MILL VALLEY, Calif., September 9, 2014- Building momentum in advance of the UN Climate Leadership Summit, the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN International) announced today its release of the Women's Climate Action Agenda.
The initial vision of the document was created by more than 100 women leaders united in addressing the climate crisis at the 2013 International Women's Earth and Climate Summit and represents the synthesis of decades of academic research, policymaking and grassroots activism.
"The Women's Climate Action Agenda analyzes the root causes of the environmental destruction and social injustice which today threaten people and planet in an unprecedented way," said Osprey Orielle Lake, co-founder and executive director of WECAN International. "The Agenda presents powerful recommendations and alternative solutions to the climate crisis, leaving no room for inaction as world leaders enter into climate negotiations this year."
The comprehensive 80-page document analyzes the ways in which industrialization, fossil fuel combustion, land use change and social and ecologic exploitation have compromised the planet's equilibrium in notable and dire ways.
It specifically includes sections on fossil fuel extraction and resistance, green business and 100-percent renewables, agriculture, food and seeds, forests and biodiversity, fresh water and oceans, cities and lifestyle, climate finance and economics, indigenous peoples, and women and climate leadership, each of which outlines a concrete action plan and detailed policy recommendations.
"We need a paradigm shift-for global environmental sustainability, for social justice, for new economies of scale, for respect and understanding of Nature," the Agenda reads. "All four of these factors are inextricably linked; we cannot bring one into stable being without the others."
The Women's Climate Action Agenda is currently available for download on the WECAN International website (wecaninternational.org/pages/womens-climate-action-agenda-2014), and will be presented to international policymakers, business and indigenous leaders, activists, and culture shapers on a global scale. WECAN International also plans to bring the Agenda to the attention of delegates at the 2014 United Nations Climate Leadership Summit and 2015 United Nations Climate Change Negotiations.
About WECAN International
The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN International) is a solutions-based, multi-faceted effort established to engage women worldwide as powerful stakeholders in climate change and sustainability solutions. Recent work includes the 2013 International Women's Earth and Climate Summit, Women's Climate Declaration, and WECAN Women's Climate Action Agenda. International climate advocacy is complemented with on-the-ground programs such as the Women's for Forests and Fossil Fuel/Mining/Mega Dam Resistance, and Regional Climate Solutions Trainings in the Middle East North Africa region and Democratic Republic of Congo. WECAN International was founded in 2013 as a project of the 501(c)3 Women's Earth and Climate Caucus (WECC) organization and its partner eraGlobal Alliance.
