The climate crisis in Bolivia is not a headline or an abstraction – it is playing out in people’s lives in real time.

Melting glaciers are threatening the water supply of the country’s two biggest cities. Increasing droughts and floods are playing havoc with agriculture.

So it is no surprise that in climate negotiations, Bolivia is emerging as a leader in the global south – advancing both radical solutions and analysis that make rich countries distinctly nervous.

On this edition of Fault Lines, Avi Lewis travels to Bolivia to explore the country’s climate crusade from the inside.

It is the story of an emerging movement, based in the global south, raising questions about who owes what to whom in confronting the climate crisis.

And it is playing out in Bolivia’s epic landscape – from the tropical glaciers to the endless salt flats. A landscape that in normal times seems to mock the very idea that human beings can change the course of nature.

This episode of Fault Lines can be seen from Thursday, May 20, 2010 at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600; Friday: 0030, 0830; Saturday: 2330; Sunday: 0630, 2130; Tuesday: 0530, 1230; Wednesday: 0300

To view the video on a full screen http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/2010/05/2010518121127315453.html

4.    Believing that to achieve the realization of human rights and human dignity it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth;
5.    Recognizing that access to and use of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate system is necessary for the realization of human rights including the right to development, and that atmospheric space should be fairly shared between all countries and peoples;
6.    Recalling that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recognized that global atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values;
7.    Noting that the majority of the historical emissions contributing to current atmospheric concentrations and to current and committed future warming originated in the developed countries;
8.    Recognizing that the past, current and proposed future emissions by and for developed countries are limiting and will further limit access to and use by developing countries of an equitable share of the atmospheric space required for their development;
9.    Affirming that by over-consuming the available capacity of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate system to absorb greenhouse gases the developed countries have run up an “emissions debt” to developing countries;
10.    Recognizing further that current levels of warming are damaging forest, mountain and other ecosystems, melting snow and glaciers, thinning ice sheets, causing the oceans to rise and acidify, threatening coral reefs and intensifying droughts and floods, fires and extreme weather events and that these adverse effects threaten to worsen as the warming already committed in the Earth’s systems takes effect;
11.    Recognizing that the countries most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change are developing countries and that climate impacts are already imposing substantial and rising costs, damages and setbacks to development thereby undermining the rights and aspirations of developing countries to development;
12.    Acknowledging that climate change has caused and is causing increasing adverse impacts to indigenous peoples, local communities and other vulnerable groups and that the human rights, including the inherent rights of indigenous peoples as affirmed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other instruments, must be respected in all efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change;
13.    Affirming that the historical emissions of developed countries are causing disproportionate harm to developing countries and that developed countries are thus responsible for compensating developing countries for their contribution to these adverse effects as part of an “adaptation debt” owed by developed countries to developing countries;
14.    Recognizing that developed countries emissions debts and adaptation debts together constitute a climate debt, which in turn is part of a broader ecological debt reflecting the environmental footprint, excessive consumption of resources, materials and energy and contribution to declining biodiversity and ecosystem services;
15.    Emphasizing that further delay by developed countries parties in addressing their excessive emissions and consumption, and reducing and repaying their climate debts to the developing countries, and significantly constrain opportunities to achieve lower stabilization levels of greenhouse gases and increase the risk of more severe climate change impacts;
16.    Seeking to ensure the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention through long-term cooperative action;
Decides as follows:
17.    All parties shall enhance their contribution to long-term cooperative action to combat climate change with a shared vision which is based and in fulfillment of the objective and principles of the Convention in particular common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, equity and historical responsibility.
18.    The shared vision is for long-term cooperative action, which is comprised of a range of essential elements including:
(a) Enhanced implementation by developed countries of their commitments to enable developing countries to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change and to meet the costs its adverse effects, in accordance with Articles 4.1, 4.3, 4.4, 4.7 and 4.8;
(b) Enhanced implementation by developed countries of their commitments to implement policies and measures that demonstrate they are taking the lead in modifying longer-term trends in anthropogenic emissions consistent with the objective of the Convention established in Article 2, in accordance with Article 4.2;
(c) Enhanced implementation by developed countries of their commitments relating to the provision to developing countries of financial resources in accordance with Articles 4.1, 4.3, 4.4. 4.5 and 4.7, including through the provision of full costs for the implementation by developing countries of commitments relating to the communication of information related to implementation under Article 12.1 and the provision of agreed full incremental costs of implementation of commitments included in Article 4.1 of the Convention;
(d) Enhanced implementation by developed countries of their commitments relation to the development and transfer of technology and the enhancement of endogenous technologies and capacities in developing countries, in accordance with Articles 4.1, 4.3, 4.4. 4.5 and 4.7;
(e) Enhanced action by developing countries to mitigate climate change including through voluntary nationally appropriate mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development, in accordance with Article 4.1 of the Convention, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner; and
(f) Changes to the international financial, economic and social system, which drives excessive production and consumption, including the excessive production of greenhouse gas pollution, and perpetuates unfair and unbalanced relations between peoples and between peoples and nature.
19.    A shared vision integrates a set of global goals including a global goal for emission reductions. These include:
(a) The equitable allocation atmospheric space between developed countries and developing countries during the period 1750 to 2050 based on the principles of equity and historical responsibility, and the needs of developing countries in order to achieve their economic and social development and poverty eradication;
(b) Achievement by Annex I countries that are not party to the Kyoto Protocol of total and domestic emission reductions comparable to those undertaken by Annex I parties to the Kyoto Protocol through a second and subsequent commitment periods;
(c) Provision of financial resources by developed countries to developing countries for adaptation, technology transfer, capacity building and mitigation as described in sub-paragraphs (d) to (g) of this paragraph;
(d) Provisions by developed countries of means of implementation to developing countries to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change, to meet the costs of its adverse effects and to repay adaptation debts including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 3% of their GNP;
(e) The transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries and enhancement of their endogenous capacities and technologies including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 1% of their GNP;
(f) Capacity building to enable the upgrading of developing countries institutional capacities to address climate change and its adverse effects including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 1% of their GNP;
(g) Measures by developing countries to mitigate climate change, including nationally appropriate mitigation actions supported and enabled by developed countries including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 1% of their GNP;
(h) Identification and removal of all barriers to access to technologies at the most affordable cost and appropriate treatment of intellectual property rights including exclusion of patents on climate related technologies to developing country Parties;
(i) Capacity building for developed countries to enable them to reduce their high per-person greenhouse gas emissions, to live in harmony with nature and to reduce their climate and ecological debts to developing countries and nature; and
(j) Quantified changes to the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production by developed countries.
20.    Subject to the fulfillment of the global goals established in paragraph 19, and in order to achieve the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevent dangerous interference with the climate system, the parties will seek to return greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to well below 300ppm CO2eq with a view to returning concentrations to levels as close as possible to pre-industrial levels in the longer-term, and to limit the average global temperatures to well below 1 degree C with a view to returning temperatures to levels as close as possible to pre-industrial levels in the longer-term.
21.    Achieving the shared vision requires reversing the trend of increasing global greenhouse gas emissions through a just, comprehensive and science-based approach. It calls for:
(a) Agreement on the equitable allocation of global atmospheric space between developed and developing countries;
(b) The deepest possible reduction of emissions from domestic sources by developed countries; and
(c) Adequate and timely provision of financial resources and transfers of technology to developing countries to enable and support their measures to mitigate emissions, including nationally appropriate mitigation actions.
22.    Achieving an equitable allocation of global atmospheric space between developed and developing countries is determined by:
(a) An agreed global emission budget between the period [1750][1900] to 2050;
(b) An agreed methodology for sharing the global emissions budget among developed and developing countries reflecting cumulative historical and/or per-person annual emissions and the needs of developing countries to achieve economic and social development and poverty eradication; and
(c) The allocation, based on this methodology, of total and domestic assigned amounts to Annex I parties under the Kyoto Protocol and targets for a comparable effort for Annex I parties that are not party to the Kyoto Protocol.
23.    For this purpose, developed countries shall take on total and domestic commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that reflect an equitable allocation of atmospheric space and address the needs of developing countries. Developed countries shall ensure that:
(a) Their greenhouse gas emissions do not exceed their total assigned amounts, with a view to modify longer-term trends in global greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the objectives of the Convention and enabling developed countries to repay their emissions debt to developing countries; and
(b) Their greenhouse gas emissions from domestic sources do not exceed their assigned domestic amounts, with a view to ensuring that their overall domestic emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced by a minimum of 49% by 2017 to enable developing countries to have access to adequate atmospheric space to achieve economic and social development and poverty eradication.
24.    A developed country may, with the agreement of other parties, meet the difference between its total assigned amount and its assigned domestic amount by the provision of financial resources and the transfer of technology through mechanisms operating under the authority of the UNFCCC, in the context of its commitment to provide the agreed full incremental costs of actions by developing countries under the Convention.
25.    The implementation by developed countries of their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to provide the agreed full incremental costs of actions by developing countries to implement their commitments under the Convention, shall together enable parties to reverse the trend of increasing global greenhouse gas emissions, and to ensure that global greenhouse gas emissions peak before 2015 at the latest and decline thereafter.
26.    Developed countries shall further ensure that they reduce their net domestic greenhouse gas emissions by more than 100% before 2040 through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from sources and enhancement of greenhouse gas removals by sinks.
27.    Developed countries shall not resort to any form of unilateral climate related-measures including border adjustment measures and tariffs against the goods and services of developing countries on climate-related grounds as such measures violate the principles and provisions of the Convention including those related to common and differentiated responsibilities, trade and climate change and the relation between mitigation actions of developing countries and provision of finance and technology by developed countries.
28.    Developed countries shall not take actions to deal with environmental challenges including taxation or imposing levies on the services or sectors of developing countries (e.g. aviation/maritime) or environmental measures addressing trans-boundary or global environmental problems unless such measures have been agreed to by international consensus and are in coherence with the principles and provisions of the Convention.
29.    The inherent rights of indigenous peoples as affirmed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other instruments must be respected in all efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
30.    The extent to which developing countries will effectively implement their commitments under the Convention will depend on the effective implementation by developed countries of their commitments under the Convention related to financial resources and transfer of technology.

In response to the US chief negotiator Todd Stern’s rejection of paying it’s climate debt — the principle of polluter pays — Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations said the following:

“Admitting responsibility for the climate crisis without taking necessary actions to address it is like someone burning your house and then refusing to pay for it. Even if the fire was not started on purpose, the industrialised countries, through their inaction, have continued to add fuel to the fire. As a result they have used up two thirds of the atmospheric space, depriving us of the necessary space for our development and provoking a climate crisis of huge proportions.

“It is entirely unjustifiable that countries like Bolivia are now forced to pay for the crisis. This creates a huge draw on our limited resources to protect our people from a crisis created by the rich and their over-consumption.

In Bolivia we are facing a crisis we had no role in causing. Our glaciers dwindle, droughts become ever more common, and water supplies are drying up. Who should address this? To us it seems only right that the polluter should pay, and not the poor.”

“We are not assigning guilt, merely responsibility. As they say in the US, if you break it, you buy it.”

Background: Todd Stern in a press conference on 10 December said: “We absolutely recognize our historic role in putting emissions in the atmosphere up there that are there now. But the sense of guilt or culpability or reparations – I just categorically reject that.”

For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Nick Buxton — Email nicholasbuxton@gmail.com or ring +45 26619010

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NICK BUXTON
MEDIA LIAISON CONSULTANT FOR PLURINATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF BOLIVIA

Contact(up to 19th December):
t: +45 26619010
e: nicholasbuxton@gmail.com
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Location: Liva Weel Room, Hall C

A number of Bolivian indigenous leaders will hold an indigenous ritual, involving a blessing for

Mother Earth as part of a side event held today on “Rights of Mother Earth in the face of climate

change.”

Details of side event: Rights for Mother Earth in the face of climate change

Wednesday, 9 December, 18:15 – 19:45

Speakers: Pablo Solón Romero Orozca, Bolivian Ambassador to the United Nations

Cormac Cullinan, senior environmental lawyer in South Africa whose work in Earth

jurisprudence is internationally recognised

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is a Kankanaey-Igorot indigenous activist from the Cordillera Region,

the Philippines,, founder and executive director of Tebtebba Foundation and Chairperson of

United Nations Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).

Rafael Quispe (CONAMAQ, Bolivia) and Cristian Domingez (CSUTCB, Bolivia)

Room: Liva Weel, Bella Centre

For more information, please contact:

Nick Buxton – Email nicholasbuxton@gmail.com or ring +45 26619010

media advisory – photo op on pachamama

The Plurinational State of Bolivia will explain its position in current negotiations at the Copenhagen climate conference at two events today (9 December 2009). Bolivia will also present its proposal for a declaration of rights for Mother Earth as a necessary step towards tackling the root causes of climate change.

Bolivia has put forward resolutions that call for consideration of planetary rights in both the Copenhagen Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Co-operative Action and at the Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. The resolution is inspired by indigenous values and informed by a growing global field of earth jurisprudence, that looks to re-examine and develop legal and governance systems to make sure that they support, rather than undermine, the integrity and health of the Earth.

Wednesday, 9 December, 12:00pm
Press Conference: Bolivia’s position on negotiations and presentation of Rights of Mother Earth proposal

Speakers: Angelica Navarro, Lead negotiator for the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Pablo Solón Romero Orozca, Bolivian Ambassador to the United Nations
Press Room, Bella Centre

Wednesday, 9 December, 18:15 – 19:45

Side Event: Rights for Mother Earth in the face of climate change

Speakers:
Pablo Solón Romero Orozca, Bolivian Ambassador to the United Nations 
Cormac Cullinan, senior environmental lawyer in South Africa whose work in Earth jurisprudence is internationally recognised
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is a Kankanaey-Igorot indigenous activist from the Cordillera Region,
the Philippines,, founder and executive director of Tebtebba Foundation and Chairperson of United Nations Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).
Room: Liva Weel, Bella Centre

For more information, please contact:

Nick Buxton – Email  HYPERLINK “mailto:nicholasbuxton@gmail.com”nicholasbuxton@gmail.com or ring +45 26619010

Media advisory – Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth