Download The Human Face of Climate Change

The Human Face of Climate Change
By Nadia Khastagir
Corpwatch
November 4, 2002
The effects of climate change are felt hardest in a country like India -especially India. Indias large rural population is dependent on the cycles of
the seasons. Fishworkers who earn their living the rivers and seas, farmers
who rely on seasonal monsoons, and a large and varied indigenous
population that lives in harsh climatic regions including mountains, deserts
and river deltas, all make India especially susceptible to a changing climate.
This year alone, India simultaneously experienced massive floods killing
thousands in the east, and heat and drought in the west. Recently, 10
children died from starvation in Rajasthan due to drought.
Delhi hosted this year's Conference of the Parties-8 (CoP8) under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which ended
November 1st. While international bureaucrats and corporate moguls
gathered at the Vigyan Bhavan conference center in a sterile
air-conditioned building, an altogether different group of people were
meeting at the Climate Justice Summit. The Summit was organized by the
Indian Climate Justice Forum -- a coalition of Indian and international
groups, including CorpWatch -- to provide a platform for people and
communities most affected by climate change who have been left out of
the UN negotiations. Under a pandal tent on the lawn of the Constitution
Club, a global mix of activists engaged in workshops and discussions to
articulate the issues and define solutions to climate change from a human
rights, social justice and labour perspective.
Participants traveled from throughout India to engage in the Summit.
Members of the National Fishworkers' Forum came from Kerala and West
Bengal. Farmers came from the Andhra Pradesh Vyavasay Vruthidarula
Union (Agricultural Workers and Marginal Farmers Union). A delegation
of adivasis (indigenous peoples) from Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save
Narmada Movement) came from the Narmada Valley. Indigenous peoples
of the North-East Territories of India and from mining-impacted areas of
Orissa brought their music and dance and folk art with them. International
participants came from over 20 countries around the world. This was the
human face of the rising movement for Climate Justice.
In rooms named after rivers like Narmada, Ganga, Amazon and Volga,
participants met in workshops to share their knowledge on issues ranging
from labour rights, and corporate accountability, to deforestation, dams and
water. Plenary sessions dealt with building a global movement for Climate
Justice, among other issues.
Members of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) are among those
hardest hit by climate change. The potential rise in sea levels due to global
warming would wipe out existing shorelines and contaminate fresh water
sources. Climate change also causes ocean temperatures to change,
affecting the fish populations, which are the mainstay of the fishworkers
livelihood.
The largest contingent, made up of rickshaw pullers, street children, and
slum dwellers, among others, participated in Urban Poor and Sustainable
Transportation workshops. Issues of equity were at the forefront of the
discussion, as speakers reeled off examples of how the poor are exposed to
adverse conditions caused by pollution and climate change brought about
by cars and other luxuries of the affluent.
At the UN, the debate focused on inequity between the North and South.
At the Climate Justice Summit participants engaged in conversation about
inequities within India between rich and poor. Many migrant workers in
Delhi have been displaced by coal mining, flood and drought and have
come to the city to find work as rickshaw pullers and construction workers.
Delhi is undergoing a "beautification project" which pushes the poor into
slums in the farthest reaches of the city. Cuts public transportation has
made city residents more dependant upon cars. The Summit began to tie in
these issues -- migration, mining, infrastructure development, urban
planning -- into the climate justice struggle.
In the main hall, the Butterflies, street childrens union, paraded their paper
mache puppets of the US eating the world. Homeless kids are the first to
feel the effects of extreme heat, or extreme rain. "We live on the railway
platform...the police beat us and say we have stolen people's things that are
missing on the train," says Shareeb, 12. The Butterfly union provides
education and its own credit union where the children, under certain
restrictions, can take out loans to start their own small business.
The atmosphere was festive as plays, folk music and dance livened up
mealtimes. A bicycle-generated water pump shooting whose spout reached
as high as 30 meters, and a hand cranked food processor were on
demonstration outside. Organizations decorated the pandal (tent) with
banners, pictures, photos, books and handicrafts from their region.
Participants were encouraged to make their own signs in support of
Climate Justice.
While negotiators at the official climate negotiations made trade deals,
climate justice activists traded stories and strategies. While corporate
representatives focused on preserving their bottom line, fisherworkers
fought to protect their livelihood. While official delegates at COP8 say
they represent their people, nowhere was the word "justice" mentioned
inside the UN. Whereas the word Justice was on everyone's lips at the
Climate Justice Summit.
COP8 - A Global Gambling Hall
It's clear that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has
become a casino for trade deals. Side events sponsored by the World
Business Council for Sustainable Development feature corporations such
as Shell and BP. Many negotiations are around market based solutions such
as Clean Development Mechanisms and emissions trading -- yet more
ways for corporations who are the biggest contributors to climate change,
to make money off of climate change.
However many UN delegates were frustrated. An early the draft of the
Delhi Declaration put out by the Indian ministerial made no mention of the
Kyoto Protocol. EU delegates and others were horrified. Various news
accounts suggest that Indian negotiators succumbed to pressure from the
US. Meanwhile, countries from the South protested that they would bear a
disproportionate burden in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, despite the
fact that the industrialized North is responsible for the lions share of
emissions.
"People directly affected by climate change are basically being told they
have to wait another year. That may be one year too late," says Yin Shao
Loong of Third World Network.
The final declaration underscores how negotiations have turned to issues
around adapting to climate change as opposed to genuinely reducing and
halting climate change. And delegates appear even further from ratifying
the Kyoto Protocol than before this round of negotiations began.
Rally for Climate Justice
On Monday October 28, the largest Climate Justice protest in history
marched through the streets of Delhi. More than 5,000 people met at
Gandhi Samadhi (Mahatma Gandhi's memorial) to protest climate injustice.
Police barricaded the demonstrators saying that they couldn't march
because without a permit. Tensions ran high as Nirmala Sharma, the leader
of Jagriti Mahila Samiti (Women's Awareness Organization), and her
constituency of Delhi slum dwellers started rocking and slamming the
barricades on the pavement, all the time shouting, "Delhi Police! Shame,
Shame, Shame!" After aback and forth between police and organizers, and
some intimidation by the crowd rattling the barricades, the police
eventually acquiesced and allowed the march.
Under the police escort, the demonstrators proceeded in "orderly fashion"
towards Jantar Mantar- at the heart of the city. Starting at Gandhi's
memorial set the tone for nonviolent demonstration -- although not a quiet
one. Drummers and dancers from Orissa and Kerala kept set the beat for
the march. Nirmala Sharma of the Women's Awareness Organization,
Rajendra Ravi of Lokayan, Geetanjali of Save Narmada Movement and
veteran activist Medha Patkar led the march, under the banner of India
Climate Justice Forum, shouting slogans such as: "Multinationals go
home!" and "Jal, jameen, jungle, Hamara Hai ..." (Water, Land, Forests,
Are Ours).
The Rickshaw Unions came out in force bringing about 100 pullers, known
as wallah, and their rickshaws -- age-old method of the bicycle-pulled
transportation. Foreign activists who marched in solidarity amused the
crowd as they hopped on the drivers seats offering to give rides. Cycle
rickshaws are banned from the city center, a district of big hotels, shopping
areas, and the buildings of Parliament and the Presidential Palace. As the
march approached this area, the police stopped the rickshaws. Immediately
protestors sat down on the road in support of the rickshaw pullers, giving
police no alternative but to allow the march to continue with the league of
rickshaws bringing up the end.
Said one rickshaw wallah: "The rich people drive around this district of
Delhi one person to a car -- they are contributing to the pollution. We do
not make any pollution yet we are banned from being allowed to work in
this district."
Many rickshaw pullers, are members of the displaced urban poor who
migrated to the city because floods and drought had adversely affected
their homes. They live in shantytowns by the polluted river's edge. They
pedal through intensely crowded and contaminated streets carrying up to 6
school children, or boxes piled high, or even furniture.
As the marchers reached Jantar Mantar at the citys center, they were again
greeted by police -- this time in riot gear behind barricades that were 3
deep. The crowd promptly sat down in the street where leaders such as
Medha Patkar and Sanjay MG of National Alliance of People's Movements,
leaders of the Rickshaw Union, and Swami Agnivesh -- a well known
religious leader staunchly opposed to the communal violence which has
unfolded in Gujarat -- addressed the crowd.
Rally at the United Nations
Prominent grassroots leaders delivered their message of the people directly
to the United Nations. They proclaimed that multinational corporations and
industrialized nations had hijacked the Kyoto negotiations. They noted that
the worlds poor -- who contribute the least to climate change -- are the
ones who are the most affected.
At the rally, activists released the Delhi Declaration which states, "We
affirm that climate change is a human rights issue -- it affects our
livelihoods, our health, our children and out natural resources. We will
build alliances across states and borders to oppose climate change inducing
patterns and advocate for and practice sustainable development. We reject
the market based principles that guide the current negotiations to solve the
climate crisis: Our World is Not for Sale!"