Dear Community,

As the climate crisis deepens, the call for transformative action has never been more urgent. Women on the frontlines of environmental degradation continue to be critical leaders and change-makers. Their voices and actions are pivotal in crafting solutions that prioritize the health of our planet and the well-being of our communities. From grassroots movements to global platforms, women in all their diversity are driving climate action with a unique and necessary perspective that emphasizes care, justice, and a healthy livable planet.

As we advocate for climate action, we also need to champion democratic values that enable us to achieve a just and thriving future for all. Together, through uplifting the vital role of women's leadership and the power of our collective voices, we can forge a path toward a world where both people and the planet can thrive. We hold to the truth that there is no climate justice without human rights.

Please see today's newsletter for updates on recent actions, projects, campaign updates, and more information about WECAN's advocacy and events at Climate Week in New York. We are also excited to announce the release of our upcoming report, "The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions."

Virtual Report Launch: The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions

Thursday, September 12, 1:00 PM Eastern Time

Virtual Launch event via Zoom

Join the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) on September 12 for the powerful launch of the report, "The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions (Fourth Edition).” During the online event, we will hear from frontline women leaders, health experts, and advocates who are demanding accountability from financial institutions to take action for the health of our communities, ecosystems, and the climate. 

From rising cancer rates to escalating violence, the report details the numerous disproportionate health and safety risks and impacts women in all their diversity are experiencing due to fossil fuel extraction, which is also perpetuating Indigenous and human rights violations. The report highlights regional case studies from Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income communities in North America, and the corresponding financial institutions that are contributing to these egregious harms. The report outlines recommendations for the banks to move toward accountability and a just transition. It is time to end the era of fossil fuels.

​Featured speakers include:

• Roishetta Sibley Ozane M.S., Founder of Vessel Project of Louisiana and Gulf Fossil Finance Coordinator, Louisiana
• Rene Ann Goodrich (Bad River Ojibwe), Native Lives Matter Coalition and Wisconsin Department of Justice Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Task Force Member, Wisconsin
• Sharon Lavigne, Founder of RISE St. James, and 2021 Goldman Prize Winner, Louisiana
• Patricia Garcia-Nelson (Oraricha Tribes of Mexico and the Chichimeca), Colorado Fossil Fuel Just Transition Advocate for Green Latinos, Northern Colorado
• Casey Camp Horinek (Ponca Nation), Environmental Ambassador for the Ponca Nation, and Board Member and Project Coordinator for WECAN, Oklahoma
• Antonia Juhasz, Senior Researcher on Fossil Fuels, Environment and Human Rights, and Investigative Journalist and Writer, Washington D.C. 
• Dr. Nneoma Nwachuku Ojiaku, MD, MPH Obstetrician-Gynecologist, Climate Health Now
• Osprey Orielle Lake, Report Co-author, and Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

Please join us at Climate Week this September as the call grows louder than ever for governments and financial institutions to take urgent climate action. Global climate justice movements are rallying to address the deepening crisis and accelerate a path forward. At the forefront, women and feminists in all of their diversity are championing just and resilient community-led solutions.

WECAN will be on the ground in New York City during Climate Week 2024 from September 20-28 advocating and organizing with women leaders globally for public events, actions, and advocacy opportunities as well as strategy sessions with policy makers and movement partners.

Please be welcome to join us in-person and online! See the following public events hosted by WECAN below, and find more details about WECAN co-hosted events and partner events on our website here.

In-Person Forum — Women on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis: Ending the Era of Fossil Fuels and Implementing Solutions

Wednesday, September 25, 4:45 - 8:00pm ET NYC Time

777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 

Please join us in-person during Climate Week in New York City for an inspiring and strategic WECAN forum, “Women on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis: Ending the Era of Fossil Fuels and Implementing Solutions.”

​During this event, women leaders in all their diversity will come together to share comprehensive and intersectional approaches and strategies to stop fossil fuel extraction, accelerate community-led climate solutions, and lead a Just Transition grounded in a climate justice framework. Critical topics include fossil fuel resistance; food sovereignty; forest protection; gender-responsive climate policies; Indigenous and human rights; Rights of Nature; strategic preparations for COP29 and COP30; uplifting care economies; community-led solutions; and transformative policies for our collective future. Women are leading the way!

Speakers include:

• Federal Deputy Célia Xakriabá (Xakriabá), Member of the Brazil Chamber of Deputies from Minas Gerais State, and Co-founder of The National Association of Indigenous Ancestral Women Warriors (ANMIGA), Brazil
• Casey Camp Horinek (Ponca Nation), Environmental Ambassador for the Ponca Nation, Board Member and Project Coordinator for WECAN, Turtle Island/USA
• Olivia Tirko Bisa (Chapra), President of the Chapra Nation of the Peruvian Amazon, Peru
• Jacqui Patterson, Founder and Executive Director of The Chisholm Legacy Project, 2024 TIME Women of the Year, and Earth Award recipient, Turtle Island/USA
• Secretary Puyr Tembé (Tembé), Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará in Brazil, and Co-founder of The National Association of Indigenous Ancestral Women Warriors (ANMIGA), Brazil
• Roishetta Ozane, Founder of Vessel Project of Louisiana, and Gulf Fossil Finance Coordinator for the Texas Campaign for the Environment Fund, Turtle Island/USA
• Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Turtle Island/Canada
• Farhana Yamin, Coordinator for the Climate Justice & Just Transition Donor Collaborative, United Kingdom
• Patricia Gualinga (Kichwa), Spokeswoman for Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva, Project Coordinator in Ecuador for WECAN, Ecuador
• Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Turtle Island/Canada
• With moderation and comments by Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Turtle Island, USA

This event will be shared live on Facebook and Instagram.

Virtual Event — Transforming Global Economies:

From Extraction to Regeneration in a Just Transition

Thursday, September 26, 11:00 - 12:30pm ET NYC Time

Virtual via Zoom, register at the button below!

Our current economic system relentlessly extracts resources from the Earth, fueling climate chaos and exploiting both people and the planet. It's time for bold, regenerative solutions to transform global economies! To secure a healthy and equitable future, we must change our global economic system and champion a regenerative, rights-based approach that prioritizes communities and nature, tackling the root causes of our intertwined social, economic, and climate crises.

Join us for an inspiring event where global women leaders will shine a light on Just Transition and innovative economic models, solutions, and frameworks. Topics include community-led initiatives, feminist economics, Indigenous wisdom, beyond-growth economies, and traditional practices of reciprocity with the Earth. Engage in dynamic discussions on emerging, socially just, place-based, and ecologically enriching economic models that offer a clear path to a thriving future for all.

Confirmed speakers, with more to be announced, include:

• Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development, The Philippines
• Monique Verdin (Houma Nation), WECAN Food Sovereignty Program Coordinator in the Gulf South, and Director of Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange, Turtle Island/USA
• Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Author, and Co-President The Club of Rome, Belgium
• Helena Norberg-Hodge, Author, and Founder and Director of Local Futures
• Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Turtle Island/USA

6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal

End of the Fossil Fuel Era -1st session-

Sunday, September 22, 2024, 8:30am - 4:00pm ET

The New School Starr Foundation Hall, University Center Room UL102 63 Fifth Avenue (at 13th Street)

The International Rights of Nature Tribunal will join Climate Week in New York in calling for a transition from fossil fuels and advocating for the Rights of Nature as a key response to the climate crisis. An expert panel will address global cases where the fossil fuel industry has violated Nature’s rights, harmed human rights and environmental defenders, and pushed the planet towards catastrophe. Cases will cover false climate solutions, pipeline projects, oil spills, and sacrifice zones. Learn more about the cases and tribunal here.

Register to attend in-person at the button above. If you would like to join virtually, register here. 

The Tribunal aims to create a forum for people from all around the world to speak on behalf of nature, to protest the destruction of the Earth, destruction that is often sanctioned by governments and corporations, and to make recommendations about Earth’s protection and restoration. Learn more about previous tribunals here. The Tribunal is organized by the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature (GARN), WECAN, and other partner organizations. 

WECAN’s Program Associate, Ashley Guardado, and WECAN representative, Claudia Velandia-Onofre outside of a CitiBank during the Feminists Fight Fossil Fuels March. Photo Credit: WECAN

On August 25, 2024, WECAN’s Program Associate, Ashley Guardado, and WECAN representative, Claudia Velandia-Onofre, were on the ground in New York City standing with feminist allies calling for Wall Street to stop burning the planet and harming our communities. 

The fossil fuel industry isn’t just fueling climate change; it’s fueling a public health crisis that disproportionately impacts women’s bodies, their families, and their futures. The climate catastrophe and fossil fuel projects have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, especially for Black, Brown and Indigenous women and women in the global south. Yet, we see that women are rising everyday to fight and shut down fossil fuel projects, protecting the health of frontline communities and Mother Earth.

WECAN was at the action to speak out and share vital information from our upcoming report, “The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions,” highlighting the gender and race-specific health and safety impacts as well as human and Indigenous rights issues of fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure. Please see the livestream of the rally here.

Left: WECAN representative Claudia Velandia-Onofre speaks out about the connections between the fossil fuel industry and the epidemic of Missing Murdered Indigenous Women during the Feminists Fight Fossil Fuels March. Photo Credit: Ashley Guardado/WECAN. Right: People in action and marching during the Feminists Fight Fossil Fuels March. Photo Credit: Ashley Guardado/WECAN

A photo album of the rally and march can be found here.

We demand an end to this toxic cycle. We call on financial institutions to halt all forms of financing for fossil fuel expansion and infrastructure and instead invest in a Just Transition!

Okla Hina Ikhish Holo (OHIH) Network members and friends during a workshop on uses for traditional plants.

Photo courtesy of OHIH/WECAN.

Okla Hina Ikhish Holo (OHIH), which translates as People of the Sacred Medicine Trail, is a network of Indigenous women, nonbinary, and femme gardeners who span across the United States Gulf South working to re-establish old trade routes while adapting and co-designing new future paths for tradeways that strengthen decentralized systems of support, build circular economies, and support local biodiversity, food sovereignty, and stewardship of their traditional territories. 

In 2024, OHIH members have been actively engaged in various initiatives to support Indigenous communities and preserve cultural heritage in the Gulf South region. They contributed to the opening of Nanih Bvlbancha, one of the few public Indigenous sites in New Orleans, which serves as a gathering place for learning about Indigenous peoples, plants, and the architecture of Mississippian cultures. At Hummingbird Springs Farm—stewarded by OHIH member Angela Comeaux— over 8,000 plant starts have been distributed to the community as mutual aid, alongside workshops on honey harvesting and ethical goat harvesting.

As hurricane season approaches, OHIH members are preparing an emergency hub at Prairie des Femmes, stewarded by WECAN Indigenous Food Security & Sovereignty Program Coordinator, Monique Verdin (Houma Nation), where a mobile mesh network system for emergency communication is being installed, complementing a fleet of solar trailers. By placing these mesh network systems at strategic locations, like Prairie des Femmes, we are establishing an autonomous communication system for the OHIH network. Alongside emergency hub preparations, OHIH continues mutual aid efforts to support community resilience for people of the Gulf South, which includes distributing plant starts, providing disaster response herbal tinctures, and organizing tree giveaway events that, thus far, has distributed hundreds of trees to the surrounding communities. 

We are also excited to announce that WECAN's video, "Growing Indigenous Food Sovereignty: Okla Hina Ikhish Holo Network in Bvlbancha & the Gulf South," was selected as a finalist in the MY HERO International Film Festival in Santa Monica, California. 

The work of the Okla Hina Ikhish Holo network continues to grow, nurturing communities, lands, and our planet for future generations! 

There are several open comment periods happening right now in the United States to stop pipelines and protect forests, essential for mitigating the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Please see below and submit your comment today!

Tell the US Army Corps to Reject Line 5!

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced the opening of a written public comment period regarding the newly released draft Environmental Assessment (EA) of Enbridge’s Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation project. This project poses a grave danger to communities and ecosystems in the Great Lakes region, which is home to one-fifth of the world’s surface freshwater.

Join us in calling for the Army Corps to reject any requested permits for a Line 5 expansion project now or in the future. The Army Corps should respect and reinforce the legal decision to decommission the pipeline no later than June 2026 and to permanently shutdown this pipeline once and for all. Submit your comment at the button below.

SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT TO REJECT LINE 5 BEFORE AUGUST 30!

Please join us in solidarity with the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance to submit public comments on the Line 5 pipeline! Click the button above for more information on submitting your comment and additional resources. WECAN is honored to facilitate and support the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance and to amplify the demands of the Bad River Band. Please learn more about our Stop Line 5 advocacy here.

Submit a Comment to Protect Mature and Old Growth Forests!

Take action to protect climate forests for all generations! The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for old-growth forest protection is out right now, and we have an opportunity to submit public comments urging the U.S. Forest Service to strengthen the National Old Growth Amendment (NOGA) and end commercial logging of these vital ecosystems. Properly implemented, this national amendment could significantly address the climate and biodiversity crises, while supporting and protecting Indigenous cultural practices, local livelihoods and economies, and animal habitats. 

Submit your comments here 👉 www.climate-forests.org/take-action

🌲Mature and old-growth forests are known as "climate forests" for their ability to sequester vast amounts of carbon, mitigate climate impacts, and safeguard biodiversity essential for climate solutions. The Forest Service must use NOGA to implement transformational change with strengthened language and standards that allow the amendment to have enforceable protections over both old-growth and mature trees and eliminate their commercial exchange. 

Speak Up to Save 1,000-Year-Old Redwoods

A majestic grove of 1,000-year-old redwoods in Northern California is facing an imminent threat — and it needs your help. 

Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt County shelters one of the last protected stands of accessible old-growth redwood trees in the world. But a plan to widen Highway 101 to make room for oversized trucks would cut into and pave over the root systems of the thousand-year-old trees, causing dieback of the canopy and possible loss of parts of the grove. 

There's no reason to imperil these majestic trees, as other cost-effective, environmentally sound solutions to improve the movement of goods along the coast exist. This may be our last chance to save these irreplaceable redwoods. Urge decision-makers to save Richardson Grove.

Submit a comment here: https://act.biologicaldiversity.org/Qkh_mgZaeUOq5V7tdqHwEQ2?sourceID=1010011

We are excited to share that a WECAN video, "Women Ending the Era of Fossil Fuels & Building a Just Transition," will be featured at this year's Green Shoots Film Festival.

The video highlights the advocacy of global women leaders fighting to end the era of fossil fuels while advancing a Just Transition and advocating for climate solutions, Indigenous and human rights, rights of nature, and thriving communities and planet.

Green Shoots Film Festival will conduct a strategic series of screenings of international feature documentaries and short films on climate change, ocean conservation, eco-feminism, biodiversity, trees, beautiful gardens, renewable energy, the power of people in restoring and protecting nature, and a reimagined sustainable future. These films are the visions of a new generation of thinkers, creators and builders, one filled with hope for a new earth. There will be panels and Q&A's with filmmakers, directors, producers, environmentalists, and climate activists.

Learn more here: https://rebelsisterfilms.wixsite.com/greenshootsfestival2

Please consider supporting WECAN as we continue to uplift the leadership and solutions of women worldwide fighting for climate justice and the defense of the planet for current and future generations.