Time’s Up

Climate Justice Now! Network Denounces

False Climate Solutions in Barcelona

BARCELONA, November 6, 2009 – The international civil society network Climate Justice Now! deplores the downplaying of expectations for the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Barcelona by industrialized countries, UNFCCC officials and the host of the Copenhagen Summit.  On the eve of Copenhagen, there is still no real progress on targets, a naïve and dangerous reliance on market mechanisms, no commitment to human rights, and a frightening context in which some countries are beginning to talk seriously about dangerous climate techno-fixes.

"Instead of discussing practical approaches to rapid emissions reductions -- like a massive investment in safe renewable energy and rapid technology transfer -- here in Barcelona, the developed countries are downplaying expectations, inching toward weak targets, minimal financing and no meaningful agreements on technology transfer,” said Meena Raman, Legal Advisor of Third World Network.  “The attempts to destroy and alter the present legal instruments of the climate regime (Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol), with false and unjust solutions being put forward as part of a weak aggregate target, are destroying the trust and good faith that are needed deliver a strong agreement in Copenhagen" said Raman.

One of the deliverables of Copenhagen was supposed to be a deal on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) but that is liable to end up as a green-washing exercise if there is no legally binding climate change agreement in Copenhagen. “We cannot allow a bad REDD deal to be a loophole that sabotages a genuine solution to climate change. Industrialized countries have a historical responsibility for human-induced climate change and a REDD deal will not work without commitments from these countries to reduce their domestic emissions by at least 40%,” said Alejandro Alemán of Centro Humboldt, Nicaragua, speaking on behalf of the Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change.

“The full collective rights of Indigenous peoples consistent to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and our full and effective participation in all climate change negotiations must be recognized in any binding climate treaty,” says Christian Dominguez, a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change participating in the UN climate talks.

“While global negotiations have been going on here in Barcelona at a snail’s pace, geoengineering has alarmingly moved to the forefront of policy debates in London and Washington,” said Diana Bronson of Canada-based ETC Group.   Yesterday, joint Congressional-Parliamentary hearings on geoengineering were kicked off in Washington, giving yet another signal that industrialized countries are not getting serious about meaningful reductions in greenhouse gases.  “We are sending a strong message today that putting sulphates in the stratosphere, iron in the oceans and biochar in the land are neither solutions to climate change nor alternatives to securing the binding targets and adequate financing that developing countries are rightly demanding,” she said.

With zero negotiating days left to Copenhagen, the divide between developing countries’ demands and industrialized countries’ actions has led to a breakdown in trust which is undermining the credibility of these negotiations. Climate Justice Now! calls on political leaders to deliver a legally binding deal in Copenhagen – anything less is a political cop-out.

Justicia Climática Ahora! es una red de organizaciones y movimientos de diversas partes del globo comprometidos a luchar por la justicia social, ecológica y de género.

Climate Justice Now! is a network of organisations and movements from across the globe committed to the fight for social, ecological and gender justice.

Information:

Diana Bronson: ETC Group, 1 514 629 9236 diana@etcgroup.org

Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies, +1 202-510-3541 daphne@ips-dc.org

Kate Dooley, FERN, +44 782 469 7376 kate@fern.org <mailto:Johni@tibetjustice.org>