To mark their commitment to ecological justice and to draw attention to the global focus on COP26, the Loreto Sisters of Australia and South East Asia have partnered with Fifteen Trees to plant 100 trees.

The founder of the order, Mary Ward (1585-1645), urged people to ‘seek truth and do justice’; the Sisters enliven this mission and vision in this land and across our fragile earth. The Loreto Sisters are an international Catholic order with NGO status at the United Nations.

Ecological justice is one of five justice priorities of the Sisters and their co-workers, and is at the heart of their advocacy efforts from their United Nations’ office through to their schools and ministries.

COP stands for Conference of the Parties. The 2021 Glasgow meeting will be the 26th meeting, which is why it’s called COP26. It will be attended by countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a treaty agreed in 1994. The overarching goal of the summit, is to put the world on a path to aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow Earth’s warming. Negotiations will take place over the first two weeks of November 2021.

The Loreto Sisters are not waiting for governments to act on climate change, they are taking the lead to reduce their own emissions and take positive climate action with the purchase of 100 native Australian trees.

The trees were planted by the Koala Clancy Foundation in the You Yangs region of Victoria, in particular in the Barwon River and Little River districts.

Thank you so much for your support this tree planting season.  Thanks to supporters like you we have achieved our goal of 20,000 trees this season.

Janine Duffy | President |  Koala Clancy Foundation Inc.

One day, this site will create homes and food for koalas, White-naped honeyeaters, Rainbow Bee-eaters, Swamp wallabies, Superb Fairy-wrens, Red-rumped parrots, Silvereyes, Blue-tongue lizards, Imperial Jezebel butterflies, Eastern Banjo frogs and many other beautiful native creatures.

As the leaders of the world gather in Glasgow this week, the power to save the planet does not lie only in the hands of those in power.

While the majority of reductions in greenhouse gases will need to be accomplished by transformation in policy and industry, individual actions can also help prevent further warming. As individuals, we have to pursue collective action to actually move the needle on this.

Jason Smerdon, | Climate Scientist |  Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory

Thank you to Anne Muirhead for contacting Fifteen Trees, and thank you also to the Loreto Sisters for your generous purchase of 100 native trees for one of our faviourite commnity tree planting groups.

Writer – Colleen Filippa

Colleen is the Founder & Director of Fifteen Trees. Since establishment in 2009, Fifteen Trees, through its individual supporters and company sponsors, has enabled the planting of almost 250,00 trees.