For Fairtrade Fortnight 2022 we continued to focus on climate justice and the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2022: 21 February – 6 March

Fairtrade Fortnight focused on climate justice and the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with. The climate crisis is an immediate and ever-increasing threat and those in climate vulnerable countries are already seeing its impacts from droughts and crop disease to floods, heatwaves and shrinking harvests.

The facts are straightforward. Farmers and workers in low and middle income countries, who have done the least to contribute to climate change, are disproportionately affected. They have said:

• Climate change is one of their biggest challenges right now.
• Low prices for their crops mean that they are struggling to fight back.
• With more money through Fairtrade they feel more equipped to meet their everyday needs and deal with the challenges posed by climate change.

Ongoing poverty in farming communities makes it increasingly hard to cope with the effects of climate change.

The UK has recently hosted COP26, a global United Nations summit about climate change and how countries are planning to tackle it. A delegation of Fairtrade farmers attended and over 33,000 campaigners joined 1.8m Fairtrade farmers and workers in backing their Be Fair With Your Climate Promise challenge to world leaders.

“A frustrating conclusion to a summit filled with hope.” Mary Kinyua, Fairtrade flower farmer and Fairtrade Head of Delegation at COP26

But the wealthiest nations pushed their old promise of $100bn annual funding to the most climate vulnerable countries back to 2023. The COP26 agreement pledges to create a Rural Just Transition Fund and all nations agreed to raise their commitments at COP27 in Cairo next year.

We need to see these promises happen and that they reach the farmers and workers who need it most. So we will continue to focus on Climate Justice throughout 2022.

Check out our Fairtrade Fortnight 2022 campaign page.