Conclusion Social protection is intended to protect people against particular economic and social exclusion, including homelessness, that can be the result of life changing events, such as unemployment or reduced ability to work due to health reasons (including work-related injuries) or changes in families and households, such as birth of a child or death of a partner or parent. It is intended to ensure that all people maintain a minimum level of income to meet their basic needs, and that older people can retire and maintain a decent quality of life. Some of these life changes are inevitable for everyone to go through, while others only impact some people – but in any case, can happen to anyone.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, recently warned that the earth is on track to become “unlivable” as a result of the escalating effects of the climate crisis.[1] The reality is that the planet is already “unlivable” for a large portion of the world’s population and, although all inhabitants of the earth are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, some remain more vulnerable than others. The populations of the Global South, together with racially marginalized groups in the Global North, bear the disproportionate burdens of climate change and environmental degradation.[2] Whereas countries of the Global North are responsible for almost half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions between 1715-2017,[3] it is projected that the Global South will incur 75-80 per cent of the cost of climate change.[4] Estimates suggest that by 2050, climate change could cause the displacement of 140 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America alone.[5] The latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recognized that “[v]ulnerability of ecosystems and people to climate change differs substantially among and within regions […], driven by patterns of intersecting socio-economic development, unsustainable ocean and land use, inequity, marginalization, historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism, and governance.”[6]
Welcome to this edition of SNN newsletter where we are covering a number of items that will be of interest to everyone involved in migrant and refugee solidarity work.
Our first article reports the Runnymede Trust “We Move” conference that was attended by more than 500 people at the University of Leeds in early September. Status Now Network contributed to it with a panel discussing why and how we want to organize a people’s tribunal to bring the government to account on its hostile environment. The second article is focused on the forthcoming People’s Assembly against deaths at borders that is going to take place in Brussels and members of SNN will be attending.. Finally, the third article announces SNN plans for an away weekend strategy event open to representatives of all our signatories.
