HOPE & JUSTICE MARY ROBINSON Mary Robinson was the first woman President of Ireland (1990–1997) and is a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2002). A tireless advocate for justice, she was President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002 to 2010. Mary served as the UN SecretaryGeneral’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa from 2013-2014, stepping down in July 2014 to take up the post of Special Envoy for Climate Change. She continued in this post until the end of December 2015 which saw the successful conclusion of the COP21 Climate Summit and the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In 2016, Mary served as the UN SecretaryGeneral’s Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate. Mary is Chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, who work together for peace, justice and human rights.
At the end of 2019, I did not have much hope. While 2020 was set to be a significant year for global climate action, I was dejected; we lacked any sign of the kind of leadership needed to meet climate commitments. Young people were out in the streets marching and demanding change, asking us to secure them a safe future, but governments were failing to heed their call for urgent action on the climate emergency.
Top to bottom: Mary Robinson - photo by The Elders. Youth protestors march down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile at the September 2019 global climate strike - photo by Richard Dixon / Friends of the Earth Scotland. A protestor holds their sign - photo by Richard Dixon / Friends of the Earth Scotland.
2020 was an incredibly difficult year for our world, our lives were turned upside down, yet it has been amid the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic that I have found some hope for meaningful climate action. Covid-19 has meant the postponement of key events, not least the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, but the pandemic has also reminded us of our interdependence, and the importance of international cooperation. We have seen this spirit of solidarity at a local and national level in many countries around the world. We have seen it in some cases between countries as they share resources and expertise. It is this spirit of 2
togetherness that has given me optimism – for many there has been a renewal of the recognition that we must work together to tackle the biggest crises in the world today. The Covid-19 crisis has also brought into sharp focus the delicate relationship between people and nature. More often now, when we discuss the climate crisis we are talking about the human impacts and recognising the connections between people and the natural world. In the past, environmental action used to be associated with saving polar bears, and of course protecting species is important, but our concerns must be far greater than this! In 2019, climate marches, grassroots groups and the voices of young people helped to bring home the need to address the climate crisis as a human problem. In 2020 we were all reminded of our shared global humanity. ‘Climate justice’ used to be a very niche term. Now you will hear the term used much more widely, perhaps because climate change is already a human tragedy unfolding for those who are least responsible
