We are proud to announce that after two yeas of intensive planning the 1 Climate International Cooperative U.A. has established itself with seat in Utrecht/Netherlands on 2nd. of June 2021.
It all started in 2016. During the “Westphalian Churchday” in Bielefeld a group of climate scientists, energy and development experts from Germany, India, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa met in a conference to discuss new paths of climate justice.
At the end of this conference the association “One-for-the-Climate” was launched. Later is was established as as non-profit association by German law with seat in Münster. This association worked a little bit like a think tank, discussing and seeking options international climate justice. For this, they worked on some studies together “Wuppertal Institute”, “Bread for the World” and “United Evangelical Mission”. They also held some conferences in Rwanda and Tanzania discussing climate justice with representatives from both governments, companies, churches and non-profit organizations. In addition, they wrote two feasibility studies that examined different ways of using renewable energies in Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa. Based on this, they launched the “One Climate Fund Southern Africa” and the “One Climate Solar Homes Rwanda GbR”. The latter one implemented together with United Evangelical Mission, Presbyterian Church of Rwanda, Anglican Church of Rwanda and Rural Development Interdiocesan Service a pilot project, serving over 300 families in off-grid areas in Rwanda with solar-home-systems.
Eventually countless meetings and discussions with NGOs, banks and other institutions on the issue of broad citizen participation in international climate justice on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities led us to a point when we said: we cannot leave this important issue to foreign institutions only. We have to take climate protection into our own hands, into the hands of all citizens. That led us, together with our Dutch friends, to found a company in which people are the owners and decide for themselves how to implement climate protection internationally. For us this is the “1 Climate Cooperative U.A.” by Dutch law.
We are looking forward to the following months of intense preparation to be ready to start our work soon.
