Climate change

I’ve been campaigning for stronger corporate accountability for a fairly long time. So it should come as no surprise to me that I don’t generally see eye to eye with corporate executives. But sometimes, just sometimes, you hope the facts speak for themselves – and that those corporate executives would have a sudden attack of conscience. So when a group of us met with RBS executives in Edinburgh after their AGM, we hoped the facts would speak for themselves.

When we were invited to meet with Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, and several of his team in public affairs and corporate sustainability, we of course thought the meeting had an air of PR spin to it.  But we also thought that perhaps, if only because they had made a serious endeavour to move the meeting and accommodate us (Chairmen don’t generally accommodate), they were prepared to move every so slightly on their position.

Canadian First Nations campaigners Eriel Deranger, and Heather Milton Lightning spoke poignantly about what was happening in their communities as a result of the tar sands mining just up river. Human, health and environmental disasters are what the tar sands are all about - an energy resource that’s six-times more carbon intensive than conventional fossil fuels, scarring an...

I’ve been campaigning for stronger corporate accountability for a fairly long time. So it should come as no surprise to me that I don’t generally see eye to eye with corporate executives. But sometimes, just sometimes, you hope the facts speak for themselves – and that those corporate executives would have a sudden attack of conscience. So when a group of us met with RBS executives in Edinburgh after their AGM, we hoped the facts would speak for themselves.

When we were invited to meet with Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, and several of his team in public affairs and corporate sustainability, we of course thought the meeting had an air of PR spin to it.  But we also thought that perhaps, if only because they had made a serious endeavour to move the meeting and accommodate us (Chairman don’t generally accommodate), they were prepared to move every so slightly on their position.

Canadian First Nations campaigners Eriel Deranger, and Heather Milton Lightning spoke poignantly about what was happening in their communities as a result of the tar sands mining just up river. Human, health and environmental disasters are what the tar sands are all about - an energy resource that’s six-times more carbon intensive than conventional fossil fuels, scarring an...

On the final day of the ‘cumbre’, I thought a photo diary would be the best way to capture some of the sights of Bolivia.

1. A bird hitches a ride on the windscreen wipers of the ‘trufi’, the shared taxi, from Cochambamba to Tiquipaya where the cumbre was taking place:


 

2. Two women in traditional dress stand talking at the side of the road near the entrance to the conference:

 3. Stalls set up for the conference participants, creating a micro-economy in itself:

4. A man entertains the passers by to the sound of Elvis’ Blue Suede Shoes:

...

To the 'people of the world' gathered in Cochabamba, its becoming increasingly clear that climate change is not just an environmental issue but a matter of justice. This week, hearing the testimonies of people from across the world where the impacts of climate change are already pervading into daily reality, has been incredibly powerful. But climate justice is not just about the impacts of climate change, but also impacts from the causes of climate change; the deforestation that destroys the way of life for forest peoples, extraction of fossil fuels, all too often being pushed through the neo-liberal policies of institutions like the World Bank, and mined by transnational corporations, with no concern for the impacts of local people. Even many of the solutions being proposed and implemented are pushing people into displacement and deeper poverty. As I heard one African speaker said today, “As long as they keep pushing false solutions, the climate debt continues to increase.”

This morning I saw Naomi Klein...

This weekend Cochabamba celebrated the tenth anniversary of its water wars. The small city, nestled at the foothills of the Andean mountain ranges, previously little known to the outside world, suddenly shot to fame in 2000 when cochabambinos forced Bechtel, a giant American corporation, out of town. Bechtel, under a subsidiary called Agua del Tunari, had taken over the town’s water supply in privatisation deal, pushed by the World Bank, that caused water rates to rise by over fifty percent in a matter of weeks. Taking place shortly after the ‘Battle in Seattle’ in 1999 and just before the G8 in Genoa in 2001, two iconic moments in the battle against the imposition of neo-liberal policies on the global south, the struggle in Cochabamba became an inspiration to people across the world, demonstrating what a small group of determined people could achieve.

Two statues reading 'sin agua, no hay vida' (without water, there is no life') and '10 anos de lucha' (10 years of struggle)

The water wars bought together campesinos from the rural...

Over the weekend, party leaders will focus on global poverty as the battle for hearts and minds heats up in the election race. But a ranking carried out by the World Development Movement reveals that none of the three main parties score well on their plans to tackle key international development issues.

The Conservatives fare particularly poorly (3 out of 10), Labour (5 out of 10) and the Liberal Democrats (6 out of a 10) receive a middling rating. The Greens (8 out of 10) come out on top on issues such as trade justice, international aid and IMF reform.

Julian Oram, the World Development Movement's head of policy commented:
"We’re sure to hear a lot of noble words around World Poverty Day from the leaders, and it’s heartening that they all rate the issue as an election theme. But when you look at how the three main parties actually plan to tackle poverty in the world today, you’ll see a considerable gap between the grand posturing of the leaders and the stunted ambition of the policies they actually hold.

"For example, anti-poverty campaigners have been shocked by the Conservative party’s admission that part of the aid budget under a Tory government could be used for British military operations in developing countries. And Labour’s promise to help...

Alex Wood, used to be Campaigns and Policy Assistant

On Thursday 8 April, the World Bank Board approved a $3.75 billion loan to the South African energy giant Eskom. The loan was opposed by an international coalition of 200 civil society groups lead by 65 South African social and environmental organisations. Despite a huge amount of green spin from the World Bank the core element of this loan is $3.05 billion for the completion of the 4800 MW Medupi coal-fired power station which will be the fourth biggest coal power station in the world.

The loan comes at a time when it is imperative that the world cuts its addiction to carbon and especially coal. South African civil society is resisting the loan as it will increase South Africa’s already high level of debt by 5 per cent. This debt is especially problematic as, being in dollars, it leaves South Africa further exposed to the perils of exchange rate fluctuations.

Civil society is also protesting that the loan will further entrench Eskom’s monopoly which has allowed it to provide below cost energy to some of the biggest corporations in the world, while the poor pay around four times as much per unit of energy. There are also serious corruption allegations that the ANC will receive millions of dollars...

May Abdalla

As Gordon Brown makes his visit to Her Majesty to call a UK election, there is a parallel campaign unfolding in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ghana.

While we have TV debates over tax, school budgets and prison reforms, people on the streets of Kabul, Dhaka and Accra will be discussing the policies of Brown, Cameron and Clegg with respect to climate change, development, trade and war. Thousands of people directly affected by UK policies will be using votes donated by UK citizens to be part of the process deciding their futures before casting a vote in the May 6 election.

I’m part of a team of volunteers working across four countries rewiring this election to give democracy a place in our global world.

Democracy means a lot more than a vote. Democracy means that we - the people - are the ultimate leaders in our political system. Politicians are accountable to us, and we are part of the decisions that affect our lives.

Nowhere is democracy more absent than at the international level. There is no democracy when deciding issues of climate change, trade or war.

Ghana is one of Africa’s most celebrated democracies and the first to achieve independence in 1953. In Ghana the rice staple is American, local water is sold through a...

Tim Gee

It is 12 months since 35,000 people took to the streets, days before the London G20 Summit, for the Put People First march, calling for decent work, an end to global poverty and a safe climate.

The march was a result of an unprecedented civil society alliance, spanning international development NGOs, faith groups, unions and domestic charities, highlighting the negative impact of unregulated markets on a range of issues.

When the summit outcome was released the G20 communiqué did not deliver the break from ‘business as usual’ that the movement called for. In particular, governments did not seize the opportunity to signal the transition to a green economy and concrete plans for increasing the accountability of the IMF were not forthcoming.

However, other announcements clearly showed the impact of the campaign and were cautiously welcomed, including funds for poor countries, and increasing the transparency of tax havens.

Most promisingly though, the summit signalled a sharp change in rhetoric as Gordon Brown proclaimed the Washington Consensus to be ‘dead’.

Campaigning pressure began to have an impact when G20 leaders’ met again in September. There they tasked the IMF to investigate instruments for a Financial Transaction...

The budget has been widely portrayed in the media as a ‘phoney’ budget or a ‘ballot box’ budget because of the limited amount of 'real' economic policy it contained. But Alistair Darling’s plan for a Green Investment Bank is a huge step forward in our Climate Justice and Clean Up the Banks campaigns. This move shows the government’s recognition that to achieve global climate justice the UK needs to invest urgently in renewable energy and ditch dirty power which is causing climate change that’s hitting the poorest people in the world.

But we still need to convince the Chancellor that although the Green Investment Bank is a good idea there is a huge stumbling block on the path to success: the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Treasury’s £2 billion for green investment is completely dwarfed by the billions of pounds from the taxpayers’ purse that RBS is pouring into oil, coal and gas companies and companies that are heavily engaged in tar sands operations in Canada.

Any plans for a Green Investment Bank need to include RBS, which since the bail out has reduced its lending to renewable energy companies but it's been involved in $7.5 billion in finance to tar sands related companies; otherwise, as we pointed out in...

A window of opportunity

In the run up to the general election, we have a window of opportunity to get politicians to listen to our call for justice.

We need your support to mobilise local activists around the country to demand that potential MPs commit to action on global poverty.

Please will you give £50 today, or however much you can afford to help us mobilise local activists at this crucial time?

• £30 could help pay for briefing reports for local campaigners about what a financial transaction tax could achieve.
• £50 could pay for materials for stunts, such as the hire of a JCB to highlight RBS' investments in destructive energy projects like tar sands.
• £150 could help us found a new campaigning group in the UK.

Watch this short video to find out what you can do:

Environmental and anti-poverty groups in the UK have reacted angrily to the Royal Bank of Scotland opening an 'oil and gas advisory' office in Calgary. RBS, which is 84% owned by the UK public, has been the subject of controversy in the UK over its record of being the UK bank most heavily involved in financing fossil fuel projects and companies around the world

There has recently been an Environmental Audit Committee hearing where the company created by the government to oversee the bailed out banks, UK Financial Investments, were vigorously questioned. MPs in the hearing demanded to know  whether or not RBS had been using public money to finance tar sands in Canada.

Speaking after the hearing, Martin Horwood, MP for Cheltenham and Environmental Audit Committee member, said: "The Government must stop RBS using our money to drive the most damaging projects on earth. RBS is using taxpayer's money to finance projects and companies that are driving climate change all over the world. These projects include tar sands extraction in Canada that is trampling on the rights of indigenous communities and destroying pristine wilderness."

The hearing took place on the same day that questions were being asked in Parliament, RBS announced it was opening an office in...

Euro-MPs yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of an EU "Robin Hood tax" on banks to help fund low-carbon development programmes for poor countries.

Last month the campaign for a global tax on banks' financial transactions was launched as a way of raising money to fight poverty, tackle climate change and boost public services. The Robin Hood tax is a way to re-balance the books after the economic damage wreaked by financial excesses.

The tax would be levied on every financial transaction between financial institutions, not on transactions conducted by individuals. The tax could raise billions to plough into combating poverty and tackling climate change at home and around the world.

A resolution approved by 536-80 votes said a 'Financial Transaction Tax' could be used for "innovative financing" for tackling climate change or vital development projects. It backed a worldwide tax but asked the European Commission to look into how to implement such a tax at EU level if a global agreement cannot be reached.

The endorsement from the European Parliament is a step in the right direction in making the banks and hedge funds pay for the crisis, slow down predatory speculation and provide the funding needed to tackle climate change. Keep checking our website or...

Global capitalism has entered a fundamental crisis of legitimacy, triggered by a ‘perfect storm’ of the banking meltdown, rising energy costs and a spike in world food prices. Governments in the world’s richest countries are looking on in horror as the debt and fossil-fuelled fantasies on which they have built their political mythologies crumble around them.

Amongst those witnessing the recent self-immolation of the financial system have been the world’s two billion poorest people, for whom the credit crunch is a permanent way of life. As a grim footnote to the main headlines about down-and-out bankers, the UN’s distinctly unglamorous Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) recently announced that rising food prices have plunged an additional 75 million people below the hunger threshold in the past year. This has brought the estimated number of undernourished people to a staggering 923 million worldwide.

This is the real evidence that 30 years of financial deregulation, trade liberalisation and reckless fossil fuel consumption has failed spectacularly to deliver just or sustainable progress. The end of the end of history...

Use the following questions to help you engage with your candidates on key global justice issues. These are based on WDM campaigns and you can use these questions whenever you are in contact with a candidate, whether you are writing a letter, at a meeting or at a hustings event.

Cleaning up the banks
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is 84 per cent publicly owned yet it continues to invest in projects that exacerbate poverty and damage the environment. If elected, will you ensure that RBS phases out its destructive investments and instead becomes a ‘Royal Bank of Sustainability’ to finance low carbon projects?

Climate debt
Over two thirds of the UK’s money for tackling climate change in developing countries is in the form of loans which will increase unjust financial debts. If elected, will you ensure that UK climate change money is given as grants not loans?

Financial transaction tax
A financial transaction tax would limit the worst excesses of the financial system, whilst raising money for aid and tackling climate change. If elected, will you ensure that...

Vote Global (pdf format) is a development manifesto that WDM and over 100 other development organisations have signed up to. It sets out the key political commitments that are necessary for the UK to play a leading role in tackling global poverty and injustice.

The manifesto covers five areas:

1. More and better aid and debt relief
2. Tackling climate change
3. Making the global economy work for the poor
4. Good governance and addressing corruption
5. Responding to conflict situations

WDM is specifically calling on parliamentary candidates in the upcoming election to take action on climate debt, cleaning up dirty investments by bailed-out banks and the financial transaction tax.

WDM are not happy about  today's Royal Bank of Scotland's annual results and bonuses announcements.

As you may know, we are campaigning for RBS to phase out its investments in mining companies like Vedanta and projects, like oil extraction from tar sands that are linked with controversial human rights violations. We are arguing that the bonuses awarded for investments that hurt the lives of ordinary people and the publically owned bank should be benefitting society in the UK and around the world."What really annoys people is what these top bankers are being paid their bonuses for", said Julian Oram, head of policy. "Is it for investing public money into job-creating small businesses, better public transport systems or a greener economy that benefits society as a whole? No. It's for trying to make a quick buck out of dirty and destructive projects like tar sands that make bankers rich but everyone else worse off.

"Until the government directs RBS and the other bailed out banks to linking bonuses to 'doing good' rather than acting with the same callous disregard to fairness, or people and the planet that they have over recent years people will continue to get riled by issue of executive pay."...

Ahead of the 2010 UK general election, WDM policy officer Tim Jones gives a snapshot of where the parties stand on issues that affect the world’s poorest people.

WDM and over 100 other organisations have challenged the major political parties to back a development manifesto, Vote Global. So how do the main parties stack up on key global poverty issues?

Trade justice

For the past thirty years imposition of free trade across much of the developing world has hindered economic growth and increased poverty and inequality. In contrast, countries that have been able to resist free trade have managed to cut poverty and increase employment. Since 1997, the Labour government has supported the EU, WTO, IMF and World Bank pushing free trade on developing countries.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also support free trade and the current unfair round of world trade negotiations. The Green Party is distinct in calling for “fair trade not free trade” and for committing to push for reform of aggressive EU trade policies. Plaid Cymru also recognise the injustices of current international trade.

More and better aid

Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP and Plaid Cymru all support spending 0.7 per cent of UK income on aid...

The start of an unusal mobilisation of pension fund members has been kicked off by the organisation FairPensions to attempt to hold BP and Shell to account for their investment in tar sands.

The idea is that individuals contact their pension funds, through an online action, to show support of environmental resolutions that have been tabled at the annual meetings of BP and Shell this spring. These call on the oil giants to report on the investment risks associated with tar sands and their plans to address them.

Exploitation of tar sands by companies, which are in some cases financed by the UK taxpayer, due to our ownership of the Royal Bank of Scotland, is likely to cause a stir this week with a new report from PLATFORM investigating the role of RBS and other UK banks in tar sands extraction.

Tar sands are among some of the world's dirtiest fuels to produce. Their extraction is having a hugely detrimental impact on the lives and human rights of indigenous communities in Canada. And their extraction produces on average three times the greenhouse gases of conventional oil, which means their contribution to climate injustice is particularly high. Climate change is already hitting the...

Earlier today, WDM held a protest outside the Department for International Development to oppose the UK’s plans for how climate finance should be administered; plans that WDM are concerned would lock Bangladesh into further poverty.

Protest outside Dfid this morning - UK symbolically locking Bangladesh in chains

The protest, which bought together different groups, including Jubilee Debt Campaign and the Bangladeshi diaspora group, European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh, was held in solidarity with campaigners in Bangladesh who were simultaneously creating a human chain outside the Bangladesh Development Forum in Dhaka, which the UK government is attending. The UK’s Department for International Development has said it wants Bangladesh to make a decision on the proposed deal, called the Multi Donor Trust Fund, during this meeting. However, the deal in its current form is being strongly resisted by Bangladeshi civil society and government because of concerns about how the money would be administered.

The Department for International...

So far the US and Europe has managed to find $3 trillion to bail out the banks, more than $1 trillion of which has gone to the UK banking sector. The financial crisis, caused by the banks themselves, has cased significant increases in poverty and inequality in both the developed and developing world.

This is why WDM is part of a coalition pushing for a financial transaction – ‘Robin Hood’ – tax  to de-incentivise risky trading practices and reduce volatility in markets. This is an excellent opportunity to turn the crisis of the bankers into something good for the world.

A Robin Hood tax could raise an estimated $600-700 billion a year which could be used for pay for socially useful projects in the UK and abroad. The tax should be levied on all bank trades, ranging from shares to foreign exchange and derivatives. The cash generated could be spend on a range of projects, including combating poverty at home and abroad as well as fighting climate change.

The tax would also prevent speculative bubbles arising, such as the one that caused the global food crisis in 2008 and led millions more people into hunger.
Whilst we campaign for an international tax, Europe and the UK do not have to wait for the rest of the...

Last November's £25 billion cash injection deemed 'unlawful' by WDM and the Treasury's intervention in bankers' bonuses strengthens our case.

WDM, together with PLATFORM and People and Planet today served the Treasury with an application to the High Court, challenging last November's decision to provide a further £25 billion of public money to the Royal Bank of Scotland.

According to the Treasury's guidance, when determining if and how public money is spent, an assessment of the likely impact the proposed spending will have on human rights and the environment has to be completed before the money can be provided. We believe that no proper assessment was undertaken and that the Treasury has failed to adequately calculate the negative impact of allowing RBS to invest taxpayers' money into harmful projects.

Rosa Curling from our solicitors Leigh Day & Co Solicitors commented: “The assessment completed by the Treasury fails completely to comply with the mandatory requirements of its own guidance and its failure to apply a consistent policy by insisting on control over the payment of bonuses but not over the lending to climate change and human rights damaging projects is unlawful.”

Legal action last year

We also took the...

Bankers resisting plans to cut bonuses and reform the sector at the World Economic Forum have inspired anti-poverty campaigners to renew demands for a financial transaction tax to reduce global inequality.

The World Development Movement, one of the organisations backing the tax, says the additional revenue could finance a ‘green new deal’ in rich nations while providing money for poorer countries to develop low carbon economies and cope with the impact of climate change. The tax would also increase financial stability and dampen the risks of sudden food and oil price rises by deterring reckless speculation on debt, equity and commodity markets.

Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement said:
"The financial sector has grown way too big for its boots, to the extent that the whole global economy is vulnerable to the fortunes of bankers gambling on the markets.

“It's absurd for bankers to be up in arms about regulation given the damage they’ve caused, but it's encouraging us to campaign harder. This is an industry that generates $50 trillion worth of transactions a year. Taxing just a tiny fraction of this would slow down the financial roulette wheel and generate billions of dollars in public revenue that could be of huge benefit to...

MEPs fired questions at the new European trade commissioner Karel de Gucht in a European Parliamentary hearing last week (12 January).

Unsurprisingly De Gucht listed his priorities as: Concluding the WTO Doha round, bilateral trade deals and completing Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) - sticking closely to the predatory path mapped out by his predecessors Peter Mandelson and Baroness Catharine Ashton.

De Gucht was keen to tout his development credentials as the former development commissioner and confirmed his commitment to Doha with the usual rhetoric that free trade will help the poor. However this was called into question when De Gucht was challenged over the massive job losses and industrial destruction that proposed EU trade deals would cause in poorer countries and that pushing for more market access was really about generating superprofits for European big business. De Gucht was evasive and unable to deny that development was being sacrificed for corporate interest and instead gave a cursory answer about trade policy being a vehicle to project European values about human rights and climate change.
 

Carrying on the thread of corporate interest in European policy making, Caroline Lucas (Green MEP from UK) expressed concern at the...

At the end of last year our unprecedented legal action against the Treasury was rejected by the High Court and we have now lodged an appeal against the decision taken, requesting that the Court of Appeal overturn it.

The Treasury’s decision not to take steps to ensure public money, via the Royal Bank of Scotland, is not invested in companies and/or projects which are harmful to the environment and human rights is unlawful, immoral and undemocratic.

Our appeal concerns two legal points in particular. Firstly, whether the Treasury’s decision that RBS should only act in the “commercial interest” of the company is lawful? The Treasury has stated that it would be unlawful for it to require RBS to consider the impact of their potential investments on climate change and human rights. They also state to prevent RBS from investing in, for example fossil fuel companies, would be a “handicap” and a “burden” to it. Neither is correct.

Indeed, according to our lawyers, it is unlawful for directors of a company not to take the impact of their business on the environment and the community into account. (If you’re into the law in a big way, we’re talking about Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006.)

And the recent report we commissioned along with People and...

The UK based, anti poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement branded the Copenhagen talks as a ‘shameful and monumental failure.’ 
 
Tim Jones, climate policy officer at the World Development Movement said:
 “This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish, culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that has condemned millions of people around the world to untold suffering. The leaders of rich countries have refused to lead. They have been captured by business interests at a time when people need leaders to put justice first."

“Rich countries have failed the poorest people in the world and history will judge them harshly. They have failed to offer the emissions cuts that science and justice requires. To say that this ‘deal’ is in any way historic or meaningful is to completely misrepresent the fact that this ‘deal’ is meaningless."

President Obama has presented a ‘deal’ in the form of a Copenhagen Accord. However, it was drafted with participation from just a small number of countries, the majority of them rich. Several developing countries have refused to sign, and it has not been adopted as a UN agreement.

"Countries have been right to resist the signing of the Accord. It would be better to...

Welcome to the January 2010 issue of Think Global and take our urgent action on climate finance in Bangladesh.

We are campaigning in solidarity with the Equity and Justice Working group in Bangladesh and are calling on the UK government to rethink money for climate change adaptation going through the World Bank.  In addition we are demanding that this money is disbursed as grants, rather than as loans which will further add to Bangladesh's debt burden. 

Download the template letter below and write to Douglas Alexander.

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

From Copenhagen

A thick covering of snow has arrived in Copenhagen. The white powder helps to lift excitement from the dire situation in the negotiations.

Only 300 observers are now allowed into the convention centre, but early this morning I squeezed in as part of the Climate Justice Now contingent. However, there has been precious little to observe. Official negotiations have resumed, but are mainly behind closed doors. And the more important discussions are happening even further out of sight.

Ed Miliband was reported as calling for more substance to the negotiations or the Copenhagen outcome would be a “farce”. This was followed by Gordon Brown making his set-piece speech. Lots of lists of three and contrasting pairs made it a rhetorical tour de force. But the complete lack of substance certainly fulfilled Ed’s prophesy of farce.

Some of my colleagues on the inside are experienced campaigners from world trade negotiations. They say the talks in Copenhagen now share all the aggression, bullying and bribery rich countries have exercised for years at the WTO. One even commented that this is worse than the WTO. So...

Yesterday afternoon the Guardian published a comment piece by WDM's policy officer Tim Jones and Nick Dearden from Jubilee Debt Campaign about what's going on in Copenhagen and the repression of activists outside who are demanding climate justice. A letter by a wider group of organisations including us was also published in the print newspaper today.

Copenhagen: the sound of silence

Denmark's reputation is being destroyed by police action outside the summit and the gagging of NGOs and poor nations inside
Nick Dearden and Tim Jones

The problem the Danish government faces gets bigger by the hour. Clearly the government is desperate for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to be seen as a success, regardless of whether the deal done is capable of slowing down climate change in a just way. But it is faced with an ever-swelling army of critics who believe this issue is too important for a stitched-up compromise, negotiated late at night between corporate lobbyists and rich-country governments in conference hotel rooms.

Read the full article on the Guardian's Comment is Free

Letter: Protest curtailed in Copenhagen

...

Voices silenced in Denmark - take action now

The Danish government is trying to silence voices calling for climate justice in Copenhagen. Protesters have suffered from police brutality, tear gas and indiscriminate arrests. Delegates have been refused entry en masse, keeping climate justice voices away from governments and the media. The Danish Prime Minister is trying to force an unjust and ineffective agreement on developing countries, outside of the transparent process. We need you to take action now to hold Denmark to account for its actions.

1) Email the Danish Embassy to express your outrage at their handling of negotiations - lonamb@um.dk

2) There will be a protest at 16:00 today (Thursday 17 December) at the Danish Embassy in London, 55 Sloane Street, London, SW1X 9SR. Please be there if you can.

3) The negotiations in Copenhagen are stalled because rich countries are refusing to take any significant action to cut their emissions. Please call radio phone ins, and leave comments on websites, pointing out that:

The EU has offered to cut its own emissions by just 10 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020*

The US has not offered to cut its...

Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Voice Bangladesh, writes from Copenhagen

There was snow, cold and wind in Copenhagen. But the warmth of Reclaiming People’s Power lead a few thousand activists from around the world to gather in different blocks and rally towards the Bella Centre where world leaders are in mock climate negotiations.

The activists called for climate justice, democracy and people’s sovereign power to end the false solutions to climate change proposed by leaders of rich countries.

We had the warm hearts of creative and imaginative leaders and activists from the South and the North demanding justice, surrounded by hundreds of police. But the police used brutal action on the activists.

Can it be a democratic regime where people’s voices are not heard and considered? How can we trust those in power when people are blocked, beaten, tear-gassed, arrested and abused? It was unjustified intolerance to democracy. The Danish police action resembles the inhuman and undemocratic behaviour of the Danish government in the climate negotiations.

As the police gathered around I was separated from my colleagues in Jubilee South. Suddenly I got a push from the police and escaped from their brutal hands and stood aside. I gave an interview to a Danish...

Just back from Copenhagen

As you walk out of the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, where the main talks are taking place, you’ll find yourself accosted by an absurd small group of protestors accusing the British government of genocide for believing in climate change, and pushing a political agreement on the rest of the world. I didn’t take their leaflet, as doing so would be giving them a level of legitimacy they certainly don’t deserve. No climate denier does, but this one was extreme.

But its not the extremists I’m worried about – it’s the leaders of countries, like ours, that are failing to take bold action that really will make a difference. Safely back home, and warmly wrapped in a duvet this morning against the bitter outside cold, I listened to the Bolivian representative on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Angélica Navarro, remind us of the urgency of the situation. While the developed world waxes and wanes over a two degree warming target (still considered overly ambitious by the richest countries) she stated that two degrees in the global north, is really four degrees in Africa and Latin America. Melting glaciers in Bolivia are already impacting people’s very means of survival. And to make matters worse, taking measures to limit us to two degrees still only...

Rich countries blocking talks

Various sources are reporting that developing countries are blocking negotiations in Copenhagen. This is not true. The first task for negotiations in Copenhagen was for rich countries to make new commitments under the Kyoto protocol for reducing emissions. They are not doing so, they are killing the talks. We need you to take action now. Email Gordon Brown by clicking here and selecting ‘Contact the Prime Minister’. Copy and paste the bullet points below or write in your own words.

As one African negotiator has said: “We cannot, we can never accept the killing of the Kyoto protocol. It will mean the killing of Africa."

So far the EU has offered to cut its own emissions by just 10 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, and has hinted it wants Kyoto ended. Japan has refused to make any commitments under Kyoto. Australia and New Zealand are refusing to make any commitments until they get further loopholes involving tree planting. The US still refuses to join Kyoto, and its emission reduction offer allows emissions to be higher in 2020 than 1990.

At the same time, civil society is being shut out of the talks. Thousands are being denied access...

Kate Blagojevic, used to be press officer, writes from Copenhagen

There is outrage in Copenhagen over a lot of different issues that include tar sands; climate finance; the World Bank; coal; nuclear; carbon trading and the very imminent plight of the small island states. There are of course a lot of sensitivities, politics and high feeling amongst the thousands of people from all over the world who have recently descended on this small city for an intense two weeks of negotiations.

The Danish organisers have committed several faux pas already of course, with the leaked draft text that caused uproar and upset. But it appears that even in an attempt to decorate this vast, maze like conference centre, more international anger has been sparked.
 
On the giant inflatable globe in the middle of the centre, the small island states of the Cook Islands and Pacific Islands are nowhere to be seen. To be clear this is not a futuristic scenario that the globe is supposed to be highlighting. More embarrassingly, it appears that they have been forgotten. In an international meeting, to forget to include these islands which are imminently threatened by sea level rises is causing a diplomatic problem that will not be easily solved.
 
Delegates and civil...

Tim Jones, former WDM policy officer, writes from Copenhagen

Along the streets of Copenhagen there are happily parked bikes with no locks. With my locked bike stolen a few weeks ago, I am jealous of the bike safety which permeates the Danish capital.

The main news in Copenhagen is from Brussels. Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy are making the headlines with ‘€2.4 billion [£1.5 billion] a year to help poor countries tackle climate change’.

If you read...

Kirsty Wright, WDM climate justice campaigner, writes from Copenhagen

Day three of the official negotiations and things are starting to heat up. The leaking of the Danish text yesterday – which exposes the paltry deal that rich countries were hoping to put on the table – has really shifted the tone in Copenhagen. Along with the outrage, there’s also some relief that, finally, the insulting deal that the rich countries are trying to impose on the negotiations has been exposed. To many in Copenhagen, particularly campaigners from the south who’ve spent years battling rich country governments through the WTO, it’s really no surprise at all. Outrage yes, surprise, no.

By signing up to the framework of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, the rich countries have in theory accepted their historical responsibility, agreeing to lead emissions reductions, to ensure technology transfer and to provide adequate finance for the irreversible damage that is already destroying people’s lives. Of course, what's happening is far from this. Rich country governments are not only completely shirking on their...

Kirsty Wright, WDM climate justice campaigner, writes from Copenhagen.

Last night I went to the first briefing of Climate Justice Now, a network of campaigners mainly from the global south who are focusing on a just outcome on climate change. The discussion focused on sharing information from around the world on key climate justice issues within the negotiations: climate debt, the World Bank, forests, carbon trading and rich country emission levels.

Having long campaigned for trade justice, the kinds of dirty tactics used by rich governments at international negotiation to twist the arms of the global south shouldn’t come as any surprise, but I still found myself outraged to hear some of the reports from around the world.

Developing countries are facing considerable pressure from rich countries. There’s a lot of confusion around the process, and in spite of requests for clarity, the secretariat are not providing which is massively frustrating for the G77, which have nowhere near the negotiation capacity of rich countries. Rich countries are playing at politics of divide and rule, playing countries off against each other. Recently, the UK stated that rich countries...

We left Paris for Lille on Sunday morning, having been hosted by the Confederation Paysanne overnight. No sooner had we set off on the bus than Olivier, who has been one of the main organisers of the caravan, announced that we had an emergency on our hands...

One of the climate caravan participants, José Goyes, is part of a movement in Colombia called the Resguardo de Honduras Cauca. He lives in a fertile area in the south of the country, which is rich in vegetation, but also in mineral resources such as gold. This area has recently become the sight of a bitter struggle by the indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on this land, and the multinational corporations who are intent on exploiting it, apparently at any cost.

As I write, Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.

Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo...

Kirsty Wright, WDM’s climate campaigner reports back on a tour around G77 embassies on her way to Copenhagen.

I write this as the train is pulling out of Cologne station. I’m on route to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. It’s late, and I’m tired, filled with anticipation about what’s to come, and if I’m honest, also exhausted and slightly overwhelmed by the past few weeks.

In the run up to Copenhagen WDM have been working with the Jubilee Debt Campaign and activists all around the UK to make sure the government hears our demand for climate justice. In the process of becoming wealthy through a high carbon development model, the UK along with the rest of the rich world has built up an historic responsibility for causing climate change, and has left little space for the rest of the world to develop in the same way. This means we now owe a massive climate debt to the rest of the world. Over the past few weeks, thousands of people have joined us in sending climate debt invoices to Gordon Brown, along with messages of support to the G77 countries (a group of 130 developing countries negotiating together for a fair outcome in the talks). Yesterday, we delivered these messages.

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