On Earth Day, Wednesday 22 April, Natural Justice teams joined a number of civil society organisations who stood united in a march to the South African Parliament buildings, as part of the No Faith in False Solutions Campaign.
South African civil society organisations, faith leaders, communities, and environmental justice organisations rallied together with fists raised and colourful posters hoisted to the skies, as the large group of boldly lead by faith group leaders headed through the streets of Cape Town’s CBD.
This year’s Earth Day theme, “Our Power, Our Planet”, recognises that climate progress happens through communities’ immediate actions and advocating for climate justice. The Earth Day message from all who marched was clear and stated in a memorandum handed to parliamentary leaders, saying “NO!” to false solutions that threaten our communities and livelihoods: gas and oil, nuclear energy, uranium mining, harmful factory farming, and extractive agriculture. The organisations collectively reject and oppose the false solutions presented, including nuclear energy, oil and gas expansion, clean coal, carbon capture, industrial agriculture and factory farming. These false solutions exacerbate inequality and fossil fuel dependence and will result in greater extreme climate impacts.
The memorandum was handed over on behalf of The Southern Africa Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, Natural Justice, Fossil Free South Africa, African Climate Alliance, The Green Connection, Project 90 by 2030, Greenpeace Africa, Earthlife Africa, Extinction Rebellion, Green Anglicans, South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, The Social Change Assistance Trust and Masifundise Development Trust.
The memorandum sates that: “Civil society urges the Parliament to prioritise true, people- centered alternatives such as agroecology and community- owned renewable energy sources. This Memorandum emphasises the important role that Parliament plays in the effective enforcement of the Just Transition Framework and the Climate Change Act 22 of 2024 to ensure accountable, transparent governance that upholds distributive, procedural and restorative justice and protects marginalised communities from environmental and socio-economic harm.”
Delme Cupido, Director of Natural Justice’s Southern Africa Hub said: “Recent events in the Middle East and Venezuela and elsewhere have shown why it is important for us to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Fossil fuels have been at the heart of global instability for decades. For developing countries -or any countries that are consumers of fossil fuels, what this really shows is that we our energy independence is reliant on renewable energy sources. However, we cannot have energy sovereignty as countries, particularly in the global south, if we still rely on fossil fuels sourced from companies based predominantly in the global north who extract these fossil fuels. If we do, we do so to our detriment because these companies don’t t care about ordinary people. All they care about is quick profit s rather than the long term good of the planet. For that reason, amongst many others, we don’t need solutions which extend the lifespan of fossil fuels and an entire industry which has fuelled war, and poverty and misery around the world.”
Today’s march happened just ahead of 54 states gathering in Santa Marta for the first conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, taking place in Colombia later this week. Natural Justice will be working with civil society allies calling on world governments to fulfil their moral and legal obligations under international law- phase out fossil fuels, address climate change and mitigate its impacts.
Read the full memorandum – CLICK HERE
