Copenhagen, Cochabamba and the climate debt crisis:

A report back from Bolivia

Kirsty Wright

The Khapi Community• At foothills of Illimani

glacier• Sustenance lifestyle:

Live off the land• Over two hours walk to

nearest secondary school

• Only got electricity 15 years ago

Climate impacts on the Khapi community

• Burning midday sun • Crop predictability &

varieties• New diseases• Families migrating• Access to water

Severino Cortez Bilbao:farmer and community leader

“If Illimani dries up, there’ll be no water and no life. We’ll be forced to leave this community”

outside: a new movement for climate justice

• CJA / CJN (North and South)

• Biggest ever climate march

• Reclaim power: inside/outside

• Strong police repression / criminalising the right to protest

• Building a global movement

• Sidelining the UN process

• Bribery – e.g. aid• Misleading the media

– e.g. Kyoto Protocol• Divide and rule• Pressure for a deal• “Worse than WTO”

copenhagen: inside

evo morales on the copenhagen accord:

“An agreement reached between the world’s biggest polluters based on the exclusion of the very countries, communities and peoples that will suffer most from the consequences of climate change”

the people’s conference on climate change

and mother earth rights• In April, over 30,000 people

from 100 different countries gathered in Cochabamba

• Organised by the Bolivian government

• Civil society: social movements, NGO’s, scientists, academics, leading thinkers on social justice

• ‘System change not climate change’

The Conference• 17 working groups create a

‘people’s agreement’• Now submitted into the

negotiating text for UNFCCC COP 16 in Cancun

• Organised panels: leading thinkers on climate justice issues

• Self organised space for social movement organisation: planning forward e.g. global week of action

• Mesa 18: internal contradictions?

comparing the outcomes

The People’s Accord vs. The Copenhagen Accord

Issue: People’s Agreement

Copenhagen Accord

Temperature rise 1 degree 2 degrees *

Greenhouse gas reductions

50% on 1990 levels for second commitment period under Kyoto Protocol (no carbon markets)

No goal for developed countries: proposes voluntary reductions

Climate Debt No mention Developed countries owe a climate debt

Financing Equivalent of 0.005% of GDP 2010-12. By 2020 0.05%.Approx 50 % from carbon markets

Redirect funds from war/ defence. 6% of GDP – public funds, not carbon markets, additional

Technology transfer Unclear ‘technology mechanism’. No reference to IP rights

Multilateral / multidisciplinary mechanism that guarantees technology transfer

Carbon markets Promotes market mechanisms

Rejects market mechanisms

Forests Promotes market mechanisms

Rejects market mechanisms: proposes solutions with state sovereignty & indigenous people rights

Food and Agriculture No mention Move to sustainable models of agriculture and food sovereignty

Issue: People’s Agreement Copenhagen Accord

Reclassification of countries

Rejects reclassification according to ‘vulnerability’

Promotes reclassification according to ‘vulnerability’ with differing treatment

Climate migrants Protection and recognition of rights and needs of people forced to migrate. Need to bring into negotiations

No mention

Justice and fulfilment of international commitments

Proposes legally binding mechanisms to guarantee international treaties & climate justice tribunal

No mechanism proposed

Referendum proposed Proposes referendum No mention

Indigenous people’s Recognition of rights No mention

Rights of Mother Earth Proposes a declaration of the rights of mother earth to re-establish harmony with nature.

No mention

Structural causes Proposal to analyse and modify structural causes, e.g. capitalist system, commodification of nature

No mention

Cancun• Climate finance set to be the key issue: critical in

terms of building trust• UK and other rich countries pushing for World

Bank to be the mechanism for climate finance • G77 opposing the World Bank • UN Adaptation Fund – set up through the

UNFCCC process – massively under funded• WDM will be jointly launching international World

Bank out of Climate Finance campaign

taking responsibility: the UK and climate debt

• A concept that has gained a lot of momentum with campaigners in the global south: useful framework

• Rich industrialised countries have become wealthy by pushing the world to the brink of climate chaos, least responsible feeling it most

• They have also used more than their fair share of what Bolivian government calls ‘atmospheric space’ – denying right to development

how to re-pay our climate debt?1. Stop building debt: cut emissions in the UK

and much and as fast as possible2. Adaptation funding: to cope with impacts of

climate change3. Mitigation funding and technology transfer:

to find climate friendly development paths

however, UK is currently using climate finance to reinforce

existing global inequalities…

1. Redirected from aid money2. Loans instead of grants3. World Bank

world bank and climate change• Pushed carbon intensive projects and

extractives industry• Continues to be a top financier of fossil

fuels. As of April 2010 - already hit record high for annual fossil fuel lending: $4.7 billion primarily for coal (e.g. Eskom)

• Track record of imposing conditions and programs on developing countries

• Undemocratic: developing countries hit hardest by climate change are the least represented inside the World Bank

• Local communities rarely given opportunity to determine the policies and programs that impact them

world bank and the water wars

• Ferier international del Agua• 10 year anniversary of

Cochabamba water wars• World Bank led water privatisation• Rates increased by 50% in a few

weeks• City closed down for a week• US corporation Bechtel forced to

leave Bolivia• Resisted when Bechtel tried suing

Bolivia

• Send a pound to Andrew Mitchell to go to the UN Adaptation Fund

• Lobby your MP ahead of Cancun COP16

• Cancun watch: urgent actions

take action!