Despite US Absence at COP23, Activists Push for Climate Justice

FEATURING KALI AKUNO – It has been two years since nations agreed upon a modest framework to address climate change in Paris at the COP21 United Nations climate meeting. Now, at COP23 in Bonn, Germany, Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord appears to not have deterred the rest of the world.

The last two holdouts to the Paris Accord – Syria and Nicaragua – have decided to sign the deal, leaving the US the only country in the entire world to not be on board.

Thousands of country delegates, staff, activists, and organizers are in Bonn at the climate meeting that is being jointly hosted by Germany and the island nation of Fiji.

The COP23 meeting comes at the same time as the US federal government released its latest National Climate Assessment report, which clearly indicates that climate change is human made and in full swing, and directly contradicts the Trump administration’s position.

Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson. He formerly served as the Director of Special Projects and External Funding in the Mayoral Administration of the late Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, MS where he supported cooperative development, the introduction of eco-friendly and carbon reduction methods of operation, and the promotion of human rights and international relations for the city. He was also formerly the Co-Director of the US Human Rights Network and the Executive Director of the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) based in New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Currently he is in Bonn, Germany as part of the US People’s Delegation at the COP23 UN Climate talks.