Praying for COP27 - ACE & Civil Society

COP27 - 15 Nov 2022
ACE & CIVIL SOCIETY

One of today's themes at COP27 is ACE (Action for Climate Empowerment) and Civil Society. Some of the issues discussed on other days are revisited from the perspective of the Civil Society. For our own explorations we've tried to answer the questions What is Civil Society? and What is ACE? and to look at examples where Civil Society has made a positive difference to environmental concerns. (Energy also runs as a theme today).

A short prayer

Dear God – you who brought order out of chaos when you created the world, we thank you for structures, institutions and services that we enjoy in this country. We pray for all those involved in decision making locally and nationally that they will be just and wise. We ask that we will use our voices, votes and influence to support those who are marginalised, trapped in cycles of poverty and broken dreams.

A longer prayer

For our eyes we thank you Lord – may we use them to look outwards from ourselves and into the world.
For our minds we thank you Lord – may we us them to discern right from wrong in the things we see and to grapple with the complexities of the issues we encounter.
For our hearts we thank you Lord – may they be filled with compassion for those who are in need and for your creation that we care for.
For our voices we thank you Lord – may we use them to speak clearly for those who have no voice, to be advocates for those who lack agency and to raise concern about things that are wrong.
For our hands we thank you Lord – may we use them to serve, may they be hands that do your work.

From the Bible

Proverbs 31: 8-9 (NIV)

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Psalm 82: 3-4 (NIV)

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Exodus 3: 5-12 (NIV)

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

Issues

Our main issue when we looked at today's theme was our lack of knowledge of what exactly a Civil Society is and what ACE is, so we've addressed these questions here.

What is Civil Society? A couple of definitions which essentially say the same thing but we find the second easier to get our heads around:
- The area outside the family, market and state encompassing a spectrum of civil society actors and entities with a wide range of purposes, structures, degrees of organisation, membership and geographical coverage (World Economic Forum).
- A public space between the state, the market and the ordinary household, in which people can debate and tackle action (BBC).
What roles does Civil Society play? (World Economic Forum):
- Watchdog: holding institutions to account, promoting transparency and accountability;
- Advocate: raising awareness of societal issues and challenges and advocating for change;
- Service provider: delivering services to meet societal needs such as education, health, food and security; implementing disaster management, preparedness and emergency response − Expert: bringing unique knowledge and experience to shape policy and strategy, and identifying and building solutions;
- Capacity builder: providing education, training and other capacity building;
- Incubator: developing solutions that may require a long gestation or payback period;
- Representative: giving power to the voice of the marginalized or under-represented;
- Citizenship champion: encouraging citizen engagement and supporting the rights of citizens;
- Solidarity supporter: promoting fundamental and universal values;
- Definer of standards: creating norms that shape market and state activity.
What is ACE? ACE stands for Action for Climate Empowerment. It's a term adopted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to denote work carried under Article 6 of the Convention and Article 12 of the Paris Agreement, in other words the requirement to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information (UNFCCC website).
Why does ACE matter?
- Implementation of all six ACE elements is crucial to the global response to climate change. Everyone, including and perhaps especially the young, must understand and participate in the transition to a low-emission, climate-resilient world (UNFCCC website).
- Sustainable lifestyles, sustainable patterns of consumption and production, are fundamental to reducing greenhouse emissions and enhancing resilience to the inevitable effects of climate change. Success will require broad collaboration between all levels of government and all sectors of society (UNFCCC website).

from https://unfccc.int/ace

Hope

As part of Civil Society charities can influence for the good of the climate. We've used Tearfund and Christian Aid projects as examples of local involvement (see the Gender and Water pages), however both charities are active in the arenas of education (of their supporters) and lobbying/holding to account our Government. Many of their in-country partners would be counted as Civil Society organisaions. Browse their websites: Tearfund | Christian Aid.
Protests, marches and public gatherings can have a local and sometimes a much wider impact. The Treehugger website records eight historic climate change protests and the impact that they had.
Women's cooperative take on energy giant in Malawi - The Lusako women’s rice milling cooperative in Karonga District, Northern Malawi, took on ESCOM electricity company to prevent their business from failing (repeating a story from the Gender page).
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife Fund are all environmentally-focused Civil Society organisations that we are familiar with in the UK and of course recently in the press we read about the National Trust and the RSPB considering mobilising members to protest against government policies that could damage nature in the UK.
There are a lot of web articles extoling the importance of Civil Society but we found few that gave examples of the work being done on the ground. However, we did find a paper that looked at the voices of local NGOs in climate change issues in the developing world, which opened our eyes to what is being achieved, often in very difficult circumstances:
- raising awareness and training local people who have influence in their communities;
- capacity building and supporting people involved in climate change projects as well as directily implementing climate change projects;
- engaging in data collection, particularly where there is a gap in scientific knowledge or where there is no government organisation carrying out the work e.g. Afghanistan;
- creating databases of local knowledge;
- advocating on behalf of local people e.g. drawing to the attention of the world the devastating impact of sea level rise on the livelihoods of people living in coastal areas and on small islands;
- providing expertise to local and national government;
- creating knowledge repositories (including an example of a young activist setting up a library so that people in his community could be exposed to a range of ideas on climate change;
- encouraging local people to add to their own knowledge;
- acting as policy advocates, presenting the views of local stakeholders to government;
- making information on climate change issues available in languages understood by the local communities.
And of course, we have to consider how we - as part of Civil Society through the faith and other groups that we belong to - respond. More thoughts on that on the Solutions page.

COP27 discussions

Introductory Plenary Session: Civil Society and Shaping the Global Climate Agenda: Legacy and Prospects: The role of civil society in shaping the global climate agenda and the implementation of commitments and pledges under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate and the Paris Agreement, with possible announcement of financial and other pledges.
Water, energy Food and Ecosystem Nexus: Perspectives from the Civil Society: Examining the interconnection between water, energy, food and the ecosystem from civil society perspectives and considering efforts to respond to climate-related challenges and impacts at this interconnection.
Dialogue on The Role of Civil Society in Prevention and Response to Climate-Induced Disasters: Particularly drawing on experiences from the developing world and the efforts of civil society to prevent, manage, and respond to climate-induced disasters.
Dialogue on Implementing the ACE Framework: Presentations from the developing world about existing initiatives and opportunities for cross-sector partnerships for climate empowerment, with a specific focus on the role of civil society. Announcement of financial and other pledges in support of activities under ACE Framework.

Find out more

COP27 details for the ACE & Civil Society theme.
World Economic Forum in collaboration with KPMG International, January 2013. The Future Role of Civil Society, part of the World Scenario Series.
McGregor, I. M., Yerbury, H., & Shahid, A., 2018. The Voices of Local NGOs in Climate Change Issues: Examples from Climate Vulnerable Nations. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 10(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v10.i3.6019

News from the day

Empowerment of Civil Society Tops COP27 Agenda.
COP27 Day8: Energy (and ACE & Civil Society)

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COP27 - 15 Nov 2022ACE & CIVIL SOCIETY