[E-rundbrief] Info - 2021 - UN Climate Conference 2022 - Via Campesina Kritik
Matthias Reichl
info at begegnungszentrum.at
Do Nov 3 19:21:54 CET 2022
E-Rundbrief Info 2021 - Via Campesina: UN Climate Conference of the
Parties (COP) 2022 - Comments and protests.
Bad Ischl, 3.11.2022
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at
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(Bagnolet, October 31, 2022) Year after year, one UN Climate Conference
of the Parties (COP) after another, the global climate crisis only
worsens. Caused in great part by agribusiness and the destructive
capitalist system it fuels, today’s crisis is a direct result of an
economic system that exploits every form of life without recognizing any
limits to nature. Mother Earth’s intricate systems and life-sustaining
cycles are broken, with the devastating Covid19 pandemic, and the
inaccessibility of health care for many, demonstrating just how cruel
capitalism can be when it comes to inflicting the pain, suffering and
loss, caused by the destruction of nature. Be it in Pakistan, Palestine
or Puerto Rico – to name just a few – the once distant threat of
“climate change” now comes in wave after wave of “catastrophic weather
events” making climate-fueled tragedies an all-too-frequent part of
people’s daily lives. From droughts to floods, through wildfires and
hurricanes, these extreme manifestations have threatened and even
destroyed people’s lives and food sovereignty, who are calling for real
solutions to limit global warming to 1.5°C. As if that weren’t enough,
wars, occupations and sanctions are dished out by the power-hungry with
little regard for the UN-recognized rights to Food, Health, Peace and
Self-Determination, much less the now universal human right to a “clean,
healthy and sustainable environment” (UN General Assembly, 2022). In
addition, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI,
2022) reported that the climate vulnerable and extremes underline rising
numbers of hungry people, poverty and inequality.
At the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its annual
Climate COPs, transnational corporations (TNCs) use their control over
most national governments and multilateral institutions to commodify the
crisis, deny fossil fuel capitalism has anything to do with it, and
limit any real possibility of transformative change. Though the
corporate food system is responsible for more than 50% of all greenhouse
gasses (GHGs), the Bayer-Monsanto’s of the world offer nothing more than
profit-hungry proposals packaged into shameful “net zero” schemes.
Instead of a very real, urgent and necessary reduction in emissions –
whose main responsibility lies with the elites of historic emitters such
as the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia – corporate false
solutions provide a free pass to the dominant colonial core while
leading a global assault on rural communities, livelihoods and
territories. So-called “nature-based solutions” (NBS) such as REDD and
REDD+, “soil carbon for offsetting” and other market-based trading
schemes, and the corporate takeover of agriculture through patenting,
“digitalization”, “sustainable intensification” and
“climate-smart(ation)” are all big wins for agribusiness but terrible
losses for peasants, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, forest dwellers and
others on the frontlines of the global climate crisis. And when the
great hoax of “net zero” fails to calm the climate, transnational
corporations promise extremely high-risk geoengineering will somehow
save the day (or at least their profit margins). This has been the norm
at Climate COP after Climate COP, and the 27th Annual Conference of the
Parties (COP27) is unlikely to be any different.
Supposedly “Africa’s COP”, this year’s Climate COP is set to take place
at the elitist and artificial enclave that is Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh.
Far removed from the African and Arab People’s steadfast struggles for
self-determination, COP27 is leaving very little room for organized
communities to speak truth to corporate power. For this reason, among
others, many of our sister organizations of the Africa Climate Justice
Collective (ACJC) organized the African People’s Counter COP demanding
real solutions rooted in climate justice, a prioritization of people and
the planet, and an end to corporate control of the UNFCCC. These demands
are in line with our hard-fought UN Declaration on the Rights of
Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP):“States shall
take all necessary measures to ensure that non-State actors that they
are in a position to regulate, such as private individuals and
organizations, and transnational corporations and other business
enterprises, respect and strengthen the rights of peasants and other
people working in rural areas..(and)…take appropriate measures to ensure
that peasants and other people working in rural areas enjoy, without
discrimination, a safe, clean and healthy environment”.
It is precisely because of this context that La Vía Campesina will be at
COP27. Delegates from member organizations will make their voices,
traditions, experiences and solutions heard. We will continue to
promote, practice and uplift Food Sovereignty as the right of peoples to
healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically
sound and sustainable methods and the right to define our food and
agricultural systems. We will explain once again that peasants through
agroecological practices and territories cultivate more than 70% of the
food produced worldwide on less than 30% of the arable lands available.
We will emphasize that Agroecology is a sustainable path forward based
on centuries of experience and accumulated real evidence – it is a
science, a social movement and a lifestyle practised by millions around
the world through meaningful work, cooperation, strategy and
organization. We will amplify and share UNDROP, an international legal
instrument that we helped to create and that defends people’s rights
over their territories, seeds, waters, forests and that promotes a more
sustainable way of being and living. We will stand in Solidarity with
all who struggle for collective rights and reiterate the need for
“common but differentiated responsibilities” among States – including a
vibrant Green Climate Fund free of any International Monetary Fund (IMF)
or World Bank (WB) influence, void of all neo-liberal impositions that
serve only to further exploit people and the planet, and fully financed
through climate reparations for the colonial legacies of the past and
present. We stand in solidarity with and support those in the Climate
Justice Movement demanding climate just reparations, not simple “climate
finance”. Finally, we will be in COP27 continuing to expand our arms and
shoulders building solidarity, action and common strategy with
grassroots organizations, alliances and social movements from around the
world fighting for climate and social justice.
While most national governments and multilateral institutions offer
capitalist solutions that systematically fail to address the climate
crisis, we, the organized voice of over 200 million peasants, landless
workers, indigenous people, pastoralists, fishers, migrant, farmworkers,
small and medium-size farmers, rural women, peasant youth and
gender-diverse persons of La Via Campesina, in convergence with a
diversity of movements for Climate Justice, reiterate here and now our
real solutions: FOOD SOVEREIGNTY COOLS THE PLANET ! We will build it
with agroecology and peasants’ rights to ensure a Just Transition rooted
in people’s power, ecological and social well being, and solidarity at
the local, regional and international context. Together, in struggle, we
will win!
PEASANTS RIGHTS’ AND AGROECOLOGY FOR A JUST TRANSITION!
GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE!
GLOBALIZE HOPE!
For media inquiries, contact:
press at viacampesina.org
--
Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, 4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
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