Covid-19 is re-setting our global understanding of how we need to behave and respond to a global crisis, giving a new sense of humanity and what is important for our lives – physically, emotionally, spiritually and economically. It is demonstrating in
We were so honoured to award the Gold Medal for Human Rights to Christiana Figueres on 12 March in the Lord Mayor's Reception Room at the Sydney Town Hall. Christiana gave an impassioned speech about the need for urgent action
What a difference four years make. December 12, 2019: Scott Morrison was having a so-so day. He had faced international criticism of the Government’s response to climate change. Bushfires were raging up and down the coast of NSW, and Sydney had
The leader of the Paris Climate Agreement talks says she is "deeply pained" by the attitude of the Australian Government to climate change in the wake of this summer's unprecedented bushfires. Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres became the United Nations' top
Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with the climate crisis and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. They are right. They use the term “New Deal” to
Christiana Figueres once credited the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh with helping her shepherd 192 countries from blaming to collaborating, from paralysis to empowerment in the Paris Agreement. Now Figueres and her strategic advisor, former Buddhist monk Tom Rivett-Carnac, have penned a book
The effects of climate change represent the single biggest threat to peace with justice. The Sydney Peace Foundation has chosen to honor the leadership of Christiana Figueres with the presentation of the 2020 Gold Medal for Human Rights because of her
Peace is much more than the absence of violence. Peace requires the presence of justice, institutions and structures preventing violence. ‘The risks associated with climate-related disasters do not represent a scenario of some distant future. They are already a reality for
Greta Thunberg has excoriated world leaders for their “betrayal” of young people through their inertia over the climate crisis at a United Nations summit that failed to deliver ambitious new commitments to address dangerous global heating. In a stinging speech on
On 1 December, 2014 Sydney Peace Prize recipient Julian Burnside AO QC gave a stirring speech calling for Australia to uphold it's climate responsibilities. "I have long considered climate change the principal issue facing the world. It is a first-order issue.