NGOs call for climate justice at pre-Bali talks

Kanaga Raja

Thirty Indonesian environment and development groups have called for 'climate justice' and have stressed the need for the forthcoming Bali meeting on climate change to adopt principles of climate justice based on fair burden-sharing as between North and South.
   As part of the preparatory process for the Bali meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) IN December, a Ministerial meeting of several countries took place in Bogor, Indonesia from 24 to 26 October.
   The civil society groups made a statement at the Ministerial meeting calling for 'climate justice' and the adoption of fair burden sharing principles at the upcoming Bali conference.
   The NGOs called for more clarity on 'development pathways' that must be linked to mitigation, and for coherent global economic policies to enable climate-friendly policies to be implemented.
   Among the NGOs are Walhi (Friends of the Earth Indonesia), Pelangi, Bali Climate Change (collaboration of Bali Organic Association, PPLH, Walhi Bali Chapter and Yayasan Wisnu), Forest Watch Indonesia, Greenpeace South East Asia, Indonesian Centre for Environmental Law, and the World Wild Fund for Nature.
   In their statement, the NGOs said that Indonesia is an example of a country that is already and will be a victim of climate change.
   "We have been accused of damaging our forests that are important for the global community, yet Indonesia is being eyed as a long-term source of raw materials for the aggressive growth of the global industrial complex with no due regard to the recurrent catastrophes and threat to sustainability of our communities."
   Many developing countries face the same situation, said the statement, and asked who is going to ameliorate the sufferings of these affected countries and people.
   Clearly, there is a need for a fund for reconstruction, which goes beyond that for adaptation. This is an issue of development and human rights, and that of humanitarian assistance, which goes beyond the charity notions of aid.
   The NGOs said that for a post-2012 regime, there has to be agreement on the 'burden-sharing' principles between the North and South in avoiding climate catastrophe.
   Action between now and then must also be governed by the principles of historical responsibility and the capacity to act, the statement said, adding that an important issue "is whether and how we can find a sustainable development pathway for developing countries that includes not only a climate protection pathway, but also a pathway to improve the living standards of our people and to alleviate poverty within an ecological framework, and enables new policies for agriculture, industry, trade and finance."
   For this, mitigation efforts must be integrally linked to the design of the development pathway.
   The statement highlighted several critical issues, including the need for coherent global economic policies that will enable climate-friendly policies which also fulfill human, political, economic, social and cultural rights to be implemented.
   Instead of advancing such coherence, said the NGOs, mercantilist policies which emphasise exports for wealth creation, are being pursued through the international financial institutions with aid conditionalities, and in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) and Free Trade Agreements to open up the economies of the developing countries that undermine sustainable development.
   How can developing countries put priority in integrating climate change into national policies when international policies and measures exacerbate poverty and inequity, including through the displacement of small farms and firms and loss of access over natural resources to powerful foreign corporations, the NGOs asked, noting that such so-called 'free trade' policies enhance climate vulnerability as the poor lack the resources to adapt or be resilient to climatic changes.
   There is also a need to solve the problem of odious debts of developing countries. The payments of these debts have long been done by damaging natural resources and social support systems of communities leaving them vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
   Moreover, said the statement, for developing countries to undertake a mitigation pathway that enables the rapid domestic deployment of climate friendly technologies, requires changes to the way in which technology transfer is managed and governed.
   "Many of us in the South believe that there cannot be a strict requirement to comply with intellectual property rights that profits monopolies if we are to succeed. We must find a way to break down the barriers to rapid deployment of clean technologies that the poor can afford.
   "It is also fundamental to undertake lifestyle changes especially in the North and among the elites of the South at the expenses of natural resources and the majority of poor populations. We cannot afford to maintain the position that the lifestyles of the rich are not up for negotiation. We have to live simply so that others can simply live!"
   In relation to the technology options for mitigation, the NGOs said that they have very serious concerns over nuclear energy, genetically modified trees, carbon capture and storage and bio-fuels for environmental and safety reasons. They considered that these are not ways out to combat global warming, but endangering environment and poor populations.
   In their statement, the NGOs appeal to governments of the North to seriously address these matters, as well as appeal to the Southern leaders to begin to take the necessary steps for a post-Kyoto framework, recognising that this requires fundamental changes in the South and in the North.
   The NGOs said civil society will be closely watching the Bali meeting, hoping that world leaders will truly launch negotiations for a post-2012 framework to be completed by 2009, for a more just and climate friendly world including for Bali, where the UNFCCC meeting will be held.
   - Third World Network Feaatures

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