Dear John,

The COP27 UN Climate talks start this Sunday. We’re getting ready to make our voices heard during them and we’d love you to join us!

Climate groups from around the world are organising a global day of action on Saturday 12th November - close to the halfway point of the COP27 negotiations. To mark the day, Stop Climate Chaos is organising a photo action at 12 noon on 12th November and we’d love you to take part!

We’ve chosen the Famine Memorial in Dublin’s North Dock as the photo action’s location to stand with communities experiencing extreme hunger as a result of the climate crisis and colonialism.

We hope to take some compelling photos to call on the Irish Government to show climate ambition and global solidarity at COP27 - which we’ll pitch to the media and share on social media. The more faces in those photos the better!

So will you save the date and join us in Dublin at 12 noon on the 12th? 

Sometimes climate impacts are so severe they go beyond what people can adapt to. Think of the current climate-exacerbated hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa, heavy rains destroying hectare upon hectare of crops in Rwanda or recent flooding that left one third of Pakistan under water. Climate impacts like this are referred to as Loss and Damage. 

Loss and Damage is one of the big issues for COP27. For years, countries in the global South and climate justice movements have been calling for a Loss and Damage Finance Facility that would help communities and countries that are struck by the very worst climate impacts. 

A breakthrough on Loss and Damage is urgently needed at COP27 - lives depend on it and we can’t leave all the campaigning to countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis. That’s why we’ll be making Loss and Damage Finance an important focus of our photo action on the 12th November. We’ll be calling on the Irish Government to support the establishment of a Loss and Damage Finance Facility at COP27. Will you add your voice too John?

Could you pop 12 noon on the 12th into your calendar and join us at the Famine Memorial on the day? There’s a Google maps link to the location here if you need any help finding us. 

The vast majority of loss and damage has been caused by the emissions of rich countries in the global North. In fact, the global North is responsible for 92% of excess emissions that are fuelling the climate crisis.

Despite this, rich countries have been refusing to pay even the most meagre amounts of compensation for the Loss and Damage they’ve caused. At the COP27 Climate Talks in Glasgow last year, rich countries, including the EU, blocked the efforts of 138 developing countries to set up a Loss and Damage Finance Facility.

We've an opportunity to try to change things at the upcoming COP27 UN Climate Talks. Thanks to the efforts of climate vulnerable countries, the issue of Loss and Damage has finally moved from being a fringe issue at UN Talks to a much hotter topic. Just recently Denmark became the first EU member state to pledge finance for loss and damage. It's time for Ireland to do likewise! So let’s go all out to make it happen.

I hope you can join us on the 12th November - let’s stand shoulder to shoulder with those at the frontlines of the climate crisis. 

Together, we are stronger. 

In solidarity

Bríd

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about COP27 and Loss and Damage you might like to dip into a Read and Watch list that was shared at a recent webinar on the issue hosted by SCC member organisation Friends of the Earth. You’ll find articles and blogs to read, webinar recordings to watch, podcasts to listen to and more! You can view the Read and Watch list here.

P.P.S.Friends of the Earth also has a pre COP27 e-action with Loss and Damage as one of its key focuses - visit their website here to use it to send an email to Eamon Ryan and Simon Coveney in just a few clicks. 

Stop Climate Chaos is a coalition of civil society organizations campaigning to ensure Ireland does its fair share to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change.