Tuesday, December 09, 2014

COP20 Or COP-OUT?

Fossil fuel industry lobbyists have no place at a climate conference, charged activists who on Monday shut down a "greenwashed" fossil fuel industry panel at the United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru. Activists from indigenous communities in Colombia, Peru, Canada and other communities affected by fossil fuel development spoke about the environmental and human rights violations frequently perpetrated by fossil fuel companies. The lobbyist's evidence is typically used as a weapon—mangled and used selectively in order to claim that it supports a predetermined position. That is policy-based evidence, not evidence-based policy.

"We’d be outraged if we thought the tobacco industry was dictating our government’s policy on public health, but that’s exactly what’s happening with climate policy," protested Pascoe Sabido of the Corporate Europe Observatory. "Without tackling the influence of the fossil fuel industry, we’re never going to stop dangerous climate change," Sabido added. "That means banning fossil fuel lobbying at all levels, not just in the UN talks, by which time it’s often too late to make a difference." 

"Shell has left the Niger Delta an environmental disaster area, a crime scene that is tantamount to ecocide, and crimes against humanity," complained  Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria. "They have no place in Nigeria, or in the climate negotiations, and there is no place for dirty energy in a sustainable energy future."

These negotiations take place against a devastating backdrop of Typhoon Hagupit, a so-called 'extreme weather event', something that climate scientists have been warning us about if we don't take urgent action. Tragically, we are not taking urgent action. Nature does not negotiate, it responds to our intransigence. For sure typhoons have been occurring long before climate change due to humans but not as big and not as often as now. The climate trends moving towards more extreme events with more frequency.  For the people of the Philippines, and in many other parts of the world, climate change is already a catastrophe. Climate change is not a future threat to be negotiated but a clear and present danger that requires urgent action now. Each year, the people of the world learn the hard way what inaction on emissions mean yet these climate meetings seem to continue in a vacuum, not prepared to take meaningful action, not able to respond to the urgency of our time and not holding accountable the cause of the pollution – capitalism.

Saleemul Huq, from Bangladesh, senior fellow in the Climate Change Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development and a lead negotiator for the group of Least Developed Countries told a fringe meeting at the UN climate change conference in Lima, Peru, that South Asia countries face a range of climate-related events. “Countries in the region must co-ordinate climate action to cope with adverse climate impacts, such as flash floods, forest fires, cyclones, migration and sea-level rise.” said Huq,. The South Asia region is home to more than one-fifth of the globe’s population, but is also regarded as one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, Huq told delegates. “Extreme weather events are also forecast across the region” said Huq. In turn, Huq said, this will negatively impact on crop yields throughout the region, as already crops in many areas are already being grown at close to their temperature tolerance threshold.


Co-operation between the region’s countries on climate change is minimal. Pakistan and India, for example, remain deeply suspicious of each other, and data on such key issues as river flows and erosion rates are classified as state secrets. China and India are competing for water resources, and large-scale dam building programmes in both countries are creating environmental tensions in the region. Less powerful countries in the area—such as Bangladesh and Nepal—are squeezed between the competing interests of their powerful neighbours.

The starting point for any understanding of the environment is the awareness that all is interconnected. This includes human social, political, and economic conditions. Yet look at the way too many environmentalists have everything neatly compartmentalized. Some say that if we all go vegan that is the answer. Some say we need to ride bikes. Some say that we should worry about storms. Some say that if all farming were converted to organic, that would solve the problems. Others blame cow farts, others see nuclear power as the greatest threat. Buy very few have a coherent and comprehensive framework, very few can see beyond the paradigm of personal individual lifestyle choices, very few can integrate politics with environmentalism, very few are willing to challenge the social, political and economic system. They are going to make a few personal lifestyle changes, and tell others that they should to. They are going to try to shop their way to saving the environment. They are going to recommend reforms and regulations of one sort or another. All of that is held within the context of the existing social, political and economic arrangements. No one would ever believe that any of those strategies could possibly work if they had a full understanding of the scope of the crisis. This fragmentation, this obsession with the personal and the individual, this ‘understating’ of the crisis, all happen to be expressions of alienation and estrangement and alienation and estrangement just happen to be prime features of a particular system - the social, political and economic arrangements dictated by capitalism.

The rich are going to carry on getting richer. The politicians are going to continue to sell themselves to the highest bidder. Change is not going to come willingly, it's going to be forced upon them by the people


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