Barry White
A global day of action on the climate catastrophe, to urge governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions and shift to a low-carbon economy is being called for by civil society groups around the world. It will take place on Saturday 12 November, the mid-point of the Cop27 UN climate talks, which run from 6 to 18 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, hosted by the Egyptian government. However concerns have been expressed that protests in Egypt could be restricted in a country where the right to protest has been heavily curbed under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Last month The Guardian revealed (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/24/egyptian-ngos-complain-of-being-shut-out-of-cop27-climate-summit) that a group of Egyptian civil society organisations had been prevented from attending the Cop27 climate summit by a covert registration process that filtered out groups critical of the Egyptian government. Egypt’s foreign, environment and social solidarity ministries privately selected and screened NGOs that would be permitted to apply for one-time registration for the summit, a separate process from applications for official observer status, which closed last year.
The Cop27 coalition, which campaigners are invited to join, will call for an end to fossil fuel expansion and for help for the poor and vulnerable who are most affected by the climate crisis. They will set up people’s forums for grassroots-level activism, and call for marches and protests by millions of people to put pressure on the 196 global governments expected to gather for the Cop27 talks.
Ubrei-Joe Maimoni Mariere, a climate justice and energy project coordinator at Friends of the Earth Africa, part of the coalition, said: “We must use this opportunity to demand climate justice and solidarity for Africa and the global south. To stop the climate crisis and bring energy justice to the world, we need a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, and a just and feminist and equitable transition to community-based renewable energy systems. We demand public climate finance in the form of grants (not loans) and technology transfer to help support the transition for our peoples.”
Ubrei-Joe Maimoni Mariere is an environmental advocate from the Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA, FoEN) who leads the organisation’s ‘Waste Management, Monitoring & Evaluation’ and ‘Community Outreach‘ projects. Ubrei-Joe also co-coordinates the ‘Economic Justice, Resisting Neoliberalism‘ programme at Friends of the Earth Africa, and coordinates the Africa Climate Justice Group ( ACJG) , which comprises 17 movements’ based and allied organisations and partners in the African region. More at: https://www.no-burn.org/environmental-rights-action-friends-of-the-earth-nigeria/
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