Oslo Pax with a clear message to the UN
A list of seven demands will be handed over to the UN after the first ever Oslo Pax. Young activists, experts, politicians and Nobel laureates, invited by the Nobel Peace Center, have rallied in Oslo to discuss how climate change affects peace and security.
Climate stability must be recognized as a human right, and climate change as a threat to human security. These are two of the seven demands that Christiana Figueres handed over to the UN after the conference Oslo Pax 4 and 5 September. For the first time, the Nobel Peace Center gathered young activists, experts, decision makers and Nobel laureates to a call for action for peace and climate change.
"The next ten years will decide the future of this planet and of humanity. We are sitting with the pen in our hand - we can write the story."
said Christiana Figueres. The former UN Diplomat, who oversaw the Paris agreement, was chair of Oslo Pax – a two-day conference in Oslo, where different groups met to listen and learn and discuss concrete solutions for peace and against climate disruption.
Among the speakers were Norwegian minister of foreign affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman, Amnesty International's general secretary Kumi Naidoo, President of the Norwegian Red Cross Robert Mood and Cicero's director Kristin Halvorsen.
In a conversation on stage, 14-year-old climate activist Penelope Lea asked Christiana Figueres:
“If you where 15 today, what would you be doing?”
“I would be doing the exact same thing as I do at 63”, I would be screaming in the streets”.
Answered Figueres.
Conversations between young and old, activists and experts, was the hallmark of Oslo Pax. And together with young activists Kelsey Juliana, Morgane Ollier and Sofie Nordvik, Christiana Figueres formulated a list of seven demands to the UN Climate Summit 23. September. Sofie Nordvik, Norway's youth delegate to the summit, will hand the demands over to the UN Secretary General.
Watch the conversation in full here:
"I am grateful that the Nobel Peace Center has been able to gather young and older, experts and activists and let them think out new solutions together. They have a clear message - and the world is going to hear it."
1. Recognize climate stability as a human right
2. Acknowledge climate change as a threat to international peace and security
3. Provide people being displaced involuntarily by climate change with a safe homeland
4. Rethink financial structures to reflect the need for sustainable economies based on growth with ecological and human integrity
5. Provide carbon footprint transparency on all consumer products in order to facilitate more informed consumer choices
6. Ensure women and girls of all ages fully contribute to climate-related planning, policymaking and implementation world wide
7. Commit to meaningful participation of Youth
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