Despite increasing risks to communities and ecosystems, movements and women leaders in all of their diversity worldwide are emerging with powerful interventions and actions for water, land, climate and communities. We know it will take all of us, working in collaboration and connection, to build the healthy and just future we deserve and need. 

This week, we are glad to share in this newsletter recent campaigns and actions everyone can take part in to stand with communities, stop fossil fuels and deforestation, and protect Mother Earth!

On May 25, the Indigenous Women's Treaty Alliance, WECAN & 150+ groups sent an urgent message to the Biden Administration to take action, protect the Great Lakes, listen to Tribal leadership, and shut down line 5!

In Wisconsin, rapid erosion along the banks of the Bad River has left the outdated Line 5 pipeline just a few yards from being exposed to the powerful river current. Line 5 is operating nearly 20 years past its engineered lifespan, and the current erosion and flooding could imminently result in an oil leak into the Bad River, which flows into Lake Superior and the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes account for one-fifth of the world's surface freshwater. Indigenous communities have long relied on fishing, wild rice, medicines, and other plants and animals from the Bad River and Lake Superior. A rupture and oil spill would pose a catastrophic threat to their community, the wider public, the river, and Lake Superior. 

President Biden can stop this by revoking the Presidential Permit and forcing Enbridge to cease Line 5’s operations. Indigenous women are the backbone of vital movements, and we must heed their calls for action to protect water, ecosystems, communities, and our global climate.

WECAN has been very honored to facilitate the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, a group of Indigenous women leaders from the Great Lakes region. Please learn more and stay connected here: https://www.wecaninternational.org/stop-line-5

Find more information about the letter, background details, and efforts to Stop Line 5 here:

• Common Dreams - Citing 'Imminent Danger,' Indigenous Women Demand Biden Shut Down Line 5 Pipeline
• Michigan Advance - Indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Line 5 pipeline due to ‘imminent’ threat
• The Progressive Magazine - Pushing to Stop Line 5, Again
• Global News - Line 5 pipeline: ‘Energy security’ at stake as Wisconsin decision looms, Canada says

Join us for a national week of action June 8 - 11 to demand Biden use his executive powers to end the era of fossil fuels and declare a climate emergency! Starting this June, we’re mobilizing to turn up the heat and make Biden take real climate action – by ending the era of fossil fuels.

In March 2023, the UN Secretary General urged governments to prepare energy transition plans by specifically, "Ceasing all licensing or funding of new oil and gas – consistent with the findings of the International Energy Agency. Stopping any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves. Shifting subsidies from fossil fuels to a just energy transition. Establishing a global phase down of existing oil and gas production."

We understand the complex geo-political circumstances at play, but there will be no future without an end to the fossil fuel era.

Biden promised to be a climate president – yet under his watch, the U.S. continues to be the biggest producer of oil and gas in the world. His administration has approved new oil and gas projects, like the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska and multiple oil and gas export terminals in the Gulf. Frontline communities and global scientists have been abundantly clear – we cannot avoid the very worst impacts of the climate crisis if we allow for any more fossil development. Find more information about the week of action here.

WECAN will be in Washington D.C. to kick off the week of action, please see more information below!

Washington D.C. - Biden, #StopMVP Now!

Thursday, June 08, 2023, 2:00 - 4:00pm ET

Location: White House

RSVP page: https://actionnetwork.org/events/biden-stopmvp-now/

Join us in front of the White House to demand Biden stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which crosses 303 miles of land and water from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia. The Biden Administration has the ability and opportunity to stop MVP and end the era of fossil fuels. This action will set off the week of actions taking place across the country with thousands of people calling on President Biden to stop all new fossil fuel projects.

The Amazon Rainforest is home to some of the world's greatest biodiversity, and represents 20% of the world's fresh water, yet it remains at risk of deforestation and destruction due to extraction projects.

To protect the Amazon, mitigate the climate and biodiversity crises, it is imperative to support frontline land defenders and Indigenous communities who are the best stewards of their territories and waters globally. A new report demonstrates how the full implementation of Indigenous rights and sovereignty is a key path toward protecting the Amazon rainforest, and global biodiversity and forests.

As part of WECAN's Women for Forests campaign in the Amazon, we have been actively working with grassroots leaders to uplift the Escazú Agreement, which is a vital treaty in Latin America and Caribbean on environmental issues and the protection of rights for land defenders.

WECAN has been working with our partners at Vance Center to provide resources to land defenders and organizers regarding the legal implications of implementation of the Escazú Agreement. You can find those reports here.

To continue with this work, we are preparing for workshops later this year that will bring together frontline land defenders and leaders to learn more about the implementation of the Escazú Agreement and how it can align with legal frameworks outlining Indigenous Rights, specifically the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Check back for more details soon.

Please see below for other updates and ways to take action to support Indigenous peoples' vital efforts to protect the Amazon Rainforest.

Sign the Letter to Protect 80% of Amazonia by 2025

Ahead of the international Amazon Summit in August, join WECAN in standing in solidarity with more than 500 Amazonian Indigenous Peoples and millions of inhabitants in nine Amazonia countries whose survival is at risk. We are participating in the call to send a letter to governments urging them to include the leaders of representative territorial Indigenous federations and members of civil society in the construction of the Amazon Summit agenda, the development of the Summit, and the implementation of the commitments that emanate from this meeting of Presidents. 

Please join us and sign the letter here:

https://bit.ly/AmazoniaSummit

Join Efforts to Defend the Amazon and Indigenous Lands in Brazil

This week, the Brazilian Congress began voting for a new law that will allow miners and tree cutters to attack the Amazon rainforest and sacred Indigenous lands.

Already, late Wednesday night, the Brazilian Congress voted in support of this dangerous bill, Bill 490/07. Now, the Brazilian Senate will consider this bill, and Celia Xakriaba, one of the only Indigenous members of Congress in Brazil, is urgently asking for support from the global community to protect the Amazon.

If passed, this dangerous bill will remove rights and protections for Indigenous communities and the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. We must stand with Indigenous leaders and join them in stopping this bill for good. The letter will be sent to the Brazilian Congress and President Lula by Celia Xakriaba.

Please click here to join us in signing the appeal today!

WECAN with Indigenous leaders from the Amazon, including Celia Xakriaba (center) at COP27 in Egypt.

Photo Credit: Katherine Quaid / WECAN International

On Wednesday, May 31, WECAN joined over 60 civil society organizations and networks – whose members include over 370 groups across 85+ countries on six continents – in sending an open letter to the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) highlighting that its final draft of it's framework on how companies should report on their biodiversity risks and impacts fails to address some of its worst flaws that will facilitate greenwashing.

The TNFD is a taskforce solely made up of 40 global corporations, including several that have come under fire for their environmental and human rights practices. The current taskforce developing the framework includes some of the world’s largest fossil fuel financiers and businesses persistently linked to deforestation or human rights harms. 

In a press release for the open letter, Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director stated: "Nature has an intrinsic right to exist, to thrive. We need to celebrate, learn from and revere the natural world. The trees that give us the air we breath, the waters that sustain life, the insects that make the soil we rely on for food. The TNFD is a distraction. It speaks of disclosure rather than the actual changes we need. It says nothing about corporations needing to stop financing fossil fuels, to stop deforestation, to stop dangerous experiments like deep seabed mining. It does not include the knowledge and rights of Indigenous Peoples, women and communities at the forefront of biodiversity protection.”

The letter discusses a range of issues with the TNFD’s proposed framework and broader processes. It highlights that TNFD reports will not have to include information on where companies are facing allegations of harming biodiversity or environmental defenders. The data in reports will also be unverifiable and companies will not need to report their lobbying against new laws that help protect nature. The framework will not allow communities affected by biodiversity harms to even know the name of companies who are buying from, or financing, activities in their area. Finally, the letter highlights that the TNFD has failed to respond to academic research that re-pricing biodiversity risks is more likely to impact lower and middle-income countries, not richer countries. 

Read the full open letter here!

Please join us in raising your voice and join hundreds of thousands across the United States calling for permanent protections for mature and old-growth forests on federal public lands.

On Earth Day 2022 President Biden issued an Executive Order calling on the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to conserve mature and old growth forests as a climate solution. This was a momentous step towards meaningful protections, but now it’s up to us to ensure that this first step turns into real and lasting changes in how federal agencies manage older forests. In response to the President’s Executive Order, both USDA and DOI have taken strides towards permanent protections of federal mature and old-growth forests, and now it’s up to us to ensure the trees most critical in the fight against climate change receive the lasting protections they deserve. Both the USDA and DOI have opened public comment periods through June 20th, 2023, please join us in submitting a comment today!

Kick polluters out! The fossil fuel industry continues to impede just climate action at all levels of policy globally.

This year, the president of an oil company is leading the UN Climate Talks, and in response, Over 130 U.S. lawmakers and members of the European Parliament have sent a joint letter to President Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, demanding the removal of Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as president of the upcoming U.N. climate conference, COP28.

The letter follows consistent pressure from civil society movements, including a letter signed by WECAN and over 420 groups urging the UN and UNFCCC leads to halt corporate capture of COP28 and beyond. We need lawmakers to stand with our global movements to end the corporate capture at the UN climate talks and push for an immediate phase out of fossil fuels!

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) is seeking a Policy Coordinator to join our dynamic team working for climate justice, systemic change, and women’s and feminist leadership in global climate solutions. See a full description below!

Full-Time Policy Coordinator

The Policy Coordinator will work remotely, with the support of WECAN’s Executive Director, to coordinate ongoing policy campaigns and advocacy efforts. This will include conducting research, analyzing policy strategies, writing reports, briefs, and educational materials, and supporting WECAN campaigns and coalition building to push forward progressive policies within a climate justice framework. 

The Policy Coordinator will work across WECAN’s campaigns, with a specific focus on WECAN’s fossil fuel resistance and divestment campaigns, advocating for governments and financial institutions to stop fossil fuel expansion and deforestation. This role will also include advocating for policies that implement human rights and Indigenous rights, a Just Transition, care economies, and supporting ongoing policy work through various coalitions uplifting feminist climate policies. 

Read the full job description here. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis, with an initial deadline of Thursday, June 15.