認定特定非営利活動法人

WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE UN CLIMATE TALKS?
The UN climate talks are supposed to be making progress on implementing the agreement that world governments made in 1992 to stop man-made and dangerous climate change.  The agreement, made 20 years ago, recognises that rich countries have done the most to cause the problem of climate change and should take the lead in solving it, as well as provide funds to poorer countries as repayment of their climate debt.

But developed countries governments have done very little to deliver on these commitments and time is running out.  What’s more, it looks like rich countries want to use the Doha climate talks to further diminish their responsibilities to tackle climate change and dismantle the whole framework for binding reductions of greenhouse gases, without which we have no chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. 

They are also pushing for the expansion of false solutions like carbon trading, a further escape hatch from emissions reductions which will make climate change worse and cause further harm to people around the world while bringing huge profits to polluters.

 

SHOULD THE WORLD ABANDON THE UN TALKS AND TRY AND TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE SOMEWHERE ELSE?
The UNFCCC is the best forum for international negotiations to tackle climate change.  It represents all 192 countries from around the world with each country having an equal voice, at least in theory. There are still big power imbalances and issues with transparency, resources and participation in the UNFCCC which need to be addressed, but it is much better than forums like the G8,  G20 and Major Economies Forum (MEF) where many poor countries are excluded 

The problem with the UN talks is not the talks themselves but the fact that the positions of many governments are increasingly hijacked by narrow corporate interests linked to polluting industries and industries which are seeking to profit from the climate crisis. 

These interests are pushing rich developed countries to dodge their commitments to urgent and dramatic cuts in their emissions and provide climate funds for poorer countries, because this would challenge opportunities for national level growth in established economic sectors like manufacturing, industrial agriculture and resource extraction.

Governments and corporations are also using the talks to expand false solutions to climate change like nuclear power, agrofuels and carbon trading – these activities make the climate worse and often cause a lot of harm to poor and vulnerable communities.  If we want to unlock the negotiations we need to tackle the excessive influence of these interests and ensure that our governments are representing the interests of ordinary people and communities, those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and those who are articulating the real solutions to the climate crisis.

 

WHAT DO WE WANT TO SEE HAPPEN AT COP 18?
If we are to stop climate change getting worse and maximise our chances of avoiding catastrophic and irreversible climate change we need to change the unsustainable economic system and rapidly move away from global fossil fuel dependency and the over-use of the world’s natural resources by a small minority. 

This requires rich developed countries to stop their drive to dismantle the global framework for binding emissions reductions commitments and commit to emissions reductions without carbon trading and offsets or other loopholes, in line with the latest scientific evidence and  with their responsibility for causing the problem of climate change, and to the transfer of adequate public finance and technology to developing countries so that so that they can build low carbon and sustainable economies whilst also attending to urgent poverty eradication and development needs. 

 

DO WE SUPPORT THE KYOTO PROTOCOL CONTINUATION?
FoEI believes that to ensure we stop climate change and do to so in a fair and equitable way we need international legally-binding obligations to drastically cut emissions in line with science and equity.   The basis of this system already exists in the form of the climate convention and the Kyoto Protocol, but rich countries are trying to tear up these international treaties and replace them with a high risk voluntary approach.  Rich countries must agree to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol with strong, legally-binding targets and no carbon trading, offsettings or other loopholes if we are to have a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

 

WHAT ABOUT RAPIDLY INDUSTRIALISING COUNTRIES LIKE CHINA, INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND BRAZIL? SHOULDN’T THEY BE REDUCING THEIR EMISSIONS TOO?
Tackling climate change and avoiding catastrophic climate change necessitates action by all countries.  But the responsibility of countries to take action must reflect their historical responsibility for creating the problem and their capacity to act.  While the emissions of industrializing countries like China, India, South Africa and Brazil are rapidly increasing, they have still made a much smaller contribution to the climate problem overall than the rich developed countries.

Developed countries are responsible for three quarters of all emissions historically whilst hosting only 15% of the world’s population.

It is worrying that some industrialising countries like South Africa and Brazil are following the dirty development paths of the rich developed countries. Industrialising countries must urgently embark on more equitable and sustainable development paths which benefit the majority of their people, but it is not their responsibility to take on the climate debt of the developed  world.

 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH CARBON MARKETS / CARBON TRADING ?
Carbon trading is a false solution.  Carbon trading involves offsetting – an escape hatch for countries and companies from making urgently needed emissions reductions.  Carbon trading is locking rich countries and poor countries into dirty, high carbon growth paths and development models and a continued reliance on fossil fuels.  It is undermining our chances of avoiding catastrophic climate change by delaying the much needed transformation of our economies away from fossil fuel use. 

Despite its deep-seated problems, many countries want to expand the global carbon market.  Such a decision would have disastrous impacts, including by providing developed countries with further opportunities to offset their emissions reductions (i.e. avoid making domestic emissions cuts), as well as potential human rights and environmental impacts resulting from the land grab associated with many offsetting projects like REDD, plantations and agrofuels.

There is a very strong corporate lobby in support of the expansion of the global carbon market, coming from a variety of different financial, business and industrial sectors in both developed and developing countries.  This includes financiers, traders, owners of polluting industries, owners of land or resources with potential to qualify for offset credits and others.  Governments must resist the expansion of the global carbon market in Doha, and support real emissions cuts and real solutions to the climate crisis.

 

WHAT IS (WRONG WITH) REDD, AND FORESTS CREDITS?
The mechanism known as “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (REDD) has a host of problems: many communities in the developing world are having their land rights and livelihoods threatened by it. Now, in addition, there is a strong push from developed countries for REDD projects to be financed through unreliable sources such as the global carbon market and financial mechanisms. This will open up further loopholes in terms of global cuts in carbon emissions and also dramatically increase the chances of destructive impacts on communities and the environment in countries where REDD projects are based. This will also reduce forests to tradable commodities, ignoring the fact that such complex systems cannot be commodified ortraded without negatively impacting the people who depend on them.

Any agreement on deforestation should be a rights-based approach to stop deforestation and support land rights. Their protection must be part of recognition and repayment of rich countries’ climate debt. Forests must be kept out of carbon markets as trading forests for pollution has no part to play in a just international climate agreement.  Including forests in carbon offsetting initiatives diverts attention from real measures to reduce emissions and prevent deforestation, and threatens Indigenous Peoples and local communities who depend on them for survival.

Note: Tree plantations are not forests, they are just rows of planted trees which need chemicals damaging for the environment and the people and where hardly any other plants and animals can survive. Tree plantations do not sustain people, on the contrary, they often cause or feed social conflicts and land rights abuses, displacing local communities and Indigenous Peoples from their lands.

 

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH CLIMATE FINANCE?
It is essential that developing countries receive adequate climate finance if they are to develop cleanly whilst also tackling urgent development needs.  This finance is the repayment of the climate debt of the rich developed world which has done the most to cause the problem of climate change and has far greater resources available to tackle the problem.

Agreeing on long-term finance for developing countries is a very urgent issue. In Doha developed countries must firmly commit to the provision of funds for developing countries beyond 2012, in line with what science and equity demand.

Climate finance must be new and additional to existing aid money and emissions reductions by rich countries, and must come from public sources and be governed by the UNFCCC.  So far, progress on delivering climate finance where it is needed has been pitiful.  Only tiny amounts have been committed, and much of this is recycled aid money diverted from other urgent causes. 

It is essential that the cash for the Green Climate Fund comes from new and innovative public sources that provide the adequate and reliable finance that developing countries need. The Green Climate Fund should not rely on finance from carbon markets.  Carbon market finance is not reliable legitimate finance as it is based on the offsetting of rich country emissions cuts.

Many innovative sources of public funding are available, like the Robin Hood tax – also known as a financial transactions tax - which could deliver hundreds of billions of dollars per year from a small tax on global financial transactions with little to no impact on the pockets of ordinary people.
Additional substantial sources of climate finance could be made available today – such as carbon taxes, slashing fossil fuel producer subsidies, and redirecting military budgets. Political will is the only ingredient missing.

The World Bank should have no role in governing or managing climate finance.  It is the largest multi-lateral lender for oil and gas projects and a major actor in deforestation.  Many World Bank-funded projects have had other destructive environmental and social impacts. The Bank has failed to accept its own internal recommendations to stop funding polluting coal, oil and gas extraction.

 

WHAT ARE CORPORATIONS AND THE ECONOMIC ELITE DOING? WHAT IS THE 'CORPORATE CAPTURE OF THE U.N' ?
Large multinational corporations and corporate and financial elites are unduly influencing political decision-making on climate change, and pushing for the prioritization of their short-term economic interests (such as energy, manufacturing, industrial agriculture and financial interests) over the protection of the environment and the wellbeing of people and communities.

Major corporations and polluters are lobbying to undermine the chances of achieving climate justice via the UNFCCC.  Much of this influence is exerted in the member states before governments come to the climate negotiations, but the negotiations are also attended by hundreds of lobbyists from the corporate sector trying to ensure that any agreement promotes the interests of big business before people's interests and climate justice.
Despite the fact that the UN is the most democratic and appropriate global institution for international negotiations, its capture by corporate interests is a major cause of environmental injustice.

The influence of corporate lobbyists and the related power imbalances in some negotiation spaces - such as the UNFCCC - undermines democracy and all too frequently results in the postponement, weakening or blocking of urgently needed progress in international social and environmental justice issues.  It is also behind the drive for market based false solutions that increase corporate profits without addressing the environmental crisis and its root causes.

In June 2012 more than 400 civil society organizations representing millions of people from around the world signed a statement denouncing the corporate domination of the United Nations and asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reclaim the UN from corporate capture. Signatories requested the UN to issue a clear public response stating that its priority is to serve the public interest - not business interests - and that the UN will take concrete steps to limit business and industry's influence in UN decision-making processes.  As of November 21, 2012, the UN had not responded publicly to the statement.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH BIOFUELS / AGROFUELS ?
Since biofuels mostly come from large scale industrial agriculture, and they are far from sustainable and we prefer to refer to them as agrofuels. An increasing amount of scientific research shows that agrofuels are fuelling deforestation, loss of biodiversity and even climate change. They have also been proven to fuel food price increase, hunger, land rights violations, water scarcity and human rights abuses.

Agrofuels benefit large agribusiness and energy companies and their expansion does not help to address climate change.  Instead, promoting agrofuels reinforces the current unsustainable model of consumption and production which has fuelled climate change in the first place.

 

IS AGRICULTURE FUELLING CLIMATE CHANGE?
Industrial agriculture is resource intensive and polluting, and drives climate change and environmental destruction. It feeds deforestation, loss of biodiversity and climate change, as well as food price increases, hunger, land rights violations, water scarcity and human rights abuses, whilst driving up the profits of large corporations.   Industrial agriculture is a threat to the sustainable, small-scale peasant / local / community farming which is truly climate-friendly.

Protecting and expanding this type of small-scale sustainable agriculture is essential if we are to reduce emissions from agriculture whilst ensuring a safe and sustainable food supply  and food sovereignty for the world’s population.

 

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Your contribution counts.  You can join the movement for climate justice.  You can pressure your government to take a stronger stance in the international negotiations and help ensure a safer climate and protect the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people and communities around the world. The movement for climate justice is growing and becoming stronger.

Real solutions to climate change are available, for instance reducing consumption, improving energy efficiency, choosing sustainable locally-produced food, and switching to clean, green power.  We must take action together to build a new society and change the current unjust and unsustainable economic system. This is the only chance we have of being heard and stopping the further decline of the world’s climate and the possibility of catastrophic climate change.