“At the moment, every country arrives at climate negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible. This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide. We don’t want a global suicide pact. We want a global survival pact ” – Mohammed Nasheed, President of Maldives in 2009.
When the global climate negotiations began in 1992 under the aegis of the UNFCCC, many people saw hope in halting the dangerous consequences of climate change. As we have witnessed that even with the solutions in front of us, the political will to implement them has proved to be a hard bargain. In the last few years, as the grassroots climate movement has risen up around the world, a few nations have taken positive steps in addressing the challenge but we still have a lot to do in breaking this political deadlock. The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is a group of nations that are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change and aims to achieve a strong global political consensus in solving this issue. Consisting of 11 founding and 22 participating nations, the forum represents the voices of those who are most vulnerable yet least responsible for climate change. The forum began in 2009 under the chairmanship of the Maldives and was then passed to Kiribati in 2010. This year, this weekend, two weeks before the next UNFCCC conference of parties (COP) in Durban, the CVF is meeting in Bangladesh with heads of states of many vulnerable countries participating along with UN General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon. And it’s no wonder that these countries who face some of the most severe impacts of the climate crisis include the 350 ppm target in their official declaration.
Unlike other forums, the CVF is comprised of nations that are taking bold steps domestically in mitigating their carbon footprint with some of them even pronouncing goals of carbon neutrality (like Maldives). With the strength of this proactive leadership and higher moral ground, the CVF is working hard in raising a single strong voice to hold industrialized countries accountable and push them for greater carbon cuts and financial commitments supporting low carbon development throughout the world.
Let’s stand together with the CVF in their call for a scientific and fair action to address the climate crisis. Can you to send in a message of support in the form of images or text? You can leave a comment right here on the blog below (using Facebook) or send in photos to [email protected] with the message “We are all climate vulnerable” in the subject line with your city and country in the email as well.
Also, click “read more” to check out some videos from our partners in Bangladesh…
Our 350 friends in Dhaka, youth leaders with the Bangladesh Youth Movement for Climate (BYMC), will be joining the CVF meeting this weekend to deliver those messages and be sure the solidarity and support of our global movement helps further the CVF call for strong action to get back below 350 ppm. The team in Dhaka even put together a quick video to help spread the message:
And now we have a second video from our friend Dr Saleemul Huq who helps explain in more detail the context surrounding the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the meeting in Dhaka:
Please leave your solidarity message in the comments below or send a photo in to [email protected].
For further background reading on the CVF, please refer to these pages. The civil society expectations document submitted to the climate vulnerable forum can be viewed here.