Zimbabwean Climate Activists Mourn the Death of Earth
September 24, 2024
By Wallace Mawire
Zimbabwean climate activists from various Non-Governmental Organizations on Thursday 19 September,2024 joined the Global Week of Climate Actions to mourn the death of earth due to climate change.
ActionAid-Zimbabwe held an event in Harare,were various climate activists held a symbolic or mock funeral to signify how the earth is suffering from the impacts of climate change.
The activists mourned the death of earth as they knew it and also mourned fallen loved ones due to climate disasters.
A statement from ActionAid-Zimbabwe said that the activists gathered to mourn the loss of livelihoods due to climate change to redress the situation and to avoid the sad loss of the future.
During the Global Week of Climate Actions,the activists came together to demand the fixing of finances,calling for climate financing,climate justice and ending the use of fossil fuels and the paying up of reparations by the responsible corporates.
The event was held at the ActionAid-Zimbabwe Global Platform Zimbabwe Waterfalls Youth Hub.
The climate activists also signed a petition demanding for urgent action to be taken up to help end the finance flows fuelling the climate crisis.
Some of the demands highlighted included on Citibank, Barclays and HSBC who are reported to be investing billions in companies that are causing climate change and undermining human rights.
To #FixtheFinance, the activists demanding the mentioned banks to stop issues ranging financing oil, gas and coal that harm the planet and violate human rights.
They said that banks must have clear targets to stop financing fossil fuels soon,to stop financing industrial agriculture that harms communities with bad practices such as deforestation, land grabs, fossil-fuelled fertilisers, factory farming and child labour.
They said that banks must improve their standards, monitoring and enforcement, always respecting communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Barclays Bank is being accussed of directing US$11.5 billion to industrial agribusiness and US$29.6 billion to fossil fuels in the Global South.It is said that the bank is the largest European bank financier of fossil fuels around the world.
Citibank is reported to have poured a shocking US13.9 billion into agribusiness financing in the Global South and a staggering US$90.6 billion into fossil fuel financing in the Global South.They say that it is the largest US financier of fossil fuels in the Global South.
Another bank HSBC is reported to have funnelled US$17.2 billion into industrial agriculture and US$63.5 billion into fossil fuels.They say that it is the largest European financier of fossil fuels and agribusiness in the Global South.Some of the organizations which participated in the Harare event Zimcodd,Climate Action Network-CAN ZimbabweSisonke Project,Action24,Magamba Network,Zimbabwe Youth Climate Justice Group and the Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG),just to mention a few.
