Tell your Story, Raise your Voice: Youth Delegation to 2018 U.N. Climate Talks with SustainUS

[SustainUS]

Hey friends, 

I wanted to make sure you all saw our launch of applications to COP24: the U.N. Climate talks in Katowice, Poland. We'd love to have you all apply. 

Best,

Daniel J. 

Friend, 

2018 will be a year of commitments — where rubber hits the road for climate justice. Climate change alone threatens to wipe out vast populations and profoundly change life on Earth. And we only have a few years left to act. There is no time more important than now for US youth in the climate justice movement to bring our fullest creativity and brilliance to the UN, to show that we continue to fight for our communities and for the future we believe in, despite the inaction and corruption of our government. To make 2018 count, we are excited to announce the launch of our public application to the SustainUS COP24 delegation.

The 2018 UN Climate Talks are a key moment for the global movement for climate justice, and we invite you to join us. To apply for this delegation, we invite you to participate in the SustainUS Climate Justice Challenge. The challenge is a call for you to publicly share your stories of resilience, action and justice with your community and the wider movement.

The SustainUS Climate Justice Challenge is a dynamic application process that fosters the growth of the youth climate justice movement while calling forth the skills we’d like to see on our team. Since the challenge launched in 2016, nearly 400 public stories have been shared.

Last year the Trump Administration announced their intention to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement, sending a clear signal to the rest of the world that our government does not care about our lives or those of millions around the world. To make matters worse, the Trump Administration held only one official event at the UN Climate Talks last fall - a panel on how fossil fuels and nuclear energy are solutions to the climate crisis. In response, the SustainUS COP23 delegation disrupted the event. We stood up with a banner that read "We, the People", sang a song to the tune of “God Bless the USA” and walked out leaving the room mostly empty. Media coverage of our action at the White House panel reached hundreds of millions of people around the world, making the front page of the New York Times.

Members of the SustainUS COP23 delegation in Germany after the White House panel walk-out.

This is your chance to publicly share your story - whether it’s through writing, podcasts, artwork or music, a community action, or a policy paper - any medium that conveys how your work in your community connects to the global movement for climate justice.  We will support you in publishing your submissions along the way.

→ Step 1: FILL OUT THE CALL FOR INTEREST FORM

→ Step 2: LEARN ABOUT THE CHALLENGE HERE

This delegation will be guided by a vision of:

1. Resilience: Young activists have the capacity to create beauty, justice, ecological and community health and community empowerment even in spite of the political circumstances being so dire right now.

2. Reparations: The need for making amends and paying back historical and ecological debts of centuries of colonization and extractive capitalism to communities of color, indigenous communities, ecosystems and developing nations who are most impacted by climate change and have done the least to cause it.

SustainUS COP23 delegate Varshini Prakash being interviewed by the AP.

Join us from December 3 – 14, 2018 in Katowice, Poland to work in solidarity with people around the world who are making the same demands for climate justice – the stakes are high, and so is the opportunity.

With excitement, 

Daniel Jubelirer and Aneesa Khan
SustainUS COP24 Delegation Leaders

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SustainUS: U.S. Youth for Justice and Sustainability

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