UPDATE: The #WeLeadYou petition is finished for now. Click here to see photos from the events across Africa. You can still join future events and petitions by joining 350Africa in the box on your right.

People across the world are coming together in solidarity to demand action not words from our leaders when they go to the Climate Summit hosted by UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon in New York on 23rd September. In Africa and the Arab world, we are going to send a petition to our leaders calling for them to fight for climate justice in New York.

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Dear Presidents and Prime Ministers of Africa,

As you know Africa will be hardest hit by climate change. We didn’t start global warming, the rich countries of the Global North have been burning fossil fuels for 300 years.

Now the whole world is facing climate crisis and we must all join the fight before it is too late. The safe amount of CO2 in our atmosphere is 350 parts per million: we are already at over 400.

If we keep burning fossil fuels and releasing CO2, global temperatures will rise creating more and more extreme weather events and resulting in catastrophic climate change. The only solution is for dirty fossil fuels to stay in the ground and for Governments to choose more clean solar and wind energy.

People across Africa are already fighting to survive more drought, floods and extreme weather that are making life harder than ever. We stand together with the communities living with the impacts of climate change right now:  the fisher folk whose catches are shrinking, the small scale farmers whose fields are drying up and the homeless who have lost everything to flash floods.  We want you to hear their stories and act.

In short, we want a world safe from the ravages of climate change. We have two simple demands.

  1. Hold rich countries of the Global North accountable for starting climate change. Make sure they pay their fare share to help people in our countries adapt to climate change.
  2. Choose clean solar and wind power over dirty fossil fuels.

The leaders of Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and DRC can choose clean energy and end the addiction to fossil fuels.

The climate movement is growing in Africa and we will come together with millions of people across the world as part of the People’s Climate Mobilisation over the weekend of 20th and 21st September 2014 to call for global leaders to act now.

We lead you our leaders, now it is your turn to take our demands to the negotiating table. We call on you to show leadership in the fight against climate change and to fight for your people in New York.


Take it up a notch:

1.

Join an event in your country this September:

South Africa
Kenya
Nigeria
Ghana


2.

Tweet your leaders:

@[Insert your leader’s Twitter address here] we want a world safe from the ravages of climate change. Hold rich countries accountable for starting it! #WeLeadYou @350Africa

@[Insert your leader’s Twitter address here] we want a world safe from the ravages of climate change. Quit fossil fuels and choose renewable energy! #WeLeadYou @350Africa

Here is a list of African leaders on Twitter.

and



3.

What does climate change mean to you?

Download the climate fact sheet and kick start the conversation with your family and friends.

Switch off the TV and chat with your family, talk in the taxi, or discuss with friends and work mates:

  • How is climate change affecting you? Are you affected by drought, flooding, or by health issues related to burning coal?
  • How does climate change affect food prices and what can we do about it?
  • How can we achieve climate justice? If the rich countries of the Global North started climate change by burning fossil fuels, how can we lead the way and cut CO2?

 


4.

Download the petition and ask your friends, family, schools, and communities to sign-up, then scan and email us the petition to us at adi@350.org and we’ll make sure your demands are handed to our leaders in New York.

Download here.


5.

Facebook Square Post your photo to our Facebook wall – show us how you’re showing your leader the way. You can use this text with your photo:

@[Insert your leader’s name here], we want a world safe from the ravages of climate change. Quit fossil fuels and choose renewable energy! #WeLeadYou @350Africa.org


Got an idea to show leaders how to fight climate change? Tell us here:

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