The worldwide People’s Pilgrimage for climate action will be launched on June 7th in Vanuatu by the former Philippines Climate Change Commissioner and Chief Climate Negotiator, Yeb Saño. (www.peoplespilgrimage.org)

 

The People’s Pilgrimage has been created by OurVoices, the interfaith climate change campaign (www.ourvoices.net), in partnership with numerous faith and spiritual groups, to mobilize their goodwill, prayers and actions.

 

On every continent, people will be walking to demonstrate their deep concern about climate change issues - taking long and short journeys - anything from a few steps if they find walking difficult, to a few miles, to across continents.

 

This unprecedented uprising by the world’s faith communities is calling upon world leaders to adopt a strong climate change agreement. From across Europe, pilgrims will state their demands to the world’s governments by converging in Paris, in time for the opening on 30 November of the 21st Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21).

 

Pilgrims will demand that the agreement contain a full range of measures relating to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to climate impacts, technology and finance and a long-term goal. The agreement must ensure that the global average temperature remains below 2°C (3.6°F) above the pre-industrial levels, as agreed in a decision at the 2010 COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico.

 

Yeb Saño arrives at the cyclone devastated island nation of Vanuatu on June 7th to officially launch the pilgrimage and then he goes on to Sydney where there will be a climate pilgrimage on June 12th. He will then proceed to the Great Barrier Reef on June 13th and he will be travelling to Rome to take part in an interfaith march on 28th June to celebrate the issue of the Pope’s Encyclical on human ecology. He will also participate in the OurVoices / GreenFaith Emerging Multifaith Leaders Climate Convergence in Rome (a 3 day training seminar for 100 people from five continents). Yeb will subsequently visit Asia, Africa, North America. He will then undertake 1100km walk from Rome in Italy to Paris arriving there on 30th November, with the other pilgrims converging on Paris then.

 

Pilgrims will travel to key places where there are already visible impacts, as well as to installations contributing to climate change such as oil wells, pipelines, coal mines and fossil fuel fired power stations. Pilgrims will also go to areas of hope and inspiration where solutions to climate change are already operating such as solar, wind and other clean technologies which are making a better future possible. The People’s Pilgrimage will celebrate and give a voice to such stories.

 

Yeb Saño’s widely reported emotional statement at the 2013 COP 19, describing the destruction of his home city of Tacloban by Super Typhoon Haiyan, and his subsequent fast - inspired the creation of the #FastfortheClimate movement (www.fastfortheclimate.org). On leaving government service, Yeb joined OurVoices earlier this year to lead the People´s Pilgrimage.