by Pablo Solon (*)
After 9 days of negotiations there is no doubt that we saw this movie before. It is the third remake of Copenhagen and Cancun. Same actors. Same script. The documents are produced outside the formal negotiating scenario . In private meetings, dinners which the 193 member states do not attend. The result of these meetings is known only on the last day. continue reading…
At the UN Climate Change negotiations in Durban this week, the World Bank and developed countries are claiming that agriculture carbon offsets will bring money for African agriculture. continue reading…
Durban, South Africa, 6 December. As countries are negotiating the global climate crisis, an open letter sent by a broad coalition of green groups including Greenpeace, WWF and Friends of the Earth to the COP Presidency today calls for an exclusion of coal power projects from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Groups claim such projects undermine the integrity of the CDM and the already weak climate targets. continue reading…
This year is a critical one for the global climate change negotiations. Durban, South Africa will play host to the UN Conference of Parties (COP 17) later this year.
One of the challenges in the run-up to Durban is understanding the politics of climate change arising from the Copenhagen meeting and the subsequent Cancun conference, the outcomes of those meetings, and how these outcomes relate to Durban and, therefore, what civil society demands can and should be. continue reading…
The thousands of solutions to the climate crisis are in the hands of the people
The members of La Vía Campesina, coming from 29 Mexican states and 36 countries from all over the world, and hundreds of national and international organizations, join our thousands of struggles in Cancun to demand of the United Nations Conference of the Parts on Climate Change, (COP 16), environmental justice and respect for Mother Earth; to denounce the ambitious attempts of governments – principally from the North – to commercialize all elements of life to benefit transnational corporations; and to get to know the thousands of solutions that the people have to cool the planet and stop the environmental devastation that today is seriously threatening humanity. continue reading…
We, peoples’ organizations from throughout the global South, representing a diversity of networks in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean, convened in Cancun, Mexico, for the South-South Summit on Climate Justice and Finance, simultaneous to the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP-16). From November 26th to December 4th, we met in plenary sessions, workshops, group discussions, and common actions that strengthened our unity and deepened our shared vision towards the attainment of climate justice. continue reading…
Cancún, Mexico — As representatives of Indigenous peoples and communities already suffering the immediate impacts of climate change, we express our outrage and disgust at the agreements that have emerged from the COP16 talks. As was exposed in the Wikileaks climate scandal, the Cancun Agreements are not the result of an informed and open consensus process, but the consequence of an ongoing US diplomatic offensive of backroom deals, arm-twisting and bribery that targeted nations in opposition to the Copenhagen Accord during the months leading up to the COP-16 talks.
(Cancun, Mexico, December 11, 2010) The final outcome of the Cancun climate talks basically reflects the same negative outcome of the Copenhagen Accord in December, 2009. Therefore, it threatens the life of the Kyoto Protocol, but even more importantly, it threatens the life of humankind, because if these outcome is implemented, by the end of the century the planet will see global temperature rising by an average of over 5°C , which would make the Earth too inhospitable for our civilization.
CANCUN, MEXICO, 11 December 2010 – The agreement adopted at the UN climate talks in Cancun has failed to make progress on the most essential part: steep, binding emissions cuts for developed countries. Friends of the Earth International warns that this agreement provides a platform for abandoning the Kyoto Protocol, replacing it with a weak pledge and review system as a legacy of the Copenhagen Accord, that would lead to a devastating five degree Celsius warming. continue reading…
