Climate Change Conference COP23 at Bonn, Germany

The BK activities focused around faith, youth, gender, renewable energy and yoga during the Climate Change Conference COP23 held at Bonn, Germany!

Youth and Future Generations Day

The UNFCCC organized a Youth and Future Generations Day (YFGD) to give the youth a platform to highlight their ideas and actions to combat climate change.  BK Juan moderated the opening panel and shared inspirational ideas saying that meditation can help us to get a clearer vision of the future and to be more focused in our actions.  Other panellists introduced their projects and emphasized the importance of creating more awareness in our homes and countries about the reality of climate change.  It was also interesting to observe that the idea of well-being is been discussed more often in the Youth gatherings.

The Multi-Faith Sustainable Living Initiative

“The Multi-Faith Sustainable Living Initiative” was launched by a number of faith-based leaders. This project took birth in Bonn during the half-term COP in May 2017 and the BK’s have been involved since then.

BK Juan was part of the panel “Sustainable Lifestyles –Storytelling & Sharing Experiences” and he spoke about the importance of having a positive vision of a sustainable future so as to open the heart and then find practical ways to achieve the vision.

Sister Jayanti closed the event with some spiritually empowering words.  She then gave a guided a meditation on the power within and translating that into action.

Diverse organisations and networks came together to discuss lifestyles of compassionate simplicity and how to create a global community of conscience.  The movement aims to initiate good practice in the areas of energy use, diet and transportation that will help reduce emissions, so the globe stays below the targeted maximum of 1.5˚C temperature rise.

Rev. Fletcher Harper, from Green Faith, the organiser of the initiative, talked about sustainable lifestyles, with its associated commitments, and how they fit in the overall landscape of the climate advocacy work.

The panels, in the morning, included:

• Kristina Modee, Director, Sustainable Lifestyles Team, Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (Germany),
• Tomás Insua, Executive Director, The Global Catholic Climate Movement,
• George Marshall, Co-Founder and Director of Projects, Climate Outreach (UK).

You can sign the statement yourself at:  http://www.interfaithclimatestatement.org/

Young Feminist Day

In the morning, Carolin took part in the Caucus of Women and Gender Constituency.  It focused on the nexus of young activists and gender issues.  A group of young women and men, representing different cultures of the world, gave an artistic performance and asked the audience how we can support young feminists and gain voluntary engagement.  The Caucus became a lively and enthusiastic session.

Indo-German Dialogue

Carolin also participated in the Indo-German NGO Dialog on Sustainable Lifestyles, organized by GERMANWATCH und CANSA – Climate Action Network South Asia.  Rixa Schwarz from Germanwatch defined sustainable lifestyles as: “Responsible living with our total surroundings and ourselves.” She said that the science of happiness showed that endlessly growing materialistic comfort will ultimately reduce happiness.

Keeping this in mind, the question arises, what is guiding our consumption behaviour and why do we often buy more than we need?  What is influencing us?  Studies tells us that friends, trends, public opinion and comparisons are some of the strongest influences in the decision making.

Rica and Rotate Das gave the second presentation on “Sustainable life styles in India and Germany”. The third presentation by Lutz Wisher gave an overview of the different possibilities to promote the topic of sustainable lifestyles.

The climate planet

Stage performance: “Close the Gap”

In the afternoon, Carolin participated in a “Flash Mob” style action.  This was aimed to raise awareness amongst the Parties and observer organizations towards the “Women and Gender Action Plan”.  The plan has been finalized and will be adopted officially during this COP.

100% Renewable Energies

Thorsten attended for a day at the “100% Renewable Energies” symposium which took place in the Post Tower, outside the COP.  The high-level symposium aimed to showcase pathways to quickly increase the share of clean energy technologies to 100%. Many interesting solutions were presented.

Yoga in the Indian Pavilion

Sonja joined the Yoga exercises offered daily in the afternoon in the Indian Pavilion.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness through yoga, it can help us to deal with climate change and more”.

The day ended with a delicious dinner with  Vera Rodenhoff, Head of Division of the German Environment Ministry. Vera has been to Abu.  She, and her team in the ministry, have been responsible for the support of India One.  After the dinner, a lively and interesting discussion arose, touching on the subjects of hope in climate change, the German energy policy, India One and yoga.  The splendid evening ended with a sweet meditation guided by Sister Jayanti.