Parents around the world plea for urgent climate action

222 parents groups from 27 countries have released a heartfelt joint plea calling on negotiators at this year’s UN climate summit – COP25 – in Madrid to push for ambitious and urgent climate action to protect children’s health, lives and futures before it is too late.

[Madrid, Spain, December 5, 2019]: 

Parents from 222 parent-climate groups across 27 countries have signed a heartfelt plea asking delegates to reflect upon their love for their own children and by extension taking action for all children.

The declaration asks delegates negotiating at COP25 in Madrid, many of whom are parents, to remember their dual role as parents and negotiators when working to address the climate emergency that will affect all children of today and generations to come.

“Climate-related disasters have become the norm and children are losing their  health, their lives, and their futures because of climate chaos. We cannot accept that this is the world we are handing over to our children.” says Jesus Garcia, a representative of the Madres Por El Clima climate group from Spain.

The declaration points out that current political commitments put us on track to a catastrophic 3–4C global temperature rise. Every tonne of carbon emitted takes us closer to dangerous tipping points, which could unravel human civilization within our own, and our children’s lifetimes.

“With every tonne of carbon we release, the climate impacts will be made worse. Millions of children, especially in areas of the world where livelihoods are already affected by poverty, water scarcity and drought, will be hit the hardest. This is a moral injustice, and as parents, we will not stand by and watch children being robbed of their futures.”, says Cherise Udell, mom of two from Utah Moms for Clean Air, in the US.

The undersigned groups point out that the UN climate summit is a crucial opportunity, especially for parents in the negotiations, to stand up for children and act boldly to enact ambitious climate action in line with keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C.

“Every person in the negotiations has a responsibility to act to ensure our children’s rights are safeguarded, and to disregard vested corporate interests and political grandstanding. We need brave leadership rather than waiting for individual countries to lead.”, says Isabella Prata, mom of two, from climate-parent group Parents For Future Brazil / Famílias pelo Clima.

“This joint declaration is the result of parents coming together to demand climate action, as citizen mobilization is growing the world over. This is a historic moment, and we need policy makers – especially the parents among them – to act on behalf of our children,” says Frida Berry Eklund, mom of two from Swedish climate-parent group Föräldravrålet.

The full declaration has been translated so far into 19 languages and an updated list of signatories can be found at plea.parentsforfuture.org. The declaration remains open for more climate-parent groups to sign on to.

The declaration was initiated by parents from Our Kids’ Climate and the Parents For Future movement.

Our Kids’ Climate is a coalition of 56 climate-parent groups from 18 countries, uniting for climate action. Our Kids’ Climate started in 2015, and relaunched its collaboration at the UN in April 2019.

Parents for Future is the parent-engagement arm of the For Future movement that has been inspired by Greta Thunberg, and that initiated the school strikes around the world with Fridays For Future. In the last year it has grown very rapidly, and there are now hundreds of groups and  many  thousands of parents taking action with grassroots groups in at least 23 countries.