WE ACT at COP26 Calling for Climate Justice at the
United Nations Climate Conference
Dana Johnson and Peggy Shepard (pictured above, left to right) are at COP26, the United Nations' Climate Change Conference in Scotland, advocating for equitable solutions to the climate crisis. And it's a good thing they are there - along with Dr. Robert Bullard, Director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University; Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice; and Donele Wilkins, President & CEO of the Green Door Initiative - because equity and justice have been almost entirely absent from the conference, with the exception of the Green Zone exhibition hall across the river and the protests outside the multiple security perimeters.
Columbia Climate School Panel Turning COP26 Ambition Into Action
Peggy Shepard spoke on a panel hosted by Columbia University's Climate School, with students joining from New York via Zoom. Participants (pictured above, left to right) included special guest speaker Ali Zaidi, Deputy White House National Climate Advisor; moderator Jason Bordoff, Dean of Columbia's Climate School; panelist Mary Nichols, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Columbia's Center on Global Energy Policy and former Chair of the California Air Resources Board; panelist Catherine McKenna, former Canadian Minister of the Environment & Climate Change; Peggy Shepard; and Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and former Climate Change Ambassador for France.
The panelists shared their thoughts on COP26 to date and offered advice to students - both in Glasgow and at Columbia in New York - on how to turn the ambition on display into action on the ground. You can watch the video below.
More Panels at COP26 Making Our Concerns Heard
During another panel discussion, focusing on how philanthropy can catalyze methane emission reductions, Dr. Beverly Wright of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (pictured above, on the right, with Peggy Shepard) raised the issue of landfills in the Gulf Coast, which are all located in environmental justice communities and have been growing exponentially thanks to the damage and debris from all the hurricanes.
On Monday, Peggy Shepard, Dr. Beverly Wright, Dr. Robert Bullard, and Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice Founder Catherine Flowers will participate in a panel, Meeting the Methane Moment with Equity Through the US Justice40 Initiative, moderated by the Environmental Defense Fund's Vice President of Community Engagement Heather McTeer Toney. The discussion will focus on how the Justice40 initiative can be a vehicle to reduce methane emissions and achieve environmental justice. This panel will be held at the Methane Moment pavilion in COP26's Blue Zone on Monday, November 8 at 11:00 AM local time, which is 6:00 AM EST (it will be live-streamed at MethaneMoment.org, but we will share clips on social media in case you can't get up that early).
And speaking of early, Peggy will also be on the Climate Group's Systems Shift: Embedding Environmental and Social Justice panel at 8:00 AM in Glasgow on Monday, November 8, discussing how the business and policy sectors can embrace, embed, and support environmental and social justice.
Peggy Shepard and Dana Johnson gather by the fire after a long day of panels, interviews, meetings, networking, and the lovely Scottish weather.
