RADICAL NEW AGENDA NEEDED TO ACHIEVE CLIMATE JUSTICE
Poznan statement from the Climate
Justice Now! alliance
12 December 2008
Members
of Climate Justice Now! – a worldwide alliance of more than 160 organisations
-- have been in Poznan for the past two weeks closely following developments in
the UN climate negotiations.
This statement is our assessment of the
Conference of Parties (COP) 14, and articulates our principles for achieving
climate justice.
 THE
URGENCY OF CLIMATE JUSTICE
We will not be able to stop climate
change if we don't change the neo-liberal and corporate-based economy which
stops us from achieving sustainable societies. Corporate globalisation must be
stopped.
The historical responsibility for the
vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions lies with the industrialised
countries of the North. Even though the primary responsibility of the North to
reduce emissions has been recognised in the Convention, their production and
consumption habits continue to threaten the survival of humanity and
biodiversity. It is imperative that the North urgently shifts to a low carbon
economy. At the same time in order to avoid the damaging carbon intensive model
of industrialisation, the South is entitled to resources and technology to make
this transition.
We believe that any ´shared vision´
on addressing the climate crisis must start with climate justice and with a
radical re-thinking of the dominant development model
We believe that any ´shared vision´
on addressing the climate crisis must start with climate justice and with a
radical re-thinking of the dominant development model.
Indigenous Peoples, peasant
communities, fisherfolk, and especially women in these communities, have been
living harmoniously and sustainably with the Earth for millennia. They are not only the most affected by
climate change, but also its false solutions, such as agrofuels, mega-dams,
genetic modification, tree plantations and carbon offset schemes. Instead of
market led schemes, their sustainable practices should be seen as offering the
real solutions to climate change.
UNFCCC
IN CRISIS
Governments
and international institutions have to recognise that the Kyoto mechanisms have
failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The
principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) – common but differentiated responsibilities, inter-generational
equity, and polluter pays -- have been undermined in favour of market
mechanisms. The three main pillars of the Kyoto agreement --the clean
development mechanism, joint implementation and emissions trading schemes --
have been completely ineffective in reducing emissions, yet they continue to be
at the center of the negotiations.
Kyoto
is based on carbon-trading mechanisms which allow Northern countries to
continue business as usual by paying for “clean development” projects in
developing and transition countries. This is a scheme designed deliberately to
allow polluters to avoid reducing emissions domestically. Clean development
mechanism projects, which are supposed to support “sustainable development”,
include infrastructure projects such as big dams and coal-fired power plants,
and monoculture tree plantations. Not only do these projects fail to reduce
carbon emissions, they accelerate the privatisation and corporate take-over of
the natural world, at the expense of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Proposals
on the table in Poznan are heading in the same direction.
In the current
negotiations, industrialised countries continue to act on the basis of
self-interest, using all their negotiating tactics to avoid their obligations
to reduce carbon emissions, to finance adaptation and mitigation and transfer
technology to the South.
In
their pursuit of growth at any cost, many Southern governments at the talks are
trading away the rights of their peoples and resources. We remind them that a
climate agreement is not a trade agreement.
The main protagonists for
climate stability – Indigenous Peoples, women, peasant and family farmers,
fisherfolk, forest dependent communities, youth, and marginalised and affected
communities in the global South and North, are systematically excluded. Despite
repeated demands, Indigenous Peoples are not recognised as an official party to
the negotiations. Neither are women’s voices and gender considerations
recognised and included in the process.
At
the same time, private investors are circling the talks like vultures, swooping
in on every opportunity for creating new profits. Business and corporate
lobbyists expanded their influence and monopolized conference space at Poznan.
At least 1500 industry lobbyists were present either as NGOs or as members of
government delegations.
The Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) scheme could create the
climate regime’s largest ever loophole, giving Northern polluters yet another
opportunity to buy their way out of emissions reductions. With no mention of
biodiversity or Indigenous Peoples’ rights, this scheme might give a huge
incentive for countries to sell off their forests, expel Indigenous and peasant
communities, and transform forests into tree plantations under
corporate-control. Plantations are not forests. Privatisation and dispossession
through REDD or any other mechanisms must be stopped.
The
World Bank is attempting to carve a niche in the international climate change
regime. This is unacceptable as the Bank continues to fund polluting industries
and drive deforestation by promoting industrial logging and agrofuels. The
Bank’s recently launched Climate Investment Funds goes against government
initiatives at the UN and promotes dirty industries such as coal, while forcing
developing countries into the fundamentally unequal aid framework of donor and
recipient. The World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility aiming to finance
REDD through a forest carbon mechanism serves the interest of private companies
and opens the path for commodification of forests.
These
developments are to be expected. Market ideology has totally infiltrated the
climate talks, and the UNFCCC negotiations are now like trade fairs hawking
investment opportunities.
THE
REAL SOLUTIONS
Solutions
to the climate crisis will not come from industrialised countries and big
business. Effective and enduring solutions will come from those who have
protected the environment – Indigenous Peoples, women, peasant and family
farmers, fisherfolk, forest dependent communities, youth and marginalised and
affected communities in the global South and North. These include:
·
Achieving low carbon economies, without resorting to offsetting and
false solutions such as nuclear energy and “clean coal”, while protecting the
rights of those affected by the transition, especially workers.
·
Keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
·
Implementing people's food and energy sovereignty.
·
Guaranteeing community control of natural resources.
·
Re-localisation of production and consumption, prioritising local
markets
·
Full recognition of Indigenous Peoples, peasant and local community
rights,
·
Democratically controlled clean renewable energy.
·
Rights based resource conservation that enforces indigenous land rights
and promotes peoples sovereignty and public ownership over energy, forests,
seeds, land and water
·
Ending deforestation and its underlying causes.
·
Ending excessive consumption by elites in the North and in the South.
·
Massive investment in public transport
·
Ensuring gender justice by recognising existing gender injustices and
involving women in decision making.
·
Cancelling illegitimate debts claimed by northern governments and IFIs.
The illegitimacy of these debts is underscored by the much greater historical,
social and ecological debts owed to people of the South.
We
stand at the crossroads. We call for a radical change in direction to put
climate justice and people's rights at the centre of these negotiations.
In
the lead-up to the 2009 COP 15 at Copenhagen and beyond, the Climate Justice
Now! alliance will continue to monitor governments and to mobilise social
forces from the south and the north to achieve climate justice.
For
more information on CJN contact Nicola Bullard at
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or Juana
Camacho at
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