Category Archives: Press Releases

COP29, Interventions, Press Releases

False Solutions and deceptive victories on the rise: Carbon markets are not climate finance!

MEDIA ADVISORY: Nov 13th, 2024

COP29 Press Conference – The Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) 

The opening day of COP29 saw the undemocratic gavelling through of carbon markets, once again enshrining the interests of Big Polluters over people. Carbon markets are not climate finance; they are a gift to the fossil fuel industry to continue polluting while leaving the door wide open for rampant proliferation of dangerous and unscientific false solutions such as geoengineering, ‘offsetting’ and carbon capture. 

Rich countries and big polluting industries continue to funnel money in to wars, genocide and “fixes” that will allow them to keep their extractive economic systems going without delivering on the urgent climate finance for the Global South countries. These schemes only perpetuate neocolonial patterns of extractivism, with Global South and Indigenous communities first and foremost impacted.  

Join us as members of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice spotlight the polluters’ attempt to derail climate action. 

When: Wednesday 13th November | 12:30pm-1:00pm (Baku)

Where: Press Conference – Natavan, Area D / WATCH LIVE

Who:

  • Tatiana Rodríguez Maldonado,  CENSAT Agua Viva / Friends of the Earth Colombia
  • Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environment Network
  • Dylan Hamilton, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth
  • Rachel Rose Jackson, Corporate Accountability

Contact Us

Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

COP29, Interventions, Press Releases

Money for war but not for climate action in Baku

MEDIA ADVISORY

Press Conference – The Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) 

As the genocide continues to unfold in Gaza, leaders around the world are arriving in Baku for the World Leaders’ Summit on day two of COP29 to discuss the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance. Widely dubbed as the “Finance COP”, climate justice movement from the Global South has raised a demand of $5 trillion per year, with “quality” finance provided by grants from public funds, not loans from private investors. 

Decades of inaction and broken promises by the rich countries, while shifting burden and blame on developing countries have not only compounded today’s climate impacts but have also deepened the extreme inequalities and injustices endured by communities, economies, and ecosystems, especially in the Global South. Yet Global North governments keep increasing their spending on weapons of war while ignoring climate impacts are intensifying insecurity and displacement, driving conflict. 

Join us as members of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice point to trillions of dollars being blown on military spending and fossil fuel subsidies, but is nowhere to be seen in Baku.

When: Tuesday, 12 November | 10:30am (Baku) 

Where: Press Conference – Natavan, Area D / WATCH LIVE

Who:

Contact Us Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

COP29, Press Releases, Statements

Climate justice groups condemn COP29’s carbon markets decision setting the tone for corporate profits to prevail people’s interests


PRESS RELEASE

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN, 11 NOV 24 – As the global community gathers for the start of COP29, climate justice groups deplore the gaveling through of harmful carbon markets on the first day of the conference. This is not only an undemocratic process that threatens the credibility of this conference, it sets the tone for this COP to put Big Polluters’ profits above people’s rights.

The failure of voluntary carbon markets have shown that carbon markets, offsets, and removals do not work. Instead, they provide a smokescreen for big polluters to keep on emitting at the expense of people and nature. Time and again, these neocolonial schemes have resulted in land grabs, Indigenous Peoples rights and human rights violations, and the undermining of food sovereignty. 

Fully operationalizing carbon markets on the first day of COP29 sends an appalling message to the world for a COP that is set to see the delivery of urgently needed climate finance: Big Polluters and Global North governments may celebrate this as a success, and many will argue that carbon markets can provide the finance needed for a just energy transition, adaptation, and loss and damage in the global South. 

But carbon markets only fill the pockets of Big Polluters, they cannot – and will not – deliver the climate finance needed and owed to developing countries. The gavelling through of this decision on the first day of COP29 sets a dangerous precedent. The documents from the Supervisory Body must go through the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) for all parties to negotiate on. The rushing through of this decision is undemocratic and undermines the whole process.

Real, proven, community-centered and cost-effective solutions to justly address the climate crisis are increasingly being swept aside in favor of these industry-basked, risky, expensive, and harm-inducing false solutions. Climate justice begins with ending financing for and promotion of false solutions, instead, this COP must deliver the urgently needed climate finance owed to the global South. Bulldozing through Article 6.4 on the first day of the COP without any discussions and opportunity to negotiate by the Parties undermines the CMA, the COP and subverts the entire UNFCCC COP process. 

“Bulldozing through the Carbon Market methodology and text on the first day of the COP without any discussions and opportunity to negotiate by the Parties undermines the CMA, the COP and subverts the entire UNFCCC COP process. The arrival of the carbon market through the backdoor is a bad beginning for this COP, the global south, the Indigenous Peoples, forest and the front line communities. A global mobilization against the carbon markets is the need of the hour now.”

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

“Carbon markets put Indigenous Peoples’ lives at risk. For over 20 years, these fraudulent mechanisms have allowed fossil fuel industries to continue with impunity. At this COP 29, the corporate capture has superseded any semblance of UN democracy with a move from the COP Presidency to go rogue and push through Article 6 carbon market methodology and removals texts without following party-driven procedure. IEN strongly opposes geoengineering technologies in the activities on removals text, which still has not produced a list of what removals technologies will even be included in A6.4 as an offset. We will continue to voice our opposition against Article 6 carbon markets.

Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. 

“The gavelling through of carbon markets on the first day of COP29 is unacceptable and undermines the credibility of the whole process. Further, it is opening the floodgates for a global carbon market that will have devastating impacts on communities in the Global South, on Indigenous Peoples, and on small peasant farmers first and foremost. Carbon markets are not climate finance, and we cannot accept these neocolonial schemes to be propped as a success of COP29 in lieu of paying the climate debt owed to the Global South.” 

Lise Masson, Friends of the Earth International.

“Carbon markets are not climate finance. They are not the meaningful Real Zero action we desperately need while the world reaches record-breaking temperatures. They are a get-out-of-jail-free card for the world’s Big Polluters and Global North governments. And they condemn people and the planet. For this COP to claim victory, it must reject these false solutions that have been found to be essentially junk time and time again.  It just delivers the Global North’s climate debt and fair share of climate action. And it must defund genocide and finally kick Big Polluters out.” 

Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of Climate Research and Policy, Corporate Accountability.

“This is a bad process and a worse outcome. By trying to ram through loose standards for dangerous carbon crediting mechanisms behind closed doors, the Supervisory Board is handing Big Oil a gift and setting course for climate disaster. Under these sham guidelines, speculative so-called ‘carbon removal’ technologies and ‘carbon capture’ schemes led by oil and gas companies could be counted as carbon offsets – even if they increase climate pollution. Up to 79% of current ‘carbon capture’ operating capacity is just used to produce more fossil fuels, and these guidelines open the door for even more public money for polluting industries. Governments have already spent over USD 25 billion of public money on carbon capture and are planning to spend up to USD 240 billion more, but currently operating carbon capture projects have captured almost no emissions. This dodgy deal shows the Supervisory Board is more interested in looking like they are acting on climate change than actually acting on climate change – UN states should reject it immediately.” 

Myriam Douo, Oil Change International.

“The approval of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement represents a violation of human rights and the original rights of Indigenous peoples. Turning environmental protection and biodiversity into a commodity ignores the sacred value that these beings represent for Indigenous communities. They want to convince us that they can save the planet by selling our forests and the life that lives in them, but this is just another business tactic that only benefits big polluters. Instead of protecting, this policy puts our natural resources at risk and offends the principles of respect and harmony with nature. An approach that truly considers the genuine preservation and dignity of traditional peoples is urgently needed.The real solution for the climate is in the hands of the Indigenous peoples, who have been protecting the earth for millennia with their knowledge and their struggle.” Cacique Ninawa Huni Kui, Federation of Huni Kui People of the State of Acre Coordinator – Amazon, Brazil

“It is a very bad signal to open this finance COP by legitimizing carbon markets as a solution to climate change. They’re not – they will increase inequalities, infringe on human rights, and hinder real climate action. In adopting Article 6, the COP presidency is setting the tone for the remainder of the climate talks and confusing ‘climate finance’ with ‘markets’. COP29 is and should remain a finance COP, not a “markets” COP. Countries affected by climate change desperately need real money. The real win for this COP will be in securing 1 trillion a year in grants, not bonds, nor fake offset mechanisms that are a thinly veiled excuse for the world’s biggest polluters to pretend they’re paying their share. Dangerous distractions masquerading as emissions reductions will not suffice. We are here in Baku to demand a new, real climate finance goal, and we won’t accept schemes that only serve to pad the pockets of climate culprits.” 

Ilan Zugman, 350.org Latin America and Caribbean Director says:

“Carbon markets are not a solution to the climate crisis, and by pushing them through at this COP Indigenous People and those in the Global South are being further condemned by the Global North to suffer catastrophic consequences. At best, it is an insult to the legitimacy of the COP processes, and at worst it is a gift to the fossil fuel industry to continue to pollute unimpeded. Carbon markets are not climate finance, with this agreement in particular riddled with loopholes and false solutions that enable big polluters. This decision is putting the entire aim of the Paris Agreement at risk.” Dylan Hamilton, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY).

“The Africa Make Big Polluters Coalition urgently demands that COP29 unequivocally reject false solutions like carbon markets. These markets are not merely a deceptive substitute for genuine climate finance; they allow polluters to commodify our planet’s future while continuing to pollute our environment. As we gather to confront the climate crisis, we must remember: you can’t buy air from one part of the world to another, and that is precisely what carbon markets represent—another false solution threatening the very existence of our planet.This deception comes at an unbearable cost to thousands of frontline and grassroots communities who have lost their land, livelihoods, families, and lives due to these harmful carbon market projects. We must stand united and demand real, impactful solutions that prioritize the health of our planet and its people. Governments at COP29 must reject carbon markets and commit to meaningful climate action without delay. Big polluters must be held accountable for their undeniable contribution to this climate crisis—the time for action is now!”
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director , Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa

“Apart from undermining established procedures, a big source of frustration for us is the fact that false ‘solutions’ like removals are still on the table. History tells us that these mechanisms distract from real and lasting emission cuts and have adverse impacts on the rights and livelihoods of communities worldwide. They drive land dispossession, undermine food sovereignty, erode democratic control over resources, privatise global commons, exploit labour, and intensify the most destructive elements of the capitalist system.

We have been very categorical: any mechanism premised on allowing polluters to continue business as usual, to justify fossil fuel use, or to persist in colonising and plundering the global South is not a solution.”

Jax Bongon, IBON International

“For more than two decades of operation, carbon markets have proven to be a completely useless mechanism for reducing emissions, a source of shady business that has only served large emitters to evade their responsibility and deepen the climate crisis by promoting projects that generate impacts and violate the rights of communities.”

Eduardo Giesen, Regional Coordinator DCJ Latin America and the Caribbean. 

“Today, States allowed this rogue move from the Supervisory Body to prevail in the quest to start COP29 with a “win.” But this is hardly a win for people or planet.  Approving this without discussion or debate on this approach, sets a dangerous precedent for the entire negotiation process. This is very concerning from a procedural standpoint: it bypasses States’ ability to even discuss , much less revise the standards before they go into effect. States’ oversight is all the more critical as the Supervisory Body’s efforts to get this done has resulted in risky rules that will lead to human rights violations and environmental harm.  While States won’t be able to undo this move, they can still partially correct the wrong by giving strong guidance to the Supervisory Body that ensures further rules are adopted in line with science, human rights, and international law.”
Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)  

“As the last decades have shown, carbon markets are not only a false solution to the climate crisis but also perpetuate the extractive colonial model of development and human rights violations. The text on removals as it is now, opens the floodgates to very harmful activities like geoengineering which will only worsen the climate crisis and divert attention from real solutions. Today, COP29 has had a very bad start and sets an appalling precedent from a procedural point of view, but above all, it has taken yet another step on the road to climate disaster by backing false solutions and the interest of a few to the detriment of the planet and peoples.”
Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance

“This is not a success for COP 29, this is a climate and development disaster. Carbon markets are pollution permits allowing wealthy nations and companies to emit CO2 at will, funding neocolonial projects that exclude people and do little for the climate.”

Alison Doig, Recourse

Contact Us

Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

COP29, Interventions, Press Releases

Uncertainty Clouds Urgent Breakthrough Needed in Baku

Media Advisory #COP29

Press Conference – The Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) 

It has been over a year since the apartheid regime of Israel, fully supported and funded by other colonial states, unleashed its latest genocidal attacks in Gaza. Against this backdrop, the governments are gathering in Baku for the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference Of Parties 29 (COP29). 

Originally dubbed the “Finance COP”, COP29 seems set to become a “False Solutions COP” as political turmoil and economic uncertainty unsettle government delegations driving desperately towards a new climate deal. At COP29 in Baku, the Global North governments are arriving without clear authority or even commitment to make deals due to recent election reversals and collapsed ruling coalitions, yet all  countries are mandated to agree on a new goal that delivers urgently needed climate finance to the Global South countries.  

Eager to get any deal done, the COP29’s Presidency is pushing a dangerous and undemocratic agreement on carbon markets that would present as “climate finance” and would provide the ‘get out of jail free card’ for polluters  to continue with their emissions further, pushing the planet on a path to catastrophe. Join us as members of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice preview the political dynamics driving climate diplomats to play with fire in a world already warming beyond scientists’ worst nightmares.

When: Monday, 11 November | 10:30am (Baku)

Where: Press Conference – Natavan, Area D / WATCH LIVE

Who:

  • Meena Raman, Third World Network
  • Claire Miranda, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development
  • Jax Bongon, IBON International
  • Asad Rehman, War on Want

Contact Us Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

COP29, Press Releases

COP29: Repression epidemic regarding climate activists and human rights defenders

November 11 2024, 1130 AZT / 0730 UTC+4

Baku, Azerbaijan – The world is in the throes of unprecedented repression regarding climate activists, human rights defenders, journalists, academics and others who express opposing views to their government, according to a new report, Climate Talks and the Chilling Effect: Repression on the Rise, released on the opening day of the latest round of UN climate negotiations, taking place in Azerbaijan. The problem is widespread, and three leading civil society networks – Climate Action Network, Publish What You Pay and Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice – assert this as an epidemic impeding crucial climate action and violating human rights laws across the world. Without these voices of civil society, the fight for climate justice cannot succeed, jeopardising the integrity of climate summits themselves. 

The report reveals how repression and barriers, like visa restrictions and hotel price gouging, have significantly worsened at the most recent UN climate negotiations from Katowice to Baku, as well as most recently in Kenya, Germany and the UK. Without urgent action from governments and the UN, COP30 in Brazil could fall victim too, the organisations warn.

Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network, said: “Without a robust defence of human rights for all who challenge injustice – climate defenders, journalists, and civil society alike – the foundations of climate justice crumble, jeopardising the integrity of COP29 and all future climate summits. Repression doesn’t just silence individuals; it weakens our collective power to secure a sustainable, just future. From the peaceful protestors in Kenya and Azerbaijan to indigenous leaders in Latin America, those on the frontlines are risking everything for society and the planet. COP29 must be more than a summit of promises. Governments must stand up to end the persecution of climate defenders now. Because without them, we do not have climate action – we have empty words.”

Over 1,500 climate and human rights defenders have been murdered since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, and there appears to be no let up as the latest death toll stands at 2,100, with Latin America having the highest number of recorded killings worldwide. 

Surveillance, intimidation, draconian laws and police brutality are on the rise, while Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, has called on governments to “take seriously the hostile narratives that are fast spreading worldwide, including in historic democracies, to vilify and stigmatise people exercising their fundamental freedoms.”

Azerbaijan, the leading fossil fuel supplier to Israel, plays COP29 host against a backdrop of documented human rights violations by the country’s government led by Ilham Aliyev. In 2024, Azerbaijan has witnessed its most severe repression yet, with a sharp rise in political prisoners, targeting of academics, and the harshest media restrictions in its history as a member of the Council of Europe. 

In Germany, in April 2024, police cracked down on peaceful pro-Palestinian protestors, with numerous incidents of excessive force and arbitrary detentions reported during demonstrations across major cities like Berlin, while dozens of civil society representatives and delegates from Africa and Asia experienced trouble getting visas to attend the annual mid-year UN climate talks that take place in Bonn.

Asad Rehman, Executive Director of War on Want, member of Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ), said: “Death and destruction from climate violence and genocide in Gaza is being actively fuelled by the actions of rich countries such as the USA, UK and EU. They are willing to burn down the rules-based system, trash international law and no longer even pretend that the lives of black and brown people matter. When people of conscience stand up to protect our planet and expose the complicity of Western governments, its banks and corporations that are profiting from repression and fuelling climate catastrophe, they are being met with repression, authoritarianism, and criminalization. We stand at a crossroads with the very future of humanity at stake, facing a life or death struggle for humanity: on the one side the right of everyone to live with dignity or a world of walls and fences and sacrificed people.”

Several peaceful and unarmed protesters, many of whom were youth, were killed and injured in Kenya by police during #RejectFinanceBill2024 marches in June 2024. While in the UK, there are currently 41 political prisoners, among which are campaigners who received what is thought to be the longest ever sentences for non-violent protest.

Dr. Ketakandriana Rafitoson, Executive Director of Publish What You Pay, said: “Escalating repression of activists is smothering the voices that matter most in the urgent shift to a cleaner and fairer energy future. As fossil fuel dependency fades, this suppression is not only unjust—it is dangerously short-sighted. A just and equitable energy transition requires an open civic space and the active participation of those on the frontlines – like Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu in Azerbaijan, whose insights and resilience are crucial to achieving a people-centred agenda for the planet.”

To address the repression epidemic, Climate Action Network, Publish What You Pay and Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice demand the following:

  • All governments, in particular, Azerbaijan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, the European Union – notably Germany, and the UK, must end their crackdown on civil society and journalists, and release all those arbitrarily detained and bring perpetrators to swift justice. 
  • States and the international community, including the United Nations through all its bodies, must take seriously the hostile narratives that are fast spreading worldwide, including in Western democracies, to vilify and stigmatise people exercising their fundamental freedoms.
  • Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change must recognise the legitimate work of people, groups and organisations that defend the environment and human rights, contributing to climate justice. 
  • All host countries of UNFCCC-related meetings and events, including Azerbaijan, Brazil, and Germany, respectively the hosts of COP29, COP30, and of the sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies, should guarantee open civic space before, during, and after the events and communicate around the steps taken to do so.
  • All Parties must combat reprisals and acts of intimidation against Indigenous Peoples, defenders or climate activists for their engagement with the UNFCCC by publicly denouncing all cases of reprisals, and establishing an accessible focal point for reprisals, with a mandate to collect information, to share it with the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and facilitate redress. 

Please find the detailed Press Note below:

Climate Talks and the Chilling Effect_ Repression on the RiseDownload

Climate Action Network (CAN) is the world’s largest climate network made up of more than 2000 civil society organisations in over 130 countries, together fighting the climate crisis. Since its inception in the 1980s, CAN has grown into a strong, member-driven network with a membership spanning all six continents in over 130 countries.

Publish What You Pay is a global network with over 1000 of civil society organisations in more than 50 countries. Founded in 2002, PWYP advocates   for an energy transition that leaves no one behind. PWYP listens to and elevates the voices and needs of people living in oil, gas, and mining dependent countries. 

Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) is a network of over 200 climate and human rights organisations working at international, regional and local level on issues of climate justice and just transition. Formed in 2012, DCJ campaigns on energy transformation and food, land, and water, as well as establishing itself as the convener of climate justice groups in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, where DCJ makes up one half of the Environmental NGO Constituency alongside Climate Action Network.

Contacts:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

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Press Releases, SB60, Statements

Rough Road to COP29: Rich Countries Pushing Global South Off the Tracks

13 June, 2023

Bonn, Germany

2023 was the hottest year on record with global temperatures close to 1.5 degrees. As the 60th Subsidiary Bodies meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: SBSTA and SBI come to a close, the global community faces stark realities about the ongoing climate crisis and the persistent inaction of developed countries. Recent UNFCCC reports reveal that rich nations, historically responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, have only met a quarter of the emission cuts urged by scientists. These same countries are pushing developing nations for ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) while putting on a concerted effort to not commit or deliver on their own climate finance obligations urgently needed by the developing countries.

Adding to the injustice, rich countries continue to advocate for false solutions like nature-based solutions, geoengineering, carbon capture and storage, and carbon markets. These tactics allow them and their corporations to evade genuine emission reductions and delay the phase-out of fossil fuels, perpetuating the exploitation of the Global South communities at the frontline of this crisis. Rich countries need to step up and pay up for their responsibility by delivering on an ambitious New Common Quantified Goal that ensures new, additional, predictable and non-debt creating grant based public finance that goes towards real solutions and not towards dangerous distractions. The Global South is owed reparations in trillions and not billions and we need them to go towards solutions developed by peoples who are at the frontlines and suffer the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis.

As we head towards COP29, it is imperative to hold these nations accountable and demand real, equitable climate action.

Quotes and Reactions from DCJ Members

Meena Raman, Third World Network

“If the developed world is serious about ambition in mitigation, they must in their forthcoming communication of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) indicate that they will phase out from the use of fossil fuels urgently and will provide the scale of finance needed for developing countries to enable their just and equitable energy transition. The rich world must also indicate the financial resources they will provide for the new collective quantified goal on finance which has to be agreed to in Baku by the end of this year, to enable developing countries to address their mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage needs. Thus far, developed countries have refused to indicate any quantum of finance. They have money for bombs and war but have no money for paying up their climate debt. They must Step Up, Pay Up and meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement. They have the money but not the political will and this must change, if we are serious about enabling a liveable planet for all. “

Mariana Pinzón, CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the Earth Colombia

“One more round of climate negotiations ends and, once again, profound decisions are postponed for a new cycle. The discussions do not respond to the urgency of a crisis that is growing exponentially, but to the rhythm of large fossil fuel corporations, linked in turn to the world financial system, and to the wealth of the countries of the Global North. Those most affected, the communities of the Global South, are not heard. The recognition of an ecological debt owed by the Global North to the Global South does not appear in the discussions, let alone the obligation to reduce their GHG emissions to real zero not “net” zero. Neo-extractivist and debt-linked finance promise to maintain the status quo. Meanwhile, more people are being displaced by the climate crisis as right-wing governments gain space and promise to put up their walls.”

ASSEM Ekue, Les Amis de la Terre-Togo

“The false climate solutions we’re hearing about at the Bonn climate talks, such as carbon offsetting, carbon trading schemes and geo-engineering, are nothing more than technological or commercial schemes promoted by fossil fuel companies and their political allies. Their consequences include deforestation, land grabbing and violations of the rights of local communities in Africa. They are undoubtedly a danger to communities and ecosystems.”

Eduardo Giesen, DCJ Regional Coordinator, Latin America and the Caribbean 

“Once again in Bonn, climate negotiations continue to move away from the systemic change that requires solving the climate crisis with justice, collaboration, peace and care for nature. On the contrary, the logic of arrogance, war, commodification and corporate power, expressed in north-south relations and the imposition of false solutions within the framework of negotiations, continue to prevail.

For organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is a new frustration that reinforces our effort to focus on producing systemic change from our own territories and communities.”

Dr Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network

“Negotiators at the SBSTA 60 continued geopolitical colonial practices that uphold power regimes in the global North putting Indigenous Peoples, women and local communities’ lives at risk. With the UN claiming lack of funds, close to a third of the budget is set aside to build and continue carbon markets in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and to continue the clean development mechanism running in a limbo status. The UNFCCC processes undermine efforts to stop the serious threat of climate change and its underpinning processes, which will certainly be apparent in Baku in November. We do not have time to continue down the path of colonial-development fossil fuel power regimes heightened by the UN; it is time to end this violence.”

Asad Rehman, Executive Director, War on Want:

“Transition is now inevitable, the question is what kind of transition? The answer from rich countries in Bonn is that the goal is an unjust and inequitable transition condemning the majority of the world to increased climate violence, keeping them trapped in unequal societies. Rich countries need to stop financing bombs and bullets and instead invest in the life-saving systems needed by those on the frontlines.

Global North countries appear determined to bully the Global South while billions around the world desperately need concrete international action, including sufficient additional non-debt creating finance and technology transfers. This must be enabled by securing trade justice, implementing a fairer global taxation system, and redirecting damaging subsidies.”

Souparna Lahiri, Global Forest Coalition

“With 6 years to go for 2030 and what looks like a pretty ambitious but scientifically deduced benchmark of 1.5, the UNFCCC has lost the plot. We are facing a climate chaos and not a climate crisis anymore! Where the markets dictate, the dirty polluters preach and the rich west wants to come out clean of its historical responsibility of ravaging our planet,  our mother earth. We have had enough of these false promises and false solutions. It’s time to reclaim our land, our forests, and justice for Indigenous Peoples, women and local communities who are victims of colonialism, capitalism and climate colonialism. That’s our pathway to climate justice, real solutions and real zero.”

Sara Shaw, Friends of the Earth International 

“Developing countries need trillions in new public finance for adaptation, loss and damage and for a just transition away from fossil fuels. But developed countries are not even offering crumbs from the table and are blocking all progress. They want developing countries to accept loans which will further fuel debt, and are pushing already discredited carbon market finance schemes which causes grave harm in the Global South. This is a disaster.”

Rachel Rose Jackson, Corporate Accountability

“The Bonn climate talks produced wanting and watered down outcomes totally out of touch with reality.  Millions of lives are already being lost and impacted as a result of the climate crisis, yet urgency and fairness is totally lacking in this process. What is not lacking is the chokehold the fossil fuel industry and other Big Polluters have over this process, and there is no shortage of bullying by Global North governments evading their fair share. Until we end the ability of Big Polluters to write the rules of climate action, climate talks will continue to condemn rather than save lives.”

Rachitaa Gupta, Global Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

“We saw deepening distrust at the climate talks in Bonn as rich countries continued to block progress and refused to step up and own up to their historical responsibilities for the ongoing climate crisis. We call out the misplaced priorities of the rich countries as they mobilise more money for the ongoing genocide in Palestine than for climate action.These same actors are perpetuating both the climate crisis and the systemic violence happening around the world.

As the Global South continues to reels from the climate crisis induced devastation, it is time for rich countries to reckon with their history and pay up the climate debt owed to the Global South. We need reparations in trillions not billions and we need them now to go towards real solutions – those developed by peoples who are at the frontlines and suffer the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis”

Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins, War on Want on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice Just Transition Working Group

“We leave Bonn with little concrete progress on the Just Transition Work Programme. Yet we need rapid, just and equitable transitions essential to transforming our economies and societies in the face of climate breakdown and rampant global inequalities. Rich countries’ shenanigans included refusing to honour the original decision which stipulated that ‘international cooperation’ would enable just transitions (3/CMA.5). They would prefer the JTWP to be a talking shop, and refuse to support practical measures such as finance or technology transfer. We will continue to build grassroots power in our communities to fight for real change, and push for more tangible outcomes at COP29.”

Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International:

“While lives are being lost in unbearable heat waves in Sudan, last year’s breakthrough agreement to transition away from fossil fuels was barely mentioned in these negotiations. The rich countries most responsible for this crisis must pay up for a fair fossil fuel phase-out and climate damages, without worsening unjust debts. We know they have more than enough money. It’s just going to the wrong things. 

“G7 leaders gathering in Italy today must face their responsibility. Instead of siding with fossil fuel interests, they need to deliver a fair fossil fuel phase-out, end fossil fuel handouts, and put a strong climate finance offer on the table. This is essential to build a fair and renewable future for all.”

Victor Menotti, Interim US Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

“DCJ sees a ROUGH road to Baku given the little progress and deepening distrust here in Bonn. BURYING data from Annex 1 reports showing that the richest nations cut only one-fifth of the emissions scientists urged does NOT reverse the deteriorating spirit of cooperation. Nor does publicly declaring success while actually delivering only $51B of the $100B promised, as their reports reveal. Biennial Transparency reports (BTRs) BEFORE Baku – as well as coming clean on why such poor performance – are paramount.

We DO see a HOPEFUL way ahead, but only if rich countries step up to their responsibilities by drafting NDCs that are EQUITABLY aligned with 1.5C. That means the biggest historical polluters must not do only the global AVERAGE but indeed much more…For example, by making PERMANENT the pause on new LNG export permits to end the world’s largest expansion of fossil fuels. Ending LNG‘s expansion would convince other countries that aligning with 1.5C is truly the North Star of policymaking for the biggest historical polluters.”

Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

“Climate finance at international talks has morphed into a battleground, a glaring testament to years of neglect and deception by developed nations. These countries have not only skirted their historical responsibilities but have also consistently deployed delay tactics, shifting burdens onto the shoulders of developing countries.

“We are on the brink of a catastrophic failure of climate talks, harming those least responsible for the crisis. It is time for wealthy nations to confront their obligations head-on, to integrate substantial climate finance commitments into their national budgets, and to impose punitive taxes on fossil fuel corporations and the super-rich — those who have profited most from the exploitation of our planet. 

“As we witness devastating impacts affecting people and nature, our patience has run thin. We need action to raise trillions of dollars, not excuses, to finance the urgent climate solutions needed to safeguard our future and restore justice to the communities bearing the brunt of climate change.”

Teresa Anderson, Global lead on climate justice, ActionAid International: 

“Across the board, negotiation tracks nearly ran off the rails with rich countries blocking the finance needed to make climate action happen. COP29 negotiations in Baku on the new climate finance goal will be a fork in the road for Planet Earth. Developing countries have been carrying the costs of the climate crisis, and their patience is now stretched beyond bearing. Right now, it’s the people who have done almost nothing to cause the climate crisis who are paying for it with their lost livelihoods, their hunger, their disappearing islands, and their lives.

“There’s no getting around the fact that if we want enough climate action to ensure a safe future for everyone, we’re going to have to find a way of covering the costs. The climate bill will be in multiple trillions of dollars, but the good news is that tax justice can be a game-changer for climate action. New ActionAid research shows that developed countries can raise USD 2 trillion for climate action by raising their tax-to-GDP ratios by four percentage points, with a range of progressive tax measures that address tax avoidance, and target the wealthiest corporations and individuals.”

Quotes in other languages

[Portuguese]

Dr Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network

“Os negociadores no SBSTA 60 continuaram as práticas coloniais geopolíticas que sustentam regimes de poder no Norte global, colocando povos indígenas, mulheres e vidas de comunidades locais em risco. Com a ONU alegando falta de fundos, quase um terço do orçamento é reservado para construir e continuar os mercados de carbono no Artigo 6 do Acordo de Paris e para continuar o mecanismo de desenvolvimento limpo em execução em um status de limbo. Os processos da UNFCCC prejudicam os esforços para deter a séria ameaça das mudanças climáticas e seus processos de sustentação, que certamente serão aparentes em Baku em novembro. Não temos tempo para continuar no caminho dos regimes colonial de poder do combustíveis fósseis pela ONU; é hora de acabar com essa violência.”

[Español]

Dr Tamra Gilbertson, Indigenous Environmental Network

“Los negociadores del SBSTA 60 continuaron con las prácticas coloniales geopolíticas que sostienen los regímenes de poder en el Norte global, poniendo en riesgo la vida de los pueblos indígenas, las mujeres y las comunidades locales. Mientras la ONU alega falta de fondos, cerca de un tercio del presupuesto se reserva para construir y mantener los mercados de carbono en el Artículo 6 del Acuerdo de París y para continuar con el mecanismo de desarrollo limpio funcionando en un estado de limbo. Los procesos de la CMNUCC socavan los esfuerzos para detener la grave amenaza del cambio climático y sus procesos subyacentes, lo que sin duda será evidente en Bakú en noviembre. No tenemos tiempo para continuar por el camino de los regímenes de desarrollo colonial basados ​​en combustibles fósiles y de acentuados por la ONU; es hora de poner fin a esta violencia.”

Mariana Pinzón, CENSAT Agua Viva/Friends of the Earth Colombia

“Termina una ronda más de negociaciones sobre el clima y, una vez más, las decisiones profundas se posponen para un nuevo ciclo. Las discusiones no responden a la urgencia de una crisis que crece exponencialmente, sino al ritmo de las grandes corporaciones de combustibles fósiles, vinculadas a su vez al sistema financiero mundial, y a la riqueza de los países del Norte Global. Los más afectados, las comunidades del Sur Global, no son escuchados. El reconocimiento de una deuda ecológica del Norte Global con el Sur Global no aparece en los debates, y mucho menos la obligación de reducir sus emisiones de GEI a cero real y no a cero “neto”. El neoextractivismo y las finanzas vinculadas a la deuda prometen mantener el statu quo. Mientras tanto, más personas se ven desplazadas por la crisis climática a medida que los gobiernos de derechas ganan espacio y levantan sus muros.”

Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice is a network of over 200 networks and organisations 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. Contact: Neha Gupta, [email protected]; Signal/Whatsapp: +91 9810 078 055

Press Releases, SB58

Civil Society Groups Raise Concerns Over Increasing Push for Carbon Markets, Offsets, and False Solutions like Geoengineering and Land Based Removals During Climate Negotiations

10 July 2023: More than 125 civil society groups have raised concerns over the increasing push for carbon markets, offsets, and false solutions like geoengineering and land based removals during climate negotiations.

“It is absurd that a mechanism under the Paris Agreement would consider accepting geoengineering technologies such as Direct Air Capture, Ocean Fertilization, and techniques to alter ocean chemistry, among others. None of them have a legitimate record of effectively and permanently removing carbon from the atmosphere. In reality, they all entail significant environmental and social risk, while providing an alibi for Big Polluters who won’t reduce emissions. The risks of these technologies are such that they are under moratoria from other UN bodies – the UNFCCC must respect these UN decisions!”, said Silvia Ribeiro, ETC group, México.

The science is as clear as the increasing frequency and violence of climate impacts across the world – no more time can be wasted to take climate action. Big Polluters are carrying on emitting under the cover of deceiving net zero claims while communities and ecosystems across the world suffer immensely. There is an urgent need for real, deep, and urgent emission reductions in line with principles of fair shares starting with just and equitable phase out of fossil fuels.

Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network said, “A global phase out of fossil fuels should be the primary discussion on climate mitigation, not more carbon markets, offsets, pricing and removals that give a free pass to polluters. Indigenous Peoples throughout the world are disproportionately impacted by fossil fuels and the increasing impacts of climate change. More carbon markets, offsets and removals must not be considered as solutions. Indigenous Peoples have experienced 20 years of history with these that have resulted in rights violations, land grabbing, and disproportionate impacts. The Supervisory Body of Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement must hear our demands to end the era of carbon markets, offsets and carbon pricing. Mother Earth demands that fossil fuels stay in the ground.”

“The UN body discussing provisions regarding carbon removals can’t allow itself to be influenced by the industry and open the door to dangerous distractions in the form of land-based and technological removals. The science and evidence couldn’t be clearer: offsets won’t save the day. They harm communities in the Global South, small peasant farmers, and Indigenous Peoples first and foremost. Let’s stop wasting time and commit to the urgent, deep, and real emission reductions we need,” said Lise Masson, Friends of the Earth International.

Rights groups have also raised concerns over engagement and consultation of stakeholders and other right holders for Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement by the UNFCCC Supervisory Body that have allowed for disproportionate influence of the Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR) industry in the policy making process.

“There is a direct and obvious conflict of interest to allow industries that have been fueling climate change as well as distracting and delaying adequate action for decades to be a part of the policy making process. The consultation process held by the Supervisory Body for Article 6.4 has provided a strategic opportunity for pro-markets stakeholders and the CDR industry to strengthen their tactics and therefore render the process deeply flawed. The UNFCCC must not allow this disproportionate influence of the CDR industry to continue and instead prioritize voices of the communities for real, peoples led solutions”, said Gadir Lavadenz, Global Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

xxxxx

Read the letter here

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 reach out to our members.

Press Releases, SB58

Rich Countries double down on obstruction in Bonn: Climate talks face sandstorm of uncertainty in Dubai

15 June 2023

Bonn, Germany

As the UN Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany comes to a close, it was not surprising to see US, backed by the EU, UK and other global North governments, historically responsible for causing today’s climate crisis, continue their dirty tricks to divert discussion away from their failure to deliver on their legal obligations under UNFCCC. The so-called ¨Developed¨countries blocked progress at every step during the climate talk to get away from their responsibility to provide finance and technology to developing countries, who are the first and worst hit by climate catastrophes. Bonn essentially became the staging ground for the Great Escape II.

Rich nations exhausted the capacity of the climate talks by trying to impose a discussion on mitigation without addressing means of implementation. These same countries have not only failed to meet their own mitigation targets, but are locking the world in a fossil fuel dependency. The US alone is planning to expand fossil fuel production by over 300% despite being historically responsible for  23% of emissions from 1859 to 2019 representing only 4% of the world’s population. As we head to Dubai for COP28 in November, there is growing uncertainty on the climate talks to deliver on the real solutions, real finance, real actions on reducing global emissions that can help the world set on the path of just transition.

Representatives of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice share their reactions on the UN Climate Conference at Bonn, outcome of the climate negotiations as well as the key demands that the climate justice movement will be raising at COP28.

Watch DCJ Press Conference here and here

Quotes in English

Titi Soentoro, Aksi! And Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development

It is disheartened to witness the hypocrisy here in Bonn. The developing countries’ governments are pressured to increase their emission reduction target ambitions, while the developed countries still maintain their fossil-fuel consumptions through coal trading and import from the developing countries. 

It is also disheartening to see that millions of people are suffering from climate change disasters like sea-level rise, typhoons, floods, that trigger forced displacement, loss of livelihoods, and impoverishment. On the other hand we witness the objections of the developed countries to their historical responsibilities. We also witness that the public climate finance for mitigation mostly go for massive mega-projects in the developing countries that trigger land and resource grabbing.

As long as the climate negotiations are market and profit based, the needs and interests of climate affected communities will never be a priority.

Marcos Nordgren Ballivian, PBFCC-Bolivia

Science forecasts that the first critical limit set in the Paris Agreement, with a maximum temperature increase of 1.5 Celsius C, will likely be exceeded in the next few years, possibly during the upcoming El Niño cycle warm phase 2023-2024. This development mean that the world is most certainly heading towards failure in meeting the Paris Agreement and on the brink of a global climate catastrophe.  Everything is at risk. However, instead of a collective response from the international community based on solidarity and the acknowledgement of historical responsibilities and capabilities of rich economies, the countries convened in Bonn over the past two weeks, primarily those from developed nations, seem to have opted to block progress as much as possible without getting the blame and see how bad things are really going to get the coming years as to decide how they best can keep on taking advantage of their economic and political advantages.They fail to recognize that we must either confront the necessary and substantial climate justice transitions together, or “accept” a world where even the most fundamental human needs and rights cannot be sustained, be it for the privileged or the underprivileged sooner or later. It is imperative that we raise our voices louder for the common people in Europe, the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and all across the developed world to hear: The Crisis is today and their governments are failing to defend their rights and the future of humanity.

Susann Scherbarth, Friends of the Earth Germany, Germany

“The path towards the global climate conference in Dubai this November remains uncharted. Instead of taking responsibility for curbing the climate crisis and providing trillions to support the poor and vulnerable, wealthy nations such as the United States and the European Union have pointed fingers at poorer nations for impeding progress. As a result, the upcoming climate negotiations in Dubai find themselves engulfed in a big sandstorm of uncertainty.

But it’s crystal clear what needs to come out of the world climate conference in November: a fast, fair and funded phase out of all fossil fuels and substantial financial commitments in trillions from wealthy nations. These funds are crucial to empower and support the poor and vulnerable in effectively tackling the climate crisis in a way that leaves no one behind. Wealthy nations like Germany need to end their shopping sprees around the world, where they fill their bags with gas and colonial patterns.”

Andrea Echeverri. Global Forest Coalition

We cannot achieve a just transition without addressing the interconnections between the energy and food systems. Our current industrial food system is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, from the production of synthetic fertilizers to the transportation of food across long distances. This system is not only unsustainable but also unjust, as it perpetuates inequalities and harms vulnerable communities, women and ecosystems. We must divest from the industries that perpetuate environmental and social injustices, including hunger, land grabbing, and gender based violence. We must demand that governments, development Banks, UN agencies take bold action to address the climate crisis and prioritize the needs of communities over corporate profits. That is divesting in large feed crops, in factory farming in fossils and investing in community energies and agroecology. 

Eduardo Giesen, Regional Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

“The SB58 conference in Bonn has confirmed the farce that climate negotiations represent, captured by the power of corporations and rich countries.

We return to our countries convinced of the urgency of working and fighting from the territories against extractivism and false solutions, as well as denouncing the complicity of the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean, even those who describe themselves as progressive and environmentalists.”

Meena Raman, Third World Network

The climate talks at Bonn this year have been a Great Escape. As the negotiations progressed, we saw developed countries trying to delete references to the convention, to equity, to common but differentiated responsibility just to escape from their responsibility for the historical emissions that have led to the current climate crisis. It has been an absolute horror show. And if you saw what’s happening here it is the preparation for the big wrestling and boxing match during COP28 or what I call the Dubai Marathon. Developed countries have not been negotiating in good faith, which is actually wrecking the climate regime, the convention and the Paris Agreement. They are always shifting the goalposts, always breaking promises and all of this is geared towards rich countries to bring in green colonialism that will allow them to keep control ove the resources of the developing countries.

Romain Ioualalen, Oil Change International, France

“The Bonn climate conference was a missed opportunity. Over the past two weeks, climate negotiators bickered over arcane procedural points instead of charting a clear path towards a decision to phase out fossil fuels at COP28 and unlock a global renewable energy revolution. Governments should be ashamed of their delaying tactics.

“To fulfill the promise countries made in Paris in 2015, they must halt fossil fuel expansion, end public finance for fossil fuels, and agree to a fair, fast, and full transition away from end oil, gas, and coal and towards renewables. Thankfully, momentum is growing inside and outside the negotiations: over 70 countries have called for a COP28 decision on fossil fuel phase out in Bonn, and a growing list of countries and institutions have followed through on their COP26 promise to end international public finance for fossil fuels. Countries like Colombia and the members of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance are doing the hard work of implementing measures to keep oil and gas in the ground.

“The contrast between this leadership and the actions of the world’s biggest historic polluter, the United States could not be more striking. Under Biden’s leadership, the U.S. has failed in its responsibility to lead a global and just transition away from fossil fuels and avert further climate disaster and has instead actively promoted fossil fuel expansion including with public money. Fossil fuel companies, who are doing everything in their power to extract the last ounces of profits from its dangerous activities.

As COP28 approaches, it is crucial that we double down on efforts to build a clean, renewable energy future for all, free of fossil fuels.”

Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of Climate Research and Policy, Corporate Accountability

Yet again, these climate talks failed to deliver the urgent action we need to reduce emissions to Real Zero and scale up real, people-centered solutions. And we know why– as long as Big Polluters are allowed to roam the halls of the UNFCCC and undermine the global response to climate change, climate action will not prioritize people and the planet over profits. While civil society–including youth, women and gender groups, climate and climate justice groups, and trade unions– united to secure a long overdue victory with the first ever requirements for UNFCCC participants to have to declare their affiliation before participating, we have a long way to travel in a very short time to ensure the rules of climate action are no longer written by Big Polluters. We will not back down until we finally Kick Big Polluters Out and reset the system so it works for people, not polluters! 

Sara Shaw, climate justice and energy coordinator, Friends of the Earth International

It’s of grave concern that while rich countries have blocked discussions on climate finance and equity at every turn during these talks, carbon markets are quietly progressing. Big polluters must be delighted. There are no possible rules that can actually make the global carbon market work. Carbon markets are a distraction from real climate action and cause grave harm – preventing real emissions reductions and climate finance, opening the door to dangerous new technologies like geoengineering, and threatening communities in the global South with land grabs and human rights violations,” says Sara Shaw, climate justice & energy coordinator. 

Alex Rafalowicz, Executive Director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

We are in the midst of a climate crisis happening here and now. Some governments are taking this seriously like Fiji which publicly called for a fossil fuel treaty. The COP presidency, UAE, notably shifted and said that the phase down of fossil fuels is inevitable. So the question for these negotiations is how we are going to make that transition happen faster and fairer. The signs coming out of Bonn are concerning. During the climate talks, the United States and other countries that are some of the biggest producers of fossil fuels actively blocked proposals for full consideration of the just transition issue. If we can’t talk about just transition and how we work together, we are not going to accelerate that transition to meet the deadline that we have. For that reason people across the world have declared that they are going to fight back and fight for the end of fossil fuels, fast, fair and forever.

Victor Menotti, Oakland Institute / Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

Signaling a showdown to come at COP28 in Dubai, developed countries doubled-down on their demands that developing countries mitigate more while shamelessly diverting discussion away from financing required under the UN climate convention. As always, they faithfully followed the lead of the largest historic polluter, the US. While Washington DC choked on smoke from Canadian wildfires and focused on the trial of its previous president, the Biden team’s Trump-like tactics defined Bonn’s political dynamics across all negotiating topics. It was a master course in gaslighting by insisting all countries align their financial flows with the 1.5C temperature goal even though Biden has been encouraging endless supplies of new fossil fuel production from investors by rolling back bedrock environmental laws to fastrack new projects. 

But Bonn also launched escalated efforts by climate campaigners to fight back against industry’s war on people and the planet, with the next few months to define what goes down in Dubai.

Elodie Guillon, World Animal Protection, UK

It is disheartening to witness the slow progress in taking action within the agricultural negotiation stream during SB58, despite the overwhelming evidence that immediate measures are necessary. 

The IPCC warns that even without fossil fuel emissions, emissions from our food systems alone could lead to a devastating global temperature increase. Destructive agribusiness practices contribute to emissions, environmental damage, and harm smallholders and indigenous communities. Addressing these injustices and implementing agroecology and dietary shifts, particularly plant-based proteins, are urgent and real solutions. Let’s harness the lessons learned from the COVID-19 emergency in acting collectively, swiftly, and decisively. It’s time for action.

Gaya, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

The bottom line with climate finance is: if it isn’t funded, it won’t get done. If we don’t secure enough climate finance we cannot limit the impact of the climate crisis by reducing emissions or “mitigation”. We cannot protect billions of people from its worst impacts by assuring appropriate “adaptation”. We cannot help people and whole countries recover from its unavoidable damage by compensating them for “loss and damage” suffered.

Currently the discussions under the UNFCCC reveal that rich countries want to evade their responsibility to provide the finance needed. We have seen a push to overburden the existing humanitarian system with the task of addressing Loss and Damage. A reluctance to discuss finance in connection with the Mitigation Work Programme. And we have seen the eagerness of developed countries to unload the responsibility of climate finance onto multilateral development banks – risking piling more debt onto countries already overburdened by unfair debt burdens. These distractions from the core need to generate new, additional, predictable and accessible climate finance must be resisted on the road to CoP28.

We always hear that we need “bold” solutions to the climate crisis. But what does this mean? Aside from having the political will to urgently deliver their promises and obligations as enshrined in the Paris Agreement, it is time for global north countries to use their economic power to come up with bold solutions to generate climate finance now. It means we must be bold in reforming the financial system towards cancelling debt and creating fairer institutions and rules in global lending. We must be bold in the global taxation system and create huge new streams of climate revenue by getting corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair shares. We could re-divert money lost to tax loopholes and havens, and fossil fuel subsidies. We need to make critical climate technology available for free to developing countries so the green transition and adaptation are just and don’t constitute yet another financial burden to countries.

Alexia, Start:Empowerment, U.S 

I live in Texas but my family is in the global south  and I know all too well how rich governments continue to profit off the fossil fuel industry while Black and Brown communities both within the global north and in the global south die. We need the global north to commit to funding loss and damage and an equitable fossil fuel phase out. We can’t continue to have empty summits and throw away our future while those on the frontlines die. 

Quotes in other languages

Camila Romero, Colectivo Viento Sur, Chile

Desde el llamado Sur Global, enfrentamos diariamente los efectos devastadores del cambio climático y del modelo económico extractivista que ha colonizado nuestros territorios. Es imperativo que los responsables históricamente de las mayores emisiones e impactos asuman su responsabilidad y no solamente paguen con recursos financieros y tecnológico a las regiones más vulnerables, si no que se haga justicia, y caminemos hacia una transformación de los sistemas de vida donde se priorice las necesidades de quienes habitamos los territorios por sobre el lucro de las grandes corporaciones.

Susann Scherbarth, Friends of the Earth Germany, Germany

“Die bevorstehenden Klimaverhandlungen in Dubai stecken in einem gewaltigen Sandsturm der Unsicherheit. Statt Verantwortung für die Klimakrise zu übernehmen und Trillionen zur Unterstützung der Armen und Schutzbedürftigen bereitzustellen, schieben wohlhabende Nationen wie die USA und die EU den ärmeren Ländern die Schuld zu. Der Weg bis nach Dubai bleibt mit diesen enttäuschenden Ergebnissen ungewiss.
„Es ist glasklar, was aus der Weltklimakonferenz im November hervorgehen muss: ein schneller, fairer und finanziell abgesicherter Ausstieg aus fossilen Brennstoffen sowie bedeutende finanzielle Zusagen in Trillionen von wohlhabenden Nationen. Diese Mittel sind entscheidend, um die Armen wirksam in der Bewältigung der Klimakrise zu unterstützen und niemanden zurückzulassen.
“Wohlhabende Nationen wie Deutschland müssen ihre weltweiten Shopping-Touren beenden, bei denen sie ihre Taschen mit Gas und kolonialen Mustern füllen.”

Karola Knuth, Young Friends of the Earth Germany, Germany

“Die Staaten und vor allem die reichen, historisch verantwortlichen Länder, spielen hier mit der Zukunft der Welt, weil sie sich wegen Machtspielchen nicht auf grundlegende Dinge wie eine Tagesordnung einigen können. Zukünftig wollen wir deshalb eine bessere Partizipation der Zivilgesellschaft und vor allem der Jugend, indigener Gruppen, local communities und FINTA* sehen!” (FINTA* ist eine Abkürzung und steht für Frauen, Inter, Nicht-binäre, Trans und Agender Personen. Damit sollen alle geschlechtlichen Identitäten zusammengefasst werden, welche vom Patriarchat unterdrückt werden)
“Wir sehen wie sich der Globale Norden seiner historischen Verantwortung entziehen will und auf falsche Lösungen pocht, wie Geoengineering und Marktmechanismen. Aber das einzige, was uns hilft ist ein schneller, solidarischer Ausstieg aus fossilen Energien.”

Eduardo Giesen, Coordinador Regional de la Campaña Global para Exigir Justicia Climática

” La conferencia del SB58 en Bonn ha confirmado la farsa que representan las negociaciones climáticas, capturadas por el poder de las corporaciones y los países ricos. 

Volvemos a nuestros paises convencidos de la urgencia de trabajar y luchar desde los territorios en contra del extractivismo y las falsas soluciones, así como denunciar la complicidad de los gobiernos de América Latina y el Caribe, aun aquellos que se califican de progresistas y ecologistas.”

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 reach out to our members.

LAC, Press Releases, Region, SB58

Articulación global de justicia climática denuncia en Bonn la promoción de falsas soluciones y reclama el fin del extractivismo y una transición justa en América Latina y el Caribe

Desde el 5 al 15 de junio se llevó a cabo la Conferencia de Cambio Climático de Naciones Unidas en Bonn, Alemania. En el lugar convergen gobiernos, tomadores de decisiones y también activistas que de todo el mundo llegan a poner el punto de la justicia climática sobre la mesa.

La mañana de este 13 de junio, a través de una conferencia de prensa, organizaciones de la Campaña Global para Exigir Justicia Climática (DCJ, por sus siglas en inglés) de América Laina y el Caribe dieron cuenta de la “decepción y escepticismo” que les provoca el curso de estas negociaciones a lo largo de su historia. “Se han alejado de su objetivo de enfrentar realmente el cambio climático y se han visto capturadas por los intereses de las grandes corporaciones, con la complicidad de los gobiernos”, declaró Eduardo Giesen, Coordinador Regional de la Campaña Global para Exigir Justicia Climática.

Para la defensora Camila Romero, proveniente del Wallmapu, en Chile, y parte del Colectivo VientoSur, expresó que “mujeres, jóvenes, indígenas, hemos venido para denunciar que el modelo de desarrollo actual lo está destruyendo todo”. Al mismo tiempo señala que el ritmo de crecimiento económico que busca sostener el sistema capitalista está “provocando el colapso climático y civilizatorio. El cambio climático es la crisis de la sociedad de consumo”.

Silvia Ribeiro, parte del Grupo ETC que hace parte de DCJ, puso la lupa en la propuesta de nuevo marco para mercados de carbono, calificándolo como “altamente preocupante”. “Especialmente a partir del artículo 6.4, se dirige a legitimar tecnologías de geoingeniería, las cuales conllevan altos riesgos e impactos sociales y ambientales, como la captura y almacenamiento de carbono (CCS) y otras relacionadas como la captura de aire (DAC) y la bioenergía con CCS. También de geoingeniería marina, como fertilización oceánica y alcalinización de los océanos, aunque por sus altos riesgos están bajo moratoria en otros convenios de ONU”, alerta. Además, esto sería una forma de proponer tecnologías que “no existen realmente, salvo CCS que fue desarrollada por la industria petrolera para extraer reservas profundas de petróleo, que es a lo que están destinados más de 85 % de los proyectos existentes, por lo que aumentarán las emisiones y la crisis climática”.

Alternativas al extractivismo
Junto al reclamo y exigencia, viene también la propuesta. “No podemos olvidarnos de construir las alternativas. El mecanismo desvinculado del mercado de carbono debe convertirse en una opción de desarrollar acciones de respuesta desde y para las comunidades indígenas, locales y los propios ecosistemas en los diferentes frentes de impacto alrededor del mundo”, declaró desde la Plataforma Boliviana frente al Cambio Climático, Marcos Nordgren. El defensor afirma que para que lo anterior se cumpla, es “imprescindible la activa participación y consulta de las comunidades locales e indígenas en el diseño de estas nuevas herramientas y asegurar el resguardo de sus derechos y territorios, evitando la instrumentalización de estos instrumentos para profundizar las soluciones falsas del mercado de carbono.

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