ICA at the 23rd UNFCCC: Bonn, Germany
Hi everyone,
Am writing this blog in the break between the final closing plenary. Most likely one of the areas isn’t finished the negotiation process, so we paused for the last presentation of the closing plenary. Anyhow, today was pretty busy even though it’s the last day. I wanted to catch you up to what’s been going on.
Since the blog about the on-going’s, it’s been about the UN process of negotiations. I wanted to make sure people understand what happens here. It’s a lot of different meetings. I think down-played this. There are so many meetings. There are two separate screens worth of meetings per day to look through during the day.
One of the UN screens with listings of daily meetings in the Bula and Bonn zone
Earlier this week was busy with the negotiations. On Wednesday, I participated in three press conferences, a panel hosted by WECAN, and did a couple interviews. It was a super busy day. I don’t think I’ve felt so brain-dead after a day.
The panel was an event with Indigenous women from across the globe talking about climate change impacts and how woman are leading solutions. This was hosted by an organization called WECAN- Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network. The panel was super moving and as there was stories from South America, New Zealand, Africa, and Asia. Diverse perspectives from farmers, to forest protectors, to youth organizing, to the role of government. We got to talk about solutions, our critique of the UNFCCC and what impact the implementation has on the ground. The audience asked really engaging questions. All in all, it was a good place to talk about ICA, the focus ICA has that for the most part is inward facing in the Climate toolkit we are working on, the fact we are staffed by Indigenous women and how diverse our network is. I got to talk a little bit about the Native Youth Sexual Health Network’s work. Which brought up the question on the gender spectrum and decolonization. It was a good opportunity to share our view on our knowledge and spiritual connection as solutions and pathways.
WECAN panel presentation in the Bonn zone at the UNFCCC
The first press conference was with Climate Action Network- Canada which was held inside the UNFCCC media centre, where the press conference is recorded and live streamed. The focus of the press conference was focused on Just Transition. The intent of the press conference was to pressure the Canadian to include Just Transition in the Nationally Determined Contribution’s (the plans governments world-wide have agreed to implement to address climate change under the Paris Agreement) which translation is our Pan-Canadian Climate Framework. For ICA, I personally have been working on doing some research and outreach to folks doing this in Indigenous communities like the Black Mesa Water Coalition in Arizona or the Our Power Campaign that is looking at regenerative economies. The zine produced by Movement Generation speaks so well to the closest form of just transition that could be applied in Indigenous communities. I hope folks will check that out here:
Climate Action Network, Canada’s Press Conference
You can visit the press release here:
You can watch the on-demand video of the CAN Press Conference here:
https://unfccc.cloud.streamworld.de/webcast/climate-action-network-canada
The second press conference was with WECAN was held in the UNFCCC media center. This press conference was, “Women for Climate Justice Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change.” I was given the opportunity to speak on behalf of ICA for this press conference. This day got so busy, I’m not too sure that I remember what I said during this press conference. Some of the points I mentioned was about talked about our all women staff, I tried mention as many frontline struggles as I could that have been organized by woman and youth; the tiny house campaign, the role of women in solutions, TEK, the Local Communities & Indigenous Peoples Platform, and finally the North South Women’s Treaty Compact as tool to join movements.
However, its recorded and in the system here:
The press release is here:
The last press conference was for Berta Caceres, who as many of you many know was assassinated. Her family and comrades at COPINH (the organization she founded) released a report two weeks ago called” Dam Violence- The Plan that Killed Berta Caceres.” The report names the authors at the highest level who are responsible for Berta’s assassination. Since the release the family and comrades of the Berta have received death threats and we worry for their safety. Honduras was named by Human Rights Watch as one of the most dangerous countries to live in. Our goal was to bring in Berta Zúniga Cáceres, the Coordinator General of COPINH and Berta’s daughter via live stream from Honduras to speak. After some technical difficulties, we were able to live stream Berta Zuniga to speak. Jaron Browne moderated the panel from Grassroots Global Justice, Alberto Saldamando spoke is a representative of the Indigenous Environmental Network, a frontline defender Felipe Rangel from the Uwa Peoples in occupied Columbia and myself. Our secondary goal was to highlight how human rights and frontline Indigenous defenders are left out of the both the Paris Agreement and the implementation process.
You can watch the press conference here:
https://unfccc.cloud.streamworld.de/webcast/berta-caceres-protecting-environmental-defenders-2
To give you some background, Alberto Saldamando and myself travelled to Honduras three weeks after Berta’s assassination. Our goal was to be observers, gather stories from local peoples, and meet with the US State department. We travelled to Lenca Territories and met with Berta’s family and comrades at COPINH. For our trip here in Bonn, COPINH made a specific request that It Takes Roots intervene on the Honduran government and give them the report.
You can read the report here:
https://www.gaipe.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Exec-Summ-Dam-Violencia-EN-FINAL.pdf
Collectively the groups working together decided to do a north American media push on Monday when we get back as the media here and globally will be focused on the wrap up of COP23.
We managed to intercept the Honduran Government Representative here in Bonn, you can watch this here:
However, the video currently is in Spanish. We hope to have the video subtitled and cleaned up by next week. I think for myself personally, it is so important to support Berta and Indigenous Peoples struggles globally. The stories that I had the privilege to listen talked about how she was able to build movements, and build relationships with people who never worked together. How she inspired the greatest part of people. From official persons to young single moms, Berta was an icon for Indigenous struggles in Honduras.
Lastly, I got to do a short interview with CBC Saskatchewan. I don’t have a link for that one but I heard that it was okay. We had a bit of challenge with the sound and tech so I wasn’t sure how much was captured.
I’m going to post more about the official closing soon. So be watching out.