Peoples’ World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights

04. Referendum

At the Copenhagen conference, President Evo Morales proposed that, given the lack of an accord among governments, the people should be consulted in a referendum of global scale. He put forth the following five questions for that referendum:

1) Do you agree with reestablishing harmony with nature while recognizing the rights of the Mother Earth? YES or NO

2) Do you agree with changing this model of over-consumption and waste that represents capitalist system? YES or NO

3) Do you agree that developing countries reduce and reabsorb their domestic greenhouse gas emissions for temperature not to rise more than 1 degree Celsius? YES or NO

4) Do you agree with transferring all that is spent in wars and for allocating a budget bigger than used for defense to climate change? YES or NO

5) Do you agree with a Climate Justice Tribunal to judge those who destroy Mother Earth? YES or NO

The working group will discuss the pertinence of this proposal, the questions it will ask, and the concrete aspects of organizing a referendum at the global level with the participation of different peoples and progressive governments.

..gotta love this.

Media advisory: Bolivia launches World Peoples’ Climate Summit at UNFCCC talks in Bonn

Quote: Solon commenting on news that the US and Denmark were withdrawing aid from countries like Bolivia for their opposition to the Copenhagen Accord said, “This in their rights, but unfair and clearly an attempt to punish Bolivia. What kind of negotiation is it where you lose money if you disagree?” Solon said that Bolivia would not back down due to such threats. “We are a country with dignity and sovereignty and will maintain our position.”

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/media-advisory-bolivia-launches-wo...

Invitation to the Assembly of Social Movements

Quote:
We, activists of many diverse social movements, characterize this current moment as one of arrogance and authoritarianism on the part of the United States, the European Union and transnational corporations. This was demonstrated in Copenhagen when very few countries tried to create an outcome that was in disagreement with the COP 15, and did nothing to stop global warming and the climate crisis.

Quote:
It is in this context that we present to the People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. In Cochabamba we have organized an Assembly of Social Movements, a continuation of our efforts and articulations in the fight, with two goals:

    * To discuss and organize our support of the proposals and initiatives of governments committed to the rights of people and the environment;
    * To discuss and organize our agenda as social movements to promote our alternatives and our resistence to the marketization of the relationship between people and between people and their environment—the offense of transnationals and militarization.

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/invitation-to-the-assembly-of-soci...

..starting monday the 19th democracy now will be brodcasting from cochabamba.

http://www.democracynow.org/

Bolivia submits Cochabamba Conference outcome to UNFCCC
Meena Raman

The Bolivian government forwarded a submission on 26 April to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat containing the outcome of the “World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth” held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, from 19-22 April.

The Cochabamba Conference was convened by Bolivian President Evo Morales and was attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other Latin American political leaders.

According to the Bolivian submission to the UNFCCC, more than 35,000 delegates from social movements and organizations from 140 countries had participated in the Conference.

The Bolivian submission incorporates the main content of the “Peoples Agreement” and the draft proposal for a “Universal Declaration of Mother Earth’s Rights” that were adopted at the Cochabamba Conference to facilitate the inclusion of proposals for the draft negotiating text to be prepared by the Chair of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) for the working group’s next session in June.

http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/

Press Release: Bolivian President Evo Morales to Deliver Results of People’s Conference

May 5, 2010 in Press

Bolivian President Evo Morales to Deliver Results of People’s Conference on Climate Change  to UN Sec Gen Ban-Ki Moon

New York – On the morning of Friday, May 7th, President Evo Morales of Bolivia will personally present UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with the conclusions of the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth, which was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia from April 20th to 22nd, 2010. Some 30,000 people hailing from over 150 countries attended the Conference, which offered governments and civil society groups a rare chance to work together to address climate change.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president will be joined in New York by delegates from around the world who were active at the conference, including: Nnimmo Bassey (Nigeria) and Asad Rehman (UK) from the organization Friends of the Earth, Yoon Guem Soon (South Korea) and Tomás Balduino (Brazil) of Via Campesina, Meena Raman (Mayalysia) of Third World Network, Jeremy Osborn (USA) of 350.org, Tom Goldtooth (USA) of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Enrique Daza (Colombia) of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, and Maude Barlow (Canada) of the Blue Planet Project.

Following the meeting with Ban Ki-moon, Morales will hold a press conference in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium of the United Nations at 1pm. He and the international delegates will later share the conclusions reached in the People’s Accord of Cochabamba with developing countries in a briefing to the G77 and China.

Last week, the Bolivian government submitted the People’s Accord to the UN body that deals with climate change negotiations in the form of an official contribution to the debates taking place under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Among the most important aspects of the People’s Accord are a project for a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by developing countries for the 2010-2017 period, a draft Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, a proposal for a global referendum on climate change, and recommendations for the creation of an International Climate and Justice Tribunal.

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/press-release-bolivian-president-e...

WORKING GROUP ON ACTION STRATEGIES

(Action Plan of the Peoples Agreement)

The movement’s priority  is to be nurtured by and articulated with campaigns, networks, regional and global organizations that in recent years have worked to address climate change and defend the rights of Mother Earth, and other networks, regional and global organizations, sectoral and thematic that have made the same commitment.

Therefore it proposes the following lines of action:

1.   Political incidence

1.1      Work to spread the conclusions in our countries, organizations, unions, communities and others, of the “Peoples Agreement” under the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.....

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/final-conclusions-working-group-16...

7. Towards the 2nd Conference

The organizations participating in this Conference will promote the organization of a new World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth by the year 2011, in the framework of the movement’s building process and evaluating the results of the Cancun Conference.

Vía Campesina facing the COP 16

May 20, 2010 in Int'l Actions & Events

1. The capitalist model that prioritizes benefits for transnational corporations over those of the people and respect for nature is driving us towards the destruction of our planet. Transnational corporations are our common enemies, they are enemies of humanity.
 
The future of humanity is under threat. Industrial agriculture and livestock and the commercialized food system, along with the atmospheric contamination casued by these large industries, are what is provoking the climate crisis. The life, knowledge and culture of peasant and indigenous communities are at risk, and with them sufficient and healthy food production are at risk as well.

2. La Vía Campesina’s struggle is a different approach, which values and protects the knowledge, culture and role of peasant and indigenous small producers and family farms in food production. We are the solution to hunger in the world and our agriculture cools the planet.
 
Food sovereignty is the global alternative confronting the capitalist system and the multidimensional crisis it has generated (food crisis, biodiversity crisis, financial crisis, energy crisis), it is an alternative for society as a whole.

3. After the failure of the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Copenhagen (COP 15), the COP 16 will be held in Cancun, Mexico from  November 29th to December 10th, 2010. We do not doubt that the governments of the dominant countries, and their loyal allies in the South, are planning to meet again to continue profiting on the basis of false solutions – such as agrofuels and the carbon credits market – rather than addressing the real structural causes of the climate crisis, which is part of the current multifaceted crisis of capitalism.

4. We are in high spirits following the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia this past April. The agreements affirm the rights of peasant and indigenous peoples, as well as the rights of Mother Earth herself, and demand that industrialized countries assume their historical responsibility for the climate crisis with real and drastic emissions cuts and the payment of their climate debt, among other things.
 
Cancun, Mexico will be a distinct field of battle from the one in which we derailed the WTO in 2003. So, we have made a call to create “Thousands of Cancuns” throughout the world and throughout Mexico, during the dates when the COP 16 will take place, in which we, the people, will show our complete disagreement with the false solutions of big capital and bad governments and our firm determination to struggle for the real solutions. We are calling for a process of struggle in which the basis will be the political positioning regarding the subject and the real alternatives.
 
In Cancun, La Vía Campesina and allies will construct an Alternative Forum and we  will mobilize to create a “sounding board” that will be heard and repeated in the  many other “Cancuns” that will take place. The task is to create many Cancuns so that  the real reason and the real promise of the struggle will spread throughout the entire world.

We propose starting now to impulse a process of constructing spaces and real articulations from organizations and social movements, and that we meet again leading up to August with constructed processes, from local and regional levels, to evaluate and consolidate the thousands of Cancuns. Today there are a number of  initiatives proposed leading up to the COP 16, but none of them represent us. In particular, La Vía Campesina distances itself from certain “self­convened” groups, and those who say they speak on behalf of social movements but who in reality are protagonists for their NGO. We want to construct processes and spaces so that more non­comformist voices can express their struggles. It is necessary to articulate, inform, organize and in this way from our struggles, from  our  bases, build a large world movement for Mother Earth.

We are for a real process of constructing spaces from the movements from below, along with good­hearted allies throughout the world and Mexico.
 
Peasants cool down the planet.
Globalize the struggle. Globalize hope!!!
 
Fraternally,
 
Henry Saragih  Alberto Gómez Flores
   
CONTACTOS:
La Vía Campesina Internacional
Phone: +62­21­7991890, Fax: +62­21­7993426
E­Mail: [email protected]  
 
La Vía Campesina Región Norteamérica
E­Mail: [email protected]
Phone Mobile: +52 55 41777846
E­Mail: [email protected]
Phone. +52 55 55843471 (México)

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/via-campesina-facing-the-cop-16/

Tough second week ahead for UN climate talks

June 7, 2010 in Press

Tough second week ahead for UN climate talks

June 7, 2010 in Press

(Martin Khor) – The past week saw the resumption of global climate talks in Bonn, with developed countries trying to evade their responsibilities while pushing the burden onto developing countries.

At this half way mark, with another week to go, there is some good news. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has re-established itself as the venue for negotiating an international deal on climate change.

The scars of the bruising and chaotic concluding days of the Copenhagen Conference are still there, casting an awkward shadow over the past week’s talks, with various countries referring to it in different ways.

But the good news is that all the countries, even those that clashed so strongly at Copenhagen and its aftermath, have been sitting together and talking to one another in a rather friendly way, even if they still disagree....

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/tough-second-week-ahead-for-un-cli...

Negotiations on track for 4 degrees

June 7, 2010 in Press

Civil Society Analysis of Climate Negotiations Warns

(Jubilee South) BONN, Germany – Today, civil society organizations from across the globe have released a statement analyzing the state of UN climate negotiations after one week of talks in Bonn – with the current state of the negotiations suggesting the world is on track for a 4 degree increase in temperatures by 2100.

The analysis reveals that there are grave concerns that the negotiations are headed toward a world with no meaningful international agreement to control climate change. Such a system would lead to 4 degrees of warming and catastrophic climate change impacts, according to an article in the scientific journal Nature....

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/negotiations-on-track-for-4-degrees/

Developing countries attack Chair’s new text at final session

June 14, 2010 in Press

(Meena Raman and Hilary Chiew) Developing countries expressed deep dismay and sharp criticisms over a new draft text of a global climate deal presented on the final day of the Bonn climate talks by the Chair of the working group following up on the Bali Action Plan of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The text represents a major setback for the developing countries as it eliminates or ignores many of the proposals of the G77 and China and its members, while elevating the positions of the developed countries, particularly the “Umbrella Group” that includes the United States, Japan, Russia, Australia and Canada that have been advocating much looser international regulation over the emissions of developed countries....

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/developing-countries-attack-chair%...