On 20-22 June 2012, governments from around the world will gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to commemorate 20 years of the “Earth Summit”, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that first established a global agenda for “sustainable development”. During the 1992 summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Convention to Combat Desertification, were all adopted. The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was also established to ensure effective follow-up of the UNCED “Earth Summit.” continue reading…

The following comment has been produced by members and affiliates of the Climate Justice Now! network. The network numbers more than 1000 organizations in the global north and south. It is a preliminary comment and has not been fully discussed by all members of the network yet.  Accordingly, not every recommendation in this comment has been explicitly endorsed by all network members or organizations, but only by those who have signed on below. However, these comments capture many of the ideas and the fundamental consensus, which have been formulated in previous meetings since the CJN! networks’ inception and first articulation of the Principles for Climate Justice in 2008. 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…