by Mohammad Ahmadi, Policy & Endorsement Coordinator at Faith in Place
The 2024 Climate Justice Camp brought together hundreds of young climate justice activists from October 8th-12th in Tanzania and provided a dynamic space for co-creation, collaboration, and innovation among Global South groups and leaders working at the intersection of climate and social justice. The focus was on developing cross-border and cross-issue strategies, building relationships, networks, and alliances, and fostering long-term capacity and communities of practice. The Climate Justice Camp is primarily organized by Roots, an initiative of Greenpeace, and numerous local, regional, and international partner organizations. Many of these organizations hosted workshops on various topics such as international climate negotiations, eco-anxiety, air pollution, climate communication, conflict, local advocacy, food security, and much more.
I had the honor of being selected and attending the 2024 Climate Justice Camp and organizing the first workshop on the intersection of faith and climate in the camp’s three-year history (Tunisia - 2022, Lebanon - 2023, and Tanzania - 2024) as the Policy & Endorsement Campaign Coordinator at Faith in Place, and Co-founder & Communications Director of the MENA Youth Network, the first and only region-wide, youth-led organization that aims to empower, educate, and engage youth in the area of climate justice in the Middle East & North Africa. Representatives from MENA Youth Network, Faith in Place, Youth Climate Activists Pakistan, Ummah for Earth, and Students for Earth Tunisia gathered to organize a workshop called “From Belief to Action: Mobilizing Faith Communities for Climate Justice”.
Attendees were very excited to discuss this topic and stayed highly engaged throughout the almost 2-hour session. They shared their faith’s teachings on protecting people and the planet and how their organizations, whether they are faith-focused or not, can contribute to mobilizing communities of faith, especially in places where there are high concentrations of houses of worship and strong faith communities, but a lack of awareness of environmental and climate issues and how people can take action. Throughout the session, we identified common values and barriers to action and finally created concrete plans for mobilizing faith communities to fight for climate/environmental justice.
Many participants were looking forward to continuing these invigorating discussions after the Climate Justice Camp and even starting a new campaign or initiative in collaboration with their groups and the workshop partners to ramp up this work.
Overall, the 2024 Climate Justice Camp was an exciting opportunity for Faith in Place to feature its work and bring young activists together to discuss how we can use faith to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
Questions or ideas for collaboration? Email mohammad@faithinplace.org or info@menayouthnetwork.org
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