The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has announced climate change as the focus of the 2020 International Day of Co-operatives (4 July).
The day, which sees events and campaigns around the world raise awareness of co-operatives, is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July. This year’s theme, Co-operatives for Climate Action, was chosen to support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on Climate Action.
“Our common home is in danger,” said ICA president Ariel Guarco. “There are methods of production and consumption that are constantly attacking the environment. We don’t have much time to reverse this situation.
“We must act now, with our values and principles, to demonstrate on a global scale that it is possible to develop an economy with social inclusion and protection of natural resources.”
The ICA is inviting the global co-operative community to continue pushing for actions that will address climate change. Co-ops can also to use the ICA’s Cooperatives Communications Guide to showcase how the sector is battling climate change.
In collaboration with DotCoop, the ICA will launch the 2020 International Cooperative Day interactive map, to illustrate examples of co-ops around the world tackling climate change. More information on how to participate is available here. Co-ops can also take it to social media the hashtags using #CoopsDay and #Coops4ClimateAction to promote the day.
The theme was chosen by the Committee on the Promotion of Co-operatives (Copac), a multi-stakeholder partnership of global public and private institutions, of which the ICA being a founding member. Copac has been setting the theme of the International Day of Co-operatives since 1995.
