* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download An e-newsletter of SANSAD South Asian Network for Social
Climate change mitigation wikipedia , lookup
Global warming wikipedia , lookup
Climate engineering wikipedia , lookup
Attribution of recent climate change wikipedia , lookup
German Climate Action Plan 2050 wikipedia , lookup
Climate change feedback wikipedia , lookup
Media coverage of global warming wikipedia , lookup
Solar radiation management wikipedia , lookup
Economics of global warming wikipedia , lookup
Economics of climate change mitigation wikipedia , lookup
Climate change in Tuvalu wikipedia , lookup
Low-carbon economy wikipedia , lookup
Effects of global warming on human health wikipedia , lookup
Climate governance wikipedia , lookup
United Nations Climate Change conference wikipedia , lookup
Climate change adaptation wikipedia , lookup
Scientific opinion on climate change wikipedia , lookup
Climate change in Canada wikipedia , lookup
2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference wikipedia , lookup
Mitigation of global warming in Australia wikipedia , lookup
Views on the Kyoto Protocol wikipedia , lookup
Citizens' Climate Lobby wikipedia , lookup
Climate change in the United States wikipedia , lookup
Climate change and agriculture wikipedia , lookup
Surveys of scientists' views on climate change wikipedia , lookup
Climate change, industry and society wikipedia , lookup
Effects of global warming on Australia wikipedia , lookup
Public opinion on global warming wikipedia , lookup
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change wikipedia , lookup
Effects of global warming on humans wikipedia , lookup
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme wikipedia , lookup
Business action on climate change wikipedia , lookup
Climate change and poverty wikipedia , lookup
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 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 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 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 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. 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 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. 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 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 . 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 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 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 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] 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 “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 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 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 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 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 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 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