Earth Today | Support for climate justice

THE CARIBBEAN Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) has announced its support for practical advocacy actions by six civil society organisations (CSOs) and consortia to promote climate justice across the region.

They are to be supported via small grants awarded under the project, ‘A Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance for Advocacy, Action and Accountability’, which aims to enhance mechanisms for advocacy, action and accountability through the work of the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance.

It is also intended, CANARI said via a news release issued earlier this month, to “amplify the voices of the most vulnerable in calling for transformative development that delivers fair, equitable and just outcomes in the Caribbean”.

The alliance brings together more than 40 CSOs, grassroots activists, academics, creatives, the media and other non-state actors across the region to amplify voices from the frontlines of the climate crisis and enhance their influence on policy and practice.

RECENT LAUNCH

This includes recently launching the Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda that sets out priority needs and actions by 2030 for climate justice and building local resilience.

The project is being implemented from 2022- 2024 by CANARI, which is convening the Alliance, with funding from the Open Society Foundations.

Advocacy action projects are being rolled out from August 2023 to March 2024 by grassroots to regional civil society organisations and activists, including the Breadfruit Collective, Climate Conscious Podcast, Environmental Awareness Group, Kairi Initiatives, The Cropper Foundation, The Journal of Caribbean Environmental Sciences and Renewable Energy, Guyana Youth and Environment Network, Young People for Action on Climate Change, Jamaica and the University of the West Indies – Institute for Sustainable Development, Jamaica.

“These small grant-funded projects range from promoting dialogue and action on intergenerational justice, youth and just nature-based solutions to advocacy on gender and climate justice in Caribbean small island developing states at the recent global United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28),” CANARI said.

“They also include research on ‘building back better’ and post-disaster recovery to inform adaptation and loss and damage, and training and movement building with young, Indigenous activists in Guyana and the wider Caribbean to raise awareness of their unique challenges and better advocate for climate justice,” it added.

It is also hoped, the entity noted further, that these practical advocacy actions will help deliver the Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda, and further the work of the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance to promote climate justice through policy influencing and engagement at national, regional and global levels.