Coalition Invites Individuals to ‘Get Loud, Be Vocal and add their #VoiceForThePlanet’
News 18.09.19
18th September 2019
Major NGOs from 115 countries work to ensure a collective NGO and mass public voice to support global leaders in taking ambitious action for the planet and for people.
Ahead of what may be the most critical climate meeting since the UN Paris Agreement, NGO members of #VoiceForThePlanet are raising their collective voice to encourage individuals to add their #VoiceForThePlanet to protest the twin planetary crises of escalating climate change and the rapid loss of nature and wildlife.
The coalition, launched by the Global Shapers at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019, provides a unifying collective voice for individuals and organizations to demand that global leaders take ambitious action on climate change, nature and people at key global conferences both now in New York and through 2020. These include the UN General Assembly 75, Climate COP26, and Biodiversity CBD COP15. The coalition represents over 225 civil society NGOs in 115 countries. Critically #VoiceForThePlanet brings together 3 topics that are often, inappropriately, treated as separate in global meetings – these being nature, climate change and people.
While the major public push will not come until H1 2020, the coalition has already attracted over 200k individual voices at www.VoiceForThePlanet.org who are supporting global leaders to take action on climate change and to work towards a strong and bold new treaty for nature in 2020.
#VoiceForThePlanet supports existing environmental campaigns while adding a much needed focal point to aggregate otherwise disparate and individual activities. This is 1 because the coalition sees the need for a genuinely global mass movement that spans borders, brands, supporters and which is mainstreamed as part of broader conversations. #VoiceForThePlanet will soon be connecting people with activities happening near them so they can get further involved.
As a first step, individuals lending their support see and sign the following text:
The science has never been clearer or more urgent: our planet is under threat. Plastic pollution, air and water pollution, climate change, deforestation and other harmful human activities are destroying our natural world. This is a direct threat to our future.
We need an ambitious new deal for nature and people that sustainably manages our planet, limits global warming to 1.5°C, protects at least 30% of the planet by 2030, and safeguards our natural spaces & species.
We’re the first generation to know we are destroying our planet. And we could be the last that can do anything about it.
Learn more at voicefortheplanet.org
Quotes from a selection of coalition members
“The science tells us that we are almost out of time. Helpfully, the science also tells us what we must do now. The political will to make the change required, for a more healthy planet, is mostly absent. We need civil society to lead, and political leaders will follow. We must hold our governments accountable for the future they are building for us and our families. We must work together, in a grand coalition, to build an unstoppable demand for change and a sustainable planet.”
Dr. M. Sanjayan, CEO, Conservation International
“Today, there are many individuals and organisations doing great work and running great campaigns and this needs to continue. At the same time we all need to come together to ensure that in 2020 we are greater than the sum of our parts. Extinction is silent. But we need to make it easy and accessible for people everywhere to add their #VoiceForThePlanet, to make a louder cry that is impossible for leaders to ignore.”
Tanya Steele, CEO, WWF UK
“ClientEarth uses the power of the law to protect the planet and the people who live on it. We see the mass movement of people in #VoiceForThePlanet as complementary to our work. The Earth needs millions of voices to support and help global leaders to do the right thing. We must all come together in 2020 and protect nature before it is too late.”
Beth Thoren, Deputy CEO, ClientEarth
“The Global Shapers community is a network of young people globally driving dialogue, action and change, supported by the World Economic Forum. Reverting climate change, the loss of nature, and the broader destruction of our planet is a cause young people care deeply about. Our community wants to help drive the change required to address these issues. That’s why we co-founded #VoiceForThePlanet – to help give youth from around the world a voice and power in making positive change – individually, in the communities they represent and at a global level.”
Robyn Seetal – Co-Chair, Climate and Environment Steering Committee, Global Shapers
“As the world’s largest nature conservation partnership – with over 110 national partners working together for the benefit of nature and people – BirdLife International offers a bird’s eye view of the health of our planet. And what we see is troubling; all around the world, local communities and people are dismayed at the ongoing destruction of our 3 world. We all are urging global leaders from both governments and the private sector to do much more so we together can change the trajectory and create a sustainable future for life on Earth. The BirdLife Partnership is collectively speaking up to add their #VoiceForThePlanet.”
Patricia Zurita, CEO, BirdLife International
“Fauna & Flora International is dedicated to protecting our planet’s threatened wildlife and habitats. But the truth is that today we, and others, are winning battles and losing the war. People and organisations around the world must come together and add their #VoiceForThePlanet so that global leaders hear the cry and choose to make the right decisions for nature, climate and people.”
Mark Rose, CEO, Fauna & Flora International
“We are all players in the greatest drama of our lifetimes, perhaps human history. Will this be a story of tragedy or redemption? Our collective voices and combined efforts have the power to shift the world’s dangerous course, make hope visible, and design our planet’s future. Let’s add our #VoiceForThePlanet.”
J. Carl Ganter, Managing Director, Circle of Blue
Learn more at voicefortheplanet.org
VoiceForThePlanet coalition members include:
Ape Alliance, Birdlife International, Client Earth, Climate Reality Project, Circle of Blue, Conservation International, Designing Water’s Future, Fauna and Flora International, Globaia, Global Shapers, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Nature Resources, IPBES, National Geographic Society, Nature4Climate, Project Everyone, RSPB, The Lion’s Share, The Nature Conservancy, UNDP, UNICEF, World Economic Forum’s Centre for Global Public Goods, WRI, WWF, Zoological Society of London.
Press contact
For further information on the coalition and to request interviews please contact:
James Alexander – James.Alexander@FutureAgenda.org – +44 7957 209670
Patrick Harris – Patrick.Harris@FutureAgenda.org – + 44 7973 262630
Media Assets
Can be accessed here.