The 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (November 11-22) is approaching and the just energy transition is increasingly critical for climate action. The upcoming United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the UN Future Summit and the World Summit on Renewable Energy, all to be held in September, are a fundamental opportunity for our historic demands.

In this context, Plurales joined the Campaign for the Global Week of Action for Climate Finance and a Fossil-Free Future. It is from September 13 to 20 and includes virtual and in-person activities to demand “a radical transformation of our social, economic and political systems (…) Together, let us raise our voices to demand that governments in the Global North stop making empty promises and pandering to corporations to perpetuate fossil fuels. They must fulfill their climate finance obligations in full. They must play their part in national and international actions to ensure a gradual, rapid, fair, feminist and funded elimination of fossil fuels”.

It started on Friday 13 September with over 150 events spanning more than 50 countries on all continents. It closes on the 20th with an invitation to flood the streets. “Governments in the Global North must listen to the people who are rising up, demanding at least $5 trillion a year. The continued denial of obligations is unacceptable. Adequate, public, debt-free climate finance for mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage and a just energy transition is urgently needed.”

PayUp Climate Finance

“For decades, governments in the Global North have consistently failed to do their fair share of climate action, both nationally and internationally. This fair share includes delivering climate finance to the Global South, an obligation they committed to as parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Climate finance is also part of reparations for the climate debt they owe to the peoples of the South for the historic and ongoing damages caused by their disproportionately large contributions to the climate crisis”.

They denounce that so far the total climate finance “is a pittance compared to the trillions of dollars needed to finance the climate needs and priorities of the peoples and countries of the Global South (for mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and a just and equitable transition)”.

“Despite agreed climate targets and massive warnings from climate scientists, governments in the Global North are colluding with tax-dodging elites and polluting corporations to expand fossil fuel extraction and production”. We know that a rapid, equitable and just transition to renewable energy systems is urgently needed and we continue to demand it.