|
Dear {name},
This week and next, Texans and Americans will be hyperfocused on the bedrock process of democracy, electing leaders at all levels of government and voting on initiatives like raising funds for public purposes and protecting the rights of vulnerable community members. Elections are at their core a local community activity, even when the ballot includes national officials: the folks staffing the polls are neighbors with the voters.
Less than a week after the U.S. election, leaders from around the world will gather for COP29—the annual United Nations climate change conference. In 2016, the results of the U.S. election had major ramifications for the progress of global climate action, including the temporary withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.
But as Katharine Hayhoe points out today, national elections aren’t the only ones that impact climate change. Hayhoe highlights Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea, who is a respected leader in the global climate policy arena because of her work to advance climate action through local governments.
This year’s COP will take place from November 11 to November 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan. As in years past, Texas Impact will be sending staff in person, and this year for the first time we also will be “sending” staff virtually. Texas Impact partners with national denominational and interfaith partners to provide a robust presence of U.S. faith voices in the negotiations. Faith communities have been instrumental in recent years in elevating concerns around climate change impacts on human health and safety, and were key champions of the Loss & Damage Fund established at COP27.
This year, faith communities in the U.S. and around the world will have their eyes on the inscrutably named “Nationally Determined Contributions” or NDCs, and the even denser-sounding “New Collective Quantified Goal” or (you guessed it) NCQG. Bureaucratic names notwithstanding, NDCs and the NCQG are the crux of global climate policy, and they have extremely concrete meanings: NDCs are the amount by which each nation will reduce its future greenhouse gas emissions over the Paris Agreement base level, and the NCQG is how much funding all the nations of the world collectively will commit to ensuring our combined emission reduction goals are met.
To get up to speed about what’s at stake for COP29, check out the World Resources Institute, one of our favorite sources for insights and analysis of global climate policy. We also are huge fans of Climate Home News, a global publication based in the UK.
As a reminder, you can find Texas Impact's policy priorities here—we hope you'll consider them and other priorities of your faith tradition when you cast your vote. And remember that what starts on your ballot can change the world, so pay attention to all those “down-ballot” races.
Thanks for your work for justice—locally and globally!
Love, |
