Timeline

Human Impacts of Climate Change

QUNO views climate change as an environmental, political and economic challenge that interconnects with its work on peace and justice issues. We seek to highlight the human impacts of climate change at a time when communities worldwide are experiencing its consequences, yet man made greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) continue to rise at dangerous rates.
September 2016

1.5C: Meeting the Challenges of the Paris Agreement

In September, Lindsey Fielder Cook, QUNO's Representative for Climate Change, attended the Oxford University conference, 1.5C: Meeting the Challenges of the Paris Agreement. QUNO applauds the Paris Agreement commitment to "pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels," yet we are aware this chance will be lost in some 5 years under the current greenhouse gas emission rate. QUNO is concerned that geo-engineering (climate engineering) is receiving more attention than sustainable behavior and economic system transformation, the latter which ca

Tags: 

Related Areas of Work

September 2016

QUNO attends Public Consultation on Biodiversity and Human Rights at the 33rd Session of the Human Rights Council

On September 22, 2016, QUNO attended a public consultation on biodiversity and human rights obligations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, John Knox, presented his approach for his report to be introduced at the upcoming Human Rights Council session in March 2017. The release of the report, which will focus on human rights obligations as they relate to the protection of biological diversity and ecosystems, will be closely followed by QUNO.

Tags: 

Related Areas of Work

September 2016

QUNO attends discussion on Children's Rights and the Environment

On the 23rd September, QUNO attended a day long "General Discussion" on the Rights of the Child and the Environment, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. QUNO advocates greater integration of human rights and rights-based approaches in climate action.

Tags: 

Related Areas of Work

May 2016

QUNO organizes events at the international climate change negotiations in Bonn

QUNO was again present at the international climate change negotiations (SB44), recently held in Bonn, Germany from 16-26 May. Our Human Impact of Climate Change programme held two quiet diplomacy dinners in which negotiators from a diverse group of 23 countries discussed, in an off-the-record setting, their hopes and concerns following adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015. We also sponsored a side event in which a panel representing NGO, Climate Scientist and UNFCCC negotiator voices, spoke about the role of ethics and human behavior in climate change action.

Tags: 

Related Areas of Work

April 2016

QUNO participation at the 31st session of the Human Rights Council

The 31st session of the Human Rights Council (29 February to 24 March) provided new opportunities for QUNO to raise issues relevant to several areas of ongoing concern, such as the human impacts of climate change, criminal justice reform and the rights of children of incarcerated parents.

Tags: 

Related Areas of Work

April 2016

The Paris Climate Change Agreement: the most critical work begins now

Representative for Climate Change, Lindsey Fielder Cook, reflects on the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Over the course of three years leading up to COP21, QUNO engaged in quiet diplomacy at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), offering delegates a more 'human' space in what could seem at times like an inhuman environment.

The report, available below, offers insight into this process, thoughts on the Agreement itself and a vision for what might lie ahead.

The most critical work begins now.

Related Areas of Work

March 2016

QUNO delivers oral statement on human rights and climate change at HRC

In response to the report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, QUNO delivered an oral statement stressing the importance of incorporating a human rights perspective into states' climate action.

Focusing on the role of human rights in producing coherent, legitimate and sustainable policies, as well as the importance of ensuring citizens' participation in climate policy, the statement was delivered by Patrick Endall, Programme Assistant for Food & Sustainability and Climate Change, during the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

Related Areas of Work

January 2016

VIDEO: Lindsey Fielder Cook talks about our Human Impacts of Climate Change programme

In this video, excerpted from a longer film shown at the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Plenary Meeting held in Peru in January 2016, Lindsey Fielder Cook discusses the work of our Human Impacts of Climate Change programme.

Related Areas of Work

January 2016

Interview: QUNO and Joseph Rowntree Foundation reflect on COP21

With the dust settling on December's climate negotiations in Paris, QUNO's Lindsey Fielder Cook and Katherine Knox from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation were invited by journalism platform the IPF to share their reflections on the conference.

In the interview, they discuss the climate change work that QUNO and JRF have been undertaking and some of the implications of the outcome document, as well as sharing their experiences of the tense, dramatic and ultimately successful two weeks.

Related Areas of Work

October 2015

QUNO publishes timely briefing papers ahead of COP21 in Paris

Between November 30 and December 11, 2015, international negotiators will meet at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 in Paris. The annual COP is the main decision making session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This particular meeting is historic: in the context of increasingly strong and urgent calls to tackle anthropogenic climate change, the participants will seek to agree on a new agreement applicable to all Parties.

Related Areas of Work

August 2015

Policy Brief: Realizing the right to food in an era of climate change

Agriculture is a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change, and in turn climate change threatens the viability of food production around the world. The spread of capital- and technology-intensive 'industrial' agriculture in the modern era has been accompanied by an erosion of on-farm genetic diversity, a loss of local knowledge, and the abandonment of traditional farming practices. This undermines our capacity to
adapt to already-changing climatic conditions.

Related Areas of Work

June 2015

QUNO and Living Witness hold side-event at UNFCCC climate change conference

QUNO, together with Living Witness hosted a side event at the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference, entitled "Moving beyond conflict to build shared purpose.” The workshop was moderated by Laurie Michaelis, Founder of Living Witness. QUNO’s Climate Change Representative, Lindsey Fielder Cook, welcomed participants, encouraging them to explore their own conflicts with other participants in the room in order to understand how to best work through them.

Related Areas of Work

March 2015

QUNO co-hosts Climate Change side event at the Human Rights Council

The Geneva Climate Change Concertation Group (GeCCco), the Geneva Interfaith Forum on Climate Change and Human Rights (GIF), QUNO and other NGOs concerned about the impact of climate change on human rights, co-hosted CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE HRC, a side event to the 28th session of the Human Rights Council. The side event was held on Friday, 6 March, from 1-3pm in Room XXVII at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. 

Related Areas of Work

December 2014

QUNO launches FCNL Report on Natural Resources in the Central African Republic

In early December, QUNO hosted the Friends Committee on National Legislation launch of a policy brief titled: "Central African Republic Crisis: Managing Natural Resources for Peace." Engaging with a range of stakeholders, a series of Quaker House meetings in New York emphasized the importance of fostering transparent and accountable systems of management for the wealth of natural resources across the Central African Republic.

Related Areas of Work

December 2014

QUNO co-hosted a side event on human rights and climate change in Lima

QUNO, together with the World Council of Churches and Religions for Peace, co-hosted a side event on the human rights impacts of anthropogenic climate change on 10 December 2014, during the 20th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Lima, Peru. 

Related Areas of Work

September 2014

QUNO and FCNL co-host lunch in New York bringing together climate scientists and faith community representatives

On 22 September, QUNO and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) co-hosted a lunch with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and faith community representatives from the New York region.  Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, alongside Dr. Chris Field, Co-Chair of the recent 5th Assessment Report Working Group II, and Dr. Renata Christ, Secretary of the IPCC, spoke with 30 representatives from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha’í​ and Brahma Kumaris communities. 

Related Areas of Work

September 2014

QUNO Walks With People's Climate March in New York

On Sunday, September 21, QUNO staff from New York and Geneva joined in the People's Climate March, which brought an estimated 400,000 people to the streets of New York to voice their concerns and walk in solidarity with the communities who are most affected by climate change, in advance of the UN Climate Summit.  QUNO and other Quaker organizations are actively working on the margins of the Climate Summit, calling "on our leaders t

Related Areas of Work

September 2014

QUNO hosted events and released two new publications during the UN Climate Summit and the People's Climate March in New York

On 23 September, world leaders met in New York for the UN Climate Summit to highlight the urgency of acting on anthropogenic climate change. Civil society also played a vital role in this process, as demonstrated by the momentous People’s Climate March.

In addition to joining the march and hosting two intimate "quiet conversation" lunches with local faith communities, civil society actors and policymakers, the QUNO Human Impacts of Climate Change programme  released two publications during this critical time.

Related Areas of Work