Guest post: Climate Justice Africa Mission

Dear EcoCongregation Scotland blog readers,

Gordon has kindly invited me to share my African Climate Justice Mission blog on this site, and I will be sharing posts from my blog here, as I travel with a caravan of 160 young Africans and young people from around the world, to take a message of Climate Justice and sustainability to our world leaders at the United Nations (UN) Climate negotiations in Durban this year.

I am currently in Nairobi, and the Regional African Youth Climate Conference, before the caravan leaves on Monday, for Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and finally South Africa. The first sessions in the conference have been totally inspiring and empowering, as young people have stepped up to speak about their projects, share experience of Climate Change causing food and water shortages in their communities, and how they are trying to adapt. Our mission on the caravan is to share knowledge and spread conversation and awareness about Climate Change, and importantly collect an ambitious 250,000 signatures on our petition to call the UN world leaders to a fair binding treaty at Durban. The African voice needs to be heard, since these are the people who are feeling the impacts of Climate Change the hardest. Our campaign is "We Have Faith: Act Now for Climate Justice!"

Once we arrive in Durban, we will be joining thousands of other young people to lobby and campaign around the main UNFCCC negotiations. I will also be participating in a leadership training programme (Youth for Eco-Justice) by the World Council of Churches and Lutheran World Federation for 28 young Christians from all over the world to initiate and build environmental and sustainability projects in our countries and around the world. I am hoping to work with EcoCongregation and other organisations in the UK, and form strong partnerships, particularly with young people, who must take charge of the future. For me, this journey is a study break in my Wind Energy PhD at Strathclyde University, and I am currently representing the UK Youth Climate Coalition in Africa, until I join the rest of the UKYCC delegation in Durban, once the caravan arrives.

There is an opportunity to support the African cause and the caravan on my blog, and I hope to keep in touch with all the UK networks and projects, while I am on this 6-week mission. I look forward to working with EcoCongregation and many other organisations and initiatives on my return to the UK.