This annual celebration of the cooperative movement led by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in partnership with the United Nations takes place on the first Saturday of July and has been observed since 1995.

This year’s theme is “Cooperatives for Climate Action.” By using the hashtags #CoopsDay and #Coops4FlimateAction, cooperatives worldwide will seek to educate local, national and global policymakers, civil society organizations and the general public on how cooperatives are helping preserve both people and planet.

The 2020 International Day of Cooperatives theme was chosen to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #13 on Climate Action, which calls for urgent action to address the current climate emergency.

“Although greenhouse gas emissions are projected to drop about 6 percent in 2020 due to travel bans and economic slowdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, this improvement is only temporary,” the UN said, adding that “Climate change is not on pause.”

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Globally, climate change continues to disrupt national economies and affect livelihoods. Weather patterns are shifting, sea levels are rising and natural disasters are becoming more extreme. All of these disproportionately affect smallholder farmers, women, youth, indigenous groups and ethnic minorities.

In the lead-up to July 4, we’ll be highlighting our development programs that are working to reverse climate change. Our projects in Peru, Madagascar, Guatemala, Haiti and Indonesia are working on climate specific initiatives through trainings and local programs with the goal of supporting reforestation, agroforestry and protecting biodiversity. These initiatives have an end goal of creating resilient communities that can mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change in their local communities, thus creating lasting change. Follow our Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin profiles for all the action leading up to International Day of Cooperatives.

Look for a more in-depth overview in next week’s Co-op Weekly. Also next week, we’ll be highlighting what our members nationwide are doing in the climate change space.