Building blocks of the journey towards the Frascati meeting and the launch of a Multi-Faith Climate Action Network

From September 6th to 8th, 2023, Wilton Park hosted the Women Religion and Climate Forum. The meeting was in partnership with Global One, the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), Partnership for Faith and Development (PFD), the International Learning Movement UK, and The Stirling Foundation. This historic meeting was prompted by a sense of the immediate prospect of a catastrophic climate crisis and calls for an urgent increase in the scale and impact of action to achieve carbon emissions targets and biodiversity goals.

Specifically noting that women are leading climate action at national and local levels, in both faith and secular contexts, the rationale for the meeting was that women’s powerful influence and leadership is key to going further, faster on climate action. Furthermore, the siloed nature of climate action between the faith and secular ‘worlds’ provided validation for the Wilton Park meeting to focus on the urgent priority of greater collaboration on climate action, and particularly on scaling up women’s leadership by drawing women of faith and women leading in secular contexts into closer collaboration.

The September 2023 Wilton Park Dialogue recognised the significant roles that women play as agents of climate change, and specifically how providing opportunities for women to participate in decision making, contributes to the development and implementation of efficient and long-lasting climate resilient policies. The Dialogue provided a safe space for in-depth conversations, among diverse climate activists – including male allies – from international institutions, indigenous communities, academia, civil society and the private sector, to promote such collaboration in mitigating and adapting to climate change. Outcomes included identifying and planning specific upcoming advocacy moments to amplify the voices of women on climate action and achieving greater visibility for women’s leadership culminating in a call for radical collaboration on climate action, among women-led faith networks and secular entities.

This Frascati convening, over a year later, brought together 51 women, young and older, leading diverse faith and secular climate action networks, with 5 male allies. The faiths represented included Baha’i, Buddhist, Brahma Kumaris, Christian, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh. Countries represented included Cameroon, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the United Kingdon, and the United States.

Frascati also builds on much larger and wider conversations which have been gaining momentum since the Vatican Joint Appeal process. The latter called for a framework of hope and courage within a narrative of human development which was to deliberately avoid an exploitative and extractive mindset, and which placed inclusion and human dignity at its core. Also taken into account were the recommendations from the Confluence of Conscience high level leaders’ meetings in Abu Dhabi–at the COP 28 – which spelled out the commitment by all faith leaders to, among other things, champion equality, dismantle human-made barriers to ensure inclusivity, equal participation, and empowerment for all; and honour the threads of interconnectedness and interdependence of life, reminding us of a shared destiny.

Another important backdrop for the Frascati convening was the 17 Rooms  – hosted as a partnership between the Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings, and The Rockefeller Foundation (and other critical actors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations), and serving as an experimental method for advancing the economic, social, and environmental priorities embedded in the world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The partnerships and analysis in 2 of these “Rooms” – Room 5 and Room 17 – provided important learning on dynamics both around aspects of women’s leadership, as well as on climate change.

Perhaps most directly and deeply of relevance to the Frascati meeting, is the women-led Global Campaign for Climate Justice: Project Dandelion. Co-Founded with the strength of moral conviction and extensive leadership experience of the current Chair of the Elders, climate veteran and a former President of Ireland – Mary Robinson – Project Dandelion’s ethos both informed and shaped many of the deliberations in Frascati.

The Frascati meeting recognised the common calls for action for, with and by women of faith, which were underscored by the various consultations. These included describing and elevating women-led climate solutions, raising awareness of the power of women of faith as agents of change to achieve climate and biodiversity goals, influencing political will by engaging women of faith at decision making tables, and as advocates for climate action (including the phasing out of fossil fuels), and facilitating the engagement of women of faith networks by secular campaigns in mass mobilisations for climate change. All through shaping, defining and committing to launch a Global Multi-faith, Women-led, Climate Action Network of Networks.

To which end, the Frascati meeting’s specific objectives, were three-fold:

1. To explore what radical collaboration to scale up climate action and advocacy across faith and sectoral lines (could) look like in practice.
2. To discuss specific actionable next steps to scale up activism and advocacy.
3. To shape and launch a Global Multi-faith Women-led Climate Action Network of Networks.