Climate summit closed to civil society, but remains open to big business

By Belen Balanya

Yesterday hundreds of activists were beaten and arrested in the streets of Copenhagen and Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth and other NGOs were banned from the Bella Center, where the UN negotiations take place. But this morning, representatives of big business were inside the Bella Center having a high-level breakfast with 10 ministers, an event jointly organised by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the UNFCCC. The WBCSD has 230 accredited delegates in Copenhagen.

The WBCSD’s President Björn Stigson hosted today’s breakfast with summit chair Yvo de Boer, and his message, according to the WBCSD, is a ‘simple one’: “You (governments) will not tackle climate change without business at the table as an engaged, involved partner. Governments cannot deliver the targets which are being talked about without business.”

Later in the morning the WBCSD co-organised another event in the Bella Center to discuss “Private Sector and the UNFCC: Options for Institutional Engagement”. The event title is more than wishful thinking. Only a few weeks ago the EU awarded a contract to the WBCSD and consultanciesEcofys and Climate Focus to do a study that should “define options for formal engagement of the private sector within the UNFCCC process”.

The EU has also been promoting this initiative during the summit. On 12 December, an event on Private Sector Engagement in the International Climate Change Policy Process took place in the EU pavilion in the Bella Center, co-organised by the Commission, DG Enterprise and the three groups contracted to do the study.

The WBCSD’s privileged access today to the Bella Center and to high-level decision-makers and the fact that the EU is funding the WBCSD to make proposals for involving business even closer in international climate talks is outrageous and unacceptable. Since its foundation in 1992, the WBCSD has only been advocating industry self-regulation, a global carbon market and false solutions like nuclear energy, agrofuels, coal (CCS) and carbon credits from plantation forests.

The EU’s and the UN’s preferential treatment of the WBCSD are deeply flawed. Effective and just climate policies are only possible if governments keep a healthy distance from companies that have a direct economic interest in the decisions taken.

Also at: http://climatecrashers.blogspot.com/2009/12/climate-summit-closed-to-civil-society.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/16/police_tear_gas_beat_back_protesters

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-climate-change

North American Indigenous Peoples Demand More in Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark – As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) winds down, thousands of people marched in the streets today to “reclaim power” from the UN process they say is not good enough. Indigenous Peoples led a march from inside the official venue of the climate negotiations, to stand in solidarity with the rest of civil society in demanding climate justice.

Over the past two weeks, indigenous peoples have been working to ensure all potential climate policies and actions that come out of the negotiations, ensure recognition of and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. Specifically, indigenous peoples have lobbied for the incorporation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into climate policy. Although some would see the mention of the UNDRIP in the text of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) a small success, many feel it is a slap in the face of indigenous peoples.

“Indigenous peoples rights are mentioned once in the form of a recommendation for nation states to consider, but not as a requirement,” explains Alberto Saldamando of the International Indigenous Treaty Council (IITC). “But ensuring basic human rights for the worlds populations who are most affected by climate change should not be voluntary. It is a matter of obligation.”

“It’s a sad situation that world leaders representing industrialized society have lost their understanding of the sacredness of Mother Earth,” adds Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). “Before we can achieve global action, there needs to be international awareness of why we are really here. We marched out in support of our brother, President Evo Morales of Bolivia, and his demand that the rights of Mother Earth be recognized in the negotiating text here in Copenhagen.”

“Coming into these negotiations, I was optimistic about our world leaders coming together to solve this global problem,” says Nikke Alex, a Navajo youth who works for the Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC) in the southwest United States. “But now I see the health of our people and Mother Earth are not central to their agenda. Their goal is to use the climate crisis to make profit. The people who are really solving climate change are those at the grassroots level, working to create more sustainable societies.”

The IEN delegation brought a delegation of 21 Indigenous Peoples from North America affected by fossil fuel development. They came to call out false solutions like clean coal technology, nuclear power, and the carbon market. Over the past two weeks, the IEN delegation has used a variety of tactics to push for strong targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and demand effective, fair and equitable methods to address the climate issue.

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The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is a United States-based non-governmental (Indigenous) organization formed in 1990 addressing environmental and economic justice challenges.  IEN is a network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous communities and Nations towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice, and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions. Since 1998, IEN has been working on issues of climate change and global warming.  IEN is one of the leading organizations/networks within the U.S. environmental justice movement involved in climate change policy – locally, nationally and globally.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 16, 2009
Contact: The Indigenous Environmental Network Media Team
Mobile Number: +45 526 85596
E-mail: indigenous.environmental.network@gmail.com
Websites: http://indigenousenvironmentalnetwork.blogspot.com/

http://www10.cop15.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/cop15/templ/play.php?id_kongressmain=1&theme=unfccc&id_kongresssession=2629

Mass Nonviolent Protest by North-South Climate Justice Alliances at COP 15 Marks Defining Moment for Emerging Global Climate Justice Movement

Despite Police Violence Civil Society Groups Inside and Outside Unite in “People’s Assembly” to Demand Real Solutions to the Climate Crisis

Protests Expose Deep Flaws in the COP Process and Denounce Efforts to Silence Critics by Excluding Civil Society

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An array of civil society, delegates and negotiating parties representing a global alliance of both north and south civil society groups, people’s movements, indigenous representatives and even some governments have begun a dramatic protest today disrupting the inside of the Bella Center.

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Copy-paste this link into your browser: http://ekstrabladet.tv/live/

Copenhagen, Denmark — Dr. Tadzio Mueller of Berlin, an accredited NGO observer at the COP 15 was arrested today without provocation by three plain clothed police outisde the Bella Center. His arrest took place shortly after a press conference where he and other representatives of civil society announced nonviolent protests planned for Wendeday in Copenhagen.

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Dear President Obama,

The world has had great expectations for your leadership in addressing climate change internationally, but to date there has been much disappointment. We understand you face a difficult political reality in the United States, but billions of people face the reality of flood, drought, famine, and climate-constrained development. Every country faces its own complex political circumstances, and those of the United States cannot be allowed to hold back the rest of the world.

We are writing to urgently ask you to reconsider the emission reduction target you have put forward for Copenhagen and instead offer a target that will return atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to no more than 350 ppm and allow for no more than 1 to1.5°C global temperature rise. A reduction by the United States of only 3 percent below 1990, contingent on greenhouse gas cuts by China and other developing countries, is scientifically unsound and deeply unjust. If other developed countries committed to longer term reductions that are no more ambitious than those you have pledged for the US[1], the rich world will end up consuming two-thirds of the carbon budget available for this century.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Africa is expected to warm at around 1.5 times the global average. In Copenhagen, leaders from Africa have made it clear that a temperature rise of 2 °C is suicide for the peoples of that continent. Yet the targets offered by developed countries won’t even keep the world below a 2 degree global temperature rise.  We echo the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance that this is, “a death sentence to literally millions of Africans. We fear for our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers – your uncles, aunts and cousins. Your policy on climate change threatens not only our families but also your own.”

Rather than undermining constructive multilateralism, the U.S. should join the rest of the international community and ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Barring that, the U.S. should plug its emission reduction commitment into the special space designed for it under the Bali Action Plan – paragraph 1(b)(i) – to fulfill its obligations under the UN Climate Convention in a manner that is comparable to the commitments of other developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol. Since then, the failure of the US to take serious reduction commitments has instigated an abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol by developed countries, spurring a race to the bottom.

The provision of public climate finance for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries is also fundamental to a just and effective outcome in Copenhagen. As the leader of the nation most responsible for causing the climate crisis, and as the world’s wealthiest economy, the U.S. must pay its share of what the Africa Group is calling for from developed countries– at least 5 percent of GNP annually in the long term and US$400 billion for fast track financing. Further, climate finance should be channeled through a new Global Climate Fund established under the authority of the UNFCCC. The World Bank and other existing international financial institutions should have no role in UNFCCC climate finance.

During your Nobel Lecture, you said “…the world must come together to confront climate change.” We ask that you move beyond rhetoric to meaningful action. More than 100 countries have called for reductions by developed countries of at least 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, no more than 1.5°C global temperature rise, and a return to 350 ppm. The United States should support nothing less.

Climate change is an extreme threat to world peace, and in many cases, entire peoples’ survival.  If ever there was a time for you to exert bold leadership, this is it. Last week you received the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, we call on you to earn it.

Thank you for your serious consideration of this life-or-death matter.

Sincerely,

Cc: Senator John F. Kerry

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Karen Orenstein

Friends of the Earth U.S.

+45-2971-8809 (mobile in Copenhagen)