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Tag: Cochabamba

Activities on Debt, Finance and Climate

Apr 20
Cochabamba

Activities on Debt, Finance and Climate: Climate Change Conference, Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 19-22, 2010

Jubilee South participates in the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth that has already began in Cochabamba to debate and exchange strategies to mobilize for climate justice.

Below is a list of activities in which a delegation from Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean will be participation to present our contributions on the relation between debt, finance and climate change and to disseminate the preparatory document: Towards a Jubilee South Platform on Climate Change, Ecological Debt and Financial Sovereignty.

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No Rip-Offsets / Tar Sands

Apr 19
Reports and Publications

No Rip-Offsets

Offsetting Canada’s Tar Sands with Dammed Rivers and Dead Forests

Published by: Institute for Policy Studies Sustainable Energy
and Economy Network

As Canada begins to exploit the dirtiest fossil fuels in the world, tar sands, there are some Canadians who are proposing that this exploitation be and its climate impacts be “offset” by the protection of forests or the damming of rivers. However, Canada’s forests are vulnerable to infestation by the pine beetle, one consequence of warmer winters due to climate change. And Canada’s rivers and groundwater is being polluted by the exploitation of the tar sands.

Location of one of the largest hydrocarbon deposit ever discovered: Athabasca tar sands1

Barrels of recoverable bitumen in Athabasca tar sands: 175 to 200 billion2

Estimated barrels of potential bitumen in Canada’s tar sands: 1.75-2 trillion3

Number one exporter of oil to U.S.: Canada4

Tons of earth required to produce 1 barrel of oil from tar sands: At least 25

Quantity of water required to produce one barrel of synthetic oil from tar
sands: at least 3 barrels

Quantity of water used per year by Canadian tar sands: approximately 176 million cubic metres of water or about one third of the City of Toronto’s annual consumption in 20086.

Canada’s annual greenhouse gas emissions 2007: 747,041 gigatons7

Share of global greenhouse gas emissions that Canada emits: About 2.2%

Amount Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased from 1990-2005: 25%8

Primary source of the increase in emissions: Alberta’s tar sands9

Share of Earth’s forests found in boreal region: One-third

Share of carbon in the terrestrial biome stored in the boreal region: 30%10

Percent of boreal forest threatened by climate change: 65%

Quantity of Canada’s boreal forest that the Canadian Boreal Initiative proposes to be set aside to “offset” emissions from the tar sands: 50%

Percent of British Columbia’s mature pine that are infested with pine beetle and expected to be dead by 2013: 8311

Expected temperature rise in boreal region and Northern latitudes: 10 degrees C, 18 degrees F12

Oil companies involved in tar sands: Suncor, Syncrude, Imperial Oil, Conoco-Phillips, Canadian Oil Sands Quest Ltd., Petro-Canada, AEC Oil Sands Partnership, Mocal Energy, Murphy Oil, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Nexen, Statoil, BP and many more.

Number of rivers that are not protected from proposals for privatization, damming, and carbon offsets in Canada: About 600

Total rivers in British Columbia: About 700

Price that oil must reach per barrel in order to make tar sands competitive: Approximately $35

Amount of energy that is required to extract one unit of energy from tar sands: Approximately 1:3

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Toward a Proposal for Just Climate Finance

Apr 19
Reports and Publications

Toward a Proposal for Just Climate Finance

Published by Institute for Policy Studies Sustainable Energy
and Economy Network

The world will require a global commitment to limit temperature increases and stabilize CO2 emission concentrations. The vast majority of these cuts must be found in Northern countries, but some Southern countries will also likely have to cut emissions. Under debate is how developed countries will raise and channel finance to compensate developing countries for existing impacts of climate change, and provide financial support for their transition to low carbon economies. By 2030 developing countries will need between US$170-275 billion to meet their climate mitigation and adaptation needs. Civil society has demanded that it must be public funding, must be obligatory and predictable, impose no conditionalities on countries of the global South, not generate external debt, be new and additional to existing financial commitments, and be channeled through a financial architecture under the authority of the UNFCCC.

Criteria for Raising Revenue for Climate finance

Criteria Definition
ESSENTIAL Adequate Raises volume of revenue consistent with the scale of the need, in a manner that is additional to pre-existing ODA and other pledges, and with low transactions costs.
Predictable Automatic, sustainable over time, not easily evadable or subject to declining returns.
Public Must be raised and contributed by governments.
Equitable Obtains money from those countries with most responsibility for causing human-induced climate change, as well as capacity to pay. The mechanisms should also minimise negative impacts on developing countries and on low-income and other marginalised groups in all countries.
Transparent & accountable Potential for citizen input and oversight in monitoring how and from whom revenue is raised.
DESIRABLE Transformational Promotes economy-wide reform away from fossil fuel systems, promotes the transition to renewable energy sources and local control of natural resources.
Financially responsible Helps curb speculation, increase transparency of financial flows, limits trading in derivatives and other toxic financial products and move towards a balanced and well-regulated economy.

Innovative Finance Sources: Summary Table

Adequate Predictable Public Equitable Transparent & Accountable Transform-ational Financially Responsible
Financial transaction tax J K J J K K J
Global carbon tax J K J K J J K
Fossil fuel subsidy reallocation K L J K K J J
Air passenger levy K J J J J K K
Bunker fuels levy K J J K J J K
Sales of carbon quotas K J K K K J K
Climate Special Drawing Rights K K J J J K J

Proposal for a Global Climate Fund

Global civil society calls for an enhanced financial architecture in the form of a Global Climate Fund to be set up under the control of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Fund should be founded on the recognition of a Climate Debt owed by Northern countries for their responsibility for the majority of global warming. Their emissions deny southern countries their share of atmospheric space and cause severe climate impacts, which disproportionately fall on marginalized communities.

The Fund should acknowledge that reparations require the drastic reduction of their emissions through domestic measures. The Fund will serve as the channel for the transfer of the full financial costs to enable developing countries and peoples to adapt to the impacts and deal with the effects of climate change and pursue equitable and sustainable development. The Fund should be established according to the following principles

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  • Sustainable, Obligatory and Automatic Funding from diverse sources to generate the volume of funding needed, established on the principle of historical responsibility for causing the climate crisis
  • Representative Governance that is democratic, transparent, and accountable to the most impacted communities, with civil society formally represented in all governance structures and equitable representation of southern countries
  • Full Participation of climate-impacted peoples in developing actions and policies for adaptation and the shift to low-carbon economies; policies and actions designed by countries through sovereign and democratic processes must reflect local decisions and solutions
  • No Conditionalities must accompany disbursements from the Fund to governments or civil society groups; nor lead to the accumulation of debts
  • Direct Access for the Most Vulnerable so that social movements, NGOs and community-based groups have direct access to funds (in addition to government agencies)
  • Protecting Rights of all people, particularly recognizing and respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, to determine their own development path, decision-making processes, and activities related to climate change

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Executive Body under the authority of the UNFCCC, sets overall policy guidance for all windows, composed of a majority of developing countries, with seats for vulnerable countries and communities

Adaptation, Mitigation and Technology Windows disburse money directly to the recipient country for implementation of locally and nationally developed plans; Window board would judge plans based on soundness of approach, participation of affected communities, environmental sustainably, and other criteria as established by the board

Technical Panels review plans for technical merit and would make recommendations to window boards as to whether the plan is ready to receive funding

Indigenous and Women’s Rights Desks ensure Indigenous Peoples and women’s rights are central in all aspects of adaptation funding

Secretariat responsible for providing administrative, legal, and financial support to the Executive Body; collect data on the Fund’s impacts on women, marginalized communities, and the environment

Trustee manage the funding of each window in a separate bank account and disburse funding to recipients upon instruction from Executive Board

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No Rip-Offsets

Apr 19
Reports and Publications

No Rip-Offsets

Agriculture, forests and land-based carbon credits

Published by Institute for Policy Studies Sustainable Energy
and Economy Network

Ecosystems such as forests, fields, and soils, in their natural state, sequester carbon dioxide. However, when forests are cut or cleared or replaced with plantations, their sequestration is compromised. Similarly, when soils are cleared, tilled and otherwise damaged, they, too, lose much of the carbon stored in the earth to the atmosphere. Therefore, one of the drivers—and one of the solutions—to climate change involves special care with regard to land use practices, including farming and forestry practices, and livestock management. Sustainable farming and forest management will be critical in  re-sequestering carbon from our atmosphere. The question remains: What laws, financial support and other measures are needed to incentivize sustainable land use practices? In the early stages of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the notion that land-based sinks should be part of any carbon trading regime was rejected. Now, there is a huge push, coming largely from industrial agriculture and forestry, to reintroduce carbon offsets for credits from land-based sinks in the international carbon trading regime. In 2009, the U.S. House and Senate provided the first major opening for these offset credits for land-based sinks with climate legislation that has yet to pass both Houses. Should this legislation pass, it would open up a Pandora’s box of possible land-based carbon offsets globally, creating a land grab for carbon offsets globally.

Tons of carbon offsets proposed in 2009 U.S. House and Senate climate bills: 2 billion

Share of global and US manmade greenhouse gas emissions that 2 billion tons of carbon represents, respectively: 7% and 28%[1]

Share of domestic carbon offsets in US legislation that could come from agriculture: 1-1.5 billion tons.

Share of US carbon offsets that could come from soil carbon sequestration: 100%

Year in which soil carbon sequestration was ruled out by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board as qualifying for carbon offsets: 2003

Agency that will oversee the “integrity” of U.S. agricultural offsets, including soil-based carbon offsets: US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

US Government agency commonly accused of being captive of agribusiness[2]: USDA

US Agency that claimed carbon offsets were impossible to verify: US Government Accountability Office[3]

Percent of manmade greenhouse gas emissions that comes from non-energy sources: 35%[4]

Percent that comes from nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture: 14%[5]

Percent that came from land use change, primarily for agricultural production: 18%[6]

Share of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) funding that goes to agricultural offsets: 6%

Share of CDM credits in Malaysia that went to palm oil plantations: 90%

Share of CDM credits in Mexico that went to pig farms: 50%

Purported origin of swine flu virus: Smithfield Foods factory hog farms in Mexico

Corporation that would benefit economically in three different ways if its herbicide, RoundUp, were applied to its genetically modified crops which then qualified for “no till” carbon offset credits: Monsanto

Amount of acreage globally that is currently no-till: 100 million hectares

Amount the US EPA estimates agricultural and forest offsets will increase net revenues for landowners by 2020 and 2050 respectively: $1-2 billion and $20 billion per year[7]

Amount of carbon offsets the US EPA estimates can be provided by forests and farming by 2020 and 2050. respectively: 175 and 643 million[8]

Share of 2008 US emissions this represents: 3% and 9%[9]

Total annual value of US agricultural production: $200 billion[10]

Share of US emissions from US food system: 18%

Number of people that would be required to supervise and validate agricultural offsets in the U.S. if all agricultural offsets were used: over 1000[11]

Fuel which has been implicated in causing climate change which is incentivized under U.S. Waxman-Markey bill: Biofuels

Length of time biofuels are exempted from EPA regulations on international climate impacts: At least 5 years.

Amount of arable land globally required for grainfeed for industrial livestrock: one-third

Chemicals responsible for climate change released in feedstock operations: Nitrous oxide, methane

One of the proposed “solutions” to climate change: biochar, the creation of charcoal for burial in soil, thereby theoretically sequestering the carbon.

Main continent targeted for biochar: Africa

Potential amount of carbon that biochar could sequester: 9.5 billion tons of carbon per year[12]

Amount of carbon sequestered by U.S. forests and soils in 48 contiguous states: 90 billion metric tons

Amount of carbon that could be sequestered with an increase in forest cover on some US farm land: 3-7 billion tons[13]

Amount of land for biochar plantations required to sequester 1 billion tons of carbon a year: 500 million hectares[14]

Size of India: 328 million hectares[15]

Estimated hectares of tropical forest remaining in the world: 1.5 billion[16]

Type of farming that has the potential to recapture more than 2/3rds of the present excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: biodiverse agro-ecological farming and agroforestry

[1] http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0906/full/climate.2009.48.html#B3

[2] http://www.nffc.net/Issues/Corporate%20Control/USDA%20INC.pdf

[3] http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-1048

[4] Stern Review on climate change

[5]Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7] http://www.usda.gov/oce/newsroom/archives/releases/2009files/HR2454.pdf

[8] http://www.usda.gov/oce/newsroom/archives/releases/2009files/HR2454.pdf

[9] http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads10/US-GHG-Inventory-2010-Full-Document.pdf

[10] Ibid.

[11] Personal conversation with US EPA official

[12] Lehmann, J. et al, Biochar Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Review (2006).

[13] http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2362

[14] Ernsting, A. & Smolker, R. Biochar for Climate Change Mitigation: Fact or Fiction? (Biofuelwatch, 2009); http://tiny.cc/biochar

[15] http://www.indianetzone.com/24/land_use_pattern_india.htm

[16] http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0906/full/climate.2009.48.html#B3

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Cochabamba comes to the world!

Apr 19
Cochabamba

Join the Peoples Conference on Climate Change live on the Internet

LAUNCH 20 APRIL

The response to the World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth has been overwhelming. When online registrations closed on Friday 16 April, more than 15,000 people had registered from 126 countries.

However many thousands more have expressed their support and not been able to attend due to lack of financial resources or because they are not flying for environmental reasons. Most recently we have the sad news that hundreds of participants are unlikely to make it because of the volcanic eruption in
Iceland.

That is why we have been hard at work with a Bolivian team, Mayfirst collective from the US, and oneclimate.net from the UK and other groups to bring the conference live to everyone in the world who has an internet connection.

*Live webcasts of the main plenaries*
Some of the main plenaries will be broadcast live on the website with all of the sessions being recorded and archived.

*Reports from Working Groups*
Daily video reports, blogs and notes on the discussion of the 17 working groups

*Democracy Now moves to Bolivia*
The award-winning Democracy Now show has moved its entire operations to Bolivia for a week. Tune in daily to their live show embedded on the conference website.

*Radio show*
Follow the conference through a live audio feed in Spanish and English and via programming by http://www.earthcycles.net which looks to bring Indigenous elders’ point of view into the conversation.

*Virtual meetings between Bolivia and worldwide cities*
Mayfirst collective is organising virtual meetings between people in Bolivian and cities in US and elsewhere, at this point scheduled for April 20 at 7 pm Bolivian time. Please email alfredo@mayfirst.org if you would like to join.

*Twitter feed*
Will feature all the latest news from participants and conference organisers, using the hashtags #cochabamba and #cmpcc and by following https://twitter.com/boliviaun

*Have your say*
Articles and reports will be open to comments, so you can share your thoughts on the critical issues and feed into the debates and proposals being constructed in Cochabamba.

*Featuring all the voices from the summit*
The conference website will show articles and blogs from all the major international environmental networks and independent media channels following the conference. If you want your coverage to be featured, please email the RSS feed address to publish@listas.cmpcc.org.bo

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La Via Campesina celebrates the International Day of Peasant Struggle

Apr 18
Cochabamba

(Cochabamba, April 17 2010) Peasants women and men from farmers organisations throughout the world, members of La Via Campesina, celebrate the 17th of April as the International Day of Peasant Struggle, and reaffirm their vow to intensify the mobilization for the rights of peasants everywhere. To commemorate this date, delegates representing distinct countries, beginning at 11am, in the Plaza 14th of September, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with the proposal that this date not be forgotten, and so that the struggle of peasants becomes stronger.

With delegates from throughout the world, the women and the men of La Via Campesina Bolivia commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of 19 peasants that fell struggling for access to land, in the state of Pará, Brazil in 1996. On April 17 1997, after three months of protest for the defense of Mother Earth and for the cultivation of the coca leaf in Bolivia, seven indigenous peasants, including a child and its mother, were massacred.

In Cochabamba, thousands of peasants from throughout the world are gathering at the beginning of the week to participate in the Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, invited by President Evo Morales. More than 300 members of La Via Campesina fom around the world will be participating. According to the organizers of the conference, more than 7,500 people have already registered for the conference. Additionally, about 3,000 peasants from La Via Campesina Bolivia are leaving their communities in order to defend peasant agriculture and climate justice.

Media contacts (interviews with representatives of La Via Campesina in Cochabamba)

Boaventura Monjane – Phone: (00591) 74815401; boa.monjane@viacampesina.org

Isabelle Delforge – Phone: (00591) 74306257; idelforge@viacampesina.org

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Day of Peasant Struggle

Apr 18
Cochabamba

Cochabamba, April 17 2010: Peasants, women and men from farmers organisations throughout the world, members of La Via Campesina, celebrate the 17th of April as the International Day of Peasant Struggle, and reaffirm their vow to intensify the mobilization for the rights of peasants everywhere. To commemorate this date, delegates representing distinct countries, beginning at 11am, in the Plaza 14th of September, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with the proposal that this date not be forgotten, and so that the struggle of peasants becomes stronger.

With delegates from throughout the world, the women and the men of La Via Campesina Bolivia commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of 19 peasants that fell struggling for access to land, in the state of Pará, Brazil in 1996. On April 17 1997, after three months of protest for the defense of Mother Earth and for the cultivation of the coca leaf in Bolivia, seven indigenous peasants, including a child and its mother, were massacred.

In Cochabamba, thousands of peasants from throughout the world are gathering at the beginning of the week to participate in the Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, invited by President Evo Morales. More than 300 members of La Via Campesina fom around the world will be participating. According to the organizers of the conference, more than 7,500 people have already registered for the conference. Additionally, about 3,000 peasants from La Via Campesina Bolivia are leaving their communities in order to defend peasant agriculture and climate justice.

Media contacts (interviews with representatives of La Via Campesina in Cochabamba)

Boaventura Monjane – Phone: (00591) 74815401; boa.monjane@viacampesina.org
Isabelle Delforge – Phone: (00591) 74306257; idelforge@viacampesina.org

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April 18th, 2pm, pre-summit Climate Justice Now! encuentro

Apr 17
Cochabamba

Please join us for a pre-summit Climate Justice Now! encuentro

There are many people in Cochabamba now for the 10th Anniversary of the Water Wars and the Climate Change Cumbre – several of us here propose an encuentro (encounter) amongst groups, movements and people engaged in climate justice to get to know each other and our work, and plan some CJN! logistics for the summit.

Date: Sunday, April 18th
Time: 14:00 – 18:00pm
Location: Complejo Fabril, Avenida Melchor Perez, Cochabamba (first building on your right)

Proposed agenda:
Introduce CJN!
What are groups working on (here and at home) – by region
What are the issues that groups want to work on the most, priorities
Preparation of events in Mexico

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A propos de l’initiative de Cochabamba et de « la TerreMère »

Apr 15
Cochabamba

Texte de Pierre Khalfa, responsable du syndicat Solidaires.

http://climatjustice.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/khalfa-cochabamba.pdf

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