by Burkhard Paetzold
PEC Representative at COP 26
Not yet arrived in Glasgow
Cop26 has started today, but I'm still sitting in my home in
Petershagen (near Berlin/Germany). It's Halloween night and
"trick-or-treaters" are ringing my door bell from time to time.
According to my travel plans I will be in Glasgow between
Nov 3 and Nov 12. That is I have to chair a county council committee meeting
here in a neighboring town on Nov 2. One of the important topics is that more
and more mainly Afghan or Iraqi refugees are crossing the nearby boarder from
Poland into our border region these days (after they have crossed the border
from Belarus into Poland before). Together with civil society groups we have
worked on a welcoming attitude and programs since at least 2015, but there are
other people in my region who respond differently and even local authorities sometimes have a
different attitude.
I'm always thinking of the different reasons that cause
families to make their hard decision to leave home and that climate hazards
will increasingly be among those reasons.
Dealing with Information overflow
During the last few days I
have tried to get COP26 focused,
searched for and scanned through different information sources about
COP26 and related issues. (e.g. German and English newspapers, books, studies
and podcasts). Let me recommend the podcast
“Outrage & Optimism” and the podcasts of the Guardian.
There are different sources of the conference that give us a
(sometimes confusing) spectrum of information, which ranges from registering,
reserving tickets for events or online meetings, or Covid 19 logistics, to
different agendas of the negotiations
(Blue Zone) and of side events (Green Zone).
In this situation of information overflow it’s good to get
an overview from ecumenical partners one
can hold on to. Fred has already
reported about a very helpful zoom briefing of the ACT alliance and Lutheran
World Federation and about their very
strategic coordination for our relatively large ecumenical group. There will be
daily briefings and I’m sure that’s helpful.
Neddy helped us to be invited into different interfaith
WhatsApp groups, which bring a variety of flavors to my attention and a lot of
hints about initiatives and meetings to get in touch with while in Glasgow (or
online).
I compare this with my one and only COP experience from
Katowice/PL (COP24 in 2018) when I had only two large agenda printouts and in many cases just walked in and met
ecumenical partners only occasionally.
First impression: The challenge of divestment
from fossil fuels
On October 28 I participated in a online webinar on "Fossil fuel divestment and just
transition for all" organized by Laudato Si’ Movement, Operation Noah,
World Council of Churches, Green Anglicans and GreenFaith.
First we learned about the fossil fuel divestment shift in
the Scottish catholic bishops' conference announced recently.
Another strong statement came from an Anglican Church leader from Southern Africa who said
“this is Africas’ Kairos” with companies investing in the Okavango basin in
Namibia for oil eploitation and talked about huge gas fields discovered in
northern Mozambique. The Church of Southern Africa (Green Anglicans) is calling
for an immediate end to fossil fuel exploration in Africa and Matthew 6.21 was
quoted by someone: “For where your treasure
(your investment) is, there your heart will be also.”
The good news was delivered by a scientist from a climate
finance institute (stand.earth) who reported that the divestment pledges from
businesses, cities, towns, churches, individuals etc. have skyrocketed since
Paris COP21, now reach $ 39.88 Trillion which is larger than investments of US
and China combined.
Second impression: A moving Interfaith Vigil in
Glasgow today
I was impressed by an interfaith prayer this afternoon in
Glasgow with so many faith traditions involved, which I was able to witness online
and I was sad not to be present when the pilgrims arrived. I remember the
German group who I had accompanied in Berlin in 2018 and was among those
welcoming them when they arrived in Katowice at COP24. I admire them! They are
such a blessing!
A few words about myself
Since this is my first of a planned series of blogs I think
I should briefly introduce myself:
I’m grateful and honored to be a COP 26 observer on behalf
of Presbyterians for Earth Care together
with my Presbyterian colleagues Neddy, Bill and Fred. In my last 20+
years before retirement (which was in the fall 2020) I was working
with Presbyterian Church USA World Mission, first to establish a particular
community development program with a foundation in Armenia and in the Middle
East and later as regional liaison with Rroma people and partners in Central
and Western Europe focusing on programs for human rights, anti-racism, and
refugee protection and integration.
I‘m married and my wife and I live near Berlin/Germany are
proud parents and grandparents of two adult daughters and four grand kids for
which I wish they can live in a world where justice, peace and solidarity reign
and nature is restored.
I was born and grew up in East Germany, was educated as an
engineer in the 70s and tried to be a critical engineer ever since.
In the late 1970s and 80s I was part of the East German
peace movement. One of the studies I wrote in a church and society group was on
gradually and mutually accelerated unilateral disarmament. One of my few visits
to the UK was a roughly year before the wall came down. In 1988 I was invited by CND to put
– among other Eastern Europeans - a face on the targets of British
nukes.
I consider the ecumenical movement „Justice, Peace and
Integrity of Creation“ - which had been important during the last days of East
Germany but much underestimated - as
crucial for my life.
Since 1989 I’m working as a member of the German Green
party, in local and regional councils focusing on social and ecological
projects, started a job dealing with
military conversion. That was in the early 1990s, during the phase of the
Russian troop withdrawal and the end of the national East German army. For a
few years in the early 90s I was elected mayor of my small town near Berlin -
in a time when German unification had changed the social economic and political
landscape drastically.
During the mid and late 90s I managed a project to implement a “Local Agenda 21”
funded by the German environmental agency and the churches for a
sustainable future in district in Berlin Germany by networking between
civil society, church communities, and local authorities.
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