 So cool to see all the places, all corners of the world that we're meeting in this Zoom together. That is really cool to see, keep on sending those into the chat. But I think we will get started now. So yeah, it's fantastic to see you all for this webinar, which is on the IPCC's latest report that was released just on Monday. The Working Group 2's contribution to the IPCC's sixth assessment report, the one focusing on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. So I think as we all know, the release of these reports can be quite overwhelming and yeah, quite intense. So that's why we put together this webinar and invited some incredible people to discuss the key messages and takeaways from the report and get some different perspectives on how people are feeling with the release of this new, quite overwhelming report. First up, we're going to have Voi from Karma and Hajit Singh, who are going to together unpack the main scientific findings from the report and go into a bit of what this means for climate justice and climate justice movements. And yeah, so these two are really incredible experts. Hajit Singh is a global expert on the issues of climate impacts, mitigation, adaptation, and he supported countries right across the world tackling climate change and coordinating emergency climate responses and disaster resilience programs. And so he's currently the senior advisor at Climate Action Network International and is serving as Global Director for Engagement and Partnerships at Fossil Fuel Non-Prosolation Treaty Initiatives. And joining him in the first section will be Professor Voi from Karma, who is an environmental geographer and global ecologist. And he's been working at universities in Sweden, Norway, and Germany, and is now a CNRS senior scientist at the Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology in France. And since 1992, he's been a contributor on the IPCC and is currently working as the lead author on the Six Assessment Report. So two incredible voices and perspectives that we have the privilege to hear today. And following those, we're going to hear from Svitlana Amanko and who's going to talk about the critical links between fossil fuels and war and conflict, something that's extremely topical at the moment, given the current situation in Ukraine right now. But also the numerous fossil fuel funded conflicts that are taking in other parts, taking place in other parts of the world globally right at the moment. And then finally, we're going to hear from three amazing climate justice activists to hear their perspectives on why, despite how overwhelming and intense this report is, why there's still reason to have hope and what people power means to them. So we're going to hear from Mitzi Jerneltan, who is a full-time climate activist based in Manila, in the Philippines. And she's an organizer with Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines and also for Fires of Future in the Philippines and also on an international level. Kathy Yetnil-Kilina, who is a poet of Marshall Lee's descent from the Marshall Islands, and she's the co-founder and currently director of the Marshall Lee's Youth non-profit Yo-Yo Kim. And she also serves as climate envoy for the Marshall Islands government. And finally, Vanessa Nakate, who's an incredible climate justice activist from Uganda, where she started climate striking, and she was the founder of Youth for Future Africa and the Rise Up Movements, as well as Green School Project, which is aiming to support Ugandese schools to transition to renewable energy. And very excitingly, she recently published a bigger picture, My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis, her incredible new book. And also a reminder that at the end, we're going to have some time for Q&As. So if you send in all your questions, then we'll have the opportunity to ask all of our panelists those at the end. Yeah, so don't forget to be thinking of really good questions and send them into the chat. So I guess I will pass on to Haid and Wolfgang right now for their contribution. Yes, thank you. Thank you very much, Fetzi, and thank you for the whole group to have invited me. I see that as an honor to be able to speak to you around the world and explain a little bit what we've done the last five years. Let me mention first that, of course, everyone who's involved in the IPC is also really struck by the situation of war that has come upon us this last week. Despite having the approval process taking place virtually, we have seen the Ukrainian delegation flee from their homes to a while while we were discussing with them. They were able to come back later online, but it was quite a shocking period for us. And we see, of course, the reactions of the climate activist movement, which I think seems to be very appropriate and balanced to see not only the relation between these things, but also to, first of all, focus on solidarity with Ukrainian people at this stage. So thank you very much for this take that everybody seems to share. But if I come back to the science, let me also say that I'm one out of about 300 people who have been most deeply involved with this process, and there are 3,600 pages. So not only can I not present all of that to you in 10 minutes, also I honestly don't know everything as well as I do. Some parts that we just quickly say what my role has been. My role has been to be part of the framing chapter, where we explain some of the concepts and principles. And I have also coordinated a chapter, a small chapter on the Mediterranean Basin, which is, from our perspective, an interesting region because it reflects many trends that we have also elsewhere in the world with with a strong disparity between poor countries and rich countries with a very rapid climate change with people with direct suffering from people from climate change. And so we've written the synthesis for that. And the last role that I've had was participate in the writing of the summary for policymakers, which is a not very easy piece to read, but I invite you to do it. It's only 30 pages in the current setting. And it tries to give you the key messages as it's organized around what we call headline statements. And I'm going to come back to some of them quickly here now to basically give you an entry point. But before I even do that, I'd like to say that basically the summary is that it's, of course, a report that states many terrible things. It basically clarifies how far away we are from sustainable development worldwide for all people and how much climate change created or caused entirely by human action is making this even more difficult. But it is also a report which is directly addressing you in a way because if you look at, I don't have slides this morning, but if you look at the first slide, you will see that the first picture in it is about climate action. It's about how to translate our knowledge, it's a conceptual one, but it's how to translate our knowledge about the relationship between people and ecosystems under climate change towards action. And the action must, of course, always come in two parts. There's one part which is to improve our adaptive capacity to go in the direction of something that we call the little bit complicated term but climate resilient development, which means that the development that nevertheless takes place everywhere around the world must be made climate resilient. But it particularly mentions a lot of options and opportunities. Don't ask for it to speak about emission reductions because that's another report which will come in about five weeks from now from the third working group. So everything related to the energy sector and everything related to our urgent need and currently completely unsatisfactory action on the level of emission reductions is not the topic of this present report. What this present report shows is that the impacts of climate change are observable. They're not distant projections into the future. They are observable already now, worldwide in all world regions. There's no region where there's no observed impacts anymore. Many of these impacts affect human lives and livelihoods directly but also ecosystems. Let me say in parenthesis that this report is really also stressing the point that ecosystems have a value for themselves. Biodiversity has a value by itself. It's not just a commodity which we can consume. And so if there's a damage occurring now or projected in the future on an ecosystem or on biodiversity, it is just as much a damage as it is if it affects us or our health. It's an idea that is really being emerging over the last years and that is now strongly reflected in the report. And it is very clear when it comes to adaptation that we have a lot of positive examples which we can point to. A lot of options that we can explore that we can strengthen. A lot of action that takes place. But there are two concerns. One concern is that there's not enough for a number of reasons and finance being one of them. The funding that's required to assist both low income countries but also disfavored populations in rich countries to adequately adapt to the impacts of climate change is one concern. And the other concern is other hard limits that we are unfortunately approaching in some sectors. One that I always mentioned because it's easiest to understand is sea level rise. There are large numbers of settlements and infrastructure and ecosystems along the world's coasts. And currently that has been shown by the report from last year. We are currently on track for a sea level rise that may actually reach a meter or so by the end of the century but it could also be more. And that's the worrying thing and that's the thing that we really need to make people understand. We are not in a position to predict whether it's two or three meters or something like that but we cannot rule it out. And we are at the moment destabilizing the climate in a way that makes this risk more likely. It's a low likelihood risk but it makes it more likely to occur. Otherwise you will see things that you all know like the increase in extreme events that we've all observed over recent years that is expected to continue. The increasing risks of water supply with larger numbers of people are in shortage of water. Agriculture being one of the most important consumers of water. Obviously the direct risk for human health. You basically find specific details on these matters as far as the scientific knowledge allows us to present them. One perhaps last point at this stage that I would like to make is that the challenge, the request from governments for this particular report has been to provide greater regional detail for all parts of the world. Our last report was criticized that some parts of the Africa were very poorly covered with information about risks and about future protections. A lot has changed with respect to that. Actually not because the IPCC has become any better but because there's much more scientific efforts in all countries around the world to present and to analyze and present risks associated with climate change. So it will not be satisfactory but the fact that there's so much more knowledge at the regional scale is now pretty well reflected in this report. I don't know if that's about the sort of detail that you would want at this stage. I'm here for the entire meeting and I'm happy to answer any questions that there might be or if there's a, if Pat's your RG type some concrete thing that you also still want me to elaborate. Perhaps the last point I want to make is about this exchange with governments because there have been questions from, not only from activists about that aren't we sort of in a situation where we negotiate and we finally dilute our statements. The opposite is true. We have a process. It's a UN organization. It's an organization that is driven by the participation of all countries of the world, not just by some polluting countries or something like that. And based on this structure we present governments several times along the way with drafts on which they can react. The last one being this approval process where a finalized version of the summary is presented to governments and then there's a long discussion and that discussion I can only tell you is not a discussion to dilute things. It's a discussion to clarify things and it has been, I think, very successful this time. Of course there are always delegates who do not want to see something but the principle is that the scientists hold the pen and that means that we, that everything that's in the report now are statements that are not negotiated, the statements of the scientific experts. That doesn't mean that there can't be errors or mistakes or oversights. Don't forget that. But in principle, this is a scientific report which has the great value that at the end it was, in citation marks, approved by governments. Governments have taken notice of it. Any one of you can go back to your national government and tell them you cannot ignore this because you actually were there when it was presented and you said that you took notice of it. That's for me the most powerful message that actually comes out of the process. Thank you very much, Patsy and everyone for listening to me. I have to answer questions. Thanks so much. Another reminder to add your questions. There's a Q&A button at the bottom of the Zoom where you can send any of your questions and we'll make sure to get to those. I'll pass on to Hajji now. Hi everyone, thank you very much for having me. Can you hear me properly? Excellent. So I would also like to express my solidarity with my Ukrainian sisters and brothers who are facing the war and we are keeping you in our prayers. I hope the situation ends very soon. So I would like to build on from what Wolfgang has presented. So I'll not go much into the science part but I must underline a couple of things that we must take note of. Things that this report talks about and I would also like to refer to the speech from UNSG Antonio Guterres who made, who said some very powerful words at the launch of this report. We must recognize that this report is being launched in the context of 30 years of inaction and most authoritative words on climate science have confirmed our fears, something that we are seeing all around us and we have been saying for years now and also sending this warning to government and this report tells us very clearly we are late, we are really late and when such an authoritative report tells us that nothing much has happened over the last few years, we must worry and as Wolfgang was saying that this is a document which is for policy makers, not everything, not all the start warnings that are presented in the technical summary you would find them featuring exactly the same way in the policy, in the summary for policy makers and still the report talks about narrowing window of opportunity which all governments now agree to, we must worry and the report also says that half of the world's population is living on the edge and how hundreds of millions of people are suffering already from extreme heat waves, their food supplies are being disrupted, there are economic damages and natural systems collapsing, we are seeing displacement and forced migration, we are seeing huge impact on health livelihoods and well-being, urban areas are getting affected, so it is a very worrying situation and then something that is much more alarming when the report says we are already reaching limits to adaptation, we have been fighting for a mechanism that helps people who are facing these impacts now when we define climate action, we now talk about three pillars of climate action, mitigation which is emission reduction and protecting our forests and biodiversity, we also talk about adaptation which means being prepared to deal with climate impacts and that's what the report focuses on but also talks about where we have failed, where millions of people are not prepared to deal with climate impacts and they are suffering loss and damage and that's the language we use in the UNFCCC, UN climate space and this report refers to those terms as losses and damages and limits to adaptation, there is some politics around it because countries who are not comfortable with the term loss and damage because it does point to the inaction that they have made in the last few years and how rich countries are responsible and liable to pay, they didn't want that particular term to feature exactly in the same manner, nevertheless the term losses and damages and limits for adaptation points to a situation that we are late and we have not done enough on reducing emissions, reducing the future threat and also helping people prepare for climate impacts and here we have millions who are already suffering and losing their homes and income and are being forced to migrate. This report also talks about equity, climate justice and even pointing towards colonialism that is responsible to make people vulnerable, how and this is the first time report points towards the historical injustices that we must definitely take no doubt and it also talks about the lack of finance, how more money has gone towards mitigation although still mitigation has not been enough but very little money has gone for adaptation and we need to really ramp up and we now cannot live in a situation where we only focus on mitigation, we have to talk about adaptation, we have to talk about dealing with impacts in the same breadth as we talk about mitigation, I am not saying mitigation is less important, we have to work hard to stay below 1.5 degrees because already at 1.2 degree of temperature rise we are seeing devastating impacts, we just cannot afford it, it's a matter of survival for vulnerable communities, for indigenous people, for marginalized communities and 1.5 means that a lot of communities are already going to be losing their homes and incomes and paying through their lives, going beyond that is going to be absolutely devastating and unimaginable, we have to still go 1.5, mitigation is important but now adaptation has become equally important and as I said the report talks about the narrowing window of opportunity for climate resilient development, all the development actions that we are taking now have to integrate the climate aspect and make it resilient because it also points us towards the complex compound and cascading risk, there's a section on this on this aspect which means that we have reached a point that's going to become far more complex and we have to relook at our governance systems, our delivery mechanisms and across all the sectors, while it paints a disturbing picture of the future it also provides a blueprint on how we need to act, so it provides us several options and examples where it has worked and where it has not worked, it also refers to maladaptation, so which means that this summary for policymakers is a very authoritative and a powerful document and message for policymakers to act, they don't have to look anywhere else, this is the blueprint that they have to implement in countries and lastly I must also point towards the fights that we have been having in the UN climate space, as I said people are suffering, we now have three pillars, we have to make sure that justice is delivered in the UN climate space, we talk about global justice and what does it mean, it means people who are losing their homes they need to be supported and polluters must pay for that, be it countries and corporations and UN Secretary General very clearly targeted the fossil fuel industry and we have to do that, we have to bring it front and center of our climate fight and they are the ones responsible, on one hand we are fighting to even get 100 billion dollars from rich countries and here our fossil fuel industry continues to enjoy the support into the tune of 11 million dollars a minute, 11 million dollars a minute, so it's not that there's lack of money, we need to divert those resources towards mitigation to help people prepare for climate impacts and the ones who are suffering because the bill is already rising, there are estimates that we will be seeing damages to the tune of 290 to 580 billion dollars a year by 2030, we need money, we need to help countries who are dependent on fossil fuels to move away from it, we need money for just transition, we need a planned transition and we need a framework to help those countries, so all the three pillars of climate action have become important and if we want climate justice we cannot say we'll have to do one thing at the cost of the other, that's the message and this report very authoritatively does that brings the whole issue of climate impacts which means adaptation and limits to adaptation at par with mitigation and we have to make sure that when we talk about international cooperation and support we are able to look at all these three pillars of climate action, thank you. Thank you so much for that Hajji and also for a really great overview of the key messages of the IPCC report and what we should be taking away, thank you so much and also both of you mentioned of course the situation in Ukraine and how we're seeing the realities of what fossil fuel funded war on conflict looks like, so now we've got the opportunity to hear from Svidlana Romanko who's going to speak about exactly the situation in Ukraine and war and conflict in fossil fuels system, so yeah if you pass on to you now Svidlana. Oh yes, thank you so much and hello everyone, thank you for having me here and today I would like to express how we're all feeling here in Ukraine being so much invaded, being at war and these are times when our people, our communities are on the front line dying and the most hardest thing probably to recognize is that this is a fossil fuel financed war which has been for a long time blinding, tolerated with the range, the sequence of steps that brought all our system of exploration, extraction, burning, use of fossil fuels for many, many years. I would also say that this war confronts Europe, its energy system, global energy system, many countries which seems to like doing nothing with this Russia territory by territory but they are still importing oil, gas and sometimes coal from Russia in such a way supporting the undemocratic regime and equally understanding, equal understanding that fossil fuels are equal to the weapon of mass destruction. I think none of us is now doubting this equation. I have to say that in the past few days we have witnessed unprecedented courage and bravery from Ukrainian barriers and civilians and through the collective actions that countries of the world are taking to stop the war and through the collective actions that's the movement affected communities, movement in different countries is taken, are taken to stop this war. There is some hope and of course we want peace and justice but there won't be a peace in the world where Gazprom, Exxon, Total, Rosneft, many other corporations, you know all of them and we actually prepare two lists of those just not to forget who is on behind of the war over massive, massive, massive destruction, not only infrastructure but also democracy and human rights in the way it's a big threat to all the institutions we used to have on our protection for many, many, many, many years. Also find all these named institutions and many fossil fuel corporations and many more financial institutions who are still funding those activities including banks, including Wall Street, big buses, they all are allowed allow this process of extraction, transportation and burning fossil fuels besides concrete acts of solidarity alongside calls for sanctions pushing for a just transition building a fossil free world is now the climate movement can outside of Ukraine contribute to building peace. So just to update what we are all doing to restore justice and to establish peace whatever we can as a climate movement as an affected frontline communities who were put in the place where they have to find a ways to protect themselves and to protect our joint fossil free future from this horrific war fueled by fossil fuels. So we are as a Ukrainian climate community. We just were very united in a few calls to action which we would like to see implemented in the next months. These are first of all given that fossil fuels are equal to the weapon of mass destruction. As I mentioned before we call on fossil fuel non proliferation treaty which can end new expansion of oil gas and coal production and fair and equitable phase out existing production of fossil fuels and just transition from fossil fuels to community owned clean energy to end this horrific war and avoid future wars which is very very important. And second we drafted the letter which we will be launching on Friday to all European nation states the US, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea and all other importers of Russian oil and gas to the west boycott and embargo all trade and assets of fossil fuels from Russia. And from the news we can see that some rocks are being moved as for example Canada has banned import of fossil fuels from Russia and same action the US Congress is going to take today and the process is ongoing. The big shift is underway but we need to fasten it and to get justice for everyone starting from Ukraine but for everyone in this world. But however it's imperative that the world not simply replace Russian produced fossil fuels with fossil fuels from other countries. With an imagined priority of divestment and recording of all Russian oil and gas fossil fuel expansion must be immediately halted and nations worldwide must commit to the rapid and just transition away from all fossil fuels. As a next step we also will launch a petition to the Wall Street Chief Executive Officers which well we would like to demand to turn their backs on Russian fossil fuel companies now because it may be too late in just in a few days. And I would like again to emphasize the importance of divestment which we can get a very very quick proof of the justice can be restored. For example 30% of Shell's profits were connected to its activities in Russia. And we see that Total is refusing to stop its activities there and has hardly committed not to invest in new projects. And we should remember that Total has not refused Eastern African crude oil pipeline so the process is going not to be that easy but we are very much determined to continue demanding justice for every affected community of course including Ukrainian emergency. And also I have to say that people in Ukraine like people on the front lines of the climate crisis are demanding an end to the economic systems that allow their lives to be thrown into the violent chaos. The sustainable option for peace and for climate is to accelerate the community-led transition to distributed and renewable energy for all that brings energy security and stability. To achieve that we must dismantle these systems of oppression that allow corporations like Exxon, Gazprom and all others to exploit reserves for the unacceptable purpose. The shocking war in Ukraine demonstrates how world dependence on Russian oil and gas is enabling dictators to use fossil fuel money to launch devastating wars and terrorize people. Our reliance on fossil fuel prevented governments and financial institutions from the escalating the situation ahead of war and has helped fund the violence unfortunately. We need to recognize that and we need to cut our addiction to fossil fuels and not to be dependent on fossil fuel reserves anymore. The latest IPCC report has been also discussed a lot and I would like also to add that we should also review our net zero pledges for the actually affordability and for them not to be false climate solutions as IPCC report states that unproven technologies cannot guarantee the fossil free future for all so we will need to look for new ways for providing the clean energy transition but the better future is possible and I'm personally as a lot of people in this world and a lot of communities in this world feel a deep appreciation of the solidarity we have seen unprecedented solidarity and unity we have seen all over the world to end with not only with the war but with so-called oppressive world so far and I believe we will be able to do that thank you thank you so much fitlana I can imagine yeah it's a really really tough situation for all of you and I hope that you can feel the solidarity that's been shown globally and yeah that you know that we're not going to give up fighting for Ukraine and yeah this is really showing us exactly what fossil fuels can do and how they can fund conflicts so yeah thank you so much for joining our panel really much appreciated so now we will hear from three amazing climate justice activists Mitzi, Vanessa and Kathy to hear about their perspectives on the IPCC report and also hope and people power so I will pass on to I think Mitzi first hi everyone I'm Mitzi from the Philippines as Patsy already mentioned and I don't know how you guys feel that I am feeling so overwhelmed with the IPCC report technically as a climate activist nothing is really that new in the report except for the you know phenomenal um mention of colonialism which is a good milestone in the in the right direction but technically you know the things that are in the report are things that we've been seeing already especially in countries like mine in the Philippines or there are things that we've kind of known already but to see it once again we reminded that you know worst impacts will happen to see the numbers of just how bad it will get for us as leaders across the world continue to choose profit over people it's scary and there's this deep sense of betrayal that happens because I know how these numbers look in real life to me and so many of us in the global south across the world the report isn't just a bunch of words and numbers there's a corresponding experience memory and fear that's attached to each of them and there's a climate anxiety based on climate trauma that just threatens to eat you up and it's so scary to know that the hell that we're already experiencing and the experience is just going to get even worse as political leaders everywhere continue to again choose the fossil fuel industry choose their profit over people's lives every single day and in times like this it's almost like is there a chance is there hope especially with what's happening in Ukraine especially with what's happening across the world where a friend of mine also who was an environmental defender he was a volunteer for two indigenous communities and he was killed by the military and there's so much happening across the world and it's almost like you know politicians are not listening to us a lot of our activists are being killed there's a war people are dying everywhere not just in Ukraine but there's so much going on how can we fix this and then I go back to when I first became an activist it was in 2017 and I was able to talk to the indigenous leader of our land and he told me about all the horrible things that they were experiencing harassment and displacement the militarization the murders and so simply he shrugged and chuckled and said that's why we have no choice but to fight back then he laughed about it and made a joke and then kept going and really it's just that simple there's so much injustice and that is why we have no choice but to keep fighting because to give up hope to give up is to let the fossil fuel industry and to let this profit-oriented system win to give up and say there's nothing we can do anymore is to say that I don't believe in the power of the people but that's not something that I can ever accept I will always always believe in the strength of the people because we've seen historically that empires have fallen in the past young people have stood side by side in marginalized sectors of society leading the way towards change this is just the latest wave revolution and it's so difficult and it's so slow but that's how it is that's how change works it's difficult it's not immediate and it's something that is scary and painful but it's something that we're going through together and when I am at my lowest I just go back to the that memory that line there is no choice but to fight back and then I also remember that there is someone literally in every single country fighting for the same thing that we are like I'm friends with Patsy and she's across the world and friends with Vanessa I'm friends with so many people across the world and you these built this community of love and care and union and if climate activists who are young can do this can collaborate with women that are across the world across time zones across language across barriers across cultures I'm sure one day our leaders will be able to do this too we just have to keep showing them that it's possible we just have to keep pressuring them and demanding them to get rid of this ego and a prioritizing profit and choose people choose community choose union and collaborated with another and until that happens we're going to keep fighting and we're going to keep demanding for reparations from the global north to the global south for a just transition from the fossil fuel industry for adaptation and for people centered adaptation especially and again for our loss and damages to be recognized and to be provided for and to be managed and honestly like I won't lie to you guys and to myself that I'm at my most hopeful and most inspired moment in my life right now but I always just go back to that reminder that we have no choice but to fight back the world might be might seem like it's ending but that's how it is during winter also and I say that some of you doesn't experience winter but sometimes it's so cold and you don't see anything but suddenly warmth starts to seep in we just have to let it seep in it might be scary and that's fine that fear and that anger and that sadness is completely valid I get the temptation to just shut everything out and escape and that's fine you can escape for a little bit but come back to us because we are here to hold you in grief to hold you in protest to hold you accountable we're here to be with you that's what the youth movement is to me that despite all the difficulties internally externally everything we're always going to be here for each other because we have no one else we have no one else to hold on to but each other we know that the world leaders the global north politicians and the imperialists and the colonizers they're not going to be here for us there's no one else to be here for us but us so you have to come together and unite you have to hold on to that hope and remember that we are so powerful they want us to think that we're not they want us to think that we're alone that we're individuals that can't do anything they want to separate us from each other but we are not because our liberations and our struggles are tied to each other and as long as you hold on to that as long as you hold on to that love for the people except for the 1% and love for the humanity and life and joy then we get stronger because we can't just be anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist we have to be pro-people we can't just be anti-phosphoryl industry we have to be pro-renewable energy we can't just be anti-oppression we have to be pro-love and pro-joy and remember that there is a beautiful world that we're fighting for and a gentler future is promised to all of us and we will keep fighting to build that world where we can all just be gentle and be at peace and sing and dance and laugh and that world exists and it will keep coming and we are already seeing pockets of it now so hold on to those memories when time is like this and we're going to keep building the world until all systems of oppression and injustice are dismantled and it's going to be a long way but we're going to be able to do it together thank you wow um yeah nothing to add just yeah really really incredible thank you so much mitzi i'll pass on straight to Vanessa thank you so much Patsy thank you so much mitzi or is inspired hi everyone my name is Vanessa Nakatiri and I am a climate justice activist from Uganda and I'm happy to be on this call and to speak with all of you today so it's evident that you know the climate crisis is already affecting so many people across the world climate change is already killing people animals plants in different parts of the world and you know we've seen it we've seen this in communities that are already on the front lines communities across you know Africa the most affected areas and peoples are already facing some of the worst impacts of the climate crisis and just you know um this year we have seen different climate disasters unfold across the African continent from the tropical storm ana to cyclone that's right that affected hundreds of people you know that led to the death of so many people that led to the destruction of so many homes schools power lines and living people with no access to electricity so the climate crisis is you know affecting people's lives is affecting people's livelihoods people's you know chances and you know moments of education because as schools are destroyed you know many children they don't know when they'll go back to school as power lines are destroyed many homes don't know when they will have access to electricity again so the climate crisis is something that is affecting you know different aspects different sectors of our lives and we know that even at you know 1.2 degrees many communities are already suffering some of the worst impacts of you know the climate crisis and as we fight for 1.5 degrees Celsius you know it still won't be the safest for our communities for communities that are already suffering the worst impacts of climate change and to me these are some of the you know the horrible realities of the climate crisis so climate change continues to kill people climate change continues to destroy schools and hopes of education climate change continues to destroy hospitals you know and access to safe facilities climate change continues to destroy people's homes and people being left homeless so we realize how all the challenges of food scarcity all the challenges of water scarcity gender inequalities you know conflicts in our societies all these are you know attached and connected to work climate change is already doing in our communities and it will only get worse as the temperatures continue to rise as we've read and seen in the report that even with the current emission funds the temperatures will continue to rise and affect so many people and that's why there is a need you know to act now that's why there is a need to speed up in the right direction because there's been a lot of speeding up but in the wrong direction so there is a need to speed up in the right direction for the leaders to make decisions and policies that will ensure that the people and the planet are protected and you know the question is is everything in the report a surprise to all of us of course not it's not a surprise you know this is something that people have been talking about for years we've seen in the climate movement activists have been talking about the impacts of the climate crisis for so many years and this has been through the different climate strikes the different matches the different grassroots movements in different countries so we have been speaking about these things we've been speaking about the climate crisis and how it's already happening now and how it's not something that is coming in the future you know we've been talking about how communities that are on the front lines of the climate crisis are not responsible for this crisis we've been talking about how communities that are on the front lines of the climate crisis are not on the front pages of the world's newspapers so for a long time we've really been talking about the inequality of the climate crisis and how we may all be facing the same storm but we are definitely in different parts so this doesn't come as you know a surprise to us it's more of something that we've been talking about and we need it and we need the leaders to understand this because maybe when we speak they won't listen to us but we believe that they can listen you know to the science and you know what has been written down about what the climate crisis is doing to communities what it's doing to people that are not responsible for it so activists or generally movements have been talking about the impacts of the climate crisis and the money for climate justice and as this report has come out I think that we just need you know to keep speaking up to keep fighting like Mitzi has said that injustices are all over the world you know they're in different parts of the world and we can't just stay silent as injustice escalates so we have to keep speaking and demanding for climate justice we have to believe in our own power as people that it's actually possible but another world is actually possible that a clean healthy sustainable future is actually possible so to me this is the moment for us to just keep doing what we have been doing to keep highlighting the inbox of the climate crisis the inequalities of the climate crisis you know to keep highlighting the losses and damages that are already happening in different parts of the world to keep highlighting the inequalities in climate solutions so we can't just you know keep silent right now we have to keep demanding for leaders to act quickly for leaders to speed up in the right direction for leaders to make decisions that prioritize the lives of the people and our planet and the ecosystems and the animals because in the end it may seem like you know it's hopeless you know it may seem like it's not possible but we have to believe it because that is where our strength lies that is what keeps on moving because we always have to ask ourselves why we started activism in the first place so it's more of looking at that vision and the kind of world that you imagine before you started activism and believing that you can actually achieve it so we need to look at the why we started activism and why we need to continue because we haven't yet seen you know what we have been demanding for when everything seems hopeless we believe anyway even when there is no reason to hope we keep believing hope is our strength that another world is not only necessary for all of us but it's actually possible for all of us so against hope we believe in hope we have to believe in hope even when it seems like we are believing against hope thank you thank you so much Vanessa yeah really really wonderful to hear your perspective and another reminder that if you want to ask questions please ask in the Q&A button section so that they don't get lost in the chat and you'll have the opportunity to speak to all of the panelists yeah in the Q&A section and I'll pass on to Kathy now yeah I live from the Marshall Islands thank you for having me my name is Kathy and I'm working with the Marshall Islands and we are very much have been looking forward to the IPCC report coming out I mean looking forward as much as you can look forward to some of the really dire findings that we know are going to come with these kinds of reports but for us I think the topic of adaptation is is really crucial and key for our islands you know a few years back we had scientists a scientist named Dr. Chip Fletcher from Hawaii come to our islands and basically tell us that we no longer have the opportunity to keep focusing on mitigation but that we needed to switch to adaptation because the world wasn't changing fast enough and our islands are too vulnerable so because the Marshall Islands is an Atoll nation we're only two meters above sea level and as the findings have stated already you know the Atolls in small island nations and small islands are particularly vulnerable and that's why we're having to now build what we're calling our national adaptation plan which is our what we're calling our survival plan so before this we had initially been really focused on trying to get the rest of the world to mitigate to focus on emissions and lowering their emissions but it was like we could no longer just focus on that anymore we've become more internal and started to focus more on ourselves in protecting ourselves I know that we're here to talk a lot about you know about how the world is getting impacted by adaptation and the global implications of it but I hope you don't mind me speaking specifically from the perspective of of Atoll nations you know with the Marshall Islands being only two meters above sea level you know we're not like other island nations we don't have volcanoes we don't have mountains there's you know nowhere to go basically it's it's very thin completely flat strip of of land and so we're incredibly vulnerable to the rising sea level so we're looking at really extreme options to be to make sure that we can stay in our islands we're looking at you know elevating our islands we're looking at elevating pieces of land we're looking at building completely new islands you know these are incredibly extreme solutions and when you take into account the fact that the Marshallese our Marshallese culture is tied to land it makes it even more complicated you know because every Marshallese owns land in our culture and we have incredibly complicated land tenure system so what happens when we change a land the landscape of our island what happens to the land ownership you know what happens to the the privileges that might come with that to our cultural ties so we have been trying to beat the drum on adaptation for a minute now with a lot of these global leaders to say look you can't just focus on mitigation you need to start focusing on adaptation you need to increase financing for adaptation specifically I mean we got some costings of what we're looking down what we're looking at you know like down the line of for our these adaptation pathways that we're considering and it's going to cost tens of billions of dollars you know and where are we going to get that money Marshall Islands contributed like point zero zero zero zero five percent of the world's global emissions something crazy like that and yet we're the ones that have to pay for the you know these incredibly costly changes that we made no contribution towards that's it's it's irresponsible so I think that you know for us I think the adaptation report is really timely and it's really important for getting you know these world leaders to really consider that the shift in the focus needs to be going towards adaptation now more than ever and it there's been this kind of battle and I think as Harjeet had mentioned earlier it's going to really come to the point where and that's where loss and damage needs to come to the boat too it sort of felt like mitigation and adaptation mitigation was like the focus and then adaptation is sort of coming up now and loss and damage and it feels as though it's like in a in a line and it needs to be all parallel right because there's only a so point there's no you can only adapt so far before there's irreversible loss and damage you know that's where the limits are and that's why things like the national adaptation plan this plan that we're building out as a nation is so important to identifying what is going to be lost you know that what what cultural heritage you know these intangible things culture these intangible costs you know how do you put a price tag to that those are questions we have to start answering for ourselves and that's why that mechanism was so important too that we were trying to fight for at the at the cop so you know I think I think the that's what I think that's kind of what why I have I'm actually really glad that the report came out despite how dire it is and as you all have mentioned before you know it wasn't saying anything completely new to us but I am appreciative of it mentioning the legacy of colonialism you know Marshall Islands and so much of the Pacific has been colonized and so much of the rest of the world too and that's the kind of a uniting factor that that's that's rarely mentioned in the room and then but as far as hope you know when I when I consider hope because I think a lot of times people look to us in small island states in the Pacific as a vanguard you know how do you keep your hope just two days ago just yesterday not two days ago just yesterday was the the commemoration of the the detonation of the nuclear testing the US tested or 67 nuclear bombs on our islands one of which was more powerful a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb that's called a Bravo bomb yesterday was the day that we come together as a community as a nation and remember and grieve those tests those tests are still not well known we still are waiting for compensation that is owed to us so many of the elders who were there for those tests have died I think what that tells me is that the fight for nuclear justice is similar to the fight against climate change in the sense that this is all a long game you know we have to stay in it and we have to know that this is not going to happen and be resolved quickly even though we needed to be resolved as quickly as possible so the hope I get hope from when you say where do you find hope I get hope from the elders who fought before me I get hope from the young people who I work with the young people who I work with at Joe Jigum our organization I get I get hope from the youth activists movement and our and also the 350 pacific climate warriors I think I tend to be a bit regional you know I I'm a big pacific island nerd and but I I think that there's a lot of hope in in connecting the way that we're connecting right now through conversations and hearing from one another and continuing to fight because it's a long game you know we gotta we gotta dig roots deep so the the theme for this year's nuclear justice day was going to going to bar which is basically rooted like the like a tree and that's exactly how we have to be we have to be completely rooted in this fight to to to stay and you know to to maintain our strength so I think that's I guess that's what I would offer for now is those kinds of reflection is those reflections on on the importance of this report and the importance of of recognizing the unique vulnerability of atal nations like like ours in the marshals thank you thank you so much Kathy yeah I hope is a really tricky thing I think always um in yeah within climate activism but especially when we get the kind of confronting um reports that come from the IBCC um we will move to a Q&A now um some really great questions have come into the chat you can still add more questions um to the panelists and also a reminder that there have been some links sent into the chat about the fossil fuel treaty the letter that Svetana mentioned around Ukraine and also Wolfgang put a thing in there about a link uh to the special section of the IPCC report about small islands so definitely check out those links but moving to some questions I think the first one was maybe you could hear from Haji and also Kathy both of you on this one which is could you talk a bit about maladaptation and how big is this as a problem for the global south um to the struggle to get appropriate grant-based adaptation finance and how is maladaptation financed um yeah it would be great maybe first Haji and then Kathy sure let me talk about maladaptation a little bit and um so this this concept has really evolved when we saw communities and governments are taking steps to adapt and speaking to the concept we need to look at what we do as measures of adaptation and how we do uh and and I've seen I've seen myself where some of the adaptation options failing I can take an example of Bangladesh where because of the increase in salinity uh fisher folks shifted to prawn cultivation and they started making money for the first few years and then the long-term impact of prawn cultivation is land goes really really bad and you can't do any other kind of farming on that land so you earn money for 10 years and then land is is just uh you know gets degraded for years to come and and that I would define as as um maladaptation we also know that irrigation helps and it is seen as one of the adaptation you know adaptation options but we cannot go for you know over exploitation of groundwater and start going for sugarcane which is a high value crop but we know how much water it consumes so we need to we need to choose the options very closely we know there's a case study from Cambodia where the diverse natural forest was replaced with a keshia plantation which which affected communities and also the ecosystems so there are examples of sea walls where we're using hard defenses against flooding as opposed to mangroves and when you use these hard defenses or sea walls they have their own impact on ecosystem so how do we also allow ecosystems to recover on their own so we need to adopt practices which are uh which are sustainable in the long term and then its impact on communities we can't just sit in the boardroom and develop adaptation options however good they are technically and which are going to marginalize communities how do we involve indigenous people and women and young people so it's it's about what and also about how which means adaptation has to be in harmony with nature and we need to be consulting people in terms of finance there has been a major gap it goes back to the same point that I said earlier the focus in even the initial few years of climate action has been so much on mitigation that we completely undermine efforts to raise money and we have not questioned these countries enough who are responsible to pay and as there was a question on this very little grant based money for for adaptation and even now when rich countries claim they have delivered 80 billion dollars you know by their own admission when you go into detail they say 71 percent is loans and guarantees now you you can't depend on loans and guarantees for adapt for adaptation it's a public good and you need grant based financing for adaptation and right now developing countries are using their scarce resources and shifting money from education and health towards adaptation now that's absolutely unfair and the current level of financing is about 20 billion dollars a year and at COP26 there was an agreement to double the finance by 2025 which means it's going to be only 40 billion dollars a year and UNEP came up with the report in 2016 saying we'll be needing about 300 billion dollars a year by 2030 and 500 billion dollars a year by 2050 so that's the scale of money that's needed and mind you these estimates came from came came in 2016 and on every other IPCC report has painted such a grim picture and we will be needing a lot more money so there's a massive gap and again we need to hold these countries to account to for the commitment they made but they have not delivered really money on adaptation thanks so much RG Kathy would you like to come in on that too maybe yeah um I think I would just echo a lot of what Harjeet has actually mentioned um you know we have cases here we have to invest a lot in seawalls out here because there isn't anything else to to break the tides from coming over into our islands but we've come across issues where they have this massive seawall project but then because of COVID they couldn't ship in any of the supplies that they needed to build the seawalls so then it became like stalled and then there was like options of like blowing apart the reef and using that to build the seawalls but then that seems counterintuitive so it's just there's a lot of these kinds of issues that we're having to to figure out ourselves also because what people don't understand is in the Marshall Islands there's like 24 atolls and they're all different and they have different ecosystems and they have different needs and they have different vulnerabilities to the sea level so you know how do we she how do we we'd have to figure out how to adapt to each of those and so that's kind of some of the issues that we've come across um there's also kind there's also been a lot of debate about between like hard adaptation solutions versus nature based solutions you know we want to invest in nature based solutions because that's more in line with you know taking care of our island and um and using indigenous practices our traditional practices to to protect ourselves but on the other side of it we have to be realistic about what kinds of uh sea level rise we're anticipating down the line and the and the huge you know what I mentioned earlier about those really big extreme adaptation solutions those are those are uh pathways that would take a lot of funding and a lot of financing and so I again just would just echo a lot of what Harjeet just said about you know the lack of financing that's there um you know uh it's so strange to be in rooms with with world leaders who who refuse to double the finance to double the financing for adaptation um not recognizing how much of an issue it is and then um and then uh also looking at adaptation as a side conversation you know they'll say things like well let you know let's not focus on these side conversations let's focus on mitigation so you don't have to adapt not recognizing that we have no choice we're already there we need you guys to just come on board and start giving us the financing we need so we can implement it and I think a lot of the other issues also is sometimes this financing comes with strings attached you know um it's really like difficult for our countries to access this financing or they want to do it through their own consultancies um when we have experts on island who who already have gone through and figured out actually mangroves don't work for us you know and and yet they want to they want to fund their own ideas so there's a little bit of that too where they're not investing in the right kind of capacity for us or or not you know believing in our technical skills so there's a bit of that also so I think that's all I would add but I I just agree you know we need to I hope this IPCC report wakes up a lot of these world leaders to increase that financing for adaptation because that's what we need right away. Yeah that's a really huge topic um and thank you for both of your contributions I was wondering Wolfgang do you also have something that you'd like to add or anything um yeah from your perspective to add on to that question is yeah quite a big one. Yeah well thank you well I think the the trade off or the the debate between mitigation and adaptation has has always been around and it's always been wrong you know we've basically said from the onset that that you can't adapt your way out of it and you can't really just point to adapt to mitigation as the only solution so I think anyone making well being an activist about this will find suitable examples and information on on the on the adaptation issues in the report I only I only want to restress that and particularly in the regional detail for it so I hope it's being it's being useful support I've linked the small islands elements in the chat but they are also really easy to find and there's also similar material for other parts of the world but as far as for mitigation is concerned that does remain of course equally important it's just that we should perhaps have a have another discussion about that six weeks from now when the when the working on three part comes out because that's going to say a lot of new things I hope in that regard I'm not personally involved but but there's a there needs to be similar attention about that that's all I can say at this point. Fantastic thank you so much now second question I think specifically to Svidlana and Vanessa but then if anyone else wants to jump in Mitzi perhaps any of you welcome to jump in as well so the question is most if not all conflicts in Africa are because of minerals and notable the fossil fuels especially when looking at the ongoing incidents in Mozambique Sudan etc and these wars are ongoing funded by the same companies and yet the world is quiet because it's not happening Europe in light of the failure of COP26 and wars how can one hold these companies really accountable if courts and justice systems make it so difficult for the affected people to have even their fundamental rights respected. I can comment on that I think that we first or people need to first understand how you know many of these things are connected you know be it the you know minerals and wars or and conflicts in our societies I think the earlier people understand the interconnectedness of you know everything that pertains to our life and our survival I think the better it will be to speak about these things and advocate for these things and I will just give an example if we talk about you know climate change climate change is you know more than it's more than whether it's more than statistics and it's about the people and how people are being impacted so when you think about how you know some of these conflicts in in certain nations are because of minerals like oil you know you know things like gas or coal these are things that contribute to the climate crisis and that's why the climate movement has to be intersectional the climate movement has to you know learn how to make the connection with these things to know that you know one issue can lead or it leads to the occurrence of another issue because as these corporations continue to you know breed after oil or coal and gas in for example African nations then more of these conflicts continue to happen so we start to look at climate change beyond you know rising temperatures or degrees we start to look at it at you know how it's impacting the people and how because of the corporations or the governments that are fueling the climate crisis we are having conflicts in these areas we are having wars in these areas for the resources it can't even be through the some of these you know the climate solutions that are presented as solutions yet in the end it's just you know greenwashing you know you see companies propose trip planting campaigns in certain regions but then you realize that the end of this trip planting campaign means communities are going to lose their land for farming you know communities are going to lose their land for their own survival for their own settlement and this could cause conflicts so I think we need to really communicate the interconnectedness of all these things the interconnectedness of climate and poverty eradication climate change and achieving zero hunger climate change and having peace in our communities climate change and the wars for oil and the wars for gas in you know in certain nations so I think learning how all these things are interconnected and working to communicate that interconnectedness I think it's one of the ways that we can move forward in addressing these issues and for people to understand that we are all in one system you know we are all in one system but if it's you know if it's a puzzle then all pieces need to be fitted together for the world to be at peace all pieces need to be fitted together for the planet to stop you know warming all pieces need to be fitted together for people to be lifted and removed from poverty for people to to stop starving because they have no access to food all these pieces need to be fitted together and that fitting of all these pieces starts from understanding that we are all one system we are all one body we are all one whole puzzle that needs to be put together and we can only move successfully we can only move forward we can only move you know to a future that is not only you know to a future that is not only you know that has I'm thinking of a way to articulate it sorry so we can move to a future that is not just about temperature reduction for the planet but one that is about temperature action one that is about achieving zero hunger one that is about having peace in our communities one that is about you know people being able to access affordable energy for people to understand the connectedness of all these things I think it's the start and you know the beginning of us addressing these issues thanks so much Vanessa um Svidlana would you like to come in on that or add anything to what Vanessa has already said yes I would just use this chance to add some kind of interconnectence and to stress of how everything is interconnected in our world justice to injustice and prerequisite to a sequence so doing that I would just say that I don't think that anyone in either a country and our fossil fuel company as for example the total or other companies should increase fossil fuel exploration using the desperate need for energy desperate desperate thirst for energy that we see now in many countries in opposite this company should not compensate the possible losses somewhere of course we need we need to reduce our consumption but every IPCC report is actually about that that we need to reduce our energy appetite for for some new energy and then we'll probably will be able to cope with energy deficit and probably the we can avoid the wars everywhere also but but like change by some personal change but it's but looking more beyond of that fossil fuel companies cannot be encouraged to make their peace washing to save in the world so cold and to justify the extension and intensification of the gas and oil exploration everywhere so just for for instance I do have data on total ownership and assets and interest in Russia which we are calling them to divest immediately to sell so that they are almost 20 let's say five companies just not far four companies total ownership is about 20 percent of assets and 49 assets of a thermocastor thermocastor oil field as well because four are like Novotek very famous company Yamal gas field attic liquid gas field and karyaga oil fields the others about 20 percent so it it's very much interconnected with what ecop what's to ecop and to total activity on there because we should we should demand justice first of all and all projects like this should be stopped and halted immediately so maybe because they enable as we know they enable estate regimes to accumulate the resources it may further use for some conflicts invasions and finally wars the profit needs to be seized to fund the transition and to support this building can we imagine some special tax on the profits of fossil fuel companies to make sure that this will never happen again and some as we've just said yes there are a lot of questions arising from how we will live through the winter where will we get some resources to heat our houses but this is a temporary I would say this is a temporary question temporary difficulties that we should not be afraid of believe me what is much much worse and because you simply can lose your home and you can lose everything every infrastructure and everything and I believe that the global community and local communities will be able to solve this problem even if we will we just need to phase out fossil fuels but the current reality just just demonstrates that we need to do it the soonest if you don't believe if you don't want to believe IPCC reports that every year are warning us that's a code red for humanity you should you should stop doing immediately your exploration and extensive use and you should you should think of other ways how you can heat your houses for example and how you can transit to a clean and affordable and community own energy which I also must highlight and actually I have a few resources and reports that prove that exit from fossil fuels and just transition is possible we do have enough of renewable energy in the world but of course we should double the renewable energy potential in in in the next few years but this will only be possible once a long time investments made in companies like gasprone, Total, Chevron, Exxon and many many others many others so will be divested and reverted to the green energy transition because in comparison with these carbon capture storage technologies which are completely unproven and we cannot rely on them the green and renewable energy is being proven to be the cheapest and the most affordable source of energy we just need to escalate the funding of this particular perspective to create more equality injustice for our communities absolutely thank you Svetlana we're slightly running out of time unfortunately to answer more questions so maybe Mitzi would you like to come in on that question because I think it'd be really good to hear your perspective as well before we wrap things up only if you'd like to of course but sorry my last talk so no exactly as what Vanessa and Svetlana already mentioned I really just like to reiterate what Vanessa said about how the climate movement has become more intersectional how we have to recognize that you know especially the way media has been portraying this war it is very racist and we're forgetting and we're not seeing how you know a lot of the messaging has been about how the refugees now are white and Christian and look like us this is a quote from one of the media channel like this is actually something that people are saying and so this is something that we have to call out and this is something that we have to fight against that we can't just be anti-war when it's from in one region of the world and it's always going to be so connected to the climate crisis because you know war is going to be so many emissions and who are the countries that are pushing for war who are the countries who will benefit the most from war the countries who are the biggest arms dealers in the world like the US the countries who will profit the most from this war will are also the countries who are historically responsible for the climate crisis and they're all again and everyone's already mentioned fighting over fossil fuels and so it's really about making sure that we are united in our messaging that we are not for war in any form and we are not for fossil fuel industries and we have to stand in solidarity even though they're in every form in every shape and every way that we can and not just this time but every single time we have to keep showing up for each other we can't make excuses anymore that it's something that we don't understand or that it's too complicated we've seen and we see continuously how everything is so interconnected we have to show up for each other every single time a fantastic way to end yeah there was a lot that we went through there and yeah a lot of things to think about but for me I think what I take most from that is that we have to make the decision to unite and have hope in each other and yeah in the movement that we all put so much into because we will be able to take down these systematic systems of injustice a few kind of I guess housekeeping style things and reminders before we yeah end this webinar one was that this was recorded so you can come like watch back and yeah here again what all the incredible panelists had to say and there's also another session of this same webinar later today but with some different speakers so there was two to accommodate for different time zones so you know if you're still awake at the time of the second webinar definitely come along to hear some perspectives the perspectives of some other panelists and also on alclimateimpact.org website which maybe we can add into the chat there will be ongoing webinars and kind of similar events taking place on that website so make sure to check that out yeah to not miss anything and then two reminders from a Friday's future perspective and yeah two crucial dates to keep in your mind and to perhaps write down one is that following the call from FF Ukraine we are mobilizing globally on Thursday so tomorrow for most people's time zones solidarity marches in solidarity with the with Ukraine and to show that we are against all forms of war and fossil fuel funded wars especially so that is going to be taking place in yeah many many cities over the across the world so make sure to find your local march and yeah show your solidarity for the Ukraine and the other is that on Friday March 25th is our next global strike so yeah very very exciting our kind of narrative around that is people not profit which I think was very clear and came through in this webinar today so make sure you're on the streets on March 25th um it's going to be really huge and we need all of you on the streets so thank you so much um thank you to all the panelists it was absolutely wonderful to have you real privilege to hear your perspectives and thank you for everyone who joined yeah thank you so much thanks bye bye thanks everyone