ground” as we brought frontline speakers upfront.
Check out videos, photos, the People’s Demands, and more info from the actions and events of the 2018 It Takes Roots delegation at COP24 in Katowice, Poland:
ClimateJusticeAlliance.org/COP24
It Takes Roots is a multiracial and inter-generational effort led by women and gender oppressed Indigenous Peoples, Black, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander, and poor white communities on the frontlines of racial, housing and climate justice across Turtle Island. The collaboration began during the organizing for the Peoples Climate March in 2014 and has since continued to build a Visionary Opposition.
Today It Takes Roots has alliance members in 200 organizations and in more than 50 states, provinces and Indigenous territories, nationwide and in Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico.
