Call for Civil Society’s Participation
In the 2nd ASEAN Peoples’ Forum / 5th ASEAN Civil Society Conference
18-20 October 2009
Cha-am, Phetchaburi Province, Thailand
http://aseanpeoplesforum.net
Asian People's Solidarity for Climate Justice
The Gr8 Climate Sale
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The issue of climate change has come to the forefront and people both in the North and the South have been feeling the devastating effects of global warming. However, the links between the neo-liberal system and the model of over consumption to the climate crisis are not clearly stated.
There’s something surreal about the ongoing World Trade Organization
talks in Geneva, which aim at coming up with a new agreement to bring
down tariffs in order to expand world trade and resuscitate global
growth. In the face of the looming specter of climate change, these
negotiations amount to arguing over the arrangement of deck chairs
while the Titanic is sinking.
Indeed, one of the most important steps in the struggle to come up with
a viable strategy to deal with climate change would be the derailment
of the so-called “Doha Round.”
Global trade is carried out with transportation that is heavily
dependent on fossil fuels. It’s estimated that about 60% of the world’s
use of oil goes to transportation activities which are more than 95%
dependent on fossil fuels. An OECD study estimated that the global
transport sector accounts for 20-25% of carbon emissions, with some 66%
of this figure accounted for by emissions in the industrialized
countries.
Global Trade: Deeply Dysfunctional
From the point of view of environmental sustainability, global trade
has become deeply dysfunctional. Take agricultural trade. As the
International Forum on Globalization has pointed out, the average plate
of food eaten in Western industrial food-importing nations is likely to
have traveled 1,500 miles from its source. Long-distance travel
contributes to the absurd situation wherein “three times more food is
used to produce food in the industrial agricultural model than is
derived in consuming it.”
The WTO has been a central factor in increasing carbon emissions from
transport. A study by the OECD done in the mid-nineties estimated that
by 2004, the year marking the full implementation of free-trade
commitments under the WTO’s Uruguay Round, there would have been an
increase in the transport of internationally traded goods by 70% over
1992 levels. This figure, notes the New Economics Foundation, “would
make a mockery” of the Kyoto Protocol’s mandatory emissions reduction
targets for the industrialized countries.
Transportation: More Fossil Intensive than Ever
Ocean shipping accounts for nearly 80% of the world’s international
trade in goods. The fuel commonly used by ships is a mixture of diesel
and low-quality oil known as “Bunker C,” which has high levels of
carbon and sulfur. As Jerry Mander and Simon Retallack point out, “If
not consumed by ships, it would otherwise be considered a waste
product.”
Aviation, which has the highest growth rate as a mode of transport, is
also the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, with its
consumption of fuel expected to rise by 65% from 1990 levels by 2010,
according to one study cited by the New Economics Foundation. Other
estimates are more pessimistic, with the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) suggesting that fuel consumption by civil
aviation is going up at the rate of three percent a year and could rise
by nearly 350% from 1992 levels by 2050. Note Mander and Retallack:
“Each ton of freight moved by plane uses forty nine times as much
energy per kilometer as when it’s moved by ship….A two-minute takeoff
by a 747 is equal to 2.4 million lawn mowers running for twenty
minutes.” In support of trade expansion and global economic growth,
authorities have by and large not taxed aviation fuel as well as marine
bunker fuel, which now account for 20% of all emissions in the
transport sector.
Along with fossil-fuel-intensive air transport, fossil-fuel-intensive
road transport has also been favored by the expansion of world trade,
instead of modes with less emission intensities like rail and marine
traffic. In the European Union, for instance, the focus on building up
a road transport network led an OECD study to comment that “the way in
which the EU liberalization policy has been implemented has favored the
less environment-friendly modes and accelerated the decline of rail and
inland waterways.”
Decoupling Growth and Energy: a Panacea
There has been talk about decoupling trade and growth from energy or
shifting from fossil fuels to other, less carbon-intensive energy
sources. The reality is that the other energy sources being seriously
considered are either dangerous, like nuclear power; with deleterious
side-effects, like biofuels’ negative impact on food production; or
science fiction as this stage, like carbon sequestration and storage
technology. For the foreseeable future, trade expansion and global
growth will fall in line with their historical trajectory of being
correlated with increased greenhouse gas emissions.
A sharp U-turn in consumption and growth in the developed countries and
a significant decrease in global trade are unavoidable if we are to
have a viable strategy against climate change. This will set the stage
for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, including from the
energy-intensive transportation sector. The outcome of the Doha
negotiations will determine whether free trade will intensify or lose
momentum. A successful conclusion to Doha will bring us closer to
uncontrollable climate change. It will continue what the New Economics
Foundation describes as “free trade’s free ride on the global climate.”
A derailment of Doha won’t be a sufficient condition to formulate a
strategy to contain climate change. But given the likely negative
ecological consequences of a successful deal, it’s a necessary
condition.
Water justice, like water, travels in networks: notes on reclaiming public water
An
international seminar of the Reclaiming Public Water Network brought
together participants from more than 30 countries, who shared knowledge
and experiences about how to improve water provision through the
democratization of water management.
The initiative People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms, involves regional alliances such as Hemispheric Social Alliance (Latin America), Southern African People’s Solidarity Network- SAPSN (Southern Africa), Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy – SAPA (South East Asia), People’s SAARC (South Asia) as well as organisations and networks in Europe, including Transnational Institute (TNI), that struggle for “Another Europe”. These networks and the organisations part of them, share a strong commitment on the need to RECLAIM the regions, RECREATE the processes of regional integration and ADVANCE people-centered regional alternatives.
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