In South Durban, host of COP 17, this year's UN climate talks, homes are located directly next to oil refineries and factories. The factories continue to offer no support to these families who are at risk because of their poor environmental practices.
- Written by Yeshica Weerasekera, Director, Program Partnerships
As the COP 17 UN Climate Talks kicked off this week, in Durban, South Africa, I’ve noticed a sudden and somewhat limited flurry of media interest.
With the world at great risk from the consequences of global warming, millions of people are rightly concerned about whose interests the UN negotiators will protect as they hash out a deal to address climate change.
Will they, as they have to date, focus on market interests, short-term costs and narrow, political expediency, or will they take the ethical higher ground and think of equitable solutions which protect vulnerable communities, the rights of nature and future generations?
I rarely hear the voices of the poor in the media, however, and the scale and impact of the environmental crises on their communities.
Africa Will be “Frying”
In each of the countries that IDEX works in, our partners remind us time and time again of the deepening impact of changing weather patterns and toxic pollution.
An agreement to limit global temperature to even the best-hoped for 2 degrees centigrade, for example, will mean a 4 degree change in Africa, the most vulnerable continent, and catastrophe for it’s people. Africa will be “frying” as African environmentalists lament.
Standing with Our International Partners
Our partners working on addressing environmental challenges ask us to stand with them as they develop solutions that reflect the needs of not only marginalized communities in their own countries but all those around the world who are the least responsible for climate change, but happen to be the most threatened by it.
In a previous blog, we learned about the COP 17 Climate Talks in Durban and our South African partners’ close engagement with the People’s Space, where civil society is organizing activities and discussions around climate change at COP 17.
Joining with tens of thousands of people, our partners are deeply involved with holding training workshops and mobilizing their communities to compel the UN official negotiators to come up with fair, equitable and sustainable solutions, as well as draw attention to grassroots alternative solutions to build resiliency.
Cooling the Planet
As we talk with our partners and visit their communities, we are humbled and encouraged by the myriad of beautifully successful local solutions they, especially women, employ to manage natural resources, protect their health and demonstrate highly effective organic, permaculture and subsistence growing methods.
They are spot on with the right sustainable practices that help to feed themselves and their communities, build resiliency and ultimately help cool the planet! In the face of climate disruptions, the most vulnerable communities have a lot to say. Isn’t it time we lifted up their voices?
