⚡Ban
Good morning! If you missed yesterday’s, you can find it here.
Today is Human Rights Day and was chosen to honor the UN’s adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world… Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt holding poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (in English), Lake Success, New York. November 1949.
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Let’s get into it!
COP25 Climate Summit: Week 1 Updates
A continuation of our coverage on COP25.
Though the talks began on the Monday of Dec 2, they picked up pace when Greta Thunberg arrived on Friday to join a 500,000 people march through the center of Madrid.
The people are upset. “We’ve achieved nothing.” Emissions have continued to rise in the last two years since Greta entered the activist stage and many believe it’s because the urgency felt by scientists is not present in the international, political negotiation rooms.
Carbon Market. Negotiators finally managed to put out a text on the future of carbon markets over the weekend, but there’s plenty of disagreements. If there is no resolution—and there is no guarantee of one—this will be a large topic of next year’s talks too, which will get in the way of progress. By next year, countries are supposed to realign their emission-cutting targets with scientific advice.
Bloomberg steps up. Though only 3 weeks into his campaign, the billionaire will appear today at COP25 where he’ll share the results of his private push to organize US cities and businesses to follow the global climate treaty Trump has walked away from. It’s pretty unusual for a candidate to step into the international stage after less than a month of campaigning, but he’s vowed that rejoining the Paris climate agreement will be his first official act as president.
America’s Pledge. A movement, founded in 2017 to counteract Trump’s abandonment of the Paris climate agreement, released a report in Madrid yesterday to keep it’s momentum. This coalition’s supporters represent 68% of US economic output, 65% of the population, and 51% of the country’s emissions. They hope to fulfill the purpose to “build a prosperous, low carbon economy.”
"Decarbonization is already happening, and it's accelerating," said Carl Pope, the vice-chair of America's Pledge and the former executive director of the Sierra Club. "Cleaner is now cheaper… For both coal and gas, in electricity, the clock is ticking… They are no longer competitive.”
Africa’s hopes. While Africa only accounts for less than 4% of carbon emissions, the continent is extremely vulnerable to the climate crisis. While everyone’s trying to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, the leaders and organizations in Africa are trying to find ways to prevent more climate-related disasters and build a better economy that is low carbon. This means various countries are going to need funds they don’t currently have. It’s estimated that $50bn of finance is going to been needed annually by 2050 in sub-Saharan Africa alone for climate adaptation. Currently, funding is extremely low even though climate-related issues have risen in various regions and countries.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done! The work of America’s Pledge is extremely exciting because it shows how we as people can coordinate and hope to produce impact when the heads of our government won’t listen. We find it also alarming how the carbon market talks have stalled progress in many ways and that there’s fear that little will be accomplished at this global conference.
The Next Muslim Ban
The world’s largest “democracy” is on the verge of passing a very dangerous bill. Yesterday, India’s lower house of Parliament passed a bill establishing a religious test for migrants who want to become citizens. If the bill passes through the upper house, which it most likely will, migrants that represent all of South Asia’s major religions will be eligible to become Indian citizens – except Islam.
Muslims praying at a mosque in Tonk, India. Muslim Indians see a new citizenship bill as a step by the government to make them second-class citizens. Credit: Smita Sharma for The New York Times
The background. The Citizenship Amendment Bill is the national extension of a program that began in Assam, a state in northeast India. All 33 million residents of the state had to prove that they, or their ancestors, were Indian citizens. At the end of the exercise, 2 million people were left off the state’s citizenship rolls – most were Muslims who had been lifelong residents of India. PM Narendra Modi and the governing BJP party is now looking to expand this test to other states.
BJP’s rationale. They are claiming that this bill is intended to “protect persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians who are migrants from predominantly Muslim countries such as Pakistan or Afghanistan.” One member of Parliament, Ravi Kishan, took it a step further:
“There are Muslim countries, there are Jew countries, everybody has their own identity. And we are a billion-plus right? We must have one identity.”
An alarming trend. Kishan’s comments and this bill highlight an alarming trend in Indian politics – a shift away from secularism. India has historically prided itself on being a secular nation, but it has aggressively pulled in the opposite direction over the last few years. Intimidation and attacks against Muslim communities have increased in recent years, and this legislation will only make it easier to incarcerate and deport Muslim residents if they cannot produce proof of citizenship.
How this may play out. The Indian government is now building an enormous network of prisons to house thousands of these migrants. After each immigration raid, any Hindu migrant who is swept up may be “released and allowed to apply for citizenship, while Muslim migrants could instead be sent to detention camps or simply deported.”
What’s happening on the ground. Unsurprisingly, protests have broken out. In Assam, thousands of people have been marching on the streets. Nationally, schools and markets have been boycotted.
This is horrific, but we aren’t surprised at all. India has been heading down this road for a number of years, and it’s scary to see official legislation getting past codifying the shift towards a Hindu nation. We’ll be continuing to keep a close watch on this – the same way we’ve been keeping an eye on Hong Kong and the other major democratic protests around the world – and will keep you posted as things develop.
Power & Change
This month in Finland, the government is now set to have a new left-wing government, led by five women and the world’s youngest prime minister. 👏 Four of these women are younger than 35.
Enter Sanna Marin. A 34 year old Social Democrat is widely expected to be confirmed as prime minister. Her rise would preserve the left-wing coalition, but will be inheriting pressure from the increasingly popular conservative opposition as the economy has weakened.
“There’s a lot of work to be done to rebuild trust,” Marin acknowledged Sunday.
Congrats. Even political opponents, such as former conservative Finnish prime minister Alexander Stuff, acknowledged the new government composition and tweeted:
Marin’s response. Less focused on symbolism, she says:
“I have never thought about my age or gender; I think of the reasons I got into politics and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate,” said Marin, according to the AFP news agency.
We love it 🇫🇮 and we need to celebrate these moments as they happen. We do hope that one day these things are less news worthy though. It’d mean we’ve reached a better state of the world. Until then, let’s keep celebrating!
Short takes
Gambia’s case against Myanmar for the Rohingya genocide begins in The Hague.
Ukraine and Russia reach a ceasefire after 5 long years.
Sydney is choking. The city remains blanketed in smoke from bushfires and air pollution has reached a threshold that is 11 times higher than what is deemed hazardous.
Calcutta was once an anti-pollution pioneer. It was “cleaner than any major European industrial city.”
Tomorrow Today
🎟️ Date and time for the next one to be announced soon!
We’re thinking February.
Change cannot be achieved alone, only together. In that spirit, we are hosting community events at our space in New York City. Eat some food, learn from some seasoned, unconventional activists, and meet others aspiring to change the world!
Why are we hosting this?
For us, community is the center of everything. In an age of prolific digitization, there's a great need for greater human connection. It's almost necessary to carve out time and space to purposefully engage in person. While it's amazing to be able to discuss and interact with multiple people online and exchange stories and insights, we don't think anything beats the experience of sharing a meal.
Igniting Tomorrow
💰 $100k-$250k Pre-Seed Funding
UPDATE: We’ve already had multiple people reach out and share their ideas. It gets us super excited to learn more about the projects and companies everyone is working on. Please keep reaching out. We’ll be releasing more information around this in the upcoming year.
Many of you are either already working on a number of world-changing things or have ideas bursting out of you every day. Our goal is to see unconventional activists like you succeed. Let us help connect you into the space and access the financing you need to get started. If you’d like to share your ideas (or know a friend working on something exciting), please reply to this email!
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