Background

Lindsey Fielder Cook works with the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) as their Representative for Climate Change. Since 2013, QUNO has offered ‘quiet diplomacy’ at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), bringing together groups of climate negotiators from diverse countries to help build communication and understanding. This work continues in the post-Paris Agreement phase. QUNO also prepares briefing papers for the climate negotiations, and for wider audiences on issues of climate change in relation to food security, human rights and peace. QUNO has also adapted the ‘quiet diplomacy’ approach to support off-the-record ‘quiet conversations’ both within the NGO climate advocacy and UN communities, and in bridging the climate science and civil society communities to engage our ethical response to human-induced climate change.

The Brown Bag lunch
The purpose of this gathering is to explore the potential of a shared narrative, or ‘voice’, amongst NGOs following the adoption of a new climate change agreement in Paris last December.

Lindsey will begin with a brief overview of the Paris Agreement as a ‘global framework for action’, including perspectives on the Agreement’s strengths and weaknesses. She will encourage both personal and professional reflections from participating NGOs, and facilitate a discussion on what shared messages civil society can bring to the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The brown bag lunch welcomes NGOs from a wide range of concerns – environment, peace, human rights, gender, justice, etc. – for whom climate change and the wider environmental crises are interconnected with their work.

A sandwich lunch will be provided.

Please RSVP to George Thurley if you would like to participate. Numbers will be limited to 20 participants.