Download Battle for the Climate Friday, 10.4.2015 5pm – 6pm

International climate conference: Battle for the Climate
Friday, 10.4.2015
5pm – 6pm:
Arriving, registration
6pm – 8pm:
Welcome, opening remarks, Pecha Kucha and Snack
8pm – 8:15pm:
8:15pm – 10pm:
Introductory video message from Naomi Klein (This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate)
Opening plenary: Blockadia United: Cologne – Rhineland – Paris!
Saturday, 11.4.2015
9am – 10am:
10am – 12pm:
12pm – 1:30pm:
1:30pm – 3:30pm:
3:30pm – 4pm:
4pm – 6pm:
6pm – 7:30pm:
7:30pm – 9:30pm:
Breakfast
1st Workshop-phase
Lunch
2nd Workshop-phase
Coffee Break
3rd Workshop-phase
Dinner
Plenary: COP 21: Climate Justice, or Climate Theatre?
Sunday, 12.4.2015
9am – 10am:
10am – 12pm:
12pm – 1:30pm:
Breakfast
4th Workshop-phase
Closing Plenary: Surround, blockade, occupy: transform?
1
Plenaries
Blockadia United: Cologne –
Rhineland – Paris!
COP 21: Climate Justice, or
Climate Theatre?
Surround, blockade,
transform?
occupy:
Friday 8pm – 10pm
Naomi Klein (Rockstar): Video-message
‘Blockadia’ is the term coined by Naomi Klein to describe the loose network of
Alexis Passadakis (attac)
social movements that is emerging around the world to defend our livelihoods
Daniela Setton (energy- and climateagainst extractive industries in particular, and capitalism in general – frequently
expert)
resorting to the tools of civil disobedience. Our conference understands itself as
Tina Keller (AusgeCO2hlt, Ende
part of this process. We want to ask: what’s the score in the battle for the
Gelände)
climate – globally, in Germany and in the Rhineland? And what does our
Joanna Cabello (Carbontradewatch)
struggle here actually look like from the perspective of the Global South?
Facilitation: Tadzio Müller (Rosa
Luxemburg Stiftung)
Saturday 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Lidy Nacpil (Jubilee South)
The battle for the climate is being waged in many places. One of the most
Sabine Minninger (Brot für die Welt)
important and most contested of these places is the annual UN-climate summit,
Pascoe Sabido (Corporate European
also known as the COP. The results of these summits have consistently lagged
Observatory)
behind the decisions we know to be necessary to avoid runaway climate chaos.
Nicky Scordellis (Democracy Center,
This year’s summit in Paris, it is said, will bring a new global deal. But what
Bolivia)
does that mean? Which actors and mechanisms influence the UNFacilitation: Philip Bedall (Robin Wood)
negotiations? Can the COP21-summit be more than an expensive NGOjunket?
Sunday 12pm – 1:30pm
Timo Luthmann (Ende Gelände)
What is to be done? That is the question we want to engage with at the end of
Rosa Pollter (Anti-Coal-Chain 2015)
our conference. And who the hell is going to do it? Forest-occupiers, politicians,
Hazel (Hambacher Forst)
representatives of community organisations, environmentalists, campaigners
Gerd Büntzly (Lebenslaute)
and disobedient activists will be gathered on this podium to talk about the
Michael Aggelidis (DIE LINKE)
breadth of collective actions that we can all take over the course of this possibly
Pascoe Sabido (CEO, Parisfateful year. Because remember: after the conference is before the action.
mobilisation)
Facilitation: Mona Bricke (Klimaallianz)
2
Workshops
Workshop-stream: Climate Justice
Sat. 1012
S. 24
Sat. 1012
S. 12
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
S. 12
Gender – Power –
Climate Change
System change?
Tensions,
contradictions and
traps in today’s
climate politics
Not here nor
anywhere? Of the
Energiewende’s
blind spots
Kate Cahoon (gendercc)
Kristin Witte, Benjamin Hut (BUKO
Arbeitskreis Gesellschaftliche
Naturverhältnisse)
Malte Daniljuk (Fellow Rosa
Luxemburg Foundation, energy
politics and geostrategy)
Sebastian Rötters (PowerShift)
Leo Tubbax (Nucléaire Stop,
Belgium)
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
Auditoriu
mC
“…because you’ve
destroyed our
countries…”:
Climate change,
migration and flight
Regine Richter (Urgewald)
Facilitation: Steffen Kühne (Rosa
Luxemburg Stiftung)
Bakary Traoré (Afrique-EuropeInteract, Mali)
Koko Warner (Institute for
Enviroment and Human Security)
Facilitation: Ruben Neugebauer
(Journalist)
What do we need to do in order to really ground the struggle for gender justice in
the climate justice movement?
In this workshop, we want to juxtapose our own ideas for a socio-ecological
transformation with those market-based or techno-utopian solutions pushed from
above, to which there are supposedly no alternatives. We also want to make the
point that the COP21 in Paris should not be the focus of our political practice this
year.
The German Energiewende has garnered much international attention, and has
been both widely praised and widely criticised. However, while it is increasingly
hard or impossible to build new nuclear and coal-fired power plants in Germany,
the German government continues supporting such industrial projects abroad,
sometimes securing these investments by way of the Hermes export-credit facility.
Nuclear power especially is being sold to other countries as a supposed alternative
to fossil fuels. At this workshop, we will discuss these and other blind spots of
Germany’s vaunted energy transition.
The effects of climate constitute or reinforce push-factors for migration. Which
international measures need to be adopted to protect climate refugees? What is
the role that individual countries and the European Union can and should play?
And how can we connect the climate movement to the struggle for a humane
migration-policy?
3
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
S. 14
Sat. 4 – 6
Auditoriu
mC
Sat. 4 – 6
S. 12
Sat. 4 – 6
S. 14
Sun. 1012
Auditoriu
mC
Listening together:
„We are your
hostages –
Bangladesh and
climate change“
WDR/BR radio
feature
Climate Justice,
Degrowth and ecoSocialism
Victims and
perpetrators: The
Philippines and
climate change
The ABC of climate
change: from A as
in anthropocene to
Z as in zero carbon
From landgrabbing
to food sovereignty:
agriculture and
climate change
Gerhard Klas (Recherche
International)
Discussant: Badrul Alam (La Via
Campesina Bangladesh)
Christopher Laumanns (Konzeptwerk
Neue Ökonomie)
Joanna Cabello (Carbontradewatch)
Daniel Tanuro (Ecosocialist
International Network)
Facilitation: Tadzio Müller (RLS)
Lydi Nacpil (Jubilee South)
Jan Pingel
(Philippinenbüro/Asienhaus)
Felix Pithan (Reading University)
Badrul Alam (La Via Campesina,
Bangladesch)
Peter Clausing (Author)
Iris Frey (Nyeleni-Netzwerk)
Bakary Traoré (Afrique-EuropeInteract, Mali)
Bangladesh, the most densely populated country on the planet is also most
strongly affected by climate change – although a Bangladeshi produces, on
average, only half a ton of CO2-emissions per annum, one thirtieth of the average
Western European...
‘Degrowthers’, eco-Socialists and climate justice activists all agree: there cannot
be a ‘green capitalism’ that really protects the environment. But what are their
alternatives, how do they plan to ‘implement’ global climate justice? Do we, in
order to save the world, have to don the hair shirt and learn to live with (a lot) less?
Or can there be an increase in the good life for all with less consumption?
The Philippines are among the countries most affected by climate change. Floods,
landslides and typhoon – most prominently typhoon Haiyan in 2013 – show the
country’s and people’s vulnerability. Lives, livelihoods, plant- and animal-species,
entire ecosystems are under threat. But the Philippines are not only victims of
climate change. The country is also responsible for its own foot-dragging in terms
of energy- and climate policy, for the slow expansion of renewable energies, for
the construction of new coal-fired power plants, the clear-cutting of forests and the
fire-sale of new mining concessions.
What’s the state of the scientific debate on climate change, what are the central
elements of the newest IPCC-report, what are those tipping points anyway, and
what the hell is the Anthropocene?
Half of humanity – especially in the global South – still lives off the primary sector,
often as small farmers. They are the people most directly affected by climate
change and extreme weather events. Does the agricultural sector offer possibilities
of resistance, and maybe even solutions to the problem? What does an
organisation like Via Campesina mean when it calls for food sovereignty? And
what might this struggle look like in Europe?
4
Sun. 1012
S. 12
Sun. 1012
S. 14
Emissions trading:
beating climate
change with
subprime assets?
Bolivia, climate
change and Vivir
Bien: A close look
at the reality on the
ground
Facilitation: Gerhard Klas
Lutz Weischer (Germanwatch)
Juta Kill (biologist and climate justice
activist)
facilitation: Bernd Brouns (DIE LINKE
parliamentary group)
Nicky Scordellis (Democracy Center,
Bolivia)
(English!)
How effective is emissions trading: does it block genuine progress on the climate,
does it aim to ‘commodify’ nature, as some claim, or is it indeed the best that could
be achieved in a difficult situation, and now needs to be improved?
Bolivia is in the spotlight as the country which signed in a law protecting the rights
of Mother Earth and whose president publicly denounces capitalism as the cause
of climate change. But beyond the political discourse, what is the reality of climate
change and Vivir Bien for communities on the ground in Bolivia? This workshop
will share videos, photography and personal experiences to give a close look at
how Bolivian communities are experiencing climate change, how they are
responding to it, and how Andean cultural roots are giving rise to initiatives which
can offer powerful lessons for the global process of building alternatives.
Workshop-stream: Energy Democracy
Sat. 1012
S. 14
Sat. 1012
No risk, no… socialise the energy
companies!?
Hendrik Sander (Attac EKU AG, IL)
Hubertus Zdebel (MP Die LINKE)
Facilitation: Alexis Passadakis (attac)
„justice, not
jumpers?“ Fighting
energy poverty
Jörg Detjen (Speaker DIE LINKE,
Cologne City Council)
Michaela Hofmann (DiözesanCaritasverband)
Lisa Kloft (FelS Klima-AG)
Facilitation: Rainer Nickel (RLS) Lisa
Kloft (FelS Klima-AG)
Facilitation: Rainer Nickel (RLS)
Tine Langkamp (350.org /
Divestment- campaign)
S. 16
Sat. 1012
No money for coal,
oil and gas:
Remunicipalisation, de-facto nationalisations in the wake of the crisis – but more
democracy? Nah… At the same time, the Big4 are themselves posing the question
of property, when they suggest socialising the risks of dismantling the nuclear
sector. Doesn’t this open some interesting opportunities?
How can we fight energy poverty, without at the same time fighting against the
energy transition?
The divestment-movement has arrived in Germany, and is steadily growing! Learn
more about the movement, its aims, and how can be a part of it.
5
S. 15
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
S. 15
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
divestment and
local strategies
The Big 4 energy
companies:
uncertain futures
Alfons Kloeck (Tschö Rheinenergie /
attac Köln)
Prof. Dr. Ralf Marquardt,
Michael Aggelidis, DIE LINKE NRW
Facilitation: Rainer Nickel (RLS)
‚We didn’t take
Berlin...’ Whither
remunicipalisation?
Stefan Taschner (Berliner
Energietisch)
Peter Weissenfeld (Tschö
Rheinenergie)
Facilitation: Sören Becker (IRS
Erkner)
Anika Limbach (Anti-Atom Bonn)
Martina Haase (Anti-Atom Aachen)
Georg Thorwart (Anti-Atom-Plenum
Köln)
You may have heard: we didn’t take Berlin. What now, where is the strategy of
remunicipalisation in the energy sector headed?
Kerstin Hötte und Mattias Endres
(oikos student group,Cologne
University)
The aim of this workshop is to develop a macroeconomic understanding of the
effects on employment of a potential coal phase-out: is Green Growth the solution,
or maybe Degrowth? A workshop with role-plays
S. 16
Sat. 4-6
S. 15
Sun. 1012
S. 15
Germany’s nuclear
phase-out: an
unfinished
symphony?
Lignite mining,
structural
transformation,
degrowth and
employment
The Big 4 energy companies continue to dominate the German market for
electricity – but they are under increasing pressure, their business model is
revealed to be of the past: what is their future?
Germany’s nuclear phase-out seems to be a done deal – but aside from the fact
that several nuclear reactors will continue running until 2022, it’s now time to take
a look at the other elements of Germany’s nuclear programme – and what it
means for the Energiewende, and the fight for a coal phase-out.
Workshop-stream (Anti-)Extractivism
Sat. 1012
S. 22
Atterwasch in
Lusatia; with
renewable energies
against coal mines
Mathias Berndt und Annette Berndt
(Atterwasch)
Facilitation: Emilio Weinberg
(Solidarische Vielfalt, Köln)
Atterwasch is slated for resettlement and demolition, to make space for more coalmining. But Atterwasch is fighting to stay, and is proposing a practical solution:
almost the entire energy supply now comes from renewable energies.
6
Sat. 1012
What’s so ‘bio’
about ‘biomass’?
Nicholas Bell (Collectif SOS Forêt du
Sud)
Linde Zuidema (FERN, Brussels)
Facilitation: Gerhard Klas
(Recherche International)
‘Biomass’ – sounds great, but it has actually become a huge, rather unsustainable
global industry, with very strong positions especially in France, where renewables
are largely biomass, not wind or solar. Germany’s E.on runs France’s largest
biomass-plant, and residents in a 400km-radius are afraid that the forsts of the
Provence will be cut down for it…
RWE: „It’s not a
company... It’s a
system!“
Willi Hoffmann (affected by
displacement)
Peter Singer (DIE LINKE)
Emilio Weinberg (Solidarische
Vielfalt, attac)
Facilitation: Tina Keller
(AusgeCO2hlt, attac EKU-AG)
Sebastian Engbrocks (Team La
Buena Vida)
Facilitation: Sebastian Rötters
(PowerShift)
What are RWE’s strategies in the Rhenish lignite region to enforce resettlement to
make space for lignite mines?
Wolfgang Schäfer (Network of those
affected negatively by lignite
Christian Döring (MD)
Tim Petzoldt (Greenpeace Köln)
Facilitation: Alfred Weinberg
Open cast mines as well coal-fired power plants emit large quantities of both
particulate matter and radioactivity. The invisible particulate matter is extremely
hazardous for our health – is anyone fighting back?
Marina Karastergiou (Coordinating
Committee of Associations Against
Coal Mining in Ierissos)
Facilitation: Alexis Passadakis (attac)
Since 2012, an enormous goldmine is being constructed on the Greek Chalkidikipeninsula – not underground, but as an enormous open-cast mine. In 2011, Hellas
Gold, a subsidiary of Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold, purchased the
exploitation rights to the Cassandra-mines in the peninsula’s South-East for 11
million Euros. The local population suspects a major corruption scandal behind the
deal between Hellas Gold, the Greek construction magnate Georgios Bobolas and
today’s mayor of the municipality of Aristoteles, Christos Pachtas (PASOK). The
project is being met with resistance. A broad range of organisations are fighting
Auditoriu
mC
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
S. 11
Sat. 4-6
S. 11
Sat. 4-6
Movie-Preview: „La
buena vida – the
good life“. By Jens
Schanze. (cinema
premiere: 14th of
May 2015)
Coal Kills! Lignite
and health risks
S. 22
Sat. 4-6
S. 16
Resisting
Extractivism:
SYRIZA, goldmining and landgrabbing in Greece
The movie tells the story of the village community Tamaquito in Colombia, set
against the background of the worldwide rush for more growth and wealth.
7
Sun. 1012
S. 22
Sun. 1012
The diversity of
resistance: how the
Rhineland fights
against lignite
mining and coalfired power plants
Fracking? No,
thanks!
S. 16
Ronja (Hambacher Forst)
Dr. Werner Holzstein (Initiative Life
without Lignite, Pulheim)
Antje Grothus (Anti-Coal-Chain 2015,
BI Buirer for Buir)
Herbert Sauerwein (Solidarische
Vielfalt)
Facilitation: Emilio Weinberg
Marika Jungblut ( Initiative NO
Fracking, Bürgerinitiatve “infofrack”
Herzogenrath, Die Linke)
Andy Gheorghiu (activist)
Facilitation: Kathrin Henneberger
both the widespread, irreversible destruction of the countryside, and the newly
emerging dangers for humans from water contaminated with cyanide. The
resistance is being met with repression: hundreds stand accused of terrorism,
several activists were imprisoned for months. We will also talk about the current
situation after the elections in Greece.
The Rhenish lignite region is a disaster zone, and a massive CO2-hotspot (it emits
some 100 mio. tons a year). Nearly 40.000 people have been forcibly resettled,
health dangers from coal-mining are enormous. There are many reasons to resist
this madness…
In the US, the fracking boom is slowing down, while in Europe, the argument has
only just begun. What are the risks of fracking? What can we learn from the
protests in the US? And what does the current situation in Germany look like?
Workshop-stream Movement
Sa. 10-12
S. 11
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
S. 22
Sat.
13:30 –
15:30
Info-event: 2015: a
hot summer in the
Battle for the
Climate?
Being right isn’t
enough: strategic
action in the climate
movement
Media training for
beginners (I)
Wilm (Ende Gelände)
This summer will see disobedient mass actions against the lignite-infrastructure in
the Rhineland. The climate camp and Degrowth Summer School will think about
alternatives. An introduction to the emerging anti-coal movement.
Jakob (Skills for Action)
The difference between being on the defensive or the offensive, or being
encouraged or burnt out often comes down to a single question: are we behaving
strategically? In this workshop, we will explain the basics of strategic political
practice and tools like the movement action plan.
Daniel Häfner (Robin Wood)
Media training for beginners. Enough said.
8
S. 24
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
Al fresco
Sat. 4-6
S. 24
Sat. 4-6
Al fresco
Sat. 4-6
S. 25
Sun. 1012
S. 25
Sun. 1012
S. 11
Action training
Ende Gelände (part
I)
Strategic media
work in the climate
movement (II)
Action training
Ende Gelände
(part II)
Sustainable
activism: what’s
that, and if so,
how?
The emotional
aspects of climate
activism
The psychology of
climate change:
barriers to and
points of leverage
for sustainable
practice
Jojo (Skills for Action)
Getting in gear for this year’s mass action: from getting organised in affinity groups
to flowing through police lines. Part I
Daniel Häfner (Robin Wood)
How can we get the media to pay more attention to the coal-issue? For
experienced media-activists, and those who want to become one.
Jojo (Skills for Action)
Getting in gear for this year’s mass action: from getting organised in affinity groups
to flowing through police lines. Part II
Timo Luthmann (AusgeCO2hlt)
Fighting against climate change is seriously stressful – add to that conflicts in your
group, precarious living conditions… you end up with burnouts, depressions, or
dropouts. How can we do things differently?
Mara (cre-act)
Other people can’t understand why you care about the climate? In this workshop,
we will learn to better understand why it’s perfectly natural to care. Engaging with
climate change engages us emotionally, which is a good thing! Often a conference
is some kind of information overload. Here, there will be space for exchange,
getting to talk to each other.
One key to successful climate activism is understanding human experience,
cognition and behaviour when faced with the complexity of climate change. Karen
Hamann and Alexander Wernke will present current research, and the ‘Handbook
for promoting sustainable behaviour’.
Alex Wernke (climate activist)
Karen Hamann (climate activist)
9
Open Spaces (self-organised workshops)
Sat. 1012
S. 13
Sat. 1:30
– 3:30
S. 13
Sa. 1:30
– 3:30
S. 25
Sat. 4-6
Eco-fascism,
biocentrism and
degrowth
Limits to Growth
and the global
ecological crisis:
what might an
ecosocialist answer
look like?
Fossil Free
Europe?
Peter Bierl (Author)
In this lecture, journalist Peter Bierl will critically present the proto-fascist roots of
environmentalism, and current examples thereof.
Klaus Meier (Left Forum Frankfurt)
The ecological crisis has taken on a global dimension: climate change,
biodiversity-loss, resource scarcity. Capitalist productivism, driven by the profit
motive, is leading us ever deeper into destruction. What might an ecosocialist
alternative look like?
Fossil Free Europe
The Rhenish lignite
region in pictures
Herbert Sauerwein (Solidarische
Vielfalt)
A slide-show about the destruction of the soil through open-cast mines, about the
destruction of livelihoods, the uprooting of people, the health-risks and the
consequences of coal-based fossilism.
Run for your Life!
Paolo Zucotti
An artistic manifestation to raise awareness about climate
change and connect front-line communities in Europe. With the theatre group
Troja, we are organizing a relay race from the Arctic region to Paris, in occasion of
COP21.
The consequences
of climate chaos:
how to create
sustainable
economies?
SALZ
The workshop is aimed at those who want to have a fundamental discussion about
what kind of economy might avert the climate catastrophe, and whether we can
have an economy without eternal growth and competition.
S. 13
Sun. 1012
S. 24
Sun. 1012
S. 13
10