Global Power Shift

Here’s Japanese youth becoming climate leaders!

The GPS momentum reached Japan, with Power Shift Japan (PSJ) taking place in Saitama on February 22-23. One day prior to the actual event, a “Change the Dream” workshop was held, with the goal to empower the youth by first introducing the participants to the current state of affairs regarding general societal problems, environmental issues and the crucial role of people in being the driving force to push for solutions. The workshops gathered participants with different backgrounds to redefine what their ideal long-term vision of the world is, so that namely during the PSJ they would focus on addressing specific challenges related to climate change.

Very encouragingly, PSJ also gathered participants from Hong Kong and Taiwan, thus providing it with regional perspectives. Thanks to the messages (see here & here ) and spiritual support of the Taiwanese youths, participants got to witness how people around the world are getting involved in this climate fight.

During the opening day, Kai Sawyer, one of the lead organizers, shared how he started off as an activist by sharing his story. A space was then created for participants to get to know each other and delved quite naturally to discuss the theme of the PSJ. This was followed by a training around ‘What is a campaign?,’ which led to an energetic discussion on both short and long term strategy; also, most importantly, it served to identify the stakeholder training with the support of a cross diagram. The 2nd day continued campaign training, and placed special focus on linking up campaign ideas and actions.

In addition to the already existing campus climate challenge campaign, which focuses on getting universities and schools to reduce their emissions, two joint actions, namely “THE FUTURE” and “CHANGE UR SOCIETY”, were suggested by the PSJ organizing team. “THE FUTURE” is about highlighting the impact of climate change on people’s feelings, symbolised by wearing a black circle around the eye, as if having received a blow to the eye. “CHANGE UR SOCIETY” is a campaign, which will feature actions in front of local landmarks, when the participants go back to their respective communities. Social media will also be used to disseminate information.

The PSJ ended with a personal commitment to take the power shift back to everyone’s city and community highlighting the fact that the PSJ event is just the start of yearly plans and further actions. We’ll keep you updated with more blog posts!

Power Shift Japan is hosting our first AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Thursday, March 13th at 9 am UTC (local times). Got questions about organizing your regional or national Power Shift? They got answers! Join the AMA here.

A wave of Power Shift events in Africa-Arab region

Climate leaders from Africa and Arab region during Global Power Shift Phase 1 in Istanbul

After six months of intense preparations, consultations, drafting, coaching and submission and sometimes rewriting texts, Power Shift projects are getting started one after the other in Africa-Arab world. Two weeks back, team Gabon kicked off with a workshop on climate leadership that gathered 40 young people who will be playing the role of local climate mobilizers in their residential areas.

This Thursday morning, a press conference is scheduled at the Carter Center of Kinshasa to officially launch activities of Congo Power Shift. Journalists, environmental and other local and international environment and development partners’ organisations will be present to hear the details of the Congolese campaign to fight against development fossil fuels.

And from the beginning of March, a wave of Power Shit events that will move from Lilongwe to Dakar, through Bujumbura, Kigali, Kampala, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, N’Djamena, Yaoundé, Niamey, Cotonou, Lomé, Accra and Abidjan. In the Middle-East, similar events are scheduled soon in Hurghada (Egypt), Amman (Jordan) and Sulaymaniyah (Iraq). They will include training workshops, awareness raising caravans, climate festivals, media campaigns including on social networks, policy advocacy and networking. Most of these mobilizations aim to train young climate leaders capable of serving as organisers in their communities and to engage policy makers on key issues of renewable energy, the danger of fossil fuels and the fight against deforestation. In countries that have already developed clear strategies against climate change, popular advocacy campaigns are planned to stimulate the effective implementation of these plans.

With the support of various local and international stakeholders, media, individuals, Power Shift events are slowly taking shape. These events will significantly boost the African climate movement; help define national priorities for action on climate issues and encourage a strong public action toward real change. We hope that, at the end of all these events, the image of a region that is passively devastated by ravages of climate change will shift into the one of  African and Arab countries rising to take the bull by the horns.

Lushendrie, Sarah and Landry

GPS brings fruit in Ukraine. Like, literally

“I move, therefore I am.”

– Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

 GPS Phase 2 in Ukraine is finished – the activists had their closing retreat in the mountains few days ago and are preparing for the next stage, which is a campaign for community-led climate solutions to start in spring. In this blogpost they have a look back to recall some of the brightest moments of the Climate Week they organized last autumn as part of the GPS.

Photo: ‘Locally harvested’ bananas.

… How are Ukrainian bananas, Antarctica visitor, handmade birdhouses, environmental graffiti, social networks, talk shows and people in shorts on the streets in October connected with climate change and adaptation? The answer to this question is now known by tens of thousands of people all over Ukraine thanks to the media that paid great attention to our events. Youth climate movement organized and held an unprecedented week of climate action in Ukraine. Young teams of four cities in Ukraine – Dnipropetrovsk , Lviv, Kharkiv and Kyiv – prepared a series of events, in their sole discretion. The sprouts of youth climate activism that emerged a few years ago turned into strong and independent plants that are beginning to bear fruit. 

We did not limit ourselves to a certain format and communicated climate change by ridiculous actions, practical workshops, expert lectures and changes in urban space. The results exceeded all expectations – now people gossip about climate change in the kitchen, discuss it at lunchtime and on social network Vkontakte. We talked with the organizers about funny incidents that occurred during Climate Week in the cities of Ukraine.

 

Liuda Sulik, activist of UYCA, Lviv:

One of the actions of the Week was “distribution of local bananas” – we gave bananas to people on streets and claimed that they were harvested locally. Attached to each banana there was a paper with announcement of the expert lectures on climate change. People took the fruit happily and stayed for a brief chat. Surprisingly, from these talks it turned out that we also had local kiwi which grew nearby (I tried, very tasty!), and that the best tool against climate change was a common prayer. Believers in Lviv are sure – if you pray, climate change will pass away, just as the Soviet Union did, for the collapse of which they used to pray every day.

Photo: Upcycling workshop. Credit – Postpaper.

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Mbemba, a brave fighter from Tamba

By Landry Ninteretse

Mbemba Doucouré who recently passed away was a man of multiple hats: community leader and organizer, climate activist, accountant, parent, and close ally of many environmentalists in Senegal and beyond.

Originally from Tambacounda, in the eastern part of Senegal, he attended high school Mame Cheikh Mbaye High School before continuing his economics studies at Cheikh Anta Diop University. Once graduated, Mbemba returned to Tamba and started a grassroots group called Youth Union for Sustainable Development of Tamba (UJDT). He tirelessly worked to link this group with multiple partners and UJDT later became a formal NGO under the name of Agir pour les Generations Futures (Acting for Future Generations).

For many years, Mbemba worked intensively to raise awareness on environmental issues in his country. He joined 350.org in 2010 and became immediately active in the organisation of global days of action, mobilizing communities and leaders on climate change issues and expanding the climate network. His dedication led to the formation of a strong Power Shift team that has developed an ambitious project to be implemented in the coming months.

In ordinary life, Mbemba was courteous, smiling and humble. All those who knew him recognize in him a disciplined man of great wisdom. Personally, Mbemba was more than a friend. He was a brother, an elder, a model. In February 2011, when I struggled to find accommodation when attending the World Social Forum, Mbemba spontaneously accepted to host me at his house of Grand Yoff in Dakar. I discovered in him an unusual hospitality. And that was the beginning of a deep friendship and valuable professional collaboration.

Mbemba’s close colleagues also pay tribute to a man of great character. Moctar Sidibe, part of GPS Senegal team says: ‘Mbemba was a brother, friend and advisor. If I became who I am today, it is mainly thanks to his advice and multiple encouragements. The moments spent with him in Istanbul helped me to discover a man of humility and dynamism, a true agent of change.’

Cheikh Sy, a member of the GPS Senegal team adds: ‘Mbemba was a humble and pious man. His dedication and dynamism will always guide us and your great climate efforts will ultimately pay.’

Unstoppable Philippe!

Who would have thought that a Power Shift is possible in a context as troubled and tense as the Central African Republic? Yet Philippe Junior Sibiro, environmental activist and 350.org organizer is determined to do so. With his colleagues gathered in the New Space for Development Partnership in Central Africa and in collaboration with other local partners, they are thinking of strengthening the capacity of civil society actors interested in the climate issues to run a massive advocacy campaign centered on large-scale promotion of renewable energies.

What surprises the most with Philippe is his imperturbable calm and fierce determination. Since his return from Istanbul, he showed a strong sense of leadership in the development of Power Shift proposal at both national and regional level. Always present on coaching and exchange Skype sessions, spontaneous to react on emails, ready to support his peers from the region, Philippe has proven qualities of a talented and determined activist. And these efforts have resulted into a project that will include a training workshop for young leaders, an awareness caravan and public delivery of a memorandum on renewable energy.

All these ambitious activities are planned in a country that has been experiencing a serious socio-political instability for several months now and continuous inter-religious violence that is reaching “unprecedented levels of brutality” according to observers on the ground. Faced with this tragedy, Philip refuses to get discouraged or to fall into any kind of pessimism: “With the appointment of a new president, we hope that things will get stable. But in the meantime, we keep the focus on our project”.