Dear Everyone,
Here is the statement from the Climate Justice Now! groups in Poznan.
We invite organisations to sign on. Send your endorsement to me at
n.bullard@???
We had a good press conference this morning, with powerful
interventions from Alicia Munoz (Via Campesina), Ben Powless
(Indigenous Environment Network) and Ana Filippini (World Rainforest
Movement).
Attached is the FINAL text that was distributed at the press
conference. Please use this version. It would be great if people could
share it around, post to websites and so on.
Cheers,
Nicola
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.
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
n.bullard@??? or Juana Camacho at deuda@???
Nicola Bullard
Focus on the Global South
CUSRI, Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand, 10330
n.bullard@???
www.focusweb.org
+662 2187363 (Thailand)
+336 08044088 (France)
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