We
demand effective commitments for fighting climate change
Between
the 7th and 18th of December, 2009 during
the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP15) in Copenhagen, world
governments will attempt to make commitments for reducing carbon
emissions and lay out policies for mitigating climate change. In
the face of the urgency and the growing recognition of the dangerous
consequences of this phenomenon, the whole world is awaiting the
decisions that will be made.
Nonetheless,
the transformation of the climate is advancing faster than the negotiations,
given the lack of political will of the industrialized nations and
their hurry to transform the need for solutions into business opportunities.
These are the principle obstacles to the adoption of policies that
truly contribute to avoiding climate change and counteracting the
environmental damages that the current production model has created.
In the face of such obstacles social and popular movements and organizations,
environmental groups, unions, indigenous communities and women’s
organizations from the entire American continent raise the flags
of climate and ecological justice, demand from our governments a
real commitment and urge the whole of society to recognize the need
to change our patterns of consumption and production.
In
recent years it has been more and more evident that the climate
is changing due to global warming. This is reflected in, among other
impacts, the increase of extreme climate events that affect disproportionally
the so-called developing countries. This is a grave problem
that humanity faces, heightening other existing problems like poverty,
hunger, violence, social inequality, problems of gender (women make
up 70% of poor people), the control of land, food sovereignty, access
to water and sanitation, among others.
Who
is responsible?
We
the social organizations of Latin America believe that it is necessary
to seek solutions through the search for Climate and Ecological
Justice, which should be based in the recognition that each human
being has the right to climatic and environmental space and that
nature, as a whole, has rights that should be respected. Although
climate change requires global actions, the historical responsibility
for emitting the majority (80%) of the greenhouse gases in the last
250 years lies on the countries of the North. Cheap energy
has been the motor for their rapid industrialization and economic
growth, while the countries of the South have assumed the economic,
social and environmental costs of extradition, transport and production
of fossil fuels. The countries of the North should recognize the
existence of an ecological, social, financial and historical debt
to the countries of the South and to nature.
The
unprecedented crisis that the world is currently living reveals
the failure of the capitalist system and its neoliberal model, whose
ideologues believed – and still believe – that the laws of the market
are more important than life, converting natural resources into
merchandise and removing the State from is role to regulate, protect
and promote, converting the State into a mere manager. The climate
crisis is the result of a development model that promotes production
based upon the use of fossil fuels; deforestation; monoculture;
industrial agriculture and cattle farming; and the intensive, chaotic
and massive extraction of natural resources from the earth, all
with the aim of exportation and of strengthening in the countries
of the North and in the upper classes patterns of exaggerated consumption,
which have contributed to the generation and concentration of greenhouse
gases, the direct cause of climate change.
The
major corporations and their accomplice governments are therefore
those principally responsible for the emission of CO2 and the exhaustion
of the planet’s natural resources, and at the same time are those
promoting an accelerated and limitless rhythm of consumption that
is closing the circle of the debilitation and destruction of Mother
Earth. In the words of Evo Morales, “‘climate change’ has placed
humanity in the face of a grave dilemma: continue on the path of
capitalism and death, or embark on the path of harmony with nature
and respect for life.”
The
liberalization and deregulation of international commerce and the
investment and protection of intellectual property (imposed via
the WTO and Free Trade Agreements) contribute to climate change
because they guarantee and promote the continuation of the production,
consumption and commercial model and deepen the international division
of labor that has destroyed the economies of the South, provoking
great migratory waves. In addition, the illegitimate indebting of
our countries, imposed to favor the policies and projects that have
generated enormous ecological and climate debts, continue being
a heavy factor in these unequal and submissive relationships. It
is imperative to change the rules of the world economy, currently
governed by transnational corporations. Additionally, it is
very important to guarantee access for the countries of the South
to existing technology and to at the same time develop new technologies
with low carbon emissions that are appropriate to national realities
without becoming the source of financial or technological dependence.
Our
demands
In
the context of this exportation and extraction model that prioritizes
economic benefits and the rights of transnational corporations over
human rights and the rights of nature, those responsible have proposed
some solutions to climate change that instead of addressing the
true causes, maintain the unsustainable production and consumption
structures and project onto the backs of the people and the most-affected
countries the costs of mitigation or adaption.
Developed
countries have not fulfilled the greenhouse gas emissions reduction
agreements of the Kyoto Protocols, and have created an emissions
trading system instead of eliminating carbon encourages practices
that don’t actually reduce it, reproducing the speculative logic
of the financial system and allowing companies and governments of
the North to evade with money the assumed obligations to reduce
emissions.
Biofuels
do not constitute a real solution to the environmental problematic.
The change in the use of land for cultivating palm and cane puts
at risk food sovereignty, forests, biodiversity and the territorial
relationships of native and rural communities. The purpose of biofuels
is to maintain the patterns of energy consumption of industrialized
countries.
Market
mechanisms are based upon manipulation and business lobbying, incentivized
and even financed by the World Bank, the International Development
Bank and other development banks, investors and lenders. They are
slow and complicated mechanisms that exclude local and indigenous
communities from the decisions that affect their territories. These
instruments don’t solve the climate crisis, but instead allow the
North to transfer its obligation to reduce emissions and the problem
itself to the people of the South.
The
recent negotiations in Bangkok and Barcelona, preceding the meeting
in Copenhagen, have served as the stage for the countries of the
North to align their agreements on the reduction of emissions with
the commitments of the countries of the South, who they blame for
the lack of results and agreements. We demand the participation
of all countries in the search for solutions to climate change,
but recognizing that in order to be effective, the starting point
should be the respect for and compliance with the commitments and
diversified obligations agreed upon by industrialized countries
more than 15 years ago, in agreement with their historic obligation.
Even if there are advances in the commitments of the South, there
is no guarantee that the mitigation of the countries of the North
will be effective (and not using false market solutions, as has
occurred until now).
The
International Financial Institutions, co-responsible for the current
global financial, economic and climate crisis, promote market solutions
through credit programs that allow them to maintain the status quo
and continue intervening in the political and social economy of
the countries of the South. We therefore demand the immediate
end of this conduct of the International Financial Institutions,
which only contributes to the imposition of a speculative logic
in the management of climate issues. No resource destined
to the mitigation or adaption of climate change should be converted
into debt.
We
demand from the industrialized countries a commitment to the restitution
and reparation for the peoples and countries of the South, through
mechanisms and alternative flows of funds and the transfer of technologies
in order to assure the life of the planet. The necessary reparations
should be based on the autodetermination of communities and with
the guarantee of no repetition.
All
governments should promote alternatives that contribute to the mitigation
of the effects of climate change. Similarly, it is essential to
discuss current proposals, like the REDD program (Reduction of Emissions
from Deforestation and Degradation), which prioritize monocultures
of trees instead of the protection of tropical forests, offering
industrialized countries a way to compensate for increased emissions
of greenhouse gases without committing to reducing emissions.
Alternatives
from the Americas
As
social organizations we demand that our governments prioritize the
strengthening of local and regional economies; peasant agriculture;
and the recognition of the rights of working men and women, indigenous
peoples, peasants, and fishermen to protect their territory and
natural resources. The governments should promote the transition
to sustainable societies that are not based on hydrocarbons. Public
policies that guarantee a just transition to another economy are
necessary so that it won’t always be the same ones picking up the
bill.
The
international climate negotiations can’t be based on market mechanisms,
but instead should contribute to the reversal of the development
model based on unrestricted export-oriented growth. The negotiations
should look to a new model of production, consumption, distribution
and consumption, based on the sovereignty, solidarity and integration
of peoples. We demand that those responsible for climate change
transform the consumer lifestyle and the economic system that they
have imposed on society.
For
the indigenous communities, women, peasant and afro-descendent communities
of our countries, the defense of projects that sustain life has
been very important. Along with other social movements they have
been constructing a different vision of territory, development,
and economics that emphasizes biodiversity and the sustainable use
of resources. It is necessary to recognize and appreciate the community
knowledge and the traditional practices bases on coexistence with
Mother Earth and respect of her rights.
Our
continent is heterogeneous. From dense urban populations to tiny
villages that promulgate the Good Life. We should nourish
ourselves with these realties in order to formulate alternatives,
demand effective commitments from governments and advance in the
struggle of the people for sovereignty and social and climate justice.
s
países del Norte deben reconocer la existencia de una deuda ecológica, social,
financi
|