Blog Archive
Showing posts with label Cancun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cancun. Show all posts
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Deborah Phelan: Cancún: honing weaknesses into strengths
cancun: honing weaknesses into strengths
by Deborah Phelan, DailyKos, December 13, 2010
I wish I could chat again with South African delegate Themba Tenza. It's hard to believe it was just Friday morning that an exhausted Tenza was so visibly dispirited as he headed back to the Moon for the last day of COP16.
"The globe is small, but the world is so big," he said. "These conferences are just too big, too complicated. Businesses, national governments NGOs, academics, and scientists -- they put you all into a melting pot and in ten days you are expected to come up with a solution. It can't happen."
Well, Mr. Tenza, perhaps destiny is not written in the stars. Because early Saturday morning, a COP whose tone and tenure was clearly dominated by women, replaced the hype of "Hopenhagen" with the reality of "Yes We CANcun!"
An image on tcktcktck's Pyramid montage. Photo by Deborah Phelan
In the grande finale, the voices of the people who have slid past the tipping point succeeded in regaining a grip on the slide. They succeeded by honing their handicaps to become their strongest bargaining chips.
In the end, reality resonated in all its stereoscopic splendor and the parties reconnected with the nub of the issue.
Perhaps it was Constance Okollet who told the story which will remain forever embedded in my mind. It was the first Friday night of the conference. Okollet was a member of Irish President Mary Robinson's kick off panel, and we were discussing how to expand the voices of women in the climate negotiations, as well as on the frontiers of the global climate justice movement.
That night it wasn't yet clear how powerful and pivotal a role women would ultimately play in the negotiations.
The women of Bangladesh. Photo by Deborah Phelan.
"What we can learn is that using something as crude and inaccurate as carbon to measure our efforts to reduce climate change takes away the true value, the truly complex relationship between humans, animals and plants and the entire system as a whole," said Green Belt Movement’s Francesa de Gasparis.
She also addressed the need to "break down the exclusive club" which creates and owns the acronym-laden language of climate "so that it can be understood by speaking plainly."
Okollet's story was nothing, if not spoken plainly. And without a doubt, her story was especially powerful to me because I could relate to it so experientially.
Okollet is from Tororo, Uganda, a small city on the eastern border of Kenya. She talked about the historic 2007 floods, how they were the first sign that something had dramatically shifted in the world she and her country’s people knew.
The Cancun Agreement: A valuable first step of viable building blocksThe 35-page Cancun Agreement, though admittedly modest in its achievements, succeeded in restoring faith in the UNFCCC process and exemplified the ability of the major players to make concessions which unified the parties in a shared vision of COP16's acknowledgment of much hard work ahead. It is a first step, which:• Recognizes the commitments set forth in the Copenhagen Accord by both developed and developing countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions
• Sets up of a global climate fund tasks to provided $100 billion in financing by 2020 to developing countries
• Establishes the UN as controlling finances with the World Bank playing an advisory role for two years.
• Revives the legitimacy of the UNFCCC process which was seriously impacted by last year’s COP15
• Recognizes the need for "shared vision," transparency, the important role of education, and an initiative aimed at curbing deforestation.
My daughter had worked in a health clinic in Tororo in the summer of 2007. And I remember that summer so clearly because I was following stories on AllAfrica.com as the floods spread throughout Uganda. All I knew when they began was that she was traveling from a refugee camp in the north with Africa Aid. I learned later that their van just made it over a bridge from the north before all access was shut down by flooding. People died on the road she traveled that day.
So when Okollet talked of the shock of those floods and how she and her friends, forced to leave Tororo, prayed to God for help, I was right there with her. Before going to Tororo, my daughter spent a few weeks in Maundo, to the south, and has often mentioned how proud she was that she did not flinch when the tribal chief talked of how they still sacrificed animals to ask help from God to purify the water.
Just three years ago, climate change was not a part of the lexicon in Africa.
"The Floods covered the whole village and we all had to leave," recalled Okollet. "And when we came back almost nothing was left."
She, however, was one of the lucky ones. Her house, which was still standing, became home for 29 of her neighbors, and they worked together, like a family, gathering materials to help one another rebuild.
"At times we would just sit and cry and ask God, 'What has happened?' "
And then the drought came. Six months so hot walking on the ground was like "putting a fire inside you. And we would pray to God and ask for an answer. Nothing."
When the floods returned to Tororo two years later, the evacuation lasted for nine months. Entire villages disappeared under mudslides. People began dying. From lack of food and water. Outbreaks of cholera and malaria.
In Tororo today, women still risk their lives at night looking for food. Domestic violence has increased. There is never enough food. Children often cannot get to school when floodwater is so high they cannot cross the streets.
Always, Okollet said, she was praying to God. Asking for an answer.
Constance Okollet of Uganda at the entrance to her kitchen in eastern Uganda, Asinget village, Osukuru sub county, Tororo district. Picture taken August 20, 2009. Photo by James Akena.
She received her answer when Oxfam arrived and called for a meeting in her city.
"That was when I first heard about climate change. 'What is this?' I asked. 'What is happening?' And they tell me that what is happening is that the rich countries are over polluting and that this is why we are having all these disasters with weather. And after hearing that, I cried again. I cried harder."
In eastern Africa, you struggle to get up and tomorrow you are brought down, she said. Granaries are washed away. Vegetables, now quick crop seeds, rot in small family gardens.
"Nothing is certain any more. You are always gambling between life and death. Are we eating the last food? Is this the last rain? Are we planting the last seeds?"
Things like power, books, and medical supplies? These luxuries are no longer an option.
"We wait to cook and eat by moonlight because there is nothing extra. No electricity. Only the light of the moon," said Okollet. "That is what life is like now in my country."
"How can we adapt to this crisis? The next generation may not be there."
Post Cancun: Incoming Volleys:
A representative of the Global Alliance of WastePickers. Photo by Deborah Phelan.
In the end, it was, without doubt, the women of COP16 who wove together a tapestry that throbbed with the life of common threads of stories like these. Stories which were repeated time and again. Day after day. In hundreds of forums both inside the COP talks and at side events, as well as in venues at Klimaforum and Via Campesina.
From the expert, determined leadership of COP President Patricia Espinosa, Mexico's Minister of Foreign Affairs, and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, the women of COP16 created a panorama representing all walks of life -- academics, scientists, farmers, waste pickers, fledgling delegates, mothers, students. Together, they succeeded in re-awakening the magical depth of perception from which mankind has been for so long disconnected that only faint memories remained, thankfully in sufficient enough numbers to rekindle this awareness.
In the final analysis, the success in Cancun is quite simply this: The real time immersion of thousands of participants into the pulsing core of our very existence re-awakened us. To the pounding heart of a vast intricate ecosystem which has been calling us all home. Begging to be heard. Nurtured. And loved.
We are there now. We have reconnected. Now, we can begin.
Ultimately, we are all Africa. I wish I had the chance to tell you, Mr. Tenza, that to lose you was never an option.
A young local woman participating in an evening of prayer to bless COP16 on the first Tuesday of the conference. Downtown Cancun. Photo by Deborah Phelan
Today, the concept of Environmental Justice extends to include such related issues as climate, food, and ecosystem justice.EcoJustice will resume publishing in January 2011 on Monday evenings at 7 p.m., PDT.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
After two weeks of negotiations, countries -- and the process -- emerge from Cancun with progress, transparency and a path forward on addressing climate change
After two weeks of negotiations, countries - and the process - emerge from Cancun with progress, transparency and a path forward on addressing climate change
by Alvin Lin, Swtichboard, NRDC, December 11, 2010
At about 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning, after two weeks of negotiations with often quite divergent views, the parties at the Cancun climate conference emerged from the process with important agreements on how to move forward together to address climate change. In a complex negotiation involving 194 country parties, the Cancun agreements managed to meet the concerns of a wide swath of countries and breathe new life into the international effort to address climate change. Both the largest emitters—the United States, EU, Japan, China, India, Brazil—and the smallest and most vulnerable countries including the Maldives, Bangladesh and Lesotho voiced their support for the agreements.
Delegates in the plenary room offer a standing ovation to acknowledge the contribution of COP President Patricia Espinosa in creating an open and transparent process for the parties to reach agreement.
Even before the start of the informal plenary last night to air countries’ views, the audience of delegates and civil society offered sustained rounds of applause for the texts that the President of the conference, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, provided for the parties (the two outcomes were agreements on Long Term Cooperative Action (LCA) and further commitments to the Kyoto Protocol) in an extraordinary show of support. The applause reflected the overwhelming recognition that the agreements represented a careful balance that captured the diverse views of all the parties to some degree, and create important institutions and mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change, addressing deforestation, and providing financial, technological and capacity building support to developing countries to help them to address climate change.
Time and again, country representatives praised the open, transparent and inclusivemanner by which the agreements were reached. No country achieved all that it wanted, but countries recognized the importance of compromise and flexibility in the talks and expressed broad support for the agreements as an important building block for future progress. The warmth and spirit in the room restored confidence in multilateralism and the ability of countries to come together to address climate change.
The new Cancun agreement on long term cooperative action builds on the commitmentsthat countries made last year in the Copenhagen Accord and lays the building blocks for a way forward next year:
- Countries recognized the need to take action to hold the increase in global average temperatures to no more than 2 °C, and to review the adequacy of this target and consider strengthening it by 2015.
- The agreement creates important institutions such as a Green Climate Fund (as my colleague Heather Allen blogged on), a Technology Executive Panel, a Climate Technology Centre and Network, and an Adaptation Committee, all of which are aimed at increasing the speed and scale of efforts to help countries deploy technologies and solutions to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.
- Developed countries reaffirmed their commitment to fast start funding of $30 billion for 2010-2012 and long-term finance of $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries, in particularly those most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, to mitigate their emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
- Both developed and developing countries will include their mitigation commitments and actions in information documents associated with the Cancun decision.
- On deforestation, the agreement sets out strong principles and a framework for helping developing countries to scale up and receive support for their efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation.
Building a foundation for increased transparency and trust
The transparency of the negotiation process was mirrored by strengthened commitments to improve reporting on and transparency of greenhouse gas emissions and countries’ actions to address climate change. Developed countries agreed to prepare annual greenhouse gas inventories as well as biennial progress reports on their progress in achieving emissions reductions, their projected emissions, and the financial, technological and capacity building support they have provided to developing countries. They are to enhance their reporting in their national communications, including using common reporting formats and methodologies for finance, in order to ensure that the information provided is complete, comparable, transparent and accurate. Developed country emissions and removals related to their emission reduction targets will be subject to an international assessment process with a view to promoting comparability and building confidence.
Developing countries will also enhance reporting of their national communications and inventories, with flexibility provided for least developed countries and small island states. They will submit national communications every four years and biennial update reports with updates of greenhouse gas inventories and information on mitigation actions, needs and support received. A registry will be created to match developing country actions seeking support with developed country financing and support.
On the issue of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) and international consultations and analysis (ICA) of developing country efforts, there are provisions that strengthen reporting in a facilitative and constructive way. Both supported and non-supported mitigation actions by developing countries will be monitored, reported and verified domestically, and guidelines will be developed for the MRV of both supported and non-supported mitigation actions.
Developing country biennial reports will undergo an ICA process that is non-intrusive, non-punitive and respectful of national sovereignty. The ICA is intended to increase transparency of mitigation actions, and will provide for analysis by technical experts and a facilitative sharing of views. The information to be considered includes mitigation actions and greenhouse gas inventories, including a description and analysis of methodologies and assumptions used, and progress in implementation and information on domestic MRV and support received. Discussions about the appropriateness of domestic policies and measures are not part of the process.
All in all, the Cancun agreement reached today sets a foundation for building institutions and frameworks for collective action among countries and the global community that can scale up the solutions that we need to address the challenge of global climate change. As Minister Espinosa stated, the agreement is not an end, but a beginning. And as Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam of the Maldives implored the audience in the plenary: There is no need to waste more time—it’s time to move on to the next stage.
"The Cancun Compacts: Nations of world choose hope in face of climate crisis," by Brad Johnson
The Cancun Compacts: Nations of world choose hope in face of climate crisis
The Wonk Room is reporting and tweeting live from the international climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
by Brad Johnson, Wonk Room, Think Progress, December 11, 2010
“Confidence is back,” announced Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon at the conclusion of climate talks in Cancun at 3 am. “Hope has returned.”
Restoring hopes crushed by the collapse last year of Copenhagen’s climate negotiations, the nations of the world have rediscovered consensus on addressing global warming pollution tonight in Cancun. The top challenge for negotiators has been to figure out a successor framework to the Kyoto Protocol, which failed to set limits on the pollution of the United States (because the Senate refused to ratify the treaty) and nations like China and India (as developing countries, they are exempt from Kyoto’s binding targets). In Copenhagen, these nations sacrificed consensus and multilateralism to forge a new framework for cleaning their economies.
As hosts of the 2010 conference, the Mexican government had to not only bring parties together to come to agreement on policy, but also to restore trust in global governance — the concept that the world’s nations can work together as one on the problems that face all of humanity. (Not to be confused, unless you’re Glenn Beck or Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), with the entirely different concept of global government.) Could the nearly 200 nations of the world, from tiny islands to billion-person states, from oil-rich sheikdoms to Scandinavian states, trust each other enough to agree on a deal that included all nations?
Late Friday night, the representatives of these varied nations chose hope. With a roar of applause overwhelming one dissenting voice, they strongly endorsed a comprehensive document crafted under the leadership of the conference’s president Patricia Espinosa and the executive secretary Christiana Figueres. Countries from every corner of the world noted the mortal threat from destroying our atmosphere through fossil-fuel pollution and supported this international agreement:
South Korea: “We were warned, if we cannot achieve a balanced outcome, we’d be blamed by our children. I believe we have risen to the challenge.”
Kenya: “We plead with all to allow Cancun to send a message of hope to the world.”
Argentina: “It is really dangerous to delay any further. The compromises are reasonable, and the costs of any delay are geometric.”
China: “The government of China will act in a fully responsible manner to the people of China and the people of the world.”
United Arab Emirates: “This is a deal that works, and that works for us.”
Maldives: “I certainly speak from a country whose survival depends on these negotiations. I don’t think we should waste more time to negotiate more text. It’s about time we move on to the next stage.”
Bolivia’s delegation led the resistance to the Cancun compact, after a week of its president, Evo Morales, acting as the socialist champion of the world’s poor, especially the international peasant movement, Via Campesina. They emphasized the insufficiency of the agreement’s pollution goals and questioned the role of the World Bank, among other concerns. The legitimacy of their arguments was weakened by the fact that the countries they purported to be defending — the vulnerable nations of Africa and the small island states — unanimously support the agreement, despite its imperfection.
Bolivia’s intransigence was initially supported by Cuba and the petrostates Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, but in the final moment adoption, it stood alone in opposition.
The Cancun compacts are the first real step toward building an international systemthat involves all global warming pollution — not just that produced by the rich nations governed by the Kyoto Protocol. With one agreement that allows for the future development of the Kyoto Protocol system, the other establishes an international Green Climate Fund to be managed by the World Bank, and enacts mechanisms to fight deforestation and deploy clean technology in the developing world. Unfortunately, the review of the adequacy of these agreements with respect to the scientific threat is set to conclude in 2015 — even though the current targets were set in 2007 and are already out of date.
The first lesson of the Cancun talks is that the governments of the world can in fact work together on global warming, even though decoupling civilization from greenhouse pollution is a herculean task.
However, the second lesson is that their leadership only gets humanity so far. Only the full mobilization of the present generation can overcome the institutional barriers to change and protect our fragile civilization from the raging climate system our pollution has created. The Cancun compact has restored hope around the world, but now the actual work has to begin.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Japan shocks world by refusing to inscribe its emission targets under a new Kyoto Protocol commitment period, stunning negotiators, leaving a huge cloud over the summit
Movie-themed advert asks Japan: Is a climate treaty ‘Washed Away’?
by Heather Libby, TckTckTck, December 10, 2010
One of the most shocking revelations at the Cancun climate talks was Japan refusing to inscribe its emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol, the famous treaty agreed in the ancient Japanese capital in 1997. This decision stunned negotiators and has left a cloud over the climate summit and overshadowed two weeks of otherwise productive talks.
Together with our partners at Avaaz, TckTckTck sponsored an advertisement in the Friday edition of the Financial Times identifying Japan as the main blocker of progress toward a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty at UN climate talks concluding tomorrow.
The ad parodies an iconic poster for “Spirited Away,” the country’s all-time highest-grossing film and is being published in the international editions of the Financial Times, reaching a large readership around the world, including in Japan. 1000 copies of the newspaper are being distributed at the conference venues Cancun Messe and Moon Palace.
“Time is running out for negotiators in Cancun to agree a package of decisions that would give us a basis for a strong climate treaty next year in Durban, and Japan’s hard line position is putting the entire conference at risk,” said Paul Horsman, TckTckTck Campaign Director.“Millions of people around the world are getting on with taking action on climate change. Japan needs to become part of this and help ensure the survival of people and ecosystems, while realising that a strong climate deal also benefits their own economic development. The country that gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol should not become the one that killed it,” added Horsman.
The ad offers a different take on the hit animated movie “Spirited Away” by famous Director, Hayao Miyazaki. In “Spirited Away”, a little girl follows her parents down a dirt road ending up in a fantasy world. ”Like the girl in 'Spirited Away' Japan is right now at cross roads,” said Horsman. “One path leads to fantasy land, where the world’s hopes for a binding treaty are washed away. The other leads to true leadership and a safe climate future.”The text of the ad reads:
JAPAN PRESENTS
A THREATENING TO ABANDON KYOTO FILM
Climate treaty: Washed Away?
A THREATENING TO ABANDON KYOTO FILM
Climate treaty: Washed Away?
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is living in a fantasy – imagining he can refuse a new Kyoto Protocol commitment period without wrecking hopes for a global climate treaty. As UN talks in Mexico bog down, the world needs Kan to wake up: if he abandons Kyoto, the climate treaty will be washed away!
AVAAZ.ORG & TCKTCKTCK.org, IN ASSOCIATION WITH ALL LIFE ON EARTH, AT THIS WORLD-IN-THE-BALANCE MOMENT, URGES NAOTO KAN AND THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN TO RECOMMIT TO THE KYOTO PROTOCOL TO PREVENT US ALL FROM BEING WASHED AWAY
CANADIAN READERS URGENT: Please Tell Canada Not to Derail Kyoto Negotiations at COP16
Please forward widely! And invite everyone you know on Facebook to join and share the event: http://www.facebook.
Political Representatives and Civil Society Groups Demand Canada Support Kyoto Continuation at Cancun Climate Talks (Climate Action Network Canada press release): http://
Video from this morning’s press conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Youth Call for Canadian Commitment (Canadian Youth Delegation press release): http://
In the news:http://www.theglobeandmail.
http://www.montrealgazette.
http://www.thestar.com/news/
http://www.theglobeandmail.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
http://www.theglobeandmail.
http://www.vancouversun.com/
URGENT: Tell Canada Not to Derail Kyoto Negotiations at COP16
Canada is poised to be a major obstacle to negotiations by standing against the Kyoto Protocol process. While current commitments under Kyoto are nowhere near an adequate response to climate change, it is currently the only legal framework we have for a global deal. If developed nations like Canada block the Kyoto Protocol process, developing nations may walk away from the negotiations. If Kyoto continues, there is no reason that developing nations and the USA cannot also take on commitments. But without Kyoto, the entire negotiating process may be derailed: we’ll lose over ten years of hard work and will have no framework to create a legally binding deal. We’re fast approaching the time that science says we need to peak our emissions—we simply don’t have time to start from scratch.
Canada says that developing nations will not walk away from the talks because they have too much to lose—essentially saying that developed nations can hold support, such as technology transfer and adaptation financing, hostage while eroding the entire negotiating process. This morning, Environment Minister John Baird dismissed the central principle of developed nations’ historical responsibility for causing climate change as a “sidecar” issue. Canada is refusing to take responsibility for its contribution to climate change.
Japan, which came out early last week saying it would not support any further commitments under Kyoto, said today that the conversation on Kyoto will not end in Cancun. We know that Canada is now one of the biggest obstacles to progress, and we need to make sure that our government knows they are acting directly against the desires of Canadians!
Call NOW to tell Canada to get out of the way of the Kyoto process!
Prime Minister’s Office: (613) 992-4211
Toll Free (ask to be put through to the Prime Minister’s Office): 1 (866) 599-4999
Minister of Environment John Baird’s Office: (613) 996-0984
More information:
Brief on the role of Kyoto in Cancun prepared by CYD members earlier this week: http://
Political Representatives and Civil Society Groups Demand Canada Support Kyoto Continuation at Cancun Climate Talks (Climate Action Network Canada press release): http://
Video from this morning’s press conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Youth Call for Canadian Commitment (Canadian Youth Delegation press release): http://
Summary of what we’ve heard about Canada’s stance on Kyoto from our negotiators:
http://
http://
In the news:http://www.theglobeandmail.
http://www.montrealgazette.
http://www.thestar.com/news/
http://www.theglobeandmail.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
http://www.theglobeandmail.
http://www.vancouversun.com/
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
IN CANCUN, WORLD LEADERS CALL FOR QUICK ACTION ON FORESTS
IN CANCUN, WORLD LEADERS CALL FOR QUICK ACTION ON FORESTS
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Calls for Action on REDD+ at Cancun; Walmart Chairman Announces Sustainable Palm Oil Initiative for Private Label Products; World Bank President Robert Zoellick Announces Wildlife Premium Initiative
CANCUN, December 8, 2010 -- Major world leaders gathered today at an event sponsored by non-profit Avoided Deforestation Partners to call on the global community to work towards a speedy end to deforestation, a major source of global CO2 emissions and driver of climate change.
“The time for global action to protect forests is now,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Developing countries are willing to lead. Let’s hope they receive appropriate financial support.”
Negotiations on forest protection, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), are seen as one of the brightest hopes for a breakthrough at the Cancun negotiations on a global climate agreement.
“An agreement on forests is very much within reach here in Cancún,” said Avoided Deforestation Partners founder Jeffrey Horowitz, the event’s host. “We must not let any one nation be allowed to hold forest protection hostage to other goals.”
World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced a new Wildlife Premium initiative that will provide additional incentives to protect endangered animals such as tigers, great apes, and elephants as part of REDD+ financing for forest and climate protection.
“If it proves successful, this market will value wildlife and co-benefits to sustainable communities, tigers, elephants, great apes and critical ecosystems around the world,” Zoellick said. “The Wildlife Premium market initiative will focus on species like tigers, lemurs, elephants, great apes, and others that require large forest areas. Many of these range over large areas, and many are endangered. Protecting these species will protect the other flora and fauna that live under their umbrella.”
“A formal decision on REDD+ in Cancun would help us and developing countries to scale up incentives for forest conservation, including to protect wildlife,” Zoellick added. “Yet we need in any event to proceed with interested parties -- developing and developed countries, indigenous peoples, conservation groups, financiers such as the World Bank -- because REDD+ is a winner: it's key to climate change mitigation and is one of the best chances to save our tropical forests and the people and animals that depend on them.”
In a panel with Conservation International CEO Peter Seligmann and UN Environment Programme Director Achim Steiner, Walmart Chairman Rob Walton said his company would take action to improve the environmental performance of its supply chain.
“Walmart has made a commitment to sustainably source palm oil on private label products in the next three years, and we will only source Brazilian beef from sustainably sourced farms,” Walton said.
“Protecting the world’s forests is absolutely crucial to addressing the issue of climate change,” said Peter Seligmann, CEO, Chairman and Founder of Conservation International. “Fortunately, business leaders like Walmart and Starbucks are not waiting for a global policy agreement and are taking bold actions now for establishing sustainable supply chains that will significantly reduce tropical deforestation.”
The Avoided Deforestation Partners event focused on New Pathways and Partnership to advance REDD+, including innovative government-to-government efforts to protect forests. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg spoke about his government’s groundbreaking financing of large-scale deforestation reductions in Brazil and Indonesia.
“Significant, lasting, global REDD+ results can best be achieved through the adoption of a UN agreement that puts a value on forest carbon. Considerable progress has been made in the negotiations, and the parties came very close to reaching agreement on a REDD+ mechanism at the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December last year,” Stoltenberg said. “I remain hopeful that Cancún will deliver a decision on REDD+ so we can rapidly scale up our efforts to substantially reduce global deforestation.”
Guyana President Bharratt Jagdeo praised Norway for its major financial commitment to forest protection in Guyana, but called on world leaders to streamline funding for developing countries.
“When the results are delivered, the money should be invested early so we can build political support,” Jagdeo said.
He also called for negotiators in Cancun to send a clear signal to private investors that investment in forest conservation will be credited.
“The only way you have enough money to save forests is by bringing in the private sector,” Jagdeo added.
On the same panel, moderated by United Nations Foundation president Tim Wirth, the director of the Indonesian president’s delivery unit for REDD, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, said he hoped his country’s forest conservation partnership with Norway could be expanded to other countries.
“This is the way we have to approach the climate change problem,” Dr. Kuntoro said. “This is a transformation process for Indonesia.”
Open Society Foundations founder George Soros said protecting peatlands in Indonesia should be one of the world’s top priorities for conservation.
Joe Aldy, a White House special assistant for energy and environment to U.S. President Barack Obama, said a deal at Cancún is within reach.
“We think we see a basis for a successful outcome with a balanced package,” in Cancun, Aldy said. “We’re optimistic that we can get REDD+ as part of a final deal. On REDD+, the international community has worked very well together to come to an agreement that makes sense. It’s a pleasure to be with panelists who share the President’s conviction that we need to reduce deforestation as part of the solution to climate change,” Aldy added.
In a panel moderated by Time Magazine’s Bryan Walsh, leaders discussed progress by states and provinces working across international borders to protect tropical forests.
“I’m thrilled that California will play a leadership role in bringing REDD+ offsets into compliance markets,” said Linda Adams, California Secretary for Environmental Protection. “This is a forward-thinking way to address climate change through a market-based approach and at the same time preserve vital forest resources.”
“If we are successful, this project will open possibilities for other Mexican states,” said Juan Sabines Guerrero, Governor of Chiapas State in Mexico, about their partnership with California’s carbon market.
“The ability to invest in forest protection under California's climate law would allow us to reduce global emissions while providing affordable power to our customers,” said Steve Kline, Vice President, PG&E Corporation.
“Loss of these forests will mean the loss of the capacity of these forests to regulate climate and rainfall patterns, and this directly affects agriculture and can easily cause food insecurity,” said Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, Congo Basin Goodwill Ambassador and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner. “It is very important for us to teach the world the value of forests. I hope all our efforts will be blessed by action taking us much further than we walked in Copenhagen.”
“We need a forest protection approach that combines poverty reduction, sustainable forest management by local communities, and the conservation of species,” said Jane Goodall. “If forest protection programs, with proper regulatory mechanisms, can be developed around the world in biodiversity-rich areas, then indeed we can have hope for the future.”
Civil Society supports growing rejection of carbon trading to finance REDD
Civil Society supports growing rejection of carbon trading to finance REDDDecember 8, 2010, Cancun – Governments locked in negotiations are keen to finalise a deal on REDD (Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation) this week. However, several key outstanding questions remain before a new UN mechanism to address deforestation can be finalized, including the lack of safeguards needed to guarantee rights for indigenous peoples and protection of natural forests, and how money for REDD will be mobilised.Environmental organizations, social movements and indigenous peoples organisations stand firmly with Bolivia and other governments on the need to secure genuine protection for the world’s forests by guaranteeing the rights of forest dependant peoples and insisting that any agreement on ‘REDD’ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) does not allow developed countries to continue burning fossil fuels in exchange for forest protection.“It’s clear we are not ready here in Cancun for a decision on financing for REDD. We are already seeing the negative environmental and social impacts around the world from carbon trading, and a serious discussion on the implications of extending this to forests is urgently needed. We call on the EU as a whole to extend the leadership they are displaying in their fight for stronger safeguards and to fight for an open discussion of the financing options, without highlighting carbon markets as UK and Dutch governments would like to,” said Kate Dooley, Forest Campaigner at FERN.“Any decision in Cancun that opened the door to the use of offset trading to fund forests would be a disaster for the climate, the forests and the people who depend on them. Far from blocking progress, Bolivia is advocating for real solutions that will protect the forests and ensure that developed countries honor the commitments to solve the problem they created. If emissions are not immediately and dramatically reduced in the wealthy countries, forests are at risk from an ever-warming climate,” said Kate Horner, Policy Analyst at Friends of the Earth.“The draft text has been gutted of any language that would oblige tropical countries to respect environmental concerns or local peoples’ rights. The stage seems set for the scheme that was intended to protect tropical forests to now become a feeding frenzy for corrupt and mismanaged countries to subsidise their oil palm, plantation and logging industries. It’s an extremely dark day for the global environment,” said Simon Counsell, Executive Director of Rainforest Foundation UK.The text under discussion now contains three options on finance. Australia and Canadaare pushing for a decision which includes the use of markets and flexible mechanisms. Bolivia, backed by Brazil, has asked for a decision that REDD will not constitute the establishment of market mechanisms or the use of offsets. This position has wide support from environmental groups, social movements and indigenous peoples organisations, but strong opposition from Australia, Canada and others whose main interest in REDD is for offsets in order to avoid any emissions reductions at home Many governments support a compromise option to further discuss the implications of different financing sources on the effectiveness and impacts of REDD during the year leading up to the next round of climate talks in South Africa. Critically, the EU is unwilling to support an option which does not include reference to markets under pressure from the UK and Dutch governments to establish a global forest carbon market.
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