Written by Anthony Kamau and Kate C.
The hustle at COP27 is quite daunting. One participant has described their experience of the event as, ‘visiting the big city where everyone is in a rush to achieve whatever made them come from the village’. In many ways this is true; each day you walk past thousands of people each seemingly with a different agenda and destination. It is very easy to make the assumption that all these strangers are strolling about randomly as excited deers when they first learn how to walk; without a shared end goal. The truth of the matter is that everyone in COP27 is on a journey - all of us are longing for a better world.
Indigenous people
The voices of the indigenous people in the Global South lament the significant encroachment into their heartlands. Some have lost vast tracts of land while others have to deal with a loss of biodiversity. In Africa alone, 65% of plant biodiversity has been lost since 1970 and there is no sign that this will slow down soon. Some native communities in the Pacific who have a greater dependency on the natural environment for food, shelter and spirituality recognize that the earth is taxed over capacity and this is affecting every aspect of their life. In South America the forest cover is being lost at a faster rate than it can be recovered. Most of these people groups trace their problems to the rapid expansion of the industrialised nations into the new world.
The resounding question that we all need to wrestle with is how are we positioning ourselves to partner with all these indigenous people to bring about holistic transformation?
The Sahel people
In Africa’s Sahel region more than 10 million people are facing starvation. This is owing to 5 failed rainy seasons that have been occasioned by human activity that is affecting seasons. This is really a harsh and disproportionate effect given that people in this region contribute the least to global warming and have the lowest emissions. One of our friends, Adam Walton- had a passionate conversation with a young man from South Africa who was keen on the loss and damage funding facility for the Global South community. He noted that the loss and damage facility is not only for those in the Global South but for the whole world since Africa is seen as the global food basket and as long as it is secure the whole world is. This hunger is not on paper or ‘electronic’ as we would like to assume, it is affecting real people and disrupting real lives in the communities we serve. How might we see ourselves playing a role in lessening the burden for these people without necessarily being mandated?
Youth
Martina Fleckenstein from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) talking about intergenerational justice noted that the number of young people attending COP has more than doubled in the last 10 years and they are using their power to raise their voices to shape policy. While it is a fact that youth have come in large numbers to COP27, the truth is they still feel marginalised from conversation yet they recognize that if indeed the future is theirs, they will bear the greatest brunt of climate change. One youth leader said to me today that COP is structured in such a way that there is no integration that allows youth participation in these conversations. In her words, “we have been invited into the party but we are not allowed to dance.” How might the senior people in the society open the doors for the youth to gain acceptance and credibility to decision makers?
Conclusion
Just as the butterflies that God created are diverse and rich, we all have a different sense of the better world we are looking for. There are those that are looking to reduce green gas emissions into the atmosphere, while others want to maintain earth's rich biodiversity. Some would like to see the end of plastics while others with all their might are working towards food security for the future world. There are many examples we could give but we will circle back to this conclusion, that while all these goals might look like they differ principally, they all aspire for what the Apostle Peter exclaims in 2 Peter 3:13, “we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” A farmer put it this way in one of the sessions on sustainability today, “If we are to realise a systemic change, we need to recognize that the critical challenges we face require significant partnerships”. The indigenous people of Peru will need to sit down with the bureaucrats in Europe and see themselves as partners on a journey towards a new world. In the same way you and I will need this reckoning.
Joyfully Listening,
Anthony and Kate