Thread by @vanessa_vash

Hello everyone,
Here to tell you that the climate crisis is not a PR opportunity for governments, but a real threat. Developing countries need funding now to help them cut emissions, before the point of no return
Thread
#Riseupmovement
#FaceTheClimateEmergency

Five years on from the Paris Agreement, people have asked questions like “What has been achieved?” Privilege allows you to to reflect on achievements.

For me, I have not seen any success in the last five years!
#Riseupmovement
#FaceTheClimateEmergency

In January 2019, I started a protest demanding for Climate Justice. I was driven to act by what I was witnessing around me: people in my country losing their homes, their incomes and their lives to extreme weather.

#Riseupmovement
#FaceTheClimateEmergency
#NoMoreEmptyPromises

Since then, the destruction has only got worse. In 2019, Cyclone Idai was one of the worst storms ever to hit the African continent. Large parts of Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe were ripped apart. Some 1,300 were left dead, many more missing,
#Riseupmovement
#ClimateCrisis

and an economic crisis was left in its wake. Last year, abnormally warm temperatures and heavy rains have led to swarms of locusts destroying hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops in East Africa – 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in dire need of food.

Lake Chad has shrunk to a tenth of its original size over the last 50 years. Half of Nigeria has no access to water. It is hard to be encouraged by stories of meatless burgers or “moonshot technologies” when communities around you are battling an endless and worsening cycle

of drought, famine, cyclones, floods and destruction. This is my world at 1.2C of warming. This is not progress. Vague, distant targets for 2030 or 2050 will not keep the world “well below 2C” of warming as the Paris Agreement promised.

#FaceTheClimateEmergency
#Riseupmovement

Privilege allows governments and corporations to think of the climate crisis as a PR opportunity. Being a true leader on climate means taking action to drastically reduce emissions now, in line with what the science tells us we need to do to avert a climate catastrophe.

It does not mean saying one thing at home and doing another thing abroad. Stop fancy words at Global summits. We cannot eat coal. We cannot drink oil.

#FaceTheClimateEmergency
#Riseupmovement
#NoMoreEmptyPromises

I know that there is a real appetite for clean, renewable energy here, I’ve seen it through my work to install solar power in schools in rural communities. But this cannot match the power and influence of foreign governments and foreign corporations.
#Riseupmovement

Africa needs help in transitioning to clean energy. Educating girls will also benefit all of us –it has been identified as one of the most effective solutions for reducing emissions over decades.The Paris Agreement was a moment when the developed countries in our world finally

heard us shouting for help. For a moment, they looked up and saw Pacific Island nations drowning and African nations going through drought and famine. Places like these have contributed the least to the climate crisis, but are suffering the most.
#Riseupmovement

Since then, despite nice words, it seems many of those countries with power and influence have looked back down. We expect governments and corporations to take their responsibilities seriously. We need to start drastically reducing emissions right now,

in all sectors, and not just declaring vague, distant targets. Leaders must make the Paris Agreement real and fight for 1.5C – and they must start right now.
#NoMoreEmptyPromises #FaceTheClimateEmergency
#Riseupmovement

Please read my op-ed at independent.co.uk/climate-change…

Please follow the Rise up Movement at @TheRiseUpMovem1
Thank you 💜