Update from Tamara: COP 27, Tour of Russia Finland Latvia Poland and Romania + Two webinars on December 6 and 7
Posted: 30th November 2022
Dear Global Network friends,
I wanted to let you know that I’m in Bucharest, Romania where the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting is taking place. Today, I attempted to protest outside the Palace gates with my sign “No to NATO, Yes to Peace & Cooperation,” but was not allowed by the police. There are big billboards with “We Are NATO” and NATO’s blue flags all around the Palace where the Foreign Ministers including Canada’s Minister Melanie Joly are wining & dining, but on the other side the police-protected fence, Romanians are suffering with worsening poverty and decaying infrastructure in their capital and across their country.
The state of disrepair and despair is really sad and shocking. Regrettably, the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis announced yesterday that Romania will further increase military spending to 2.5% of GDP. Since 2014, Romanian military spending has increased from $9 billion leu to $26 billion leu. Wages have stagnated, costs have risen and people struggle to make ends meet. NATO members have also re-committed to sending more weapons to Ukraine to prolong the war instead of ending it.
At the beginning of November, I went to Egypt for COP 27 and worked hard with the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) delegation to promote the issues of peace for climate justice, cut military spending for climate finance, transparency for military emissions, and disarmament-demilitarization for decarbonization. We also supported the Women Gender Constituency’s calls for gender-responsive climate solutions and raised the demands of African women.
After Egypt, I went to Russia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and am still in Romania. I have had very long days every day with meetings sometimes up to 11 hours. I have taken hundreds of photos and several pages of notes. I have spoken to many people from all walks of life on how climate change, the war in Ukraine and NATO expansion are affecting them and what possibilities there are to end the conflict and build peace. I have tried to learn more about the politics and culture of these countries. I am worried about the militarization of this region, the hot war in Ukraine and the new Cold War that are underway and how all of this will prevent the achievement of the Paris Agreement and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
In Poland, I met a great activist who is wanting to do a peace seminar in the spring. I recommended that she have Bruce and Dave from the Global Network go. I put her in touch with Bruce. Poland as you know has American missile defence and the militarization of the country is growing.
I also wanted to let you know that I will be giving two webinar presentations next week about my time at COP 27 and my tour on December 6 and 7.
(1)
IN-PERSON & VIRTUAL PRESENTATION: “Climate, Conflict & the Search for Peace: A Report Back from COP 27 in Egypt and Tour of Russia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Romania”
One-hour hybrid event (in-person and online)
Tuesday, December 6, 2022
9h PST/ 12h ET / 18h CET / 10pm MSK
Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON
Lunch will be provided, please register in advance.
Featuring Tamara Lorincz, PhD Candidate, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Hosted by the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Environment and Resources Cluster.
(2)
WEBINAR: “Climate, Conflict & the Search for Peace: First-Hand Observations from COP 27, Russia and Eastern Europe”
Speaker: Tamara Lorincz, PhD candidate and member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF-Canada). Moderated by Maya Garfinkel of World Beyond War Canada.
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
4:30 p.m. PST / 7:30 p.m. ET
Tamara will share her insights as an observer delegate at the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP) climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. She was on the delegation of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), which is a member of the Climate Action Network International and the Women Gender Constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. After Egypt, Tamara went on a tour of Russia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Romania to learn more about these countries and to meet people to talk about their perspectives on the war in Ukraine, NATO expansion and climate change. She spoke at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and at a public event in Helsinki. Her tour was motivated by citizen diplomacy, strategic empathy and peacebuilding.
The webinar is organized by World Beyond War Canada and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and endorsed by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
RESOURCES TO SHARE ABOUT THE WAR IN UKRAINE:
I highly recommend this book by Dr. Stephen Cohen “War with Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate”: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/War-With-Russia/Stephen-F-Cohen/9781510755468
It is extremely important and prescient. It is crucial context to understand what is going on today.
I also greatly recommend the recent articles by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, world renowned economist, UN senior advisor and head of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network at Columbia University. Dr. Sachs has published several crucial articles on the war in Ukraine, ending the war and the West’s conflict with China: https://www.commondreams.org/author/jeffrey-d-sachs
If you haven’t already, watch Dr. John Mearsheimer’s speech “The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine War” June 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qciVozNtCDM
NATO:
Watch the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting live stream for November 30 here: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/events_67375.htm
Read NATO’s Foreign Ministers’ Bucharest Summit Statement; it’s very irresponsible: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_209531.htm
Check out the recording of the recent webinar by the Asia Network: “Global NATO and The Economic Wars Against Russia and China”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FSSmWdXtHM&t=33s
Join the No to War, No to NATO Network: https://www.no-to-nato.org/
CLIMATE CHANGE:
Read: Women Gender Constituency’s final press release “Collective Power Shines Amid a Process That Fails on Urgent Climate Action,” https://womengenderclimate.org/press-release-collective-power-shines-amid-a-process-that-fails-on-urgent-climate-action/
Read: “COP27 will be remembered as a failure – here’s what went wrong” The Conversation:
https://theconversation.com/cop27-will-be-remembered-as-a-failure-heres-what-went-wrong-194982
Must watch: ‘Under Poisoned Skies’, this powerful film about the adverse impacts of fossil fuel development in Iraq was screened at COP and can be viewed here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0d34rr7
SIPRI’s “Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk”: https://www.sipri.org/research/peace-and-development/environment-peace
TNI’s “Climate Collateral: How military spending accelerates climate breakdown”:
https://www.tni.org/en/publication/climate-collateral
At COP 27, the Egyptian president announced an important new UNFCCC initiative Climate Responses for Sustaining Peacehttps://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/50/1257/479868/AlAhram-Weekly/COP/CRSP-takes-off.aspx
UNITED NATIONS and CIVIL SOCIETY:
We need a new architecture for common security that brings in Russia and China.
United Nations “Our Common Agenda” report and initiative: https://www.un.org/en/common-agenda
UN Secretary General calls for a new “Agenda for Peace”: https://dppa.un.org/en/new-agenda-for-peace
International Peace Bureau’s new report and initiative Common Security: Our Shared Futurehttps://www.ipb.org/common-security/
TAKE ACTION: CHRISTMAS APPEAL FOR CEASEFIRE & PEACE IN UKRAINE:
The International Peace Bureau’s Christmas Peace Appeal, an international appeal for a ceasefire and peace in Ukraine. IPB is calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine for Christmas 2022/2023, from the 25 December to the 7 January, as a sign of our shared humanity, reconciliation and peace. Sign the petition here: https://www.christmasappeal.ipb.org/sign-the-petition/
**
Finally, in solidarity for the “16 Days to End Violence against Women” Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF): https://www.wilpf.org/16-days-to-end-violence-against-women-and-girls/
With peace and climate justice,
Tamara