THE Make Polluters Pay coalition and Anum Qaisar MP have hosted a parliamentary drop-in to raise the profile of international climate justice.
Quakers in Britain joined representatives from Christian Aid, Oxfam, Greenpeace and Action Aid at the event on 15 November which was attended by 16 leading MPs and peers including Debbie Abrahams and Stephen Timms.
Policy experts working on loss and damage finance and other aspects of international climate justice shared their research findings and how these could be put into practice, including the role of the UK. The event also featured a specially created video of people with lived experience of loss and damage in the Global South. These included Paul Chukwuma from Rwanda’s Loss and Damage Youth Coalition and Veronica ‘Derek’ Cabe from the Nuclear and Coal-free Bataan Movement in the Philippines.
MPs were encouraged to commit to supporting loss and damage finance and making polluters pay by having their photos taken with pledge boards.
Rebecca WalkerWoo, climate justice lead at Quakers in Britain, said: “It was wonderful to be able to share expertise with these parliamentarians and we are grateful for their support. Quakers believe all human lives are of equal worth and that we cannot stand by while the poorest communities in the world are devastated by a climate crisis that is not of their making.We hope that these MPs will feel empowered to encourage the government to take action on finance for climate justice and loss and damage.”
The Make Polluters Pay coalition call on the UK government to:
- Support the proper establishment of the new Loss and Damage Fund
- Ensure the wealthiest individuals and big corporate polluters pay their fair share
- Introduce measures including ending producer fossil fuel subsidies and properly taxing polluting activities such as flights on private jets.
* Source: Quakers in Britain