Civil society organizations from different countries and regions gathered at the “Speakers’ Corner” near the International Convention Center to demand that governments in the climate talks renew binding agreements for developed countries and commit to ambitious targets for “deep and drastic GHG emissions cuts” immediately. continue reading…
Dear Ministers,
We, more than hundred civil society organisations from 35 countries across all continents, call on Parties to acknowledge the urgency with which climate change needs to be addressed and to agree to ambitious and immediate emissions reduction targets that are in line with the Cancun Agreement to prevent global warming beyond two degrees Celsius. Kyoto Protocol parties must commit to a second commitment period at Durban. The legal and governance structure of the Kyoto Protocol is crucial to ensuring that mitigation commitments are legally binding and have environmental integrity. continue reading…
The participants of the workshop on REDD and Biocultural Protocols organized by the Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA), from Ecuador, Panama, India, Nicaragua, Peru and Samoa met on 24 and 25 November 2011 in Durban, South Africa to share emergent findings and analyse how REDD is affecting our territories in order to respond through our assessments. We discussed strategies for addressing climate justice. continue reading…
In a letter addressed to the respective national authorities designated to define the approval of projects for carbon credits, members of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay called their respective governments “not to approve CDM projects based on technology solutions that generate risks and negative impacts, and perverse incentives due to increased waste generation.” continue reading…
Beijing, 3 Nov (Chee Yoke Ling) – The success of the UN climate conference in Durban in late November will depend on the adoption of the next phase of greenhouse gases emission reductions by developed countries and the completion of the negotiation mandate adopted in Bali, Indonesia in 2007. This was said by Ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) in a joint statement issued at the conclusion of their meeting in Beijing from 31 October to 1 November.
The Ministers, who met to coordinate their views for the upcoming climate talks, emphasized in their joint statement that “the Kyoto Protocol is the cornerstone of the climate regime and its second commitment period (of emissions reduction by developed countries) is the essential priority for the success of the Durban Conference” that will be hosted by South Africa on 28 November to 9 December. The first commitment period will end in 2012. continue reading…
The Peoples Dialogue is a network that brings southern Africa and South American rural and popular activists and social movements together to share experiences and strengthen linkages in challenging injustice and building alternatives. The Peoples Dialogue held a meeting in Durban from 21-23 September 2011 to engage with the issue of climate change and the challenges it poses for rural movements, moving towards COP17 and Rio+20.
The present crisis of climate change facing the planet and humanity is a part of a broader crisis of capitalism, an economic system that is reaching its ecological limits. The planet and its resources are more than capable of providing for the needs of all its people. However, we live under a system of production and consumption that undermines the natural basis of life through a need for constant growth, while only a small minority of the world’s population, historically in the North and a growing elite in the South, benefits from the results of such growth. Meanwhile, many of the effects of overproduction and consumption and climate change are felt by the world’s small scale and peasant farmers, the poor and the working class. continue reading…
Distinguished delegates:
We appreciate this opportunity to share the views of some members of Climate Justice Now!, and from members of the women and gender constituency with you. We wanted to share these views at the beginning of this workshop, but regretfully we were not allowed to present. We also regret that we are not invited to attend the entire workshop.
We share the concern of many other stakeholders that methodologies and modalities for land use, land us change and forestry (LULUCF) accounting should not undermine the integrity of the Kyoto Protocol and its effectiveness as a legally binding instrument to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
To effectively address climate change and ensure environmental integrity, all significant emissions, including those from the land use sector must be properly accounted for and reduced in the second commitment period. However, the current LULUCF rules and draft proposals represent a serious threat to environmental integrity and are the most outrageous of many loopholes that need to be closed in the second commitment period.
It is unacceptable that countries can simply choose not to account for emissions from forest management. In the second commitment period, Parties must not be allowed to pick and choose which segments of the land use sector they account for. We also object to attempts to set reference levels that would allow countries to increase their emissions from LULUCF related activities considerably, instead of reducing them in line with the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol and the Convention.
We would like to reiterate our strong concern in this respect that the forest definition that is currently used for LULUCF includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. That is, it includes real, biologically diverse forests, which are an essential source of livelihood for women and their families, but it also includes monoculture tree plantations, including large-scale monoculture tree plantations that have a devastating impact on women’s livelihoods and communities in general. These plantations destroy ecosystems and subsistence agriculture, cause rural unemployment and depopulation, deplete soils and water resources and violate Indigenous Peoples’ rights. That is why we insist that the definition of “forests” is revised jointly with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) so as to exclude monoculture tree plantations. Moreover, it should be ensured that forest degradation is fully taken into account in any scheme to conserve forest.
We also insist that forest management accounting methodologies and modalities within the framework of this Rio Convention should not lead to practices that impact negatively on the objectives of the other major Rio
Convention, the CBD, or on the rights and livelihoods of women, Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the North or South.
We strongly object to the proposed continuation of clean development mechanism (CDM) credits for monoculture tree plantations falsely classed as ‘afforestation and reforestation’ projects, and to proposals to increase the amount of such CDM credits for those plantations. We also object to proposals, contained in the LULUCF draft, to include forest, cropland and grazing land management, soil carbon and other ‘land use’ in the CDM. If approved, this would provide major new carbon finance for monoculture tree and crop plantations of all types. Annex I countries must not be allowed to “meet” or rather avoid their commitments under LULUCF or otherwise through offsetting.
Forest management accounting methodologies and modalities should not create incentives for forest management practices that are unsustainable from a social or environmental perspective. We reject any forest-related scheme that ignores or undermines the many different values forests have for women and men. Any incentive scheme that favors the carbon value of ecosystems more than other values will lead to serious negative impacts on food and water sovereignty, access to traditional medicines and seeds, and the other socio-economic, cultural, spiritual and ecological values of forests, which are of essential importance to our existence, and especially that of women.
We hope these general observations can be taken into account in your deliberations.
Thank you.
The International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change will be hosting a press conference at 15:00 (CET) in the Moon Palace, Azteca Building, Luna Room. Webcast available online: http://webcast.cc2010.mx/
In a year that has witnessed millions of people affected by the adverse impacts of climate change around the world, the task of UNFCCC, to dramatically and immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has never been more urgent. Scientists have consistently noted the rapidly diminishing window for taking action to effectively address this global problem.
