The Network has been working hard to raise awareness of the climate crisis and heed the words of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si; to tread gently on this wondrous planet, to protect its myriad of life and to reach out to the poorest who are being affected most. The cry of the Earth has become resoundingly louder over these past months and the eyes of the world turned to international leaders and policymakers who met to try to address the global climate disaster at the UN’s Conference of Parties, or Cop26 in Glasgow. Our journey to Cop26 has involved many conferences and coordinated projects such as the climate crisis course ‘why Francis Met Greta’, the monthly reflection and call to joint action published by ERI as well as sharing the information in Br Cawley’s Carbon Rangers online newsletter, school campaigns and collaborations such as Connecting Classrooms and PRATYEK’s ERth Summit. 7 of our global schools collaborated on writing a Youth Statement which was submitted to COY16. And supported by many, many more by way of 100s of signatures to show their fraternity. In the UK, the office team and Br Fergus Reilly were fortunate to visit COP26 on Monday 8th November along with 7 students from both St Ambrose and St Anselm’s College. Meeting the delegation from Indonesia on the train was so exciting, led by the Sultan Baktiar Naimudi, the Vice Speaker of the House of Regional Representatives, the delegation informed us of the speech they had come to make which was in support of the smallholder farmers and to support sustainable forestry and agricultural methods. He told us with such humility and warmth how he was going to insist on global solidarity in the face of this disaster which is already impacting his own vast country. Entering the Green Zone, we were all excited by the prospect of learning from experts, speaking to activists and being in the location where such important decisions were being made that will affect our future. Splitting up into 2 groups we managed to attend workshops on youth involvement, engineering our thinking, the social impacts of loss and damage caused by climate change in Central and South America, the film and media industry’s influence and implementing the SDGs. The main impacts of our day were recorded on sight and will be available as a video. This journey to create a cleaner, safer more equal future for the Earth and its people is far from over now that the summit has been and gone. We are looking to continue the engagement of our network and schools in the continued struggle for climate and social justice. What were the outcomes of COP26? In a nutshell, some progress was made but not enough. Grand financial pledges were made by governments to deliver more in life saving money for countries on the frontline of the climate crisis and to halt and reverse global forest loss and land degradation. There was a formal recognition for the first time on the need to reduce global coal use and to cut the trillions in tax-payers’ money propping up fossil fuels. But COP26 could have and should have done much, much more. Due to lack of strong enough commitments, we are still on track for at least 2.4oC of warming, enough to create a global catastrophe that will be measured in extinctions of amazing plants and animals forced displacements and unimaginable human suffering – because of greed. For the first time more indigenous peoples, youth activists and climate defenders were in Glasgow than at any other previous summit. The voices of the public calling for change are having more influence than ever before band we must keep up this pressure as well as persuading every individual on the need for human behaviour change; consume less and more wisely, invest wisely and tread more gently. The journey to ‘1.5oC to stay alive’ is on a knife edge. This is not rocket science, we have the capability to curb global warming but until the whole world wakes up to this responsibility the struggle will go on.
Further reading on the COP26 outcome and the road ahead:
Schools in England and across the global network engaged with COP26 and climate activism in various ways this term including contributing to the global WWF campaign a #Forest of Promises #PromiseToTheplanet . promises to make personal changes to help the planet were written on leaves and on the reverse were students’ demands of climate leaders, these leaves were sent to COP26 and displayed for leaders to see as well as displays made and shared via social media during the COP26 summit. https://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools/forest-of-promises https://www.facebook.com/St-Josephs-Preparatory-School-1197329703618731
O God, we thank you for the life of Edmund Rice.
He opened his heart to Christ present in those oppressed by poverty and injustice.
May we follow his example of faith and generosity.
Grant us the courage and compassion of Edmund as we seek to live lives of love and service.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.