Unanima is participating this Tuesday in a COP28 side event in Dubai that will be streamed on YouTube.
Unanima International is participating this Tuesday, December 5, in a side event at the Dubai Climate Summit, where representatives of Catholic organizations will present the “Global Catholic Charter on Climate Change to the COP28 Presidency”.
It calls for “accelerating the transition to clean energy” and for this transition to be “just”. With the accumulated experience of previous summits, we also ask for seriousness in the fulfillment of the commitments made, particularly those related to financially facilitating the countries of the South so that they can face this process under adequate conditions. In recent meetings, billions of dollars in aid have been agreed to help meet these goals, but promises are far from being fulfilled.
Tuesday’s event will be streamed from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. (local time; 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Rome time) on the Laudato Si Movement’s YouTube channel or on the UN-organized summit’s own channel.
Speakers include Unanima’s executive director, Jean Quinn, and the organization’s representative to the UN, Liana Almony.
Vedruna is one of the 25 Religious entities that are part of this coalition which, for 20 years, has been carrying out advocacy work at a global level in the areas of climate change, gender equality or forced displacement.
Jean Quinn, executive director of Unanima (right), at COP27 in Cairo, together with Lara Hicks, the organization’s representative at the summit.
At the Dubai summit, it participated along with other Catholic organizations, reiterating the urgency of fulfilling the commitments of previous summits. In Laudate Deum, the exhortation that updates the encyclical Laudato si, the Pope speaks of a “point of no return” to which, according to multiple studies, the planet is headed unless drastic and immediate changes are made to the economic model.
Rather than agreeing on new objectives, Unanima advocates a clear and coherent agenda of concrete commitments by the states at this summit. This “need for profound transformation” in societies is what, says Unamina, explains the importance of the commitment of religious communities to favor an adequate response to the climate crisis based on social justice.
In particular, Unamina recalls that there is abundant evidence on the comparatively much greater impact of the climate crisis on women, girls, the elderly or impoverished countries. This, in addition to a strong gender focus, also calls for a renewed effort to make the 2030 Agenda’s commitment to “leave no one behind” a reality.
