Birds on flooded Port Meadow, Oxford. Telephoto view from Burgess Field Nature Park. Photo by Jonathan Bowen.
Working Towards the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, in Glasgow,
November 2021
Virginia Allport
During this last year, I have hugely valued the green spaces nearby: the flooded Port Meadow with the honk and whistle of geese and waders, and the wild flowers in the Trap Grounds nature reserve. They have given me, and so many people, a chance to breathe and escape from the restrictions and loneliness of lockdown.
But the anxiety over the climate and ecological emergency has grown continuously, despite the brief exhilaration ten years ago of BYM Canterbury, 2011, when Quakers in Britain made a commitment to act collectively to build a low carbon, sustainable Justice. At our meeting on Wednesday 17 March we discussed carbon cutting or climate marching, and how we should prepare for COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in November.
Charles Worth began with a reading of:
The produce of the Earth is a gift from our gracious Creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth now to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to our succeeding age.
In a nutshell, that is why we are bringing three proposals to our local business meeting on April 4:
- to work with area, national, and international Quakers in preparing for COP26;
- to join local organisations like the Oxfordshire COP26 Climate Alliance, (OCCA), and
- to discuss a series of banners for the outside of 43, addressing the climate and ecological emergency.
Our S.E.E. Justice group commends the Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) programme of action ‘Six ways for Quakers to secure our Climate future’: https://www.quaker.org.uk/blog/un-climate-talks-6-ways-for-quakers-to-secure-our-climate-future
We also commend Friends of the Earth, www.oxfoe.co.uk/cop26/.
They tell us that:
“True leadership means doing five things. Britain must:
- Use its diplomatic influence to close the gap between existing Paris Agreement pledges for 2030, and those needed to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.
- Champion increasing financial support to help poorer countries adapt to climate change and manage loss and damage, ensuring this support reaches those who need it most.
- Support and fund nature-based solutions which can help to achieve net-zero emissions globally, whilst restoring the Earth’s precious ecosystems and biodiversity.
- Stop all new support for fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) overseas, phase-out existing investments, increase support for clean energy systems, and help deliver universal access to energy.
- Get our own house in order – enact new policies, laws and investment to put us unmistakably on the path to eliminating our carbon emissions as soon as possible.”
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Forty-Three e-Newsletter • Number 504 • April 2021
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW