CIDSE works intensely for Climate Justice, as climate change is not only an environmental but also a humanitarian and development emergency that affects the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Here you can follow our work at the 20th Conference of Parties (COP20) in Lima.
UPDATE: The COP20 has now ended. Though CIDSE, along with the rest of civil society, Church leaders and Catholic NGOs, has demanded strong action, governments have left the world headed for 4-degree-warming.
On the first day of the COP20, December 1, CIDSE joined the campaign #FastForTheClimate like we do on the first of every month. This time, however, we did not only fast for action on climate change in the CIDSE office, as before. This month we also remembered the typhoon Haiyan and joined the vigils and fasting in Lima at the outset of the COP20.
CIDSE also published a position paper for the COP20 together with Caritas Internationalis, calling for a firm commitment from governments to put the poor at the center of climate change policy.
The activities that CIDSE organised or co-organised at the COP20 include the following events:
- December 5 (evening): high-level dialogue with Catholic Church representatives organized by the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, in collaboration with CEAS Peru, CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis.
- December 8 (14:00-16:00): event at the People’s Summit against Climate Change, title “Agriculture and climate change: a workshop discussion on alternatives against false solutions”, in collaboration with CCFD-terre solidaire and Secours Catholique-Caritas France.
- December 9 (13:00 – 15:00 / 16:00 – 18:00): event at the People’s Summit against Climate Change, title in Spanish “Energia para que y para quien?: Por una nueva matriz energética popular y soberana desde los pueblos” (rough translation in English: “Energy for who? Towards a new, sovereign and sustainable energy matrix for the people”). This event is in collaboration with MOCICC Peru, and the following organizations will participate: Greenpeace Brasil, MAB Brasil, Rios Vivos Colombia. CIDSE is supporting the participation in the event of LABOR Peru, and Ms. Karyn Keenan, from Halifax Initiative.
- December 11 (11.00-13.30): side-event inside the official COP20, in collaboration with CAFOD, ChristianAid, Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) title “Why people-centred climate actions in the SDGs are essential for avoiding dangerous climate change”. Bishop Theotonius Gomes from Bangladesh will be one of the speakers
CIDSE was also involved in the following activities:
Bishops from all continents met at a High-level event and there wrote a Bishops’ Statement, On the road to Paris. An interfaith message was delivered by Mgr. Theotonius Gomes of the CIDSE delegation, addressing the Joint High-level meeting of the COP and the Kyoto Protocol parties’ meeting.
You can read our text at the start of the COP20, our report from the Peoples’ Climate March, and see photos on our Flickr account, including photos from COP20, from the CIDSE Bishops’ delegation, the High-level meeting on authentic human development and care for creation at the COP20, the CEAS Workshop on how to respond to interventions by the mining industry and from the Peoples’ March.
You can see the shared position paper of CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis, Make the poor a climate change priority, and a shared Press Release with Aprodev, EU needs to up its game at Lima climate summit.
You can find the joint CIDSE – Climate Action Network – Europe publication on fossil fuel subsidies here.