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AN E-NEWSLETTER OF
SANSAD
SOUTH ASIAN NETWORK FOR SOCIAL & AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
VOLUME III
NO. 4
DECEMBER 2007
Dear friends and colleagues,
Globalisation, climate change, and the mass production of biofuels are pushing up food prices
worldwide, which could jeopardize the livelihoods of the world's poorest, according to a report
released 11th December, 2007 by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Food
prices have been steadily decreasing since the Green Revolution, but the days of falling food
prices may be over. Titled, "The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required
Actions", the 16-page report examined how various global trends are impacting world hunger on
both the supply and demand ends of the market.
Surging demand for feed, food, and fuel have recently led to drastic price increases, which are
not likely to fall in the foreseeable future, but "climate change will also have a negative impact
on food production." Similar findings have been reported by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organization, according to IFPRI. Researchers predict that shifting weather
conditions resulting from climate change will disrupt rainfall patterns that farmers rely on to
nourish their crops and water the grasslands that feed their livestock. As a result, cereal
production in South Asia could drop 22 percent by 2080, while wheat production in Africa may
virtually disappear by that time, the report said. Furthermore, temperature increases of more than
three degrees Celsius could in turn lift food prices by as much as 40 percent. The production of
crop-based biofuels -- renewable energy sources developed in response to climate change -- may
also dramatically impact food supply, and thereby further escalate food prices.
If the countries that have already committed to bio-fuel production, as well as other highpotential producer countries, carry out their current investment plans, global maize prices would
increase by 26 percent and oilseed prices would rise by 18 percent by 2020, according to the
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report. This is due to state subsidies for biofuels, as well the shift in committing scarce resources
toward cultivating bio-fuel crops. As biofuels become increasingly profitable, more land, water,
and capital will be diverted to their production, and the world will face more trade-offs between
food and fuel, - the report said. In the U.S. alone, the use of maize for ethanol production
increased by two and a half times between 2000 and 2006.
On the demand side of worldwide food production, globalisation, economic growth, and
urbanization in places such as China and India have impacted people's dietary preferences and
food choices, the report noted. While demand is on the increase for processed food and highvalue agricultural crops such as vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy, demand for grains and other
staple crops is declining. This shift in "tastes" represents a microcosm of the food costs issue. As
wealthier populations shift to a diet full of meat, fruits, and vegetables, poorer populations will
struggle to afford ever pricier food staples. With many factors threatening the world's food
supply and demand, immediate action is needed in the areas of international development and
global trade policy in order to avert what could be a dramatic hunger crisis, according to authors
of the report. Eliminating trade barriers and programs that set aside agriculture resources is one
way that developed countries could help equip developing countries for the rising food prices.
Other suggestions include strengthening policies to promote early childhood nutrition -- thereby
diminishing the risks related to limited food access -- and incorporating food and agriculture
considerations into the agenda for domestic and international climate change policy. Yet these
solutions may only mitigate the effects of a global trend whose causal forces, such as
globalisation and climate change, have already been set in motion.
Warmest regards.
Anil K Singh
Analysis of an issue
Environmental and development NGOs are now fixated on climate change to the exclusion of
nearly every other topic. Discussions in and among these organizations center on capping carbon
emissions and trading emissions rights, and doing this internationally in a way that will be
deemed equitable by the global South and acceptable to the industrial Northern countries.
Most of these policy organizations are seeking ways of implementing recommendations made in
2001 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which suggested that to keep
the global average temperature rise to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (by
consensus, the maximum increase the world's climate system can absorb without triggering
catastrophic climate change), the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere must be capped
at 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalents. This will require a 60 to 80 percent
reduction in carbon emissions below current levels by 2050.
In order to win any reduction agreement from less-industrialized nations, the richer, more
industrialized nations will have to promise to reduce their emissions more and faster. A growing
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number of organizations (including the Global Commons Institute, Eco-Equity, the Climate
Equity Project, Feasta, Just Transition Alliance, The Sky Trust, and Third World Network)
contend that the fairest solution would be to allocate annually capped emissions rights globally
on an equal per-capita basis; then, if wealthy nations wished to continue using proportionally
more fossil fuels, they would have to purchase emissions rights from more parsimonious
consumers in poor nations. This would result over time in both a diminishing amount of total
emissions (based on the declining trajectory of the annual caps) and an enormous transfer of
wealth from the more-industrialized to the less-industrialized nations. Some organizations
advocate immediate allotment of equal per-capita emissions rights; others envision a staged
implementation of the program, that would give wealthier nations time to plan and adjust (the
two most widely promoted versions of this strategy are known as "Contraction and
Convergence" and "Cap and Share").
From the perspective of less-industrialized countries, a global climate policy that does not
include an equity provision is a non-starter. The existing humanly produced atmospheric carbon,
which will continue driving climate change for the next 40 years or so even if all emissions are
halted now, was generated overwhelmingly by rich countries in the process of getting rich. Thus
it is these countries' obligation to shoulder most of the burden of necessary cutbacks. A second
equity argument has to do with expected population growth: since the population of the global
South is expected to double during the next 50 years while total population in rich countries is
projected to remain at current levels (the US is an exception), even if the South reduces carbon
emissions at half the rate of the industrial North that will translate to an equivalent per-capita
cut.
If people in the industrializing countries (particularly China and India) continue to burn more
coal and drive more cars, they will metaphorically cook the planet. These nations have the
highest growth rates for fossil fuel emissions, and China is set to soon become the world's
foremost carbon emitter if it has not already done so. These nations are in effect saying to North
America, Europe, and Japan, "Agree to reduce your emissions faster than we do, or we won't
reduce ours at all and the entire planet will burn."
This Grand Bargain could amount to an unprecedented shift of the world's economic center of
gravity. During decades of "development" policy and aid, the disparity between rich and poor
only grew; now, however, the poor world has a weapon - even if its use implies a suicide pact.
The environment/development advocacy community is pushing its agenda with particular
urgency for two reasons: first, scientific data show dramatic climate impacts already appearing
that could devastate global ecosystems within decades or even years (more on that in a moment);
and second, the agenda itself promises to solve at one stroke three enormous problems - the
world's unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels, a pending environmental catastrophe, and the
global equity dilemma.
However, the Grand Bargain is going to hit three serious snags before it can gain acceptance:
politics, scarcity of fuels, and a growing perception that it is already too late to avert catastrophic
climate change. These barriers may require new tactics if NGOs are to achieve their goals.
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Political Reality Confronts Physical Reality
Taking all of this information together - the physical realities of climate data and fuel supply
projections, and the political realities previously mentioned - what conclusions can be drawn?
Perhaps the best way to find out would be to bring together several of the most knowledgeable
and open-minded experts in relevant fields and let them talk these issues through for a few days
away from the public eye.
Some kind of climate agreement will probably emerge within the next two years due to pressure
from NGOs and the real concerns of governments. But the economic self-interest of those
governments (and major corporations) will most likely ensure that only a watered-down version
will be agreed to. Some form of carbon market will be deemed the acceptable means of
implementing it. And its terms will include a mild equity provision that won't make anyone
happy.
At the same time, supply constraints will be starting to hit hard - globally for oil, regionally for
gas, and in China for coal. Ultimately, these supply shortfalls may drive policy far more than
fear of climate change. The response of governments to fuel shortages will be one of
desperation: climate mitigation efforts will fall by the wayside as nations flail about attempting
to keep their food and transport systems functioning. International conflict is likely.
This clearly is not the optimal scenario. What alternative policies would yield different results,
and how might we go about assessing policy options in the light of factors.
Since fuel depletion alone will not result in emissions cuts sufficient to achieve an atmospheric
greenhouse gas concentration of 320 ppm CO2e, and since carbon capture and storage is
problematic, if nations are serious about climate protection the discussion must center on leaving
coal and other low-grade fossil fuels (such as tar sands) in the ground. The fact that this is a
politically distasteful notion now, and is likely to become even more so, puts a big burden on the
persuasive abilities of all of us who care about the climate. But this is the one policy that will
assuredly work to achieve our goal.
As for equity: Since we live on a finite planet, equity for the global poor can only really be
achieved by a reduction in material living standards for the billion or so inhabitants of wealthy
nations. As we have seen, this notion is extremely difficult to sell to the governments of
industrialized democracies now, and it will be no less so when their economies are in tatters.
However, steep declines in standards of living will be hitting these wealthy countries anyway,
due simply to depletion of important energy resources, starting with oil. The only way to avert
massive social chaos and famine as extraction levels decline will be to devote public capital
domestically toward the building of low energy infrastructure (e.g., electrified rail networks,
trolley lines, wind farms) while moving many people to rural areas and teaching them to farm
Sustainable. Production and consumption will have to be largely re-localized, essential goods
rationed by quota. Basically the same thing will have to happen in the poor nations.
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One end result will be a world characterized by much greater international equity - but this will
have been achieved without enormous direct international wealth transfers. Another result might
be the reduction of control by the present power-holders within all nations, since their power is
currently maintained and exerted in the context of giant centralized systems of production and
distribution.
One more helpful equity strategy would consist of the transfer of renewable energy technologies
from rich to poor countries for domestic implementation free of intellectual property rights.
The single factor that would undermine the energy transition and bring everyone to ruin is
resource wars. Today the central question facing us is not whether the world will move away
from fossil fuels, but how. The primary dispute will be between those who look for short-term
solutions to energy supply shocks (burn the last of the coal, attempt to expand the use of other
low-grade fossil fuels, go to war to control remaining high-grade fuel deposits), and policy
advocates with a long-range plan for dealing effectively and peacefully with climate change,
adaptation to scarcity, and global inequity. If NGOs are stuck fighting for policies that simply
won't work, then the short-term options, however disastrous, will win by default.
It is surely time for the climate and equity policy discussion to broaden to include the challenge
of impending energy resource scarcity, as well as a more nuanced reconnoitering of the current
and future political terrain.
News
Food Pro 2007 is a mouth- watering affair
Several stalls offer ice cream samples for visitors, while fruit juice processors lure the thirsty at
the four-day trade fair on the Confederation of Indian Industry event being held at Chennai
Trade Centre. These products are part of an agri-business boom that can take the processed
foods from their current two per cent of all foods produced in the country to a healthy 10 per
cent. Food processing would not only increase the longevity of perishable foods and prevent
wastage but would also give the State’s farmers higher profit margins through value addition.
The idea was to increase the level of value addition from the current seven per cent to 30 per
cent.
The food processing sector in the State can grow at 15 per cent. The government wanted to
ensure that farmers benefited from this sunrise industry. When the consumer is able to pay
more, the margin available to the farmer through value addition should go up. Several of the
large food processing machinery suppliers displaying their products at the fair feel that the
immediate future in food processing belongs to large corporate players, with the agricultural
community needing to pull up its socks to tap the potential of the industry. The big problem is
the availability of large amounts of consistent quality raw material. There could be a large
market for the processed fruit. But for a plant processing three tones an hour, you need raw
Material of 10 tones an hour. Where do we go for that quantity of good fruit? a question has
been raised towards organized farming, what has been backed by the corporate sector, would
be the driver in the near future
.
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Agricultural and dairy cooperatives are also present at the fair, scouting for ways to increase
value addition and profits on their own terms. Such cooperatives, with their access to raw
material, could well be the long-term drivers of the food processing industry.
These issues will be up for debate at the Food Pro conference on “Driving the Agri Revolution,”
which will be held at the same venue on November 26 and 27. Over 120 exhibitors, hailing from
eight countries, are participating in the fair, which expects 3,000 business visitors and 30,000
trade visitors.
Agricultural subsidies are destroying livelihoods in developing countries
The Nov. 23-25 event brought together leaders from the 53 member states of the
Commonwealth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that starts
Friday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. This organization mainly includes former British
colonies, and promotes good governance and economic development among other objectives.
CHOGM takes place every two years, and was last held in Malta.
Trade has also featured in sideline discussions ahead of CHOGM, along with concerns about
climate change and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Eight goals
were agreed on by global leaders in 2000 in a bid to raise living standards around the world by
2015.
Outgoing Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon called on the United States, Europe
and Japan to remove agricultural subsidies that have taken a particular toll on the developing
world. [More]
Befouls can hurt the poor.
A body tasked with shaping European Union policy on biofuels is dominated by companies with
a vested interest in promoting this source of energy, environmentalists have claimed. In early
2008, the European Biofuels Technology Platform will publish a report outlining a programme
for greater research and development into how crops grown on farmland can be used to quench
Europe's ever-growing thirst for transport fuels.
The Platform is the successor of the Biofuels Research Advisory Council (BIOFRAC), a group
also set up at the European Commission's request. Last year BIOFRAC recommended that 25
percent of the Union's transport demands should be met by biofuels (also called agro fuels) by
2030. Like BIOFRAC, the Platform is mainly comprised of industry lobbyists. Of the 125 people
on its various working groups, just two belong to non-governmental organisations. The
Platform's steering committee includes representatives of the Spanish oil and gas firm Repsol,
Environmental campaigners are perturbed that the group is biased towards firms who either have
a vested interest in biofuels or car companies who realise that the greater use of biofuels can
provide them with an incentive not to develop more energy-efficient models. The Commission
has ensured that the same companies that shaped the EU's vision on agro fuels through
BIOFRAC are now implementing its recommendations and designing the agro fuels research and
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development agenda, According to the Corporate Europe Observatory, which monitors the
influence of business on EU law-makers. There is a clear conflict of interest as these are
corporations with a direct commercial interest in the development of agro-fuels in the EU."
[More]
The western appetite for biofuels is causing starvation in the poor world
Developing nations are being pushed to grow crops for ethanol, rather than food - all thanks to
political expediency. It doesn't get madder than this. It can be called as "a crime against
humanity". Question has been raised on five-year moratorium on all government targets and
incentives for bio-fuel: the trade should be frozen until second-generation fuels - made from
wood or straw or waste - become commercially available. Otherwise, the superior purchasing
power of drivers in the rich world means that they will snatch food from people's mouths. Run
your car on virgin bio-fuel, and other people will starve.
Even the International Monetary Fund, always ready to immolate the poor on the altar of
business, now warns that using food to produce biofuels "might further strain already tight
supplies of arable land and water all over the world, thereby pushing food prices up even
further". This week, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization will announce the lowest global
food reserves in 25 years, threatening what it calls "a very serious crisis". Even when the price of
food was low, 850 million people went hungry because they could not afford to buy it. With
every increment in the price of flour or grain, several million more are pushed below the
breadline. The cost of rice has risen by 20% over the past year, maize by 50%, wheat by 100%.
Biofuels aren't entirely to blame - by taking land out of food production they exacerbate the
effects of bad harvests and rising demand - but almost all the major agencies are now warning
against expansion. And almost all the major governments are ignoring them. The demands of
the motoring lobby and the business groups clamouring for new infrastructure can be met. The
people being pushed off their land remain unheard. [More]
Developing countries face the highest risk
Although climate change threatens the international community as a whole, the heaviest human
costs are borne by the poor, who have contributed least to the problem, according to the United
Nations. That is the conclusion of the Human Development Report (HDR) 2007-2008, which
Focuses on climate change and was released on Tuesday by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP).
The launch of the HDR on Climate Change at this time comes at a crucial time, as next week the
Conference of the Parties (COP) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change meets
in the Indonesian city of Bali, from Dec. 3 to 14th, 2007. The debate in Bali will be of
fundamental importance, because the context of the negotiations for a treaty to replace the Kyoto
Protocol when it expires in 2012 will depend on its outcome. The Kyoto Protocol was approved
in 1977 and entered into force in 2005. It laid down the practical commitments assumed by states
party to implement the Framework Convention's goal of mitigating global warming. A positive
result from the COP in Bali would be for countries to agree on policies and actions to achieve
mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change. [More]
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“Don't price the drug products beyond the reach of the world's poor”,-Oxfam asks to the
drug firms
Drug firms are missing potentially valuable business opportunities by failing to meet the needs
of consumers in developing countries, according to an international charity. The group Oxfam
International, in a new report, said the 700-billion-dollar-a-year pharmaceuticals industry
continues to price their products beyond the reach of the world's poor. Additionally, it said
market opportunities also were being squandered by firms' failure to develop more medicines
relevant to poor countries and their intransigence over trademark issues. The industry is burying
its head in the sand, said Oxfam. More than 85 percent of world consumers are underserved or
have no access to its medicines. Charging high prices, quashing generic competition, developing
medicines only for those rich enough to pay, and fighting for harsher patent laws is an ineffective
business strategy for new markets as much as it is a moral outrage. The richest 15 percent of the
world's population consumes more than 90 percent of its medicines. Millions of poor people are
left to pay with their lives for the scarcity of drugs where they live: tuberculosis kills two million
people a year and malaria another one million. [More]
Sustainable water management solutions
A report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in this affluent city-state urges the
region’s policymakers to place water-related issues high on their development agenda. The
'Asian Water Development Outlook 2007' (AWDO) outlines for leaders the crucial role that they
can play in finding sustainable water management solutions to such issues as lack of access to
drinking water for an estimated 700 million people, the problems created by water-borne
diseases and degradation of land-water ecosystems. One of the greatest challenges we are facing
now in terms of water management reforms is finding committed leaders who have the vision
and courage to promote change in their sectors. The 50-page document presents facts and figures
About water issues in the regions, the experience of various communities and offers solutions to
both water and sanitation problems. Its aim is to make stakeholders and administrators realise the
complex problems they face and offer methods of effectively addressing these at the policy level.
The report was put together by experts who "have passion to solve water problems in the
regions." The team was led by Stockholm Water Prize 2006 Laureate Prof.
It is important for the political leadership in the regions to understand the significance of this
report. All citizens in Asia need to take this issue seriously. It is a report for everybody, not just
for the government. The report's major focus is on urban water management, considered a
priority issue due to the accelerating urbanization in the region. The report predicts that a future
water crisis will be caused not by actual water scarcity but because of neglect and
mismanagement of wastewater. The continuation of the present trend will make available water
sources increasingly more contaminated, and will make provision of clean water more and more
expensive, as well as more complex and difficult to manage. By diluting seriously the definition
of access to clean water and considering sanitation only in a very restricted sense, developing
countries, including many in Asia, are mortgaging their future in terms of water security.
Regarding sanitation issues, the report talks of ‘’waterless sanitation and less water sanitation’’
and also emphasizes decentralized solutions for sanitation. "For example, water from a public
source, such as a river or a reservoir, will be brought in via water pipes and delivered to homes.
During this process, 50 percent of water gets lost in leakages. Unfortunately, we adopt the same
process for sanitation. The same plumbing technique is used and 50 percent more wastewater is
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lost. The best solution would be for every small town to have a self-contained sewage system,
maintained in a proper, sustainable and affordable manner.
Water Services - Fee or Free?
Access to safe water may be touted as a human right, but inadequate supplies, crumbling water
systems and the galloping needs of growing populations are forcing experts, government utilities
and funding agencies to ponder over devising sustainable water service networks in Asia’s
teeming cities. At least 40 percent of poor people living in urban areas across the Asia-Pacific
have no connection to piped water. Despite the region’s record rates of economic growth over
decades, the biggest challenges for them include the basic need of how to provide their people
with sufficient quantities of safe drinking water. This concern will be among the main areas of
focus of a report, called ‘Asian Water and Development Outlook’, that the Manila-based Asian
Development Bank (ADB) is due to release later in November and at the first Asia-Pacific Water
Summit in Japan on Dec. 3-4 this year. For generations, water has been seen as a free, natural
resource. But debate continues to revolve around whether water, although a right, should have a
certain economic value -- a price -- attached to it.
In the next 20 years, the practices and processes of water management will change more than in
the past two thousand years. Likewise, many societies consider it the government’s obligation to
provide water to the entire populace. What are the governments’ kitty and taxpayers’ money for?
Is a blunt question many would ask? But the reality is that governments -- local, provincial and
national -- are often clearly short of money for just about everything. Public-sector water utilities
in Asia have been crying for funds to develop their systems, saying that many water users pay
marginally or do not pay at all. Financed from general taxation, the water service competes with
other sectors for limited funding, and it is not easy for governments to allocate sufficient
resources to all competing sectors. How do we balance the financial demands of water sector
with health services, transport, education, power, security and defence etc? Many people have
the tendency to waste what is free. People are an important part of the (water) equation, but at
the same time, they may be creating water problems themselves. [More]
Tribals Distressed by Ban on Forest Gathering
The magical trill of the Nilgiri Whistling Thrush deep in the jungles of this remote southern
Indian wildlife sanctuary is no comfort to its nearly 2,000 Soliga aboriginal tribal families. The
implementation in 2006 of the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act 2002 now bans advises
(aboriginal tribes) from gathering non-timber forest produce (NTFP) such as honey, wild herbs,
mosses, lichen and fruits for commercial purposes from parks and sanctuaries. Till the ban,
Soligas had usufruct rights to collect NTFP and sell them to their own cooperative LAMPs
(Large-scale Adivasi Multipurpose Society) which in turn would auction them to the highest
bidder, generally traders who in turn sell the produce to various industries. Being a cooperative,
LAMPS functioned on a non-profit basis. Approximately 12,500 (of a total population of
30,000) Soliga had subsisted inside BRT (short for Biligiri Rangana Betta), growing a little food
and relying heavily on NTFP sales for daily sustenance. Their close link with the forests has
given them a deep knowledge of the ecology and of the forests of BRT. There have been no
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instances reported of poaching or harming wildlife by Soliga inside the sanctuary. But without
the small income from selling to LAMPS, Soliga families are now facing starvation and distress.
Active contributors to LAMPS, of the Kanneri adivasi settlement inside the sanctuary, are now
unemployed. [More]
Emergency Brakes Needed to Stop Climate Crash
In the end, governments accepted evidence from the world's top scientists that climate change
impacts could be abrupt and irreversible, and that they require urgent action. "The threat is real,"
said United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. "I have seen the impacts of climate change
in Antarctica and the Amazon with my own eyes," Ban said in a press conference in Valencia,
Spain, at public unveiling of the Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC).
The report shows that the window for action is closing. Policy-makers need to take action. The
24-page Synthesis Report and shorter Synthesis Summary for Policymakers summaries the
scientific findings from the IPCC's 2,800-page, three-volume assessment of climate change
released earlier in the year [More]
BALI DECLARATION
“A CALL TO ACTION TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE”
December 11, 2007
Nusa Dua, Bali
We, representatives and members of farmer organizations, small fisher associations, women’s
movements, civil society organizations, food sovereignty advocates and environmental justice
activists, gathered together during the parallel CSO events to the 13 th session of the Conference of
Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as
the meeting of the parties (MOP) of the Kyoto Protocol currently being held from December 3 – 12,
2007 in Bali support the global civil society call for immediate action to address the current climate
crisis, particularly the immediate implementation of mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) emission
reduction targets by the rich countries by 2008-2012 and of setting deeper binding targets by at least
80 percent below the 1990 levels by 2050, with the greatest responsibility for reduction falling upon
the rich industrialized countries. Concomitantly, we deplore the US high-handed tactics of preventing a
post-Kyoto protocol that will set further commitments of rich countries, noting that it has continuously
ignored the responsibility of reducing its current level of GHG emissions.
We believe that the time to act is now.
The impacts of climate change are presently felt heaviest by the rural poor. Long droughts and
climate variability have led to declining harvests for small farmers and artisanal fishers. Climate
change poses tremendous threats to food security, food sovereignty and human security. Oftentimes
in such disastrous conditions, the women, given their multiple burdens in production as well as
reproduction face severe constraints in terms of responding and adapting to climate change.
Environmental disasters and climate change are clearly inherent to the current global
economic system lorded by rich countries and their transnational corporations.
The current model of development is largely premised on increasing fossil fuel consumption,
unsustainable over-exploitation of natural resources, a race to the bottom of wages and labor
standards, and the re-organization of production processes which not only give corporations enormous
control over such processes but even over entire national economies and including formerly selfsufficient local economies, thus clearly undermining sovereignty of countries, peoples and
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communities. This development paradigm has increasingly led to overproduction and unsustainable
consumption, benefiting the rich countries and their transnational corporations as well as the national
elite in Southern countries while depriving billions of people, mostly found in Asia and Africa of food
and basic necessities.
This system, thus has undoubtedly produced not only the worst environmental disasters
recorded in many parts of the South, but has bred and reproduced increasing poverty and
inequality.
The current global economic system is maintained through the failed Washington Consensus, the
policy of rapid trade liberalization and “economic integration” imposed by the IMF-World Bank and
enforced via the multilateral trade regime ruled by World Trade Organization (WTO). This system has
enabled a few big transnational corporations to extract increasing profits, at the least cost, but at
colossal social and environmental costs. Moreover, under such a system, debts and financing have
been channeled to projects that have increasingly exploited environmental resources in the South and
have exacerbated climate change.
Clearly, increased trade liberalization and globalization through the current proposals in the Doha
Round and under free trade regimes pushed through bilateral and regional free trade agreements will
likely induce similar problems of overproduction and consumption, intensify asymmetries between and
within nations, destroy vital ecosystems and natural habitats, and thus erode the capacity of
developing countries, particularly of the poor households to address climate change. The governments
of the South are likewise equally responsible for this rapid environmental and social crisis now
confronting the poorer countries.
Thus, in order to address climate change, cutting down of global emissions primarily by the rich
countries that have contributed immensely to the concentration of greenhouse gases, is certainly not
enough. There has to be a fundamental shift in paradigm, where economic development is
oriented away from production for exports to one that prioritizes domestic needs and redistributes
benefits to farmers, fishers, women and workers. Free trade has to be reversed in order for
communities and the people to take increasing control of their production decisions and processes as
well as the marketing and distribution of their products. The national trade policy should reflect a
national development strategy that meets sound environmental, social and economic goals as defined
by the people in the most democratic and consultative manner. Trade should be in conjunction with
the people’s exercise of their social and economic rights as set and affirmed in international
agreements and covenants. Food sovereignty should be the over-arching policy in promoting
agriculture development and growth. Sustainable development also presupposes that Northern
consumption should be scaled down to a level that will provide the Southern people to achieve their
basic needs within the existing carbon constraints.
In the immediate, rich countries that have contributed tremendously to greenhouse gas emissions,
since the early phases of their industrialization and up to the present, have to immediately cut down
on their emissions. In addition, huge financial transfers from the North to the South should be
immediately undertaken in order to improve technology and infrastructure and build the capacity
particularly of poor communities in developing countries to immediately respond to climate-induced
disasters and to adapt to climate change.
In particular, we demand the following:
1. Rich countries should immediately reduce their carbon emissions based on their Kyoto Protocol
commitments and work for further reduction from the 1990 base by a minimum of 80% by 2050.
2. Reject carbon trading and other market-based mechanisms that allow developed countries and their
corporations to profit from trading polluters’ rights while undermining people’s sovereignty over
forests, marine and coastal resources.
3. Stop large-scale biofuel production which deprives small farmers, women, and indigenous peoples
of their lands and increases the risks of hunger and food insecurity as well as environmental damage
in the South.
SANSAD
N-13, 2nd Floor, Green Park extension, New Delhi-110016, India.
Tel.: 0091-11- 41644845 Fax: 0091-11-41644576
Email: [email protected] Website: www.sansad.org.in
3. Stop bilateral and regional free trade and investment agreements that seek the elimination of
remaining policy tools that are important to directing national development according to the needs of
the people and communities, and to protecting and conserving the environment.
4. Mitigation measures should be guided by common but differentiated responsibility among countries
and fully respect human rights.
5. The use and promotion of unsustainable and environmentally risky technologies to address global
warming should be stopped, including the commercialization of GM crops and the dumping of urea in
the oceans.
6. Women and gender equity should be a key and integral component of any mitigation and
adaptation measure.
7. Adaptation policy and measures should strengthen existing indigenous knowledge and practices of
communities and local people. Moreover, adaptation measures should employ democratic and
participatory approaches and involve the widest participation of small farmers, indigenous peoples,
artisanal fishers, women and workers.
8. Financing for adaptation should not be tied to the scheme of carbon trading and should be sufficient
to meet the needs of developing countries but on top of current levels of official development
assistance. Financial transfer from the rich countries to the developing countries should take the form
of innovative instruments like taxation as well as debt cancellation. Adaptation finances should be
publicly and democratically controlled and managed and should allow for the substantial and largest
participation of the community stakeholders as well as easy accessing of highly vulnerable groups and
communities.
9. International financial institutions should not be involved in adaptation and mitigation measures, as
they have historically supported large-scale projects that have destroyed the environment and have
financed major energy and oil companies that have contributed to environmental disasters and
perpetrated worst violation of human rights.
10. We call for urgent emergency measures to address current impacts of climate change such as
droughts, flooding, changing river course, typhoons, etc. and to see that the UNCCD targets the
combating of climate change.
11. We finally demand for the total and immediate cancellation of all debts of developing countries.
ASIA-PACIFIC NETWORK FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY (APNFS)
Integrated Rural Development Foundation (Philippines), Philippine Network of Rural
Development Institutions (PHILNET-RDI), Alliance of Agricultural Workers in the Philippines
(AMA), National Movement of Farmers in the Philippines (PKMP), Bina Desa (Indonesia),
KRKP (Indonesia), CINDELARAS, Institute for Global Justice (IGJ), WALHI-Indonesia, VECOIndonesia, South Asia Network on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development
(SANSAD), Center for Environment Concerns (CEC- India), Green Movement of Sri Lanka,
Coastal Development Partnership (Bangladesh), Women’s Collective (India), VECO-Vietnam
APNFS is a regional network of farmer organizations, fisher groups, women, food
sovereignty advocates and environmental justice activists and NGOs that actively
campaigns against unjust trade rules and advocates for people’s food sovereignty to
address the current unsustainable agriculture and trade system
SANSAD
N-13, 2nd Floor, Green Park extension, New Delhi-110016, India.
Tel.: 0091-11- 41644845 Fax: 0091-11-41644576
Email: [email protected] Website: www.sansad.org.in