From the Ground Up
When: November 16, 2020
Thursday 12 November to Monday 16 November
Organised by the COP26 Coalition, of which Global Justice Now is member.
This November, COP26 was due to take place in Glasgow. To mark the moment it was originally set to happen, the COP26 Coalition is hosting From the Ground Up – a global gathering providing space to educate, activate and strategise, to build power and connect within our global justice movements. We will discuss the need for a global green new deal and work towards a global plan of action to create the change we need from the ground up.
With discussions on: False Solutions to the Climate Crisis • Just Transition and the Role of Trade Unions • How Fossil Fuels get Financed • Feminism and the Climate Emergency • Indigenous Knowledge and Strategies for Resistance • Struggles for Land, Forests, and Oceans
As well as workshops on: How not to burn out as an activist • How to resist mega-projects in your community • How to start a community garden • How to frame climate justice in campaigning • How to take action during a global pandemic; and many more.
This global gathering is an opportunity for Scottish, UK, European and international climate justice movements to build momentum and capacity, and to connect to broader civil society to build power for system change. It aims to provide a space for coming together in these times of isolation, to connect and share the diversity of experiences that make our movements so powerful.
The event is free, everyone is welcome to attend. The gathering will be spread throughout the five days to enable activists from all time zones to take part. Interpretation will be provided in Spanish and French, or closed captions for key panels.
You can also find the event on Facebook.
Sessions Global Justice Now is specifically involved in:
Trade deals are causing climate change
2.30pm-4pm, Saturday 14 November
The climate crisis has been turbo-charged by an extremist ‘market knows best’ global economic system, which trade rules embed in our lives. When alternative approaches are suggested that could create a more just and sustainable world, all too often the reply is ‘we can’t do that because it is against trade rules’.
Our response is simple: we need to change the trade rules.
This session will look at precisely what it is about our trade regime that is driving us towards climate crisis, and racial and social injustice while funneling wealth into the hands of a tiny elite. COP26 is a critical opportunity for governments to start doing things right – but first we have to really understand what is going wrong.
What is system change?
1.30pm-2.30pm, Sunday 15 November
We now face an unprecedented dual challenge of health and climate emergencies. These emergencies have sharply exposed racial and class inequalities. Many climate justice movements have long argued for anti-systemic social transformation to free us from an exploitative and unsustainable economic system. This workshop will look at why ‘system change’ is necessary to deal with climate change, what we mean by it and what struggles will get us there.
Facilitated by Dorothy Guerrero, Global Justice Now, with:
Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South, India • Pablo Solón, Fundación Solón, Bolivia • Samantha Hargreaves, Womin Africa, South Africa • Christophe Aguiton, ATTAC France
Financing the end of the world
2.30pm-4pm, Sunday 15 November
This session, co-organised by Global Justice Now and Friends of the Earth, will introduce how governments and multilateral institutions in the global north are financing fossil fuel expansion in the south. The aim is for activists to gain an understanding of how public finance sustains the fossil fuel economy, how this impacts frontline communities, and how to change policy so that public funds instead support a just transition which takes into account the UK’s historical international responsibilities for climate change.
Speakers: Lidy Nacpil, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development • Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International • Speakers from Justiça Ambiental (Mozambique) and Climate Action Network
