[E-rundbrief] Info 1062 - Climate Justice Now! Critics on Durban conference

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1062 - Climate Justice Now! Durban: Reiche Länder 
setzen Klima-Apartheid fort; Versagen des derzeitigen wirtschaftlichen 
Systems wird offensichtlich; Antidote is Cochabamba Peoples’ 
Agreement! CJN! Press release, 10 December 2011,  Durban, S. Africa.

Bad Ischl, 12.12.2011

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Climate Justice Now! Presseaussendung, Durban, Südafrika, 10.12.2011

(Complete English text see below!)

Durban: Reiche Länder setzen Klima-Apartheid fort

Versagen des derzeitigen wirtschaftlichen Systems wird offensichtlich

Die auf dem UN-Klimagipfel in Durban getroffenen Entscheidungen 
stellen ein Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit dar, so „Climate Justice 
Now!“, eine weltweite Koalition von über 700 sozialen Bewegungen und 
zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen, der auch Attac angehört.

"Die reichsten Länder setzen zynischerweise in Südafrika das Regime 
der Klima-Apartheid fort: Für das reichste eine Prozent der Welt ist 
es akzeptabel die 99 Prozent zu opfern“, sagt Nnimmo Bassey, 
Vorsitzender von Friends of the Earth International. Ein weiteres 
Ansteigen der globalen Temperaturen auf vier Grad Celsius, welches 
durch diesen Plan erlaubt wird, ist ein Todesurteil für Afrika, kleine 
Inselstaaten und die Armen weltweit.

„Die Verschmutzer der Welt haben entschieden die derzeit 
zusammenbrechenden Kohlenstoffmärkte auszuweiten, von denen Investoren 
und Banken profitieren. Die bisherigen Klimaschutzverträge haben 
Banken einen großen Markt für Emissionszertifikate, Stromkonzernen 
Ablass für neue Kohlekraftwerke und den indigenen Bevölkerungen 
Zwangsumsiedlungen für Plantagen beschert. Gleichzeitig steigen die 
Emissionen immer weiter auf neue Rekordhöhen", kritisiert Franziskus 
Forster von Attac Österreich.

„Nicht Untätigkeit ist das Problem, sondern das offensichtliche 
Versagen des aktuellen wirtschaftlichen Systems die ökonomischen, 
sozialen und ökologischen Krisen anzugehen", sagt Janet Redman vom 
Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. „Banken und der in großen 
Problemen steckende Finanzsektor sucht immer neue Finanzprodukte um 
ein versagendes System aufzufangen.“

Pablo Solón, ehemaliger Chefverhandler Boliviens, erklärt: „Es ist 
falsch, dass eine Einigung auf eine zweite Periode des 
Kyoto-Protokolls gelungen ist. Die tatsächliche Entscheidung ist 
aufgeschoben worden. Es gibt keine Verpflichtungen für 
Emissionsreduktionen von reichen Ländern. Dies bedeutet, dass das 
Kyoto-Protokoll weiter am Leben erhalten wird, bis es durch ein neues 
Abkommen ersetzt wird, das noch schwächer sein wird.“

Climate Justice Now! verweist auf das Klimaprogramm des 
Weltklimagipfels der Völker in Bolivien 2010, erarbeitet von 
WissenschafterInnen und sozialen Bewegungen. Dieses innerhalb der 
Vereinten Nationen eingebrachte Cochabamba-Abkommen der Völker wurde 
jedoch aus dem Verhandlungstext wieder gestrichen. Es bietet einen 
gerechten und effektiven Weg, der an den Erfordernissen des Planeten 
ausgerichtet ist.

Cochabamba-Abkommen der Völker:
http://www.climate-justice-now.org/peoples-agreement/#more-1377

Rückfragen:
Franziskus Forster, Attac Österreich
franziskus.forster [at] attac.at,

Rückfragen:
David Walch
Pressesprecher Attac Österreich
-----------------------------
Margaretenstraße 166/3/25, A-1050 Wien
presse [at] attac.at, www.attac.at

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Antidote is Cochabamba Peoples’ Agreement!

CJN! Press release, 10 December,  Durban, S. Africa

Decisions resulting from the UN COP17 climate summit in Durban 
constitute a crime against humanity, according to Climate Justice Now! 
a broad coalition of social movements and civil society. Here in South 
Africa, where the world was inspired by the liberation struggle of the 
country’s black majority, the richest nations have cynically created a 
new regime of climate apartheid

“Delaying real action until 2020 is a crime of global proportions,” 
said Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International. “An 
increase in global temperatures of 4 degrees Celsius, permitted under 
this plan, is a death sentence for Africa, Small Island States, and 
the poor and vulnerable worldwide. This summit has amplified climate 
apartheid, whereby the richest 1% of the world have decided that it is 
acceptable to sacrifice the 99%.”

According to Pablo Solón, former lead negotiator for the Plurinational 
State of Bolivia, “It is false to say that a second commitment period 
of the Kyoto Protocol has been adopted in Durban. The actual decision 
has merely been postponed to the next COP, with no commitments for 
emission reductions from rich countries. This means that the Kyoto 
Protocol will be on life support until it is replaced by a new 
agreement that will be even weaker.”

The world’s polluters have blocked real action and have once again 
chosen to bail out investors and banks by expanding the now-crashing 
carbon markets – which like all financial market activities these 
days, appear to mainly enrich a select few.

“What some see as inaction is in fact a demonstration of the palpable 
failure of our current economic system to address economic, social or 
environmental crises,” said Janet Redman, of the Washington- based 
Institute for Policy Studies. “Banks that caused the financial crisis 
are now making bonanza profits speculating on our planet’s future. The 
financial sector, driven into a corner, is seeking a way out by 
developing ever newer commodities to prop up a failing system.”

Despite talk of a “roadmap” offered up by the EU, the failure in 
Durban shows that this is a cul-de-sac, a road to nowhere. 
Spokespeople for Climate Justice Now! call on the world community to 
remember that a real climate program, based on planetary needs 
identified by scientists as well as by a mandate of popular movements, 
emerged at the World People’s Summit on Climate Change and Mother 
Earth in Bolivia in 2010. The Cochabamba People’s Agreement, brought 
before the UN but erased from the negotiating text, offers a just and 
effective way forward that is desperately needed.

BACKGROUND

On technology

“The technology discussions have been hijacked by industrialized 
countries speaking on behalf of their transnational corporations,” 
said Silvia Ribeiro from the international organization ETC Group. 
Critique of monopoly patents on technologies, and the environmental, 
social and cultural evaluation of technologies have been taken out of 
the Durban outcome. Without addressing these fundamental concerns, the 
new technology mechanism will merely be a global marketing arm to 
increase the profit of transnational corporations by selling dangerous 
technologies to countries of the South, such as nanotechnology, 
synthetic biology or geoengineering technologies.”

On agriculture

“The only way forward for agriculture is to support agro-ecological 
solutions, and to keep agriculture out of the carbon market,” said 
Alberto Gomez, North American Coordinator for La Via Campesina, the 
world’s largest movement of peasant farmers. “Corporate Agribusiness, 
through its social, economic, and cultural model of production, is one 
of the principal causes of climate change and increased hunger. We 
therefore reject Free Trade Agreements, Association Agreements, and 
all forms of the application of Intellectual Property Rights to life, 
current technological packages (agrochemicals, genetic modification) 
and those that offer false solutions (biofuels, nanotechnology, and 
climate smart agriculture) that only exacerbate the current crisis.”

On REDD + and forest carbon projects

“REDD+ threatens the survival of Indigenous Peoples and 
forest-dependent communities. Mounting evidence shows that Indigenous 
Peoples are being subjected to violations of their rights as a result 
of the implementation of REDD+-type programs and policies,” declared 
The Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities 
against REDD and for Life. Their statement, released during the first 
week of COP17, declares that “REDD+ and the Clean Development 
Mechanism (CDM) promote the privatization and commodification of 
forests, trees and air through carbon markets and offsets from 
forests, soils, agriculture and could even include the oceans. We 
denounce carbon markets as a hypocrisy that will not stop global warming.”

On the World Bank and the Global Climate Fund

“The World Bank is a villain of the failed neoliberal economy,” says 
Teresa Almaguer of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance in the U.S. “We 
need a climate fund managed by participatory governance, not by an 
anti-democratic institution that is responsible for much of the 
climate disruption and poverty in the world.” “The Green Climate Fund 
has been turned into the Greedy Corporate Fund,” said Lidy Nacpil, of 
Jubilee South. “The fund has been hijacked by the rich countries, on 
their terms, and set up to provide more profits to the private sector”

On the Green Economy

“We need a climate fund that provides finance for peoples of 
developing countries that is fully independent from undemocratic 
institutions like the World Bank. The Bank has a long track record of 
financing projects that exacerbate climate disruption and poverty” 
said Lidy Nacpil, of Jubilee South. “The fund is being hijacked by the 
rich countries, setting up the World Bank as interim trustee and 
providing direct access to money meant for developing countries to the 
private sector.  It should be called the Greedy Corporate Fund!”

Climate policy is making a radical shift towards the so-called “green 
economy,” dangerously reducing ethical commitments and historical 
responsibility to an economic calculation on cost-effectiveness, trade 
and investment opportunities. Mitigation and adaption should not be 
treated as a business nor have its financing conditioned by private 
sector and profit-oriented logic. Life is not for sale.

On climate debt

“Industrialized northern countries are morally and legally obligated 
to repay their climate debt,” said Janet Redman, Co-director of the 
Sustainable Energy & Economy Network at the Institute for Policy 
Studies. “Developed countries grew rich at the expense of the planet 
and the future all people by exploiting cheap coal and oil. They must 
pay for the resulting loss and damages, dramatically reduce emissions 
now, and financially support developing countries to shift to clean 
energy pathways.”

Developed countries, in assuming their historical responsibility, must 
honor their climate debt in all its dimensions as the basis for a 
just, effective, and scientific solution. The focus must not be only 
on financial compensation, but also on restorative justice, understood 
as the restitution of integrity to our Mother Earth and all its 
beings. We call on developed countries to commit themselves to action. 
Only this could perhaps rebuild the trust that has been broken and 
enable the process to move forward.

On real solutions

“The only real solution to climate change is to leave the oil in the 
soil, coal in the hole and tar sands in the land. “ Ivonne Yanez, 
Acción Ecologica, Ecuador

For more information, contact:

Mike Dorsey – mkdorsey [at] professordorsey.com,

Nick Buxton – nick [at] tni.org

World People’s Summit on Climate Change and Mother Earth in Bolivia in 
2010
Cochabamba People’s Agreement:
http://www.climate-justice-now.org/peoples-agreement/#more-1377

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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
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