Coalition created to intensify actions to prevent and respond to climate change

 

During the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, a number of social movements and groups agreed to establish a coalition called Climate Justice Now! in order to enhance exchange of information and cooperation among themselves and with other groups with the aim of intensifying actions to prevent and respond to climate change.

 

Members of the coalition include Carbon Trade Watch, Transnational Institute; Center for Environmental Concerns; Focus on the Global South; Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines; Friends of the Earth International; Gendercc - Women for Climate Justice, Global Forest Coalition; Global Justice Ecology Project; International Forum on Globalization; Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE); La Vía Campesina; members of the Durban Group for Climate Justice; Oilwatch; Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition, Aotearoa/New Zealand; Sustainable Energy and Economy Network; The Indigenous Environmental Network; Third World Network; WALHI/ Friends of the Earth Indonesia; World Rainforest Movement.

 

On December 14, the coalition issued the following statement:

 

“Peoples from social organizations and movements from across the globe brought the fight for social, ecological and gender justice into the negotiating rooms and onto the streets during the UN climate summit in Bali.

 

Inside and outside the convention centre, activists demanded alternative policies and practices that protect livelihoods and the environment.

 

In dozens of side events, reports, impromptu protests and press conferences, the false solutions to climate change - such as carbon offsetting, carbon trading for forests, agrofuels, trade liberalization and privatization pushed by governments, financial institutions and multinational corporations - have been exposed.

 

Affected communities, Indigenous Peoples, women and peasant farmers called for real solutions to the climate crisis, solutions which have failed to capture the attention of political leaders. These genuine solutions include:

 

* reduced consumption.

* huge financial transfers from North to South based on historical responsibility and ecological debt for adaptation and mitigation costs paid for by redirecting military budgets, innovative taxes and debt cancellation.

* leaving fossil fuels in the ground and investing in appropriate energy-efficiency and safe, clean and community-led renewable energy.

* rights based resource conservation that enforces Indigenous land rights and promotes peoples' sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water.

* sustainable family farming and peoples' food sovereignty.

 

Inside the negotiations, the rich industrialized countries have put unjustifiable pressure on Southern governments to commit to emissions' reductions. At the same time, they have refused to live up to their own legal and moral obligations to radically cut emissions and support developing countries' efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts. Once again, the majority world is being forced to pay for the excesses of the minority.

 

Compared to the outcomes of the official negotiations, the major success of Bali is the momentum that has been built towards creating a diverse, global movement for climate justice.

 

We will take our struggle forward not just in the talks, but on the ground and in the streets - Climate Justice Now!”