QUNO, on behalf of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), offered this submission in response to a call for input the Article 6.4 Supervisory Board on how to meaningfully engage with Indigenous peoples and local communities. This submission calls for the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body to ground meangingful engagement with Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Summary findings, approved by States in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body is tasked with supervising and operationalizing the carbon crediting mechanism that was established by Article 6.4 of the UN Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change which encourages global action to help humanity and nature avert catastrophic temperature rise due to human activities. 

FWCC is an accredited observer of both the UNFCCC and IPCC, as well as an expert reviewer of IPCC Reports. In addition to FWCC expertise, the submission collated findings directly referenced from the IPCC AR6 Reports. We hope that this collation will help guide the Supervisory Board to ground its work in the best available scientific research, strengthening efforts to establish meaningful engagement with Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This is critical to avert exacerbating existing structural inequities, especially when considering land-based carbon credits in areas of Indigenous land tenure or where land tenure is insecure. This submission highlights IPCC findings that not only emphasize the risks associated with failing to engage meaningfully with Indigenous Peoples and local communities but also offer approaches to minimize such risks through monitoring and reporting; capacity-building; or incorporating Indigenous knowledges and human rights-based approaches

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva published an updated version of ‘How to be a Hero for All Our Children,’ which is available in English, Arabic, and Spanish. It aims to connect people with the most recent climate science and suggests personal actions and questions for politicians.

‘How to be a Hero for All Our Children’ has been updated with the most recent climate scientific findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6). This report was compiled over seven years and involved hundreds of scientists worldwide.  

The updated ‘How to be a Hero for All Our Children’ is written for a wide audience, whether already active or new to climate concerns. It includes categories such as “What we eat”, “How we grow and sell food”, and “How we use and source energy.” This publication is meant to aid in our collective empowerment to transform the root causes driving planetary crisis. 

This publication is accessible online and via a print-at-home version which can be used for personal distribution and campaigning.

QUNO’s team at the recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations (SB58) in Bonn (June 5 – June 15) was the Representative for the Human Impacts of Climate Change (HICC), Lindsey Fielder Cook, and HICC programme assistant Alana M Carlson. 

QUNO’s interactive side event was titled “Truthful engagement in real, effective and ethical climate action for an ambitious Global Stocktake,” and included panelists from the negotiation, research, activist, community organizer and legal experience. The event was led by QUNO and the Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas (FAWCO), with co-hosts from Britain Yearly, Quaker Earthcare Witness, and the Friends World Committee for Consultation.  The side event can be watched here.

See the below word collage to review the reflections shared by audience members.

The 2016 Paris Agreement is an international agreement on climate change binding every country that has signed to act on the climate response. Countries are required to outline their climate actions through “Nationally Determined Contributions,” with developed countries leading on mitigation and finance. This 2-sider explains what the Paris Agreement is and how to get involved in
making sure that countries are responding to it. 

ON 10 November 2022, QUNO Human Impacts of Climate Change representative, Lindsey Fielder Cook, spoke on an expert panel to over 60 country negotiators and civil society at the Global Stocktake Technical Dialogue on international cooperation for holistic and integrated approaches to addressing the climate crisis. Lindsey began by asking the negotiators and civil society to engage from both the head and heart before speaking on what holistic and integrated approaches mean, and then celebrating several recent examples of international cooperation which represent such approaches. Afterwards, Lindsey reflected on holistic and integrated approaches that can dramatically scale up climate action but need greater international cooperation that the Global Stocktake engagement can signal. Several such approaches included rights-based approaches, the importance of sustainable and just economic systems, as well as what real human security, and how the GST can embrace language of responsibility. 

FWCC/QUNO submitted in September 2022 a report to the Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures (KCI). The Committee – which features representatives from each of the five UN regional groups, one member from the least developed countries, one member from the small island developing States and two members from relevant intergovernmental organizations - was established in 2018 to produce work on the impacts – both positive and negative - of responses to climate change taken by different actors. QUNO has been an observer of KCI meetings throughout the course of these years, advocating for responses that take human rights into account.

The reports focuses on best practice approaches to climate action. It also reflects how incorporating the human rights of people in poverty promotes environmental, social, and economic co-benefits of climate change policies. Our input to the KCI was grounded in three principles: what is 1)Fair, 2) Ambitious, and 3) Effective. Observations and examples of good/promising practices were made in the areas of energy; housing; planned obsolescence and life cycle of production; the impacts of transition on employment; and land use, including food waste and diet. 

The materials of the reports have also been shared with the United Nations Rapporteur on the extreme poverty and human rights. 

To read the full submission, click the link below.

The Human Impacts of Climate Change programme jointly made a submission to the UNFCCC’s Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures (KCI), working alongside colleagues from the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA). The Committee – which features representatives from each of the five UN regional groups, one member from the least developed countries, one member from the small island developing States and two members from relevant intergovernmental organizations - was established in 2018 to produce work on the impacts – both positive and negative - of responses to climate change taken by different actors. QUNO has been an observer of KCI meetings throughout the course of these years, advocating for responses that take human rights into account.

The submission focused on the transition from fossil fuels-based energy consumption to renewable energy, advocating for a just energy transition in which resources are mobilised in such a way that reduces inequality and guarantees human rights. Specifically, the paper outlined the negative impacts on human rights of large-scale renewable energy projects that fail to consider their impact on the local communities and environment where they are being built. The paper discusses the alternative decentralised renewable energy systems (DRE), as an existent model for energy transitioning that is human rights compliant.  

The authors write that “[the climate response] requires costs, as well as benefits, to be fairly distributed to ensure the decarbonization of our energy system does not further exacerbate or entrench existing inequalities.” This submission aligns with QUNO’s ongoing advocacy for a climate response that is human rights-centred and which ensures climate justice.  

To read the full joint submission, click below.

A Government Official’s Toolkit: inspiring urgent climate action includes 12 concise cases, 231 quotes referenced to over 100 published papers (including the IPCC Special Reports on: Global Warming of 1.5C Climate Change and Land Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate). This publication is written to support government officials—at local, regional and national levels—who are concerned about the impact of climate change on their citizens, their country, and the planet. It offers a range of concise cases to help you engage with different concerns, and integrate scientific, rights-based, and Indigenous knowledge and approaches throughout the Toolkit.

QUNO's Human Impacts of Climate Change programme briefly summarizes the latest climate science ahead of the COP 21 climate change negotiations taking place in Paris in December 2015.