November 6, 2022 - No. 43
November 6-18
COP27
Climate Implementation Summit
Opens in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
Action ahead of COP-27 in Abuja, Nigeria, November 2, 2022.
• A People's Climate Manifesto for the World Leaders at COP27
November 6-18
COP27 Climate Implementation Summit Opens in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
Bangladesh, November 4, 2022
The Climate Implementation Summit is scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from November 6-18. The agenda for November 7-8 includes the "presidency vision" which declares the time has come for:
1. "Shifting from pledging to implementation at scale and on time, based on the agreed work streams in Paris and the ambition reflected until and during Glasgow, it is time to accelerate, scale up, replicate success stories and deliver through the right mechanisms;
2. "... [a] transformative adaptation agenda is needed now...;
3. "Action to clarify support for loss and damage, with the increasing impacts of more frequent extreme weather events and speeding slow onset events...;
4. "Making finance flows a reality, ... appropriate financial flows;
5. "Ensuring a managed and just transition, based on the agreed principles in the Convention and its Paris Agreement, to deliver the agreed transition to an economic model based on low emission and climate resilient development as envisaged in Paris Agreement and the enhanced action identified in Glasgow."
Action by Somali Youth Climate Justice, November 2, 2022
This year's summit was preceded by a People's COP27 on November 1, in virtual form only. The People's COP27 stated:
"Those most affected by our warming world are shut out of the negotiations that will determine the future of our planet. Global action on climate change is not happening fast enough.
"The world's biggest multi-national meetings held to discuss humanity's collective response to the climate crisis are the United Nations' Climate Change Conference of the Parties -- the climate COPs -- now in their 27th year.
"As the world heats up, the voices of those first and worst affected by the climate crisis are not being listened to in the air-conditioned halls of these conferences. The delegates of this year's COP27 must listen to the people already living with the severe consequences of our warming world."
This
increasing gulf between so-called civil society and those who wield
political power, as well as the limited space for the peoples to
express their demands at the COP, is reflected in recent remarks from
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Speaking at an event in
London, England at the
end of October, she said she would not attend this year's COP, which
she referred to as an opportunity for "people in power... to [use]
greenwashing, lying and cheating." She added, "The space for civil
society is going to be extremely limited.... It's important to leave
space for those who need to
be there. It will be difficult for activists to make their voices
heard."
The mass protests that took place around the proceedings of COP26 in Glasgow last year are not expected for this year's summit. News agencies report that a designated protest zone has been set up in an isolated area away from the conference centre.
The promise of action made with much desperation seven years ago at COP21 in Paris and reiterated at the Glasgow COP26 summit last year never materialized. No amount of intervention by hedge funds, or the fact that they now have a direct representative in the office of the prime minister in Britain, as well as a British king who claims to have all the answers in hand to pay the rich to green the economy, will transform this faded rose into a king's ransom because the people know that what is needed is to humanize the natural and social environment. What is missing is putting human beings in first place.
The hedge funds are lined up for the promised financial killing, but the armaments producers, oil and gas speculators, and oligopolies which control agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, real estate and construction as well as mining and other such sectors of the neo-liberal economies are also vying for investment funds. At the same time, the peoples of the world are fighting against the use of state power to pay the rich and drive the masses of workers into poverty and the peoples of the world into famines, droughts and epidemics.
Manchester, November 4, 2022
(Photos: J. Hannu, E.N. Forngwa, Somali Youth for Climate Justice, Debt Justice MCR, Climate Justice UK)
A People's Climate Manifesto for the
World
Leaders at COP27
Mitigation
The time is now for governments to finally deliver
visionary climate mitigation policies to limit global temperature
increase to 1.5°C.
Wealthy industrialised countries with the greatest historical responsibility for global greenhouse gas emissions must act fastest and aim for real zero greenhouse gas by 2035 at the latest. We need real action and real solutions: decarbonisation pledges must not rely on misleading carbon accounting tricks, distant promises of net zero, false solutions such as natural gas and offsets or unproven carbon capture and storage technologies.
Ambitious mitigation action to protect people and the planet relies on bringing an end to the era of fossil fuels. This means no new fossil fuel projects, an immediate phase out of fossil fuel subsidies and the end of unjust and climate criminal international agreements such as the Energy Charter Treaty. Instead, governments must increase investment in renewable energy and promote climate-friendly technologies, in line with increasing access to affordable, clean and sufficient energy for all. Locally-produced renewable energy can contribute massively to energy independence and reduce energy prices - the transition to renewable energy is a win-win for the planet, economy and society.
Governments must also act to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises together, by integrating nature in climate targets. This can be achieved by investing in just and community-led nature conservation and a switch to more equitable and sustainable agriculture, supply chain and food systems policies everywhere. Protecting nature will not only help us fight climate breakdown, it will also improve food security, increase community resilience and safeguard human rights.
All too often action to secure and protect our natural environment is classified as a cost - but in reality, decisive action on climate is not a 'cost': it is an investment, not just in our future, but in our survival. Such investment represents the greatest cost-saving of human history. It's time to put the 'eco' into the economy.
We already have the solutions. What we need now is the political will to implement this transformation to protect people and our shared planet.
Loss & Damage
We already live in a world of climate apartheid, one of astonishing injustice where those who contribute the least to our heating planet, its poorest and most vulnerable inhabitants, are being affected first and worst.
The world's wealthy are still able to avoid the consequences of their addiction to fossil fuels. As it accelerates, the climate crisis will make these injustices worse, undoing basic human rights and development, most particularly in the world's most historically exploited countries.
It is a moral imperative that the wealthy nations with the greatest historical responsibility for global heating provide accessible financial and technological support for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. Industrialised countries must at the very least deliver on the promised target of US$100 billion per year in international climate mitigation and adaptation finance, and at COP27 must set a higher post-2025 goal. Governments should seek to leverage new and creative funding sources, such as through progressive taxes and levies, to make polluters pay fairly and meet their climate finance obligations.
COP27 must also deliver on concrete plans for compensation for the loss and damage suffered due to our heating climate. This funding must be new and additional to existing climate finance targets, and designed for long term sustainability to meet the needs of communities harmed by the impacts of a climate crisis they did not cause. Simple measures, such as a $10 fee on flying for loss and damage, can fairly and equitably raise a significant part of the funds needed.
Climate Justice
Artwork done as part of Climate Justice Africa Caravan, Abuja, Nigeria, November 2, 2022
The climate crisis is a crisis of justice. Global heating is deepening already existing vulnerabilities and inequalities within and across generations, communities and countries worldwide.
Climate action must place human rights and justice at the centre, or it will fail to avert climate breakdown and ensure a liveable planet for current and future generations. Climate justice and effective climate action can only be achieved if frontline communities have a true leadership role in decision making. Next year's COP28 can learn from the failures of access and inclusion at previous conferences and be the first COP to meaningfully champion participation and provide a seat at the table for frontline communities and grassroots climate activists.
Global climate action must have justice as its central guiding principle. This is key to unlocking credible global cooperation and rebuilding trust as we fight for a liveable climate. Governments must ensure that all climate action actively promotes human rights, and benefits both people and the planet. COP27 is an opportunity to make concrete plans to put justice at the heart of climate policy, including commitments to establish a new legal framework for the protection of climate refugees.
Policymakers at COP27 and beyond must recognise that inclusive, participatory action is key to solving the climate crisis: climate solutions must respond to the needs of, and emerge from the leadership of local communities, Indigenous peoples, marginalised groups, young people, and grassroots initiatives. Inclusive global climate action must be built on increasing climate literacy by mainstreaming climate education at all levels and disseminating accessible and high quality information in all languages.
The fight to protect our planet will only succeed if we lift up people in our movement. As you, the world's political leaders, gather in the conference halls of COP27, do not ignore the voices from the frontlines of the climate crisis -- we can only protect people and planet by working together.
Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany with a message to COP27
(www.peoplescop.org. Photos: J. Hannu, Climate Justice Loss and Damage Fund, Koala Collective)
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca