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Suffering face of climate change demands politicians’ best

Members of the Pacific Calling Partnership delegation to Copenhagen, at the Edmund Rice Centre farewell on Thursday, December 5:  (back, from left) Jill Finnane, Patricia Corowa, Pelenise Alofa, Maria Tiimon and Tangaroa Arobati; (front) Phil Glendenning and delegation leader Geraldine Kearney SGS.

Representatives from the Pacific Island communities most threatened by rising sea levels and Australian human rights advocates are in Copenhagen for the UN climate change summit, to ensure that the human face of climate change is not forgotten.

A Pacific Calling Partnership (PCP) delegation is being led by Good Samaritan Sister Geraldine Kearney.

“As a group of Pacific partners, we want to be a visible and tangible sign of being neighbours,” she said, before leaving Sydney on December 4.  “We have a passion for being prophetic.

“As a delegation, we intend to make every effort to create a groundswell of heartfelt response to the cries of the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.”

She said the group was going “with great hope and enthusiasm”.

As well as attending the plenary sessions of the summit, the PCP delegation will participate in panels and fora with other Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), and hold its own “side events”, Pacific calling for human rights and climate justice and Pacific Islands seek climate justice.

Sister Geraldine described Pacific calling for human rights and climate justice as a powerful presentation, which will include traditional song and dance to “evoke a conscientious global response to save the national identity, culture, and homelands of the citizens of these small island states”.  It will be staged on Friday, December 11, for 90 minutes.

Pacific Islands seek climate justice will be an interactive panel presentation by Pacific Islanders and an Indigenous/South Sea Islander Australian.  The two-hour presentation will include colourful dance and song,  and stories -- of how people are responding to the trials of longer droughts, sea-water influx, fiercer storms and the uncertainties they face not only because of climate change but also because of inadequate responses by industrialised nations.  It will be held on the night of December 17.

Closer to home, in Kiribati, a “Vigil for Survivors” featuring I-Kiribati with lighted lanterns, will be held at the same time as Kiribati President Anote Tong addresses the summit.

“What will happen to Kiribati?” the children of Sr Ameria Etuare SGS’s
Class 5A write to fellow students in Australia.

The Pacific delegation will push the human face of climate change.

For too long the climate change discussion has been an elitist debate between scientists, politicians, economists and environmentalists, according to another member of the delegation, Phil Glendenning, director of the Edmund Rice Centre, Sydney.

“Our humanity is at stake and this elitism cannot be allowed to continue,” Mr Glendenning said.

“What the climate crisis demands is the best our humanity has to offer -- to each other and the planet.

“It is essentially a story about human rights, justice and equity. While it will impact every species on earth, it is the human face of this suffering that speaks most powerfully to all of us.”

Mr Glendenning said that while Australian politicians have had the luxury of arguing over the ETS, they needed to remember that they had a larger responsibility.

“This responsibility was explicitly ignored (recently) in Australia. Spreading ignorance and fear is no substitute for policy when vulnerable lives are at stake.   It is much easier to destroy than to build. Building and maintaining environments and communities is not an optional extra.

“It is the fundamental task and responsibility of every Government and, it needs to be said, every alternative Government,” Mr Glendenning said.

In preparation for Copenhagen, representatives of the PCP travelled to Kiribati in October for consultations, and to witness at first-hand the sea encroachments already impacting on communities. A PCP delegation also attended the December 2007 UN summit in Bali.

“This is not an issue of the future,” Mr Glendenning said. “Climate change has a human face now!”

“In Kiribati we heard the concerns of President Anote Tong and of local residents and we saw for ourselves the impact rising sea levels are having.

“We saw the hospital wards that have been flooded, the dead and dying palm trees, and the villages and food-providing fields inundated by sea water.”

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) runs from December 7 - 18.

 In a message on the official website, the UNFCCC executive secretary, Yvo de Boer, says that the science and the economics demand that COP15 be a turning point in the fight to prevent climate disaster.

“At Copenhagen, governments must reach agreement on all the essential elements of a comprehensive, fair and effective deal on climate change, that both ensures long-term commitments and launches immediate action. We have the opportunity now to shape our common future and that of generations to come, for the better,” he said.

In an interview with ABC’s Radio Australia, Mr de Boer said that while he was confident the conference would deliver an agreement with ambitious targets from rich countries, he believed a legally binding treaty was unlikely before June 2010.

 

see also:  Urgent: a fair and effective carbon pollution reduction
in which the Edmund Rice Centre argues that good law must be based on good principles that are widely and clearly understood.

 

Members of the delegation are:

Tangaroa Arobati: from Kiribati; a geography teacher and participant in the Pacific Calling Partnership delegation to the Bali summit in 2007.

Pelenise Alofa: from Kiribati; Managing Director, Kauaoki Foundation Enterprise (SDA) and Chairperson, Church Education Director's Association in Kiribati (CEDAK).

Maria Tiimon: from Kiribati; currently working in Sydney as Pacific Outreach Officer for Pacific Calling Partnership.

Patricia Corowa: an Indigenous Australian who is also of Pacific Island descent (Vanuatu); retired public servant and not-retired activist.

The non-Indigenous Australians are:-
Geraldine Kearney SGS:  Advocate for Social Responsibility, Good Samaritan Sisters

Phil Glendenning: Director, Edmund Rice Centre

Jill Finnane:  Eco Justice Coordinator Edmund Rice Centre

Tom Zubrycki:  film-maker.

 

Sister Joan Chittister OSB has flown from the Parliament of World’s Religions in Melbourne (December 3-9) where she keynoted and participated in seven panels, to a meeting with the Global Peace Initiative of Women in Copenhagen, Denmark. The meeting in Denmark is in conjunction with the gathering of world spiritual leaders for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15).

Religious leaders will deal with the topic, “Addressing Climate Change By Awakening To Oneness.”

Sister Joan has received a special invitation to be a guest at the UN sessions and to participate in the ecumenical celebration that will open the UN gathering. Attending the service, to be held in Copenhagen’s Lutheran Cathedral on Sunday, December 13, will be Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, General Secretary Samuel Kobia, World Council of Churches and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, preaching, as well as dignitaries and politicians involved in COP15 negotiations.