All posts by Rachitaa Gupta

Resources, SB58, SB58 Resources

Briefing: End Financing and Promotion of False Solutions

The world is experiencing an unprecedented climate crisis and the impacts of climate change are already being felt around the world, with devastating consequences for ecosystems, human health, and livelihoods. There are more frequent and severe weather events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves. These events are causing widespread damage to infrastructure and economic activity, leading to food and water scarcity, displacement, and even loss of life. Nearly 3.5 billion people globally are climate vulnerable. Yet the world leaders have been more focused on pushing profit driven speculative technologies and technofixes.

Real, proven, community-centered, cost effective solutions to justly address the climate crisis are increasingly being swept aside in favor of industry-basked, risky, expensive, and harm-inducing false solutions. Climate justice begins with ending financing for and promotion of these false solutions.

This briefing provides simple talking points to help debunk and counter various false solutions.

Debunking False SolutionsDownload
Interventions, SB58

Intervention by Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice at SB58 Opening Plenary Session

June 5, 2023

Mr Chair,

This statement is delivered by Gadir Lavadenz on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

We want to clearly express that NO COP overseen by a fossil fuel executive can be seen as a COP that will deliver what people and the planet are owed. The science is clear: there’s no more room for fossil fuels on a living planet. Coal, oil and gas are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for 86% of all carbon dioxide emissions. Real, rapid, and equitable emission cuts are needed in line with principles of justice and equity and that cannot be achieved through a hyper focus on dangerous distractions such as carbon markets, offsets, nature based solutions and incredibly dangerous and ungovernable geoengineering– all of which allow for continued pollution and disrespect historical responsibility. 

The world is losing faith in this process and we are running out of time. We do not only wish for fruitful discussion, but expect the delivery of concrete measures that include: establishing an Accountability Framework to end the ability of polluting interests to undermine climate action; a publicly funded and operationalized loss and damage finance facility; a pathway for a fast and equitable fossil fuels phase out; the urgent global collaboration needed to advance real solutions through article 6.8; a global stock take that is holistic and non-mitigation centric; a just transition work program that spurs the urgently needed transitions deeply rooted in equity;

A legitimate COP, is a Fossil Fuel Free COP. There is no climate justice, without human rights

Thank you very much

SB58

SB58 CLIMATE TALKS

TWN Bonn Climate News Update No. 1

5 June 2023
Published by Third World Network

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE INTERSESSIONAL CLIMATE TALKS

Bonn, 5 June (Meena Raman+) – The 58th sessions of the UNFCCC’s subsidiary bodies (the Subsidiary Body for Implementation [SBI] and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice [SBSTA] are meeting in Bonn, Germany from 5 to 15 June, 2023.

The SB sessions will be presided over by the respective Chairs: Nabeel Munir (Pakistan) for the SBI and Harry Vreuls (Netherlands) for SBSTA.

The intersessional meeting of the subsidiary bodies (SBs) is key to advancing further work from the decisions adopted at the UNFCCC’s 27th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 27) in Sharm-el-Sheikh last year, as they prepare to adopt new decisions at COP 28, to be held in Dubai, UAE later this year.

The Bonn talks are taking place against the backdrop of scorching heatwave across many parts of the world, including from Asia to Africa and Europe, in part, attributed to climate change and global heating.

According to the latest news from the  World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years, fuelled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases and a naturally occurring El Niño event”.  Said the WMO further, “there is a 66% likelihood that the annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027 will be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year.  There is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period as a whole, will be the warmest on record.”

“A warming El Niño is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory,” warned the WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas, adding further that “This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment” and that governments need to be prepared for this.

Amid this grim alarm, the Bonn talks are also expected to be ‘heated’ on many fronts, especially along North-South lines. Some of the main issues to watch at the SBs are set out below.

Matters relating to loss and damage

Loss and Damage Fund and the Glasgow Dialogue

COP 27 delivered on what was the ‘litmus test’ for its success – consensus on the establishment of new funding arrangements and a fund on loss and damage to assist developing countries. Parties agreed that the fund’s mandate include a focus on addressing loss and damage. They also agreed to establish a Transitional Committee (TC) to make recommendations on how to operationalise both the new funding arrangements and the fund for the consideration and adoption by COP 28 later this year.

The TC has met twice already this year; the first meeting took place in Luxor, Egypt from 27-29 March, while the second meeting took place in Bonn, Germany from 25-27 May.  Discussions during the first TC meeting were not smooth, with differences of views across developing and developed country members on what should be discussed first, viz. the funding arrangements or the establishment of the fund. Developing country members wanted to focus on the operationalisation of the new fund for loss and damage, whereas developed country members wanted to focus on matters that would inform the funding arrangements and the fund, saying that more information was needed on the current landscape and institutions that are funding activities related to loss and damage. (See related update).

During the second meeting the TC, members had substantive exchange covering institutional arrangements, modalities, structure, governance and terms of reference for the fund; defining the elements of the new funding arrangements; identifying and expanding sources of funding; and ensuring coordination and complementarity with existing funding arrangements. Developing countries continued to express their preference of the fund over funding arrangements, and stressed that existing funding arrangements were far from enough and that there is very little explicit funding for loss and damage needs. Developed countries on the other hand, while covering all the four areas, stressed how the humanitarian assistance can be further improved (see related update).

In Bonn, the 2nd Glasgow Dialogue (GD) on loss and damage will be held, focusing on the operationalization of new funding arrangements and the fund, as well as on maximizing support from existing funding arrangements relevant for responding to economic and non-economic losses, slow onset events and extreme weather events. This Dialogue will inform the work of the TC.  The 1st GD took place last June.

Santiago Network on Loss and Damage (SNLD)

At CMA 4 (the 4th meeting of Parties to the Paris Agreement) last year, Parties agreed on the institutional arrangements to operationalise the SNLD in order to catalyse technical assistance to developing countries. The structure of the Santiago network and its terms of reference were agreed to. The decision was also that a selection process for the host of the network secretariat be launched in order to select the host by this year.

A call for proposals by the UNFCCC secretariat to host the Santiago network followed and the secretariat convened an evaluation panel for selecting the host on 5 April 2023 and supported the panel in preparing an evaluation report that includes a shortlist of proposals for the consideration of Parties. At SB 58, a draft decision is hoped for, with one proposal to host the network, which will then be adopted at COP 28.

According to the scenario note prepared by the Chairs of the SBs, a proposal from the Caribbean Development Bank and a joint proposal from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the UN Office for Project Services were received.

Just transition work programme

A new and significant outcome from COP 27 was the decision to establish a work programme on just transition on the pathways to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Parties also noted that the global transition to low emissions provides opportunities and challenges for sustainable economic development and poverty eradication and emphasised that just and equitable transition encompasses pathways that include energy, socioeconomic, workforce and other dimensions, all of which must be based on nationally defined development priorities and include social protection so as to mitigate potential impacts associated with the transition.

At the Bonn session, Parties are tasked to develop the work programme and as per the scenario note of the Chairs, discussions are expected to focus on pragmatic approaches and technical aspects, with the focus on preparing a draft decision text for consideration and adoption at CMA 5, as mandated.

Sharm el-Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme

At COP 27, Parties confirmed that the objective of the work programme “shall be to urgently scale up mitigation ambition and implementation in this critical decade in a manner that complements the global stocktake.”

Parties decided “that the work programme shall be operationalized through focused exchanges of views, information and ideas, noting that the outcomes of the work programme will be non-prescriptive, non-punitive, facilitative, respectful of national sovereignty and national circumstances, take into account the nationally determined nature of NDCs and will not impose new targets or goals.” (This was a grave concern to many developing countries).

It was also decided that implementation of the work programme will start immediately after CMA 4 and continue until its CMA 8 (2026), “with a view to adopting a decision on the continuation of the work programme at that session”.

As part of the work programme, CMA 4 decided that at least two global dialogues be held each year and the first of this was held under the SBs from June 3 to 4th in Bonn, followed on 5th June by what is called an “investment focused event”.

At the opening of the global dialogue on 3rd June, Ambassador Mohamed Nasr of Egypt, as the COP 27 Presidency, remarked that as Parties deliberate issues under the mitigation work programme with a focus on energy this time, “We also need to be reminded that substantial percentage of mitigation component of developing countries’ nationally developing countries (NDCs)s are conditional, which reflects how much impact this work programme can deliver in terms of supporting implementation and enhancing ambition.”

He also highlighted some of the key findings of latest reports including the International Energy Agency (IEA) which reports on energy that “Average growth rate in clean energy investments has reached 12% compared to 2% in 2015, but the investments were concentrated in China, the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), while the rest of developing economies has witnessed no or very limited increase in clean energy spending compared to 2015.”

He said further that the high cost of capital and rising borrowing costs threaten to undercut the economic attractiveness for investments in clean energy in developing countries, and that most of the positive trends in clean energy investments are leaving developing countries behind.  Nasr also stressed that “while we are talking about energy transition, there are 600 million Africans who have no access to energy.”  He added further that with these information and facts in mind, “the deliberations will provide the needed space to consider them and deliver real implementable recommendations.”

Separate from the mandated global dialogue above, Sweden on behalf of the EU has also proposed that the work programme be included in the provisional agendas of the SBs “in order to support the objectives of the mitigation work programme and robust annual decisions at the CMA, it’s necessary to include an agenda item at the SBs in June, in addition to the SB’s sessions at every COP.” Parties will be asked to consider this proposal by the EU when the agendas of the SBs are presented for adoption. If the proposal is accepted, a contact group or informal consultations on the matter will have to be established and for conclusions to be agreed to and presented to CMA 4 for adoption.

Global goal on adaptation (GGA)

Parties had last year initiated the development of a framework for the GGA which is to be undertaken “…through a structured approach under the Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme in 2023, with a view to the framework being adopted at CMA 5” later this year. The framework is “to guide the achievement of the GGA and the review of overall progress in achieving, it with a view to reducing the increasing adverse impacts, risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change, as well as enhance adaptation action and support.”

Developing countries had firmly called for the establishment of a framework on GGA as a substantive COP 27 outcome, proposing detailed elements in the form of dimensions; themes; indicators/metrics/targets; among others. The means of implementation – finance, technology transfer and capacity building – being one of the integral components of the dimensions of the framework.

Negotiations on the GGA will continue at the current Bonn session. In addition, a workshop on mainstreaming adaptation, including target-setting, methodologies and indicators will take place from 4th to 5th June in conjunction with the SBs.  This is the 6th workshop of 8 workshops being held under the GGA work programme since last year, with the hope and expectation that these workshops will result in an “ambitious outcome”, as per the Co-Chairs scenario note for the SBs.

Finance

Many of the finance issues will be negotiated under the COP and CMA to be held later this year.  Among the main issues are the following:

2nd review of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF)

Parties initiate the 2nd review of the SCF at this session. The SCF plays a very important role in assisting the COP and the CMA in exercising its functions in relation to the Financial Mechanism of the Convention and the Paris Agreement. This involves among the many roles viz.

  • Providing to the COP/CMA draft guidance for the operating entities of the Financial Mechanism of the Convention and the Paris Agreement (such as the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Find);
  • Preparing a biennial assessment, overview of climate finance flows, drawing on available sources of information, including national communications and biennial reports of both developed and developing country Parties etc.

It is hoped that Parties will be able to arrive at conclusions at the SBI session with elements of a draft decision that will be adopted at COP 28.

New Collective Quantified Goal on Finance

In conjunction with the SBs, the sixth technical expert dialogue (TED 6) under the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) will be convened, and will focus on the themes “quantum” and “mobilization and provision of financial sources”.

The decision from CMA last year acknowledged “the need to significantly strengthen the ad hoc work programme on the NCQG in the light of the urgency of scaling up climate action with a view to achieving meaningful outcomes…and setting the NCQG in 2024 taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries.”

The objective of TED 6 is to “discuss and identify options for ways to determine the quantum of the NCQG…and options on the mobilization and provision of financial sources.”

Developing countries have stressed the need to have a discussion on the quantum of the NCQG for some time now. However, developed countries have traditionally refused to engage in discussions on the quantum of the goal, in attempts to push this to discussions next year. This was among the key contentious issues in Sharm el-Sheikh (see related update). TED 6 will offer Parties an opportunity to go in-depth into the issue of quantum for the goal.

Workshop on Article 9.5

The second biennial in-session workshop on information to be provided by Parties in accordance with Article 9.5 of the Paris Agreement will also be convened at this current SB session. (Article 9.5 provides for developed countries to biennially communicate indicative quantitative and qualitative information on the projected levels of public financial resources to be provided to developing countries.)

The objective of the workshop scheduled to take place on 6 June is to “share views, experiences and lessons learned on information contained in the second biennial communications”; and to “present and discuss the overall state of predictability and clarity of information on financial support to developing countries for the implementation of the Paris Agreement…”.

According to the compilation and synthesis report on the second biennial communications on Article 9.5 by the Secretariat, 34 Parties have submitted their communications. This includes Australia, Canada, Czech Republic and the EU, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the US.

Developing countries are expected to hold the developed countries to account in terms of the improvements requested in relation to their first biennial communications. Improvements which were sought included the following: “The indicative projections of climate finance for developing countries and specific plans for scaling up the provision and mobilization of climate finance; the information provided on projected levels of climate finance and lack of detail on themes, various channels and instruments across the biennial communications; and the information on the shares of projected climate finance for adaptation and mitigation, and on plans for addressing the balance between the two”.

Improvements were also sought “on enhancing the quality and granularity of information on programmes, including projected levels, channels and instruments, particularly on climate finance for the least developed countries and small island developing States, and on relevant methodologies and assumptions”.

However, the communication from the US reveals as follows:  “Given that these channels are demand-based, coupled with the fact that US bilateral channels depend on annual appropriations from Congress, it is not possible for the US to forecast or project future climate finance levels or quantitative ex-ante information.” The communication by the US also does not make any commitments and only reiterates their “intentional” announcements at best.

The Global Stocktake

The first global stocktake (GST) scheduled to take place at COP 28 in Dubai is among the most awaited outcomes in 2023. The GST is to assess the collective progress of Parties in the implementation of the Paris Agreement goals.

At the current SB session, the technical assessment component of the first GST will conclude, with the convening of the third and last meeting of the technical dialogue, with the corresponding summary report to be published in July this year and an overall synthesis of the summary reports to be published later in September.

At the current session, four roundtables will be convened as part of the technical assessment. These will be on mitigation, including response measures; adaptation, including loss and damage; means of implementation and support: finance, technology and capacity building; and integrated and holistic approaches. Discussions are expected to focus on “what next” for each of the roundtables. In these roundtables, Parties are expected to address and develop further the emerging messages (in the four areas corresponding to the roundtable topics) in the second summary report by the technical dialogue co-facilitators.

A joint contact group will also be convened where Parties are expected to discuss the structure and format of GST outcomes for COP 28, and potential follow up processes, if any. The high-level committee, comprising the Egyptian and the UAE Presidencies along with the SB Chairs, are expected to provide an update, during SB 58 on progress in planning their high-level events.

Several of these areas are likely to see divergences, with developing countries calling for the GST to be based on equity and best available science and the importance of taking stock of collective action and not transferring the burden of developed countries’ inaction onto developing countries via the GST.

Article 6: market and non-market approaches

As regards Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement (related to the use of Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes [ITMOS] towards the implementation NDCs), CMA4 requested the SBSTA to work on a number of topics including the technical expert review and elements related to reporting.

On Article 6.4 (which is a mechanism to contribute to the mitigation of emissions and support sustainable development), SBSTA has been tasked with further work, including on responsibilities of the Supervisory Body (of the mechanism) and of Parties that host activities under the Article in order for such host Parties to elaborate on and apply national arrangements for the mechanism. The SBSTA was also tasked to continue its work in developing recommendations relating to the rules and procedures for the mechanism, including whether Article 6.4 activities could include emissions avoidance and conservation enhancement activities.

On Article 6.8 (non-market approaches), the Glasgow Committee on Non-market Approaches (GCMNA) agreed to will move fully into implementing the work programme activities for 2023-2026 in two phases. At SBSTA 58, the GCMNA will hold its third meeting in a contact group format on 5 June 2023, where the secretariat will provide update on the status of the development and operationalisation of the UNFCCC web-based platform for NMAs. There will also be an in-session workshop on 9 June 2023 to exchange information, best practices, lessons learned from identifying, developing and implementing NMAs, including the support needed in terms of financial, technology and capacity building.

+ With inputs from Hilary Kung.

Press Releases

IPCC Report Needs to be Wake Up Call for World Leaders: No More False Solutions

*Urgent need for system change through just and equitable transition*

18 March 2023

Interlaken, Switzerland

Nearly 200 countries are currently deliberating on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Synthesis Report for the Sixth Assessment cycle. The past six reports by the IPCC have forced a reckoning on the world and its leaders for immediate and transformative action to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urgently set the world on path for just and equitable transition. The Synthesis Report and IPCC’s ‘Summary for Policymakers’ is a crucial document set to impact this year’s global stocktake of the 2015 Paris Agreement that set the life saving limit of keeping rise in global temperatures well below 1.5 degrees.

The past IPCC reports have confirmed that the impacts of climate change are already being felt around the world, with devastating consequences for ecosystems, human health, and livelihoods. The world is already experiencing more frequent and severe weather events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves. These events are causing widespread damage to infrastructure and economic activity, leading to food and water scarcity, displacement, and even loss of life. Nearly 3.5 billion people globally are climate vulnerable. Climate justice and human rights movements, scientists and academicians around the world have been advocating for climate action for decades, yet the world leaders have been more focused on listening to fossil fuel lobbyists or pushing profit driven speculative technologies and technofixes. As the world continues to head on to a path of devastation, urgent, real, and decisive action is the only solution to achieve a just and equitable transition.

Representatives of Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice share their demands and expectations from the Synthesis Report for Sixth Assessment Cycle and the Summary for Policymakers by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator, Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development

“The very low  ambition and even lower delivery of commitments to climate action is evident of the great injustice at the heart of the climate crisis. We are being led down a path of extended life for fossil fuel systems with the push for Gas as transition fuel, and Carbon Capture and Storage, Hydrogen and Ammonia technologies  as  part of solutions. We reject these false solutions being peddled by wealthy countries. These big polluters have an obligation to deliver a rapid, just and equitable transition directly to 100% renewable energy and provide  adequate non-debt creating climate finance for the Global South as part of  reparations for climate debt.”

Nathalie Rengifo Alvarez, Latin America Climate Campaign Director, Corporate Accountability 

“Just look at the full report. The science and urgency will be unequivocal and deeply disturbing. It will paint a clear picture of what is needed. A swift and just transition to renewables. Fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. Emissions need to be rapidly cut to Real Zero. But the summary for policymakers will likely, as usual, read as though we are living on another planet. The fingerprints of major polluters will be all over the recommendations for action. They’ll read as though we haven’t already crossed devastating and deadly thresholds for life on Earth. This disconnect is intolerable and needs to be remedied by an immediate reset of the system that brought us here and by kicking big polluters out of climate policy.”

Meena Raman, Head of Programmes, Third World Network

“It is vital that the IPCC Synthesis Report (SR) makes clear that the global emissions pathways are based on models whose assumptions fail to make clear that inequities between the Global North and South, intra-regional income distribution and the need for environmental and climate justice have not been taken into account. Hence, the SR in this regard must make clear that these global modelled emissions pathways have to be assessed with the careful recognition of the underlying assumptions.

Policy-makers must not be misled into believing that these emission pathways are fact-based or are policy-prescriptive, when they are really predictions by climate modellers whose assumptions are currently unknown.  Accepting them without question risks locking in further inequities between the rich and poor, thus exacerbating climate injustice.

The IPCC data is clear that the developed countries have a historical responsibility for their high emissions since the industrial revolution and have overused the carbon budget required to limit temperature rise to 1.5-degree C. They have and continue to undermine equitable access to the carbon budget. Hence, developed countries should own up to this historical responsibility and deliver on the large amount of climate finance needed to developing countries to enable the just transition pathway to a low carbon future, undertake adaptation actions and address loss and damage, as recognised in the IPCC underlying working group reports.

Developed countries must not be allowed to water-down their lack of fulfillment of the finance delivery in the SR or to shift the responsibilities onto developing countries.”

Susann Scherbarth, Head of Climate Justice, Friends of the Earth Germany/ BUND

“The scientific community is unanimous: emissions must be drastically reduced, even if the 1.5 limit will be exceeded. When it comes to limiting devastating consequences for people, nature and biodiversity, every tenth of a degree counts. The first priority is to reduce emissions, not to extract CO2 after it has already been emitted. The current CCS debate in Germany shows clearly the opposite: the German government is relying on technical false solutions that are dangerous, expensive, and unproven on the scale needed. Waiting and hoping for magic must not be a free pass for doing anything or only little in the here and now as we see in Germany’s mobility and housing sector in particular.

We need politics that treat the climate crisis like a crisis and end inequalities. The status quo of infinite growth in Germany and other rich nations cannot be the future. The end of fossil fuels must come now and our energy consumption must go down drastically while relying on renewable energies and energy efficiency.”

Hemantha Withanage, chair of Friends of the Earth International

“In my country, Sri Lanka, the impacts of climate change are being felt now. We have no time to chase fairy tales of sucking carbon out of the air later, we need to reduce carbon emissions now. We hope that the forthcoming IPCC report will rightly call for a rapid and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, and the need for finance to make it happen. Overshooting the 1.5 degree guardrail will lead to climate chaos, and we fear that reliance on carbon removal technologies will only embolden big polluters to keep emitting as usual.”

David Williams, Director International Climate Justice Program, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung 

“The Synthesis Report of the IPCC, the world’s foremost body on climate change science, is a culmination of almost a decade’s worth of climate observation and modelling. Damningly, according to current projections, we are not only on track to reach 3°C global warming by 2100, but will rocket through to even more dystopian levels, severely constraining living conditions of future generations. Currently, up to 3.6 billion people live in situations of vulnerability, in which fatalities from floods, droughts, and storms are 15 times more likely than in non-vulnerable contexts. As if that weren’t already grave enough, the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, storms, and other extreme weather events is increasing at a higher pace than initially projected. 

In spite of this, fossil fuel companies are achieving record-breaking profits. They are propped up by big banks and neoliberal governments protecting private capital at the expense of public security. Never has the reality been so stark that the climate crisis is a question of power, of western supremacy, and of neocolonial economic structures upon which the wealth of industrialized nations is built.”

Souparna Lahiri, Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, Global Forest Coalition

“The AR6 Synthesis Report of the IPCC report is not likely to spring any surprise. It may paint a more grimmer climate crisis and provide more mitigation options through model pathways. Where IPCC is continuously failing is a response of the scientific community to the false and mitigation- heavy climate solutions that drown out real solutions and climate resilient actions of the frontline communities and unequal climate finance flows to develop such false solutions including large scale CDRs. The drivers of such false solutions, the corporates and multinationals, involved in continuing fossil fuel extraction and unsustainable industrial agriculture and agri-business, are being let off the radar. The impacts of such false solutions, the corporate capture of climate policy making, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, women and local communities and their leading role in transformative actions on the ground, are consistently ignored. Climate modeling alone cannot contribute to the much required transformation without responding and recognising the intersectionality of the climate crisis and the rights and role of the frontline communities.”

Kelly Dent , Global Programme Director- External Engagement, World Animal Protection, Global

“Food systems have long been ignored in the commitment to keep the climate below 1.5 degrees – but we can longer turn a blind eye to science. The evidence is clear. Industrial animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, pollution, and the emergence of zoonotic and AMR superbug diseases, let alone cruel to animals. Governments must now act. They must acknowledge the significant impact factory farming has on our people, animals and planet – and they must take the action required to reign in these hitherto silent climate culprits.”

Stephanie Cabovianco, Climate Save Movement

“The transition to a plant-based food system is not only necessary for our health and the well-being of animals, but also for the survival of our planet in the face of the climate and ecological emergency. The Sixth Assessment Report by the IPCC highlights the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food systems, which are responsible for up to 37% of global emissions. A shift towards plant-based diets can significantly reduce these emissions, while also conserving biodiversity, reducing deforestation, and improving land and water use efficiency. It’s time for us to recognize the power of food production and consumption and take action for a sustainable present.”

Shefali Sharma, Director of Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)’s European office

“The summary of IPCC’s findings about the dramatic need to cut emissions should be a wake up call to regulate all major polluters. For the food and farm sector, big livestock, agrochemical and major grain processing companies are the primary culprits of agricultural emissions. Together, they have driven large scale deforestation, polluted our lands and rivers and still continue to operate with impunity. The IPCC emphasizes the urgency to reduce highly potent GHGs methane and nitrous oxide, where large-scale agriculture is a major source. Governments need to regulate big ag’s emissions, and support a just transition for farming that restores ecosystems and treats people in the food system with dignity.”

Nick Buxton, Transnational Institute

‘The IPCC’s report makes clear that any solutions to protect those most impacted by the climate crisis have to be rooted in justice. Yet the richest nations are spending 30 times as much on the military as they do on climate finance, and are yet to even commit proper funds for the loss and damage caused by the climate crisis. We need to move from a focus on managing the consequences of climate change to addressing its root causes. This requires reducing military and security budgets so we can massively increase the financial support to communities and countries so they can reduce emissions and prepare ways to adapt and respond justly to climate impacts.’

Deborah Burton, TPNS/Transform Defence Project

“As we digest the findings of this final synthesis report we can be sure of one thing: that it will be missing the military emissions that governments are choosing not to report.  Yet military emissions account to 5.5% of global emissions, more than civilian aviation and shipping combined. This does not include emissions from conflicts, nor attendant destruction and reconstruction. As we look forward to the AR7 Cycle, civil society is calling for military emissions to be on the IPCC agenda in the hope that we can move towards a Special Report on the Military and Climate Change.  The annual $2 trillion spent on the world’s fossil-fuel-reliant militaries is fuelling climate change, robbing funds from climate finance and failing to deliver human safety in this time of climate emergency.”

Ellie Kinney, the Military Emissions Gap – The Conflict and Environment Observatory

“The findings of the latest IPCC report offer a concerning glimpse into our future. At this stage of the climate crisis, no sector can be exempt from climate action. Militaries are huge energy users whose greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for an estimated 5.5% of global emissions. Initial estimates into the environmental impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine suggest that the conflict is responsible for additional emissions equivalent to that of a country like the Netherlands over the same time period. However, because reporting military emissions to the UNFCCC is voluntary, data is often absent or incomplete, leaving a potentially huge blind spot in our climate action. The IPCC has the opportunity to highlight the scale of the military emissions gap to Governments and policy-makers and this should be a priority for AR7. We would welcome an IPCC Special Report on the military and climate change, but at the very least military emissions should be acknowledged within the AR7 cycle.”

Quotes in other languages

Stephanie Cabovianco, Climate Save Movement

[ESPAÑOL] “La transición a un sistema alimentario basado en plantas no solo es necesaria para nuestra salud y el bienestar de los animales, sino también para la supervivencia de nuestro planeta frente a la emergencia climática y ecológica. El Sexto Informe de Evaluación del IPCC destaca la necesidad urgente de reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero de los sistemas alimentarios, que son responsables de hasta el 37 % de las emisiones globales. Un cambio hacia dietas basadas en plantas puede reducir significativamente estas emisiones, al tiempo que conserva la biodiversidad, reduce la deforestación y mejora la tierra y la eficiencia en el uso del agua. Es hora de que reconozcamos el poder de la producción y el consumo de alimentos y tomemos medidas para un presente sostenible”.

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Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice is a network of over 200 networks and organizations working globally, regionally, and locally on climate justice. Collectively we represent millions of climate activists on the ground.


Our members are available for comments and interviews in different languages. Please contact Rachitaa at [email protected] to arrange interviews.

Press Releases

IPCC Report Needs to be Wake Up Call for World Leaders: No More False Solutions

*Urgent need for system change through just and equitable transition*

18 March 2023

Interlaken, Switzerland

Nearly 200 countries are currently deliberating on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Synthesis Report for the Sixth Assessment cycle. The past six reports by the IPCC have forced a reckoning on the world and its leaders for immediate and transformative action to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urgently set the world on path for just and equitable transition.

The Synthesis Report and IPCC’s ‘Summary for Policymakers’ is a crucial document set to impact this year’s global stocktake of the 2015 Paris Agreement that set the life-saving limit of keeping global temperature rise well below 1.5 degrees. It is time for rich countries to own their historical responsibility for the high emissions that have led the world to the current crisis.

“Just look at the full report. The science and urgency will be unequivocal and deeply disturbing. It will paint a clear picture of what is needed – a swift and just transition to renewables. Fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. Emissions need to be rapidly cut to Real Zero. But the summary for policymakers will likely, as usual, read as though we are living on another planet. The fingerprints of major polluters will be all over the recommendations for action,” said Nathalie Rengifo Alvarez, Latin America Climate Campaign Director, Corporate Accountability, a member organization of Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ).

Climate justice and human rights movements, scientists and academicians around the world have been advocating for climate action for decades, yet the world leaders have been more focussed on listening to fossil fuel lobbyists or pushing profit driven speculative technologies and technofixes.

Hemantha Withanage, chair of Friends of the Earth International, a DCJ member organization, said, “In my country, Sri Lanka, the impacts of climate change are being felt now. We have no time to chase fairy tales of sucking carbon out of the air later, we need to reduce carbon emissions now. We hope that the forthcoming IPCC report will rightly call for a rapid and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, and the need for finance to make it happen. Overshooting the 1.5 degree guardrail will lead to climate chaos, and we fear that reliance on carbon removal technologies will only embolden big polluters to keep emitting as usual.”

“The very low ambition and even lower delivery of commitments to climate action is evident of the great injustice at the heart of the climate crisis. We are being led down a path of extended life for fossil fuel systems with the push for Gas as transition fuel, and Carbon Capture and Storage, Hydrogen and Ammonia technologies as part of solutions. We reject these false solutions being peddled by wealthy countries,” shared Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator, Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), a DCJ member organization.

The past IPCC reports have confirmed that the impacts of climate change are already being felt 

around the world, with devastating consequences for ecosystems, human health, and livelihoods. The world is already experiencing more frequent and severe weather events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves.These events are causing widespread damage to infrastructure and economic activity, leading to food and water scarcity, displacement, and even loss of life, mostly in the Global South. Nearly 3.5 billion people globally are already vulnerable to climate change and more are likely to be pushed into this situation.

“The IPCC data is clear that the developed countries have a historical responsibility for their high emissions since the industrial revolution and have overused the carbon budget required to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. They have and continue to undermine equitable access to the carbon budget. Hence, developed countries should own up to this historical responsibility and deliver on the large amount of climate finance needed to developing countries to enable the just transition pathway to a low carbon future, undertake adaptation actions and address loss and damage, as recognised in the IPCC underlying working group reports,” said Meena Raman, Head of Programmes, Third World Network (TWN), a DCJ member organization.

As the world continues to head on to a path of devastation, urgent, real, and decisive action is the only solution to achieve a just and equitable transition. Lidy Nacpil added, “Big polluters have an obligation to deliver a rapid, just and equitable transition directly to 100% renewable energy and provide adequate non-debt creating climate finance for the Global South as part of  reparations for climate debt.” Meena Raman emphasized that developed countries must not be allowed to water-down their lack of fulfillment of the finance delivery in the Synthesis Report or to shift the responsibilities onto developing countries. “The disconnect is intolerable and needs to be remedied by an immediate reset of the system that brought us here and by kicking big polluters out of climate policy,” Nathalie Rengifo Alvarez.

ENDS

About Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ)

Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice is a network of over 200 networks and organizations working globally, regionally, and locally on climate justice. Collectively we represent millions of climate activists on the ground.

Our members are available for comments and interviews in different languages. Please contact Rachitaa at [email protected] to arrange interviews.

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Additional Quotes from members of Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

COP27

People’s power wins at COP27 as loss and damage fund established but talks fail to deliver on other key demands

20 November 2022

Sharm El-Sheikh

As the 27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP27) closes, the collective power of civil society groups and grassroots climate activists saw a historic outcome with the establishment of a loss and damage fund. But this victory cannot be attributed to the developed nations who have been blocking and delaying this outcome for years. It is the consistent and powerful mobilization of the frontline climate defenders and those inside the venue who refused their voices to be drowned when negotiations came to a standstill. It is time for developed countries to finally step up and deliver on this fund because an empty fund is an empty promise made at the expense of millions all over the world suffering from the consequences of climate change they cannot adapt to any longer. 

The world is experiencing an unprecedented climate crisis and the United Nations Conferences on Climate Change demonstrate they continue to be held hostage by the rich countries backed by big polluters and failing to deliver real climate action for the people. Rich nations exhausted the capacity of the climate talks this year as they pretended to be leaders on mitigation when they have not met their emission reduction commitments. The developed countries continued their hypocrisy on limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius while locking the world into a fossil fuel dependent future by closing several fossil fuel energy deals on the sidelines as the climate negotiations went on.

Without real solutions, real finance, real actions on reducing global emissions, and real protection of human rights there can be no climate justice.

Representatives of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice share their reactions on this landmark moment in the climate negotiations as well as the key demands the COP27 failed to deliver on.

Lidy Nacpil, Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development:

“We welcome an initial partial win on Loss & Damage Fund — it is there but buried with other ‘financial arrangements.’ And this win is overshadowed by lack of progress on fossil fuel phase out and the continued inclusion of false solutions, which means more loss & damage! Lack of progress on Fossil Fuel phase out shows the hypocrisy of governments of rich countries in their blah blah blah about keeping global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees, and the corporate capture of the COP by the fossil fuel industries. We need to escalate even more our struggles — in our countries and international arenas! Onwards!”

Meena Raman, Third World Network 

“Since EU and Alok S are disappointed that fossil fuel phase out is not in the text, we would like them to take leadership and revise their NDCs and put into plans their fossil fuel phaseout urgently and stop expansion of fossil fuels including oil and gas! Not enough to play to the gallery but act if they really want to save the planet and not hide behind 2050 net zero targets which will bust the remaining carbon budget for a 1.5 degree C. They have the historical responsibility to get to real zero and in fact negative emissions and not net zero by 2050!”

Sara Shaw, Friends of the Earth International:

“It is a relief that the Loss and Damage fund has finally been established, after decades of struggle. But, right now, it is an empty fund, and we have a huge challenge ahead to ensure that developed countries contribute to it, in line with justice and equity. We must not see a repeat of the abysmal performance of rich countries failing to provide the already inadequate $100 billion a year promised over a decade ago.”

Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity: 

“The powerful advocacy of climate-vulnerable countries and the global climate justice movement forced a ground shift at this COP on paying up for loss and damage. The failure to commit to a full fossil fuel phaseout will mean even more loss and damage, in a vicious cycle of escalating harm and inadequate reparation. Any further expansion of fossil fuels betrays world leaders’ promises to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and puts our planet in further peril.”

Asad Rehman, War on Want:

Battle lines were drawn at COP27 between rich countries and poor countries. The US, EU, UK and others came to the Summit with empty words, hollow promises & a refusal to take responsibility for having set the planet on fire and destroying millions of lives & livelihoods.

But we leave the Summit with a glimmer of hope that the establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund will provide much needed support to those on the frontlines of the climate catastrophe. It’s a small step, a critical one, but an empty fund means nothing. Rich countries who continue to pollute must now provide real finance to the fund.

This historic victory was only made possible because of people power. The unprecedented pressure by climate justice groups and the refusal of developing countries to be bullied or divided, dragged rich countries kicking and screaming across the line.

But we leave this Summit bitter at the refusal of the rich to cut their emissions, and shift away from their addiction to fossil fuels. This continues to be a life and death fight for the future of humanity. But the growing power of climate justice movements is sending a warning to rich countries that we are not, and never will be defeated.

Babawale Obayanju, Friends of the Earth Africa:

“The fact that the outcome only talks about ‘phasedown of unabated coal power’ is a disaster for Africa and for the climate. Oil and gas must also be phased out, swiftly and fairly. One small word, ‘unabated’, creates a huge loophole, opening the door to new fossil-based hydrogen and carbon capture and storage projects, which will allow emissions to continue. We don’t need more gas extraction in Africa, devastating our communities for the benefit of rich countries and corporations. What we needed from COP27 was agreement to a rapid, equitable phase out of all fossil fuels.”

Rachel Rose Jackson, Corporate Accountability: 

“Climate talks bankrolled by Big Polluters, and governments like the US doing their bidding. While the perseverance of movements and Global South governments finally secured a way forward for Loss and Damage finance, amidst a climate emergency this alone is simply not enough. COP27 needed to deliver a package of real solutions, real finance, and Real Zero pathways that equitably phase out fossil fuels. As long as Big Polluters are allowed to write the rules, the name of the game will always be ‘climate inaction.’ It’s time to reset the system, kick Big Polluters out, and make them pay for the damage they cause.”

Adrien Salazar, Policy Director of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

“This COP brought an opaque, undemocratic process that once again focused on the interests of financial institutions and the fossil fuel industry than in the communities who have real solutions to the climate crisis. The conditions of Egypt and restrictions on democracy made this COP in particular a COP of blatant hypocrisy. We stood by Alaa Abd El-Fattah fight for his freedom, and the freedom of all political prisoners, while our own actions as activists were restricted. While a historic loss and damage fund in this final decision is a result of decades of movements advocating for the lives of our communities, more must be done to make concrete the promise of this fund and ensure no finance mechanisms exploit people and reproduce colonial relations between vulnerable populations and financial institutions. This moment is the result of movements. And further real progress to confront the crisis continues outside of the UNFCCC in the streets and in communities where people are organizing to stop new fossil fuel projects and build real community-led and people-centered solutions,”.

Hemantha Withanage, Friends of the Earth Sri Lanka:

“The decision on carbon markets is deeply worrying. Whilst COP27 has temporarily delayed moves to put geoengineering, dangerous and untested technologies, and nature-based solutions into carbon offset markets, we know these threats will rear their heads again, giving cover for continued emissions by polluters, grabbing of land, forests and water from vulnerable communities, and violations of peoples’ rights.”

Souparna Lahiri, Global Forest Coalition: 

“The outcomes of the COP27 perilously indicate the immense corporate power and their scandalous lobbying for false climate solutions. A multilateral forum like the UNFCCC is fast losing its credibility, not being able to facilitate bridging the existing gap between global climate policy and climate justice. But, Sharm El Sheikh also demonstrated that it is the indomitable power and strength of the unity of  frontline communities, indigenous peoples, women, peasants, workers and the youth that can force our governments and the corporates to junk false solutions  and change the system to move forward towards real climate solutions and real zero.”

Elizabeth Bast, Oil Change International: 

“In a critical year, this COP again failed to recognise that a rapid and equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels — oil, gas, and coal — is our only chance to achieve climate targets and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Despite some important progress toward establishing a loss and damage fund, the final outcome regurgitated unambitious language on fossil fuels that will lead to catastrophic consequences for people and planet. Even with this disappointing outcome, we’re seeing meaningful commitments from the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and countries and institutions ending overseas public finance for fossil fuels. Outside the COP, we will continue the fight for an equitable end to fossil fuels and a just transition to clean energy.” 

Aderonke Ige, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa: 

“For there to be any semblance of justice in the COP, big polluters must first be kicked out of the process! The brazen hypocrisy of the COP and what has now become a game of ‘hide and seek’ as far as the phasing out of fossil fuel goes, coupled with the embarrassing deletion of human rights, labour rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples in Article 6.4 and the unpopular expungement of reference to mitigation of global emissions by the supervisory body is a dangerous game taken too far. It is crystal clear that rich countries and big polluting corporations have no care or regard for the future, dignity of peoples or true justice; for there can be no climate justice without human rights!”

Susann Scherbarth, Friends of the Earth Germany:

“Like an avalanche, the climate crisis is accelerating and overwhelming people and nature. World leaders talked a lot, but it was the rich nations who acted half-heartedly and unfairly. The EU and US are claiming to be 1.5°c champions, yet still don’t accept equity and their historical responsibility. That is an astonishing and unacceptable betrayal of people and nature. There is a glimpse of hope, the pressure of the people and poor nations made it possible to establish the urgently needed fund for the poorest to deal with climate losses and damages.

“The UN climate conference has put the spotlight on the human rights situation in Egypt — where freedom of expression and freedom of the press are not accepted — and particularly the case of political prisoner Alaa Abd El Fattah. Alaa may not yet be free, but the global community will not stop calling for his release when they leave Egypt. There is no climate justice without human rights.” 

Quotes in other languages

Osver Polo, Movimiento Ciudadano frente al Cambio Climatico, Perú: 

“Es preocupante que la cop27, no haya avanzando los acuerdos de Glasgow y que ahora buscan salir con la suya para retroceder sus compromisos, la llamada frase IMPLEMENTACION, no se ha cumplido aquí en la cop27, lamentablemente quieren seguir dilatando las tareas, los países del sur necesitan los mecanismos financieros para perdidas y daños. Asimismo, los países desarrollados deben redoblar sus esfuerzos en dejar los combustibles fósiles y reducir sus emisiones antes del 2030, el tiempo se agota.”

Susann Scherbarth, BUND / Friends of the Earth Germany, Germany: 

“Wie eine Schneelawine beschleunigt sich die Klimakrise und überrollt Mensch und Natur. Die Staats — und Regierungschefs der Welt haben viel geredet, aber die reichen Nationen haben nur halbherzig und nicht fair gehandelt. Die EU und die USA nehmen für sich in Anspruch, 1,5-Weltmeister zu sein, akzeptieren aber noch immer nicht ihre historische Verantwortung. Das ist nicht akzeptabel. Es ist ein Verrat an Mensch und Natur.


“Die Weltklimakonferenz hat den Menschenrechten in Ägypten — wo Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit nicht akzeptiert werden — und dem Fall des politischen Gefangenen Alaa Abd El Fattah höchste internationale Aufmerksamkeit verschafft. Alaa ist noch nicht frei, aber die globale Zivilgesellschaft wird nicht aufhören, nach seiner Freilassung zu fordern, auch wenn sie Ägypten verlässt. Es gibt keine Klimagerechtigkeit ohne Menschenrechte.”

Maureen Santos, Fase / Grupo Carta de Belém, Brasil

“Termina a COP 27 e mais uma vez as promessas são adiadas para o próximo ano. Em adaptação e em financiamento. Apesar da criação de um fundo novo para Perdas e Danos, a falta de provisão de montante e de compromissos concretos é frustante, assim como o convite para envolvimento de Instituições Financeiras Multilaterais como FMI e Grupo Banco Mundial, gerando preocupações com mais dívidas para países em situação de emergência climática.” 

Global Campaign to Demand CLimate Justice is a network of over 200 networks and organizations working globally, regionally, and locally on climate justice. Collectively we represent millions of climate activists on the ground.

Our members are available for comments and interviews in different languages. Please contact Rachitaa at [email protected] (+918447445543) to arrange interviews.

COP27

LETTER TO THE HEADS OF STATES

November 9, 2022

Dear Heads of States

We, the undersigned constituencies—representing thousands of climate, climate justice, labor, women and gender rights, Indigenous, and youth organizations across the world—respectfully request that you take a strong stand against the human rights abuses of the Egyptian government and urge the immediate release of the arbitrarily detained activist Egyptian-British national Alaa Abdel Fattah and all other prisoners of conscience in Egypt who are targeted for their peaceful activism.

Those who have disproportionately suffered the horrific harms of the climate emergency are also those who have done the least to cause the crisis, and a climate-just world is one that corrects these inequities head-on. There can be no climate justice without human rights. Egypt’s denial of rights to Mr. Fattah and other activists across Egypt therefore undermines climate justice everywhere.

Such treatment also violates the Paris Agreement, which reaffirms the critical importance of a vibrant civil society and respect for civil rights and political freedoms. A just and equitable world is out of reach without the ability for individuals and organizations to speak up and exercise their right to freedom of expression, protest, and association.

As Egypt hosts the global COP27 climate talks, the world watches Egypt—as well as every government participating in the COP27 talks that condones or carries out such abusive behavior in Egypt and their own jurisdictions. The credibility of the entire UNFCCC process is at stake if states participating in the COP fail to reject the abuse of human rights wherever they take place and deny their foundational role in achieving climate justice. We stand in solidarity with those deprived of liberty and urge you to do all within your power to bring about the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Fattah, and all freedom-fighting activists and prisoners of conscience across the world.

Sincerely,

Environmental NGO Constituency

Women and Gender Constituency

International Trade Union Constituency

Children and Youth Constituency

Indigenous Peoples Constituency

COP27

Intervention by Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice at the Global Stocktake’s Closing Plenary During COP27

This statement is delivered on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. 

Delivered by: Victor Menotti, Civil Society Equity Review

DCJ and CSER, which includes CANI and TUNGO sisters and brothers from ITUC.

Executive Secretary has reminded us GST (Global Stocktake) is an accountability exercise to see where we stand and to inform more ambitious actions

IPCC has made clear what’s left of our shrinking carbon budget but it is not their role to say how to manage the remaining atmospheric space. 

Parties must do this, but they are not under the Paris Agreement. We still face a free-for-all with the biggest free-riders speeding us over the cliff. It’s the classic scenario anyone learns about in any basic economics class. 

Equitably sharing the remaining carbon space for a global just transition requires a fair shares frame to inform more ambitious actions from all.  Civil Society has proposed its methodology and several Parties have tabled their own methodologies for determining fair shares.

Next year’s political dialogue must reflect on the relevant technical data to transparently assess countries’ CBDR-RC. Operationalizing equity requires deep political discussion and very difficult decisions on which criteria are acceptable as equitable by all Parties to determine fair shares.

So we hope GST Co-Facilitators’ report includes references to the relevant data in used our submissions and repeated in our interventions, such as:

Dependence on fossil fuels by data on:

  • GDP from fossil fuels
  • Government revenue from fossil fuels
  • Employment percentages from fossil fuels

Capabilities to transition equitably such as:

  • Non-fossil fuel economic prospects for diversification
  • Fiscal and monetary health
  • Hard currency reserves to access foreign technologies
  • Education and training systems

That’s why Parties must responsibly manage the carbon budget, as prudently as your own governments’ national budgets, or, perhaps better, your own personal household budgets, precisely because you know all your loved ones depend on you.

COP27, COP27 Resources

COP 27 Through A Climate Justice Lens

Introduction

Facts and information

The world’s average temperature has already increased to 1,1℃ and we are facing unprecedented weather events that would not have been possible without human contribution to climate change. Record-breaking heat has hit North America, Europe, China, India and Pakistan, sparking wildfires in many places. Terrible floods have swept Pakistan, Nigeria, Australia, Bangladesh and South Africa. More than a third of heat-related deaths in summer from 1991 to 2018 occurred as a result of human-caused global heating. European and Latin American cities are among the worst affected by summer heat deaths due to the climate crisis. Hundreds of people a year on average are already dying from this extra heat, including in São Paulo (239 deaths), Athens (189), Madrid (177), Tokyo (156), Bangkok (146) and New York (141). 

Structural causes of climate change

Climate change is not an isolated climate phenomena: it multiplies the sufferings of people already burdened by the global injustices of hunger, dispossession, and human rights violations. The communities and peoples that suffer the worst effects are deprived of the means to respond and bear the additional impacts of false solutions promoted by those who avoid meaningful action, but instead seek to profit from the crisis. Like other global crises, climate change arises principally from historically unequal economic and social structures, from practices and policies promoted by rich, industrialized countries, and from systems of production and consumption that sacrifice the needs of the many to the interests of a few. At the root of the problem is a systemic crisis that arises principally from:

  1. Profit- and growth-oriented systems of extraction, production, distribution and consumption that sacrifice the needs of the many, and the well being of the planet, to the interests of a few.
  2. Unequal and exploitative economic and social structures that abuse nature and extend inequality across countries, classes, gender, race and communities.
  3. Policies and practices promoted by global corporations, rich industrialized countries, international institutions, and economic and political elites that perpetuate and foster these systems and structures.

Current geopolitical context 

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the whole world but has disproportionately affected the global south and the most vulnerable groups. Women’s employment world-wide declined by 4.2% between 2019 and 2020, representing a drop of 54 million jobs. Covid-19 has also exposed Africa to high levels of social and economic vulnerability. Even before the onset of the pandemic, much of Africa was already suffering from the widespread and multidimensional impacts of climate change, including flooding, sea-level rise, forced migrations due to climate disasters, drought, locust invasion and crop failure, all of which constitute serious constraints on economic development and aspirations. Covid-19 has exacerbated these climate vulnerabilities by decreasing the adaptive capacities of affected countries and the resources available to respond to climate change.

Added to this, armed conflicts around the world are not only killing and impacting human and non-human lives, but they are deeply connected with the fossil fuel industry and their interests.  The war in Ukraine is a clear example of rich nations’ thirst for fossil fuel to keep their highly consumerist societies, which are now pushing Africa to be completely dependent on oil and gas instead of promoting alternative energy systems. One study shows that between one-quarter and one-half of interstate wars since the beginning of the so-called modern oil age in 1973 were related to oil, with the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq being an egregious example. Indeed, there is evidence that arms sales are used by countries to help secure and maintain access to oil. The UK’s biggest ever arms deal – the ‘Al-Yamamah arms deal’ – agreed in 1985, involved the UK supplying arms over many years to Saudi Arabia in return for 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day. BAE Systems earned tens of billions from these sales, which helps subsidize the UK’s own arms purchases.

COP 26

At COP 26, the Glasgow Outcomes were presented as if they were more relevant than the Paris Agreement (which is legally binding). Thanks to the absence of meetings due to the Pandemic, the UK presidency had enough time to build up a narrative around false solutions including the charade of net zero targets for all by 2050 (undermining again the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC)) through carbon offsets and nature based solutions that further continue with the agenda of commodification of nature for the profit of the same usual polluters. 

The results of COP 26 also have no recognition of fair shares or the historical responsibilities in cumulative emissions since the focus is only on future emissions with no account of consumption emissions. The Glasgow Outcomes also contain pretend ambition on phase out and phase down of fossil fuels but through unabated coal leading to an actual expansion of fossil fuels. 

In Glasgow, there was progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation, a goal that should enhance adaptive capacities, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability, contribute to sustainable development and contribute to the temperature goal. The outcome was the Glasgow-Sharm el Sheikh work program and the work began in SB 56. Developed countries were urged to at least double their provision of climate finance for adaptation. 

On Loss and Damage the expectation was to obtain additional finance from developed countries and an effective mechanism and approaches for loss and damage action and support.  No additional finance was achieved and instead only a Glasgow Dialogue and some progress on operationalising the Santiago Network which is mandated to deliver technical assistance for loss and damage to developing countries 

Glasgow also delivered ´mitigation ambition´ but without finance ambition, establishing a work program to urgently scale up mitigation ambition and implementation with no links to a finance ambition. This is why developing countries were calling for this program to complement the GST. Under the PA, we are supposed to take stock of how parties have progressed on meeting the goals of the PA in all fronts. 

Our call 

The 27th Climate Change Conference comes at a time of unprecedented challenges due to the magnitude and and the interconnected nature of our multiple structural crises. We call on governments to end years of delay and meet their moral, historical and legal obligations. We urge all movements, peoples’ organizations, civil society groups and all concerned citizens to come together in a Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice! 

Demands for Climate Justice at COP 27

At COP 27, DCJ will continue with its demand for a profound social transformation and the achievement of immediate concrete results in terms of drastic reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and enabling people to deal with the impacts of the climate crisis. As part of a broader struggle to achieve climate justice, reparations for climate debt and a profound global transformation, we demand from all governments that if international negotiations are to mean anything, they must deliver outcomes that will:

1. Prevent catastrophic climate change and ensure just and fair sharing of drastic emissions reductions. We must limit temperature rise to well below 1.5º C and bring it down to 1º C as fast as possible. Rich industrialized countries must fulfill their existing legally binding commitments and undertake drastic emissions cuts without offsets in line with their fair share of the global carbon budget that takes into account historical per capita emissions. Offsets and other loopholes must be removed.
2. Stop false solutions. We must stop the implementation and pursuit of false solutions and disguises in the form of nature-based solutions that include carbon trading, market-based approaches to forests, soil and water, large-scale geo-engineering and techno-fixes, nuclear energy, mega hydro dams, agro-fuels, large tree plantations, biomass energy, waste incineration and clean coal.
3. Ensure adequate and appropriate finance on the basis of countries’ responsibility for climate debt and obligation to make reparations to all affected peoples. Rich, industrialized countries should cover the full costs of enabling peoples of developing countries and other affected communities to deal with the impacts of climate change (including past, present and future losses) as well as the costs of enabling developing countries to shift to equitable, post carbon sustainable systems. Climate finance must not be in the form of debt-creating instruments and should be channeled through a democratic and accountable global fund that is independent of other international financial institutions and upholds the principles of direct access and country-determined, participatory decisions on the use of funds. 
4. Ensure appropriate technology transfers without intellectual property barriers. Developed countries must ensure free sharing of safe, appropriate and ecologically and socially sound technologies. We must advance the transformation to equitable, democratic, post-carbon systems. 
5. Take decisive steps towards the profound transformation of the system based on equity, science and the rights of peoples to live well in harmony with and respect for Mother Earth. We must transform social and economic structures and technologies and re-orient policies to move away from profit-driven, growth oriented, high-carbon, elite-dominated exploitative systems and instead ensure a just transition to people-driven, sovereign, equitable, and democratic post carbon sustainable development. 
6. End corporate capture of climate policy and kick Big Polluters out.We know who is to blame for the climate crisis. Big Polluters have rigged the very system meant to coordinate a global response to climate change. As a result, climate action failure is on our doorstep. We must end the ability of polluters to write the rules of climate action and end their ability to bankroll the climate talks. We must also reset the system so that it centers people and nature. We need real, just, accountable, gender responsive, community-led, nature-restoring, and proven and transformative solutions to be implemented rapidly and justly.

Expectations for COP 27

While wealthy countries are expected to continue trying to run away from their responsibilities, climate justice advocates are amplifying demands to make the most of the moment by alerting the world as to what our governments must agree to now.  In the case of the US, coming to COP27 claiming “climate leadership” after finally passing legislation with a weak emissions target that’s only one-fourth of its fair share of the necessary global mitigation effort by investing in renewable energy alongside false-solution techno-fixes for their own fossil fuel expansion, the divide-and-conquer approach towards the Global South sadly persists in the rhetorical posture and policy proposals.  Their meta-narrative has been to dismiss developing countries’ demands for loss and damage funding as a false front to avoid any more ambition on mitigation, when the US itself is unable to increase its own inadequate ambition, as reflected in its ambiguous proposals for the Mitigation Work Program and the Global Stocktake (the Paris Agreement’s only mechanism to “ratchet-up” ambition).  DCJ calls on governments to agree to the following:

Mitigation Work Program

  • An equity and a fair shares approach must be taken in the Mitigation Work Program, where the wealthiest producers with the most capabilities to transition are the first and fastest to phase out production while supporting others in their own just transitions. 
  • Parties must act with urgency on an equitable fossil fuel phase out and just transition to clean, renewable energy and address the energy poverty to ensure energy sufficiency for all, energy sovereignty, energy democracy, energy as a common good, 100% renewable energy for all, community-owned, low-impact renewable energy.
  • The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance must be aligned with 1.5°C in support of developing countries’ actions.

Global Goal on Adaptation

  • New and additional finance must be committed in-line with the principles of Locally Led Adaptation, ensuring the financial needs of marginalized people and communities are represented. New and additional finance must be grant-based, as opposed to loans or investments.  
  • The Glasgow-Sharm El-Sheikh work program (GlaSS) on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) must be financially supported to ensure robust tracking mechanisms to measure and assess progress on adaptation. 
  • An adaptation goal should measure progress on: enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, reducing vulnerability and contributing to sustainable development and ensuring adequate responses. 
  • Promises made at COP 26 to double adaptation finance to 40 billion USD until 2025 must be adhered to in the short-term. 

Santiago Network on Loss and Damage 

  • The Santiago Network should be operationalised with foundations in climate justice and human rights so that it can deliver tailored assistance to the people that need it.
  • An advisory body for the Santiago Network should be installed by COP 28 and it must be representative of those people and communities it is intended to serve. The advisory body should be tasked with the operationalisation of the Santiago Network.
  • The host institution for the secretariat must be located in the global South. 
  • The Santiago Network must have strong links to the national and sub-national levels, center leaders in the global South and must be able to be directly accessed by marginalised communities. ​​
  • The technical assistance that is delivered must be based on needs, demand-driven, locally-led, gender-transformative, promote equality and non-discrimination, and be guided by the best available science including Indigenous and local knowledge.
  • There must be opportunities for input that are open to a range of constituencies, particularly groups from the global South who are systematically marginalized and have increased vulnerability to climate change. 

Loss and Damage Finance

After long being blocked by wealthy polluting countries with the greatest historical responsibility, the US and EU are finally agreeing to an official COP27 agenda item to formally discuss “financial arrangements” for loss and damage since they see that establishing a fund for “loss and damage” created by climate impacts could be a litmus test for trust in Sharm El Sheikh and they do not want to be isolated in their opposition.  Yet as they try to escape yet again by appearing to agree to something yet actually conceding nothing. 

COP27 must deliver an outcome that firmly establishes a Loss and Damage Financing Facility (LDFF) now, not further down the road. The LDFF must:

  • Be funded by new and additional finance, committed as part of Northern countries historical responsibilities for the climate debt and obligations to make reparations to affected peoples, with a fair sharing of efforts.
  • Be mobilized according to the “polluter pays” principle and should be adequate, reliable and consistent, and adhere to human rights-based approaches, giving priority to marginalized groups.
  • Be operationalized as quickly as possible, as part of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement Finance Mechanism, with a clear and urgent way forward agreed at COP27.
  • Provide new and additional public finance that is grants-based, not insurance, loans or other private finance that further in debts Global South countries and communities.
  • Be further shaped and implemented with involvement from, and made directly accessible to, the frontline communities who are experiencing Loss and Damage and are owed support and solidarity.  

$100B climate finance promise + New Collective Quantified Goal 

  • The New Collective Quantified Goal for climate finance (NCQG) must deliver beyond the $100 billion goal from a decade ago in-line with current climate finance requirements of developing countries, and access to funds needs to reflect the unequal impact of extreme events on marginalised communities.
  • The NCQG must be based on the needs of developing countries. 
  • Loss and Damage must be reflected as a third pillar of climate finance alongside Mitigation and Adaptation within the NCQG. 

Article 6 

  • Non-market approaches in Article 6.8 should be advanced to help deliver the real solutions we need right now to keep temperature rise under 1.5° celsius. We encourage the creation of a mechanism under Article 6.8 to scale up non-market and cost-effective approaches. 
  • The false solutions in Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 which are dependent on offsets and emissions trading must be rejected.  
  • All geoengineering technologies and soil carbon for generating carbon credits must be excluded from the negotiations of the Paris Agreement, specially in relation to Article 6.4 and Article 6.8.
  • The consideration and promotion of geoengineering technologies at the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogues, the Global Stocktake and in any other instances at UNFCCC must be rejected.

Biodiversity

  • Ecological restoration must be vastly scaled up to recover natural forests, peatlands, and other degraded ecosystems for both climate and biodiversity, through securing of land and tenure rights for indigenous peoples and local communities, proper public policies, and public financing.
  • COP 27 must send a strong political signal to support ambitious outcomes in the CBD COP 15. 

Agriculture

  • The negotiations must deepen discussions and recommendations on agroecology, gender responsiveness, food loss and waste, and adaptation finance. 
  • We must move away from a neoliberal, corporate-controlled industrial food system, towards a system based on the principles of food sovereignty, food as a human right, and peoples’ control over seeds, land, water and other commons.
  • There must be support for peasant agroecology, artisanal fishing, and small-scale farmers. 

Global Stocktake

  • An outcome of the Global Stocktake (GST) needs to include the urgent and adequate consideration of existing science on Loss and Damage finance as well as the identification of opportunities and challenges in enhancing action and support to achieve the Paris Agreement’s aim of equity. 
  • GST must be about assessing progress on existing commitments and structured to reflect Convention/Paris- targets on Mitigation, Adaptation, Means of Implementation and cross-cutting against civil societies’ fair-shares frame.

Human rights & Gender

  • We must strive to raise the ambition and accelerate the work on climate justice and gender equality in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, across all relevant workstreams.
  • Parties should establish a process to revise and improve the Gender Action Plan for agreement at COP 28. 
COP27 Through a Climate Justice LensDownload

Disclaimer

This document was prepared in accordance with the core principles of DCJ and in collaboration with DCJ members. It does not represent a joint position document.

COP27

Intervention by Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice at the COP27 Opening Plenary

This statement is delivered on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. 

Delivered by Kevin Mtai, FFT Kenya

My name is Kevin Mtai and I’m speaking on behalf of the Demand Climate Justice constituency.

No one is free until everyone is free. We stand in solidarity with prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders and all those fighting injustice here, and everywhere and demand the immediate release of individuals arbitrarily detained for exercising their rights to freedom of association, assembly, and expression.

The fight for climate justice is the fight for economic justice, political and social justice. As long as the rich continue to extract and exploit with impunity, we are not free. 

For this to be a COP of, by, and for the people, instead of polluters, we demand:

  • A commitment to deliver adequate climate finance well in excess of $100 billion, based on the real needs of developing countries – including the establishment of a Loss and Damage finance facility with public funds rather than loans or insurance;
  • That the Mitigation Work Programme puts us on track to end the fossil fuel era and transform the global energy system through an equitable and just transition;
  • A conflict of interest policy to kick polluters out of COP27, and are disappointed that the call  to require participants to publicly declare their interests was ignored for COP27;
  • Real, proven, gender just solutions to be advanced including through Article 6.8 and elsewhere, and stop the dangerous distractions of offsets,  false “nature based” solutions, and carbon markets.

Governments should be setting us free from the prisons that enslave us and the climate crisis that engulfs us. No climate justice without human rights. We are not yet defeated!