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Climate Change

This page brings together the latest WDM news and commentary on climate change – the greatest challenge facing humanity. This is both an environmental, developmental and global justice issue. While rich countries are responsible for almost three quarters of the excessive carbon emissions driving climate change, it is poor countries that bear the brunt of the impact.

 

Climate change

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As I write, I’m on the bus, heading north from Cochabamba on the long road to La Paz. Saying goodbye to Cochabamba, after two very different but equally inspiring conferences back to back – the ten year anniversary of the water wars and the People´s Conference – as well as meeting so many amazing people, feels like quite a pull. But at the same time I know that many of the connections and ideas that have come about in Cochabamba will last long beyond the time I have spent here.

The eight hour bus trip seems like a opportunity to reflect on the past few days. I’ve been on the bus for four hours now. The journey began with hints of lush green shrubs and plants clinging to the landscape. ‘Lush green’ should be usual at this time of the year, as the rainy season is just drawing to a close. But, as many people have told me since I arrived, not much rain fell this year, and the land is dry. As the scorched hills role past, the midday sun burns through the window and down on the deep red earth. We pass by parched rivers, and animals struggling to drink from evaporated lakes. The road, though a main highway connecting two major cities, is little populated. From the bus, Many of the adobe mud houses scattering the landscape, seem abandoned. Of course, as 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 (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...

We met this morning with RBS executives, including Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, after yesterday's protests challenging RBS’ investments in controversial projects, such as tar sands.  This meeting represented a significant concession on the part of RBS who had previously resisted campaigners’ requests for high level meetings.

The campaign groups have been putting pressure on RBS to publicly commit to stop financing companies that are exacerbating climate change or developing projects without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities.

“I was shocked to hear the Chairman state that RBS involvements in Tar Sands were seen to be so minute, that they hardly knew what the Tar Sands actually are. Eight billion dollars loaned to companies involved in tar sands extraction is hardly minute. Our local communities are feeling the devastating impacts of tar sands each and every day.” Said Eriel Deranger, of the Rainforest Action Network.

“We welcome RBS’ commitment to take our issues to board level discussion; however talk alone is not enough. We remain sceptical that this will lead to changes in RBS’ practises relating to lending in projects such as Tar Sands or Vedanta. The...

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...

We met this morning with RBS executives, including Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, after yesterday's protests challenging RBS’ investments in controversial projects, such as tar sands.  This meeting represented a significant concession on the part of RBS who had previously resisted campaigners’ requests for high level meetings.

The campaign groups have been putting pressure on RBS to publicly commit to stop financing companies that are exacerbating climate change or developing projects without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities.

“I was shocked to hear the Chairman state that RBS involvements in Tar Sands were seen to be so minute, that they hardly knew what the Tar Sands actually are. Eight billion dollars loaned to companies involved in tar sands extraction is hardly minute. Our local communities are feeling the devastating impacts of tar sands each and every day.” Said Eriel Deranger, of the Rainforest Action Network.

“We welcome RBS’ commitment to take our issues to board level discussion; however talk alone is not enough. We remain sceptical that this will lead to changes in RBS’ practises relating to lending in projects such as Tar Sands or Vedanta. The Chair explicitly denied any significant responsibility on...


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:

A bird sitting on the bonnet of a car
 

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

Two Bolivian women in brightly coloured clothes
 

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

People standing in front of stalls

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

...

Protests are underway across the UK targeting the RBS AGM over its investments in toxic projects and companies. In London, protesters gathered outside the Threadneedle Street RBS branch and a tar sands digger was used to highlight the devastating impact of extracting tar sands on Indigenous communities’ land and lives.

Protestors in front of a yellow digger

Elsewhere in the UK, hundreds of protestors are targeting local branches of RBS demanding that their bank stops using public funds to finance 'the most destructive and devastating companies in the world', such as tar sands and mining companies because of the impact on indigenous communities and climate change.

In Edinburgh, shareholders are entering the RBS AGM now and are being greeted by protesters from Friends of the Earth Scotland, Amnesty International Scotland, SEAD, Rainforest Action Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, all angry about RBS investing in tar sands and mining companies.

Canadian indigenous activist and campaigner for the Rainforest Action Network, Eriel Tchekwie Deranger will...

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.”

Namoi Klein talking on panel

This morning I saw Naomi Klein...

This morning saw the inauguration of the People’s conference on climate change and mother earth rights. A crowd of thousands massed, a mixture of people from across the five continent of the world, creating a quilt of colour between indigenous dress and flags raised high as people awaited their host, Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of (what is now called) the ‘plurinational’ state of Bolivia, in spite of having one of the largest indigenous populations in Latin America. 

The crowds gathered under the sweltering sun in a vast auditorium, to the sounds of indigenous music from around the world, from the Maoris of New Zealand to Indian American tribes from Alaska, alongside indigenous music from across Latin America. This was interspersed with the voices ‘representatives of the people’s of the world’, people from social movements from across the five contents who conveyed their messages to the crowds, all strongly echoing the concept of the rights of Mother Earth; the concept that human rights cannot be met independently from the rights of our planet, that was submitted to the UNFCCC process in Copenhagen. Alongside this, the other common theme was a...

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 from the water campaign standing against a painted coke background
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...

Arriving in a new country is often a total sensory overload: sights, sounds, smells. And then, as you quickly get used to it, things that had once, not long before, seemed so different and fascinating fast become so normal you barely even notice them. With this in mind, having just arrived in Bolivia this evening, I thought I’d try to capture some of my feelings and thoughts.

Bolivia is a country that has long fascinated me, and I’m excited to be here. There’s a sense in the air of something exciting coming together, people from so many diverse backgrounds and experiences meeting to discuss where next for the global climate justice movement in a way that brings the people who should be at the heart of the discussions back into the picture. If this happens as intended, it will be quite the opposite of my experience at the flawed UN climate talks in Copenhagen when, by the end of the two week negotiations, the majority of civil society delegations were literally locked out of the proceedings, and even most southern government country delegations weren’t able to enter the room where the Copenhagen Accord was being negotiations.

...

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...

Since the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks to both reach an outcome or even to ensure the voices of people who are going to be most effected by climate change were being represented, the Bolivian government have called a people’s conference to create space for the voices of the people – The People’s Summit on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights

The importance of this conference at this time cannot be underestimated. Last weekend, the climate negotiations resumed at the headquarters of the UNFCCC in Bonn.  Here, more blatantly than ever before, rich countries were responsible for bullying and bribing the countries, that were standing up in opposition to the weak Copenhagen Accord – ironically not only the most affected but also the least responsible for causing the problem in the first place. One senior African diplomat told The Guardian that the UK, France, EU and US have told poor countries they would “suffer” if they did not back the Accord. WDM first revealed the bullying and bribery tactics of rich...

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...

Patrick Bond and Desmond D'Sa

It is very important for Brits to not only keep the coal in the hole at home, as so many activists are doing. It's also the responsibility of the British citizen to watch your tax monies, and if via the World Bank they fund climate destruction, poverty and privatisation, to please speak out. 

The World Bank’s fossil fuel portfolio is the world's largest, and in 2004 the Bank board rejected its own internal Extractive Industries Review mandate to 'phase out' oil, gas and coal investments. Now, Bank president Robert Zoellick - a neoconservative ideologue (central to the Project for a New American Century) who served as an Enron advisor, Goldman Sachs official and US Trade representative (when he wrecked the WTO's Doha Round) - claims he is building a 'Climate Bank'. 

Zoellick will undermine any such claim on April 8 when the Bank Board is expected to approve a $3.75 billion loan to the South African electricity utility Eskom, to build the world’s fourth largest coal-fired power plant, Medupi.

Repaying the finance for Medupi and the next coal-fired plant (the world's third largest) will require a 127% real electricity price increase through 2012...

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...

Welcome to the April issue of Think Global.

Read the latest news on our climate debt campaign, including an update on the People's Conference on Climate Change, being held in Bolivia in April.

There's been lots going on with our Clean up the Banks campaign, find out more below, and plan a media stunt during our week of action at the end of the month.

Finally, don't forget to book your place at our exciting activist gathering on 19 June, find out more here

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...

On March 25, campaigners calling for the European Union to introduce a financial transaction tax staged a symbolic tug of war between Robin Hood and his merry men (and women) and selfish bankers outside the European parliament.

The stunt took place as European heads of state gathered for the spring summit. The campaign, supported by WDM, is calling for the European Union to introduce a financial transaction tax - also known as a 'Robin Hood Tax”. The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on financial market transactions, which, at very low rates of 0.05% or less, could raise hundreds of billions of pounds annually for domestic and international projects and would cost governments and ordinary citizens nothing. At the same time, it would help reduce the high-speculative transactions that were partly to blame for the current crisis.

Over the past weeks, innovative sources of finance, including the financial transaction tax, have gained support at all levels of EU institutions. This includes the European Parliament, which just passed a resolution supporting the tax.

The event was coordinated by a broad coalition of environmental, social, health, faith and trade-based citizens' organizations. It's now up to Heads of State to decide which way the tug-of-war will go -...

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...

In today's budget Alistair Darling announced details of a £2 billion fund for a Green Investment Bank. We are welcoming the sentiment but are sceptical that the amount will make sufficient impact.

WDM is arguing that public money spent by the Royal Bank of Scotland on financing fossil fuel projects will mean that the Green Investment Bank fund will be 'throwing good money after bad'.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said: “A Green Investment Bank is a good idea but we need far more than the £2 billion on offer to transform the UK into a low carbon economy. In order to achieve this, Alistair Darling must instruct RBS to use public money for exactly the kinds of projects it wants to fund under a Green investment Bank, rather than pouring billions from the public purse into companies that are heavily involved in tar sands extraction, mining and weapons manufacturing.

"The government's hands-off policy has allowed RBS to scale back its investment in renewable projects since the bail out and to support fossil fuel companies to the tune of $7.5 billion over the last three years. Some of these companies are heavily involved in tar sands operations that are devastating the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and directly contributing...

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:

...

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...

In solidarity with campaigners in South Africa, WDM has joined a call to the UK government to say no to a World Bank proposal to provide a $3.75 billion loan to South African energy giant Eskom. The project, which Eskom want to use as an excuse to raise rates for people living in South Africa, would increase energy poverty and cause environmental destruction that would hit the poorest people in South Africa hardest.

The project would also increase debt for South Africa which would fall most heavily on the poorest people. Furthermore, the proposal highlights why it is completely hypocritical for the World Bank to be involved in administering funds provided to help tackle climate change. 

WDM are calling for the UK, which is the biggest single donor to the World Bank, to vote against this loan. Below you can read our joint letter asking that Douglas Alexander votes against World Bank funds going towards Eskom’s venture.

Read more about the campaign in South Africa


Dear Secretary of State

Re: Proposed World Bank loan to Eskom, South Africa

We are writing to urge that the UK vote against the proposed $3.75 billion loan to Eskom for the Medupi coal-fired power...

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...

Cover of tar sands report

Download 'Cashing in on Tar Sands' (PDF format)

As the oil sources available to Western oil majors became scarcer, the relative commercial attractiveness of the Alberta tar sands have improved.

These extraction ventures – dubbed ‘the most destructive project on earth’ - are threatening to have a devastating impact on the global climate and destroying the way of life for indigenous communities.

RBS is 84% publicly owned and is heavily involved in making this happen.

Take action to stop public money from financing 'blood oil'.

 

Kidtronic wants new world order

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...

This report is a guide to the policies of UK political parties ahead of the UK general election to be held on 6 May 2010. It seeks to give a guide to the policies of Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens, Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru in key areas relating to international justice: trade justice; more and better aid; making the economy work for poor people and repaying our climate debt.

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...

The World Development Movement are today announcing a week of protests to be held simultaneously with the RBS AGM on Wednesday 28 April. This will involve protests outside the AGM centre in Edinburgh and RBS branches across the UK. We and oher organisations will be calling for a moratorium on RBS investments in tar sands because of their devastating impact on human rights and the climate.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said: "It's deeply concerning to learn that so much of our money is being used to provide finance for tar sands extraction. These investments have a devastating impact on the lives of Indigenous communities in Canada, while fuelling climate change, just to service the rich world’s unquenchable thirsty for dirty energy.

"The consequences of climate change are already hitting the world's poorest people the hardest, and this completely cancels out efforts we take nationally to prevent catastrophic climate change. This is a huge injustice and during our week of protest we will be demanding that investment of our money into this 'blood oil' be stopped immediately."

This announcement coincides with the news that RBS have been involved in providing loans worth $7.5 billion in the last three years to...

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.

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...

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."...

The World Development Movement reacted angrily to today's Royal Bank of Scotland's annual results and bonuses announcements.

WDM is 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. They 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.

Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement said:
"What really annoys people is what these top bankers are being paid their bonuses for. 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...

Yesterday the Fairtrade Foundation launched the start of their annual campaigning event: ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ with the news that the value of Fairtrade sales, was up on 2008 by 12% to an estimated retail value of over £800m. We’ve come a long way and these figures paint a welcome picture that there is a growing number of people who care about the impact of their purchases on producers in developing countries. There is no denying that Fairtrade has benefited millions in developing countries and increasing UK sales will benefit many more. But the £800m Fairtrade sales is just a tiny slice of the overall pie where the grocery market alone is estimated at £150bn.

Fairtrade still has a long way to go and even then it can only go so far. The global trading system is unjust whether it is the European Union pushing for unfair trade deals with developing countries or unfair trade rules being negotiated at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Global trade...

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...

Anti-coal campaigners prepare to first foot the First Minister with 42% '2020' whisky and hundreds of postcards demanding no new coalpower stations.

Applying a fresh slant to the traditional first footing gifts,
anti-coal campaigners presented the First Minister with the
traditional bread and whisky but have replaced the lump of coal with a
box of postcards from Scots across the country urging the Government
to rule out new coal power stations in Scotland.

Research commissioned earlier in the year by WDM Scotland and Friends
of the Earth Scotland showed that homes can be heated and appliances
powered now and in the future without the need for dirty coal-fired
power stations, which are major contributers to greenhouse gas
emissions.

The research, 'The Power of Scotland Renewed', shows that Scotland can
meet up to 143% of predicted electricity demand with renewables alone
by 2020. Equally, in its world leading Climate Change Act, the
Scottish Government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
by 42% by 2020; a target which would be seriously jeopardised by new
coal-fired power stations.

Juliet Swann, Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland said:
"The highlight of the year for us was 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.

Lots of people with chains holding a pink WDM banner
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...

A politically embarrassing stand off is developing as Bangladesh is currently resisting the UK's offer of £60 million of climate finance.

Bangladesh is believed to be resisting the UK's climate finance offer of £60 million due to the UK's insistence that it must be channelled through the World Bank. The UK is pressurising the Bangladeshi government into accepting the finance whilst refusing to consider other managers of the funds, such as through a Bangladeshi fund, which has greater transparency and participation by civil society.

Campaigners from the European Action Group on Climate Change Bangladesh, the World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign, this morning held a protest outside the Department for International Development on Monday to tell DfID not to force the World Bank on to Bangladesh. At the same time, campaigners in Dhaka in Bangladesh held a mass rally and formed a human chain around the donor conference where the UK has imposed a deadline on the Bangladeshi government to accept their conditions.

The UK is further insisting that the Bangladeshi government provides its own money for the fund, likely to drive the country further into debt. Later in the year, the UK will be giving further money to Bangladesh through the World Bank to...

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...

Julian Oram, used to be Head of Policy and Campaigns

Here’s a puzzler: what is the UK’s biggest contributor to climate change? Did you answer coal? Good guess, but no. Transport? It’s a biggy for sure, but not the largest. Farming? A distant fourth.

Give up? OK, Britain’s number one contributor is… the banking industry! And top of the list within the sector is the taxpayers’ very own, and much unloved, Royal Bank of Scotland.

If this sounds improbable, consider this snippet from actuary consultant Nick Silver:

...Embedded emissions from project finance attributable to RBS was 44 M tonnes of CO2 in 2006, greater than Scotland’s national emissions. However, most of these projects were in collaboration with other lenders and the total annual emissions from these projects was 825 M tonnes of CO2, significantly more than the UK’s total direct emissions and 3% of global emissions. So, through its ownership of RBS, the government potentially has a larger influence on global carbon emissions than it does through all domestic activities.

I had to re-read this passage several times over, so staggering were its implications. Staggering due to 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...

  • Last November's £25 billion cash injection deemed 'unlawful' by campaigners
  • Treasury's intervention in bankers' bonuses strengthens campaigners case

Three pressure groups today served the Treasury with their 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. The World Development Movement, PLATFORM and People & Planet believe that no proper assessment was undertaken and that the Treasury have failed to adequately calculate the negative impact of allowing RBS to invest taxpayers' money into harmful projects.

The same groups took the Treasury to the High Court last year where one of reasons given by the Treasury for not ensuring public money invested in RBS is spent in a way consistent with its own commitments on human rights and climate change is that such a restriction would be harmful to the “financial stability” of the bank. The Treasury also argued that to use RBS’ need for capital as a mechanism...

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...

The World Development Movement has been long critical of the government's pledges for climate finance and international development aid, and has been pressing the government for more information about the small print behind the announcements of cash.

In an email exchange with WDM yesterday that has been reported in the Guardian and BBC,  the Department for International Development (DfID) admitted that the £1.5 billion pledged by Gordon Brown in Copenhagen would all be siphoned from the existing aid budget meant for anti-poverty programmes, like health, education and public water provision in the developing world.

WDM is calling for climate finance to be additional to aid money from the government as compensation for the climate damage that emissions from rich countries are causing developing countries.

Tim Jones, policy officer at the World Development Movement said:“The UK government has publicly said 90 per cent of money for tackling climate change should be additional to existing aid commitments. But all of the UK’s climate change money is being diverted from international aid. The UK has a...

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...

Kate Blagojevic, used to be Press Officer

The post-Copenhagen showdown has featured politicians, NGOs and commentators like George Monbiot and Mark Lynas slogging it out over whether to blame the US or China, for the lack of progress in Copenhagen. All reminiscent of our 2007 report; Blame it on China?

Yesterday it got a little more personal when Mark Lynas, in the New Statesman, suggested that it is wrong to call for climate justice. Mark accuses the World Development Movement of saying “anything calling into question the roles of developing countries must be a plot by the rich former colonial powers”. I have trawled our website and can't remember writing that. Perhaps he is referring to the fact that we were tough on Obama;...

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...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

From Copenhagen

Last night I had my first decent sleep since Sunday. Having been stuck in the Bella Centre for most of the week, yesterday was the first time I had been out in daylight since last Monday.

I am one of the lucky ones; when final negotiations were happening on Saturday morning, Ed Miliband probably hadn't slept since Wednesday night.

It was into this tiredness that President Obama cast his judgement on the fate of millions of people. Late on Friday, he announced to the world's media that a consensus deal had been struck. With reports of a 'meaningful' deal on the front pages of a major news website, the propoganda war had begun.

But it soon became apparent that the President had lied to the world. The 'deal' was between just four countries . The EU couldn't decide what it thought. Most developing countries were in complete confusion about what was happening.

I joined queues of people at photocopiers in the Bella Centre trying to get their hands on 'the deal'. I thought I was out of the loop, until I saw many country negotiators behind me trying to find out what had been agreed in their name.

Last week we...

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...

A catalogue of bribery and bullying tactics are being used against developing countries in an attempt to force through a deal at all costs at the Copenhagen talks campaigners revealed today.

UK based, anti-poverty campaigners, the World Development movement said that developing countries are being bribed in numerous ways, including by threatening that international aid and finance for adapting to the impacts of climate change would only be delivered if countries cooperated with developed countries' demands.

The campaigners are arguing that there is no hope for a deal with justice at its heart, and so no deal would be better than forcing through a bad deal.

The campaigners have compared the kinds of tactics used by developed countries to those that take place in World Trade Organisation negotiations, which are widely viewed as notoriously undemocratic, unaccountable and immoral. And they say that the UN talks have been 'darkened by blatant bullying by rich countries saving face, but not the climate.'

Tim Jones, climate policy officer at the World Development movement said:
"It's absolutely scandalous that developing countries are being told that international aid and finance to cope with the impacts of climate change is dependent on cooperation...

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.

 

 

The issue of climate finance is a Copenhagen deal breaker for developing countries, and much has been made by Gordon Brown and yesterday, Hillary Clinton, on the need for climate finance.

Both have put forward figures to 'help' developing countries cope with the impact of climate change. But the World Development Movement’s analysis shows that the facts behind the figures add ‘insult to injury' for developing countries. Of the $100 billion 'announced' yesterday by Hillary Clinton, half or more would be financed by carbon trading and developing countries.

Tim Jones, climate policy expert at the World Development Movement said:

“The small print behind the head line grabbing figures adds insult to injury for developing countries. Money that is being announced here is diverted from existing aid budgets; given as loans not aid; and is being financed through a flaw ridden offset scheme. What we need to see is developed countries admitting their historic responsibility for the problem that has brought us all here and offer compensation to developing countries, not bribery, bullying and belligerence.”

The World Development Movement’s analysis reveals that:

Short term finance (2010-2012)

The EU and US are calling for $...

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...

Media briefing on Thursday 17 December 2009 on the bad deal being proposed by rich countries in the climate change negotiations, and the aggressive way they are trying to secure such a deal.

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

...

World Development Movement response to Prime Minister speech

Commenting on the speech by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at COP15, World Development Movement Policy Officer Tim Jones said:

“Gordon Brown was strong on rhetoric but weak on substance. The Prime Minister called for the strongest level of ambition, yet did not increase the UK’s current feeble target for reducing its own emissions. A call for money was made, but the Prime Minister failed to say the UK is giving just £500 million a year, much of which was first announced in 2007. Almost all of this is loans, further increasing the unjust debts of developing countries.

“Talks in Copenhagen are stalled because rich countries are failing to make serious commitments to reduce emissions. Offers of money are small amounts to try and secure an unjust deal, rather than the real reparations needed for countries affected by climate change. The Prime Minister failed to play his part in unblocking these talks.”

 

ENDS

 

Tim Jones is inside the Bella Centre and can be contacted on +44 7817 6281962

 

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...

In Copenhagen on Wednesday thousands of protestors marched to the Bella Centre where the climate change negotiations are taking place. At the same time, hundreds of delegates walked out to meet them to create a 'People's Assembly' to discuss positive solutions to climate change. The protestors were met with violence from the Danish police.

World Development Movement policy officer Tim Jones commented from within the Bella Centre:

“Today thousands of people sought to create a people’s assembly to get voices heard offering real solutions to the climate crisis. The people’s assembly was stopped by police who committed unprovoked violence on both protestors and official delegates to the UN negotiations. This is a moment in history where the right to protest is of vital importance. The threat that we are facing from climate change is overwhelming.”
 
At the same time as the protests, the Danish government was seeking to push an unjust and ineffective agreement on developing countries, outside of the transparent process. The reintroduction of a so-called ‘Danish text’ would override all the official negotiations, kill the Kyoto protocol and release rich countries from their...

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...

David Johnstone, WDM south-west London group member, writes from Copenhagen

You can't walk far in Copenhagen without being reminded that the conference is in town. Virtually every billboard makes a claim of environmental virtue.

At Norreport Station, one of the city's main transport interchanges, advertisements for Danish wind energy company Vestas plastered all over the walls proclaim them the planet's saviours. The workers laid off when they closed their factory on the Isle of Wight earlier this year may be able to give a fuller picture.


Around every corner there's a climate-themed art work of dubious merit, a rock concert, or a film crew asking you for your 'message of hope' as a citizen of 'Hopenhagen'. As a campaigning veteran of 'Make Poverty History' and Live 8, I'm suspicious of any campaign involving rock stars and you often don't have to look far to spot a corporate logo. The message about the global injustice of climate change is not always so easy to find, though.

We received our clearest picture of what's happening at the Bella Centre, not in the newspapers or public squares of Copenhagen, but 30 km out of...

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...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer, writes from Copenhagen

On Monday our climate debt invoice was confiscated inside the negotiations for being ‘too political’. This seemed odd; a politics Geiger counter would explode if it were in the Danish capital. We concluded it was less a case of ‘too political’ than too ‘the wrong kind of political’.

To be more in tune with those in power, we decided to get on message on Tuesday. As negotiators moved from room to room we offered them some World Development Movement carbon cake.

Our ‘carbon cake’ could only be eaten by those who had already consumed too much; rich countries. Meanwhile delegates from developing countries were turned away.

Kirsty’s voice echoed through the halls: “Roll up roll up, get your carbon cake here. The cake for those who’ve already had too much.” Delegates from North America and Europe scoffed themselves on our high-fat, high-sugar Danish treats. When they looked embarrassed at their good fortune we reassured them: “Don’t worry about the shame, give someone else the blame.”

Those from developing countries had a look of bafflement and anger when we refused to let them share in the cake treats. Telling them “If you don’t get justice inside the talks, you don’t get it outside the...

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...


On Monday, WDM joined climate debt campaigners from across the world to call for the rich world to repay its climate debt. People from Nepal, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina, Ecuador and Nigeria gathered outside the Bella Centre, where the UN talks are being hosted. WDM South-west London and South Lakes also joined in.

The debt must be repaid in a way that doesn’t reinforce existing inequality, or go through undemocratic organisations like the World Bank. Climate debt is not only about reparations for the damage already done, but also about massive cuts in emissions, and sharing solutions instead of creating new markets of out the atmosphere. As one person said “The World Bank have already done too much wrong to the south, how can we trust them?”

Climate debt protest
 

The energy was amazing, “Pay up pay up pay up, pay up the climate debt” the crowd chanted, louder and louder, as the snow fell around Jubilee South’s giant masks that were representing the EU and the US, surrounded by a multitude of flags...

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...

Vicki Lesley, WDM south-west London group, writes from Copenhagen

After an enjoyably civilised rail journey – including an overnight stopover in Cologne, and the unusual experience of the train actually driving on to the ferry for the short sea crossing – we arrived safely in Copenhagen on Friday evening. Despite the chill in the air – Copenhagen in December is definitely as cold as you’d expect! - it was a great feeling to finally be here, in spitting distance of the negotiations, after all those months of vigorous campaigning and anticipation back home.

WDMers in Copenhagen

Whilst hopes of a sufficiently robust and legally-binding agreement now seem somewhat forlorn, there is still everything to play for and as a climate change campaigner, there is simply nowhere else to be this week. WDM is certainly well represented here – along with the Southwest London group, there are also members from North London, Oxford, Bexhill and the South Lakes groups, as well of course as Tim, Kirsty, Kate and Deborah from the office. I’m proud to be here with so many other like-minded campaigners, many of whom I’ve met for the first time in Copenhagen.

Saturday morning dawned...

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...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer, writes from Copenhagen

Off a train. Onto a bus. Into a convention centre with thousands of people. Faces everywhere. Frowning faces, happy faces, confused faces. Lots of confused faces. 

Sitting on a green sofa I bump into Dwijen, a friend from a walk we went on a couple of years ago. Dwijen works with communities in Bangladesh already suffering from climate change.

One of the key issues in Copenhagen is ‘short-term finance’; money in the next few years to help developing countries adapt to climate change and cut emissions. For people in Bangladesh, it is vital to get more resources now to deal with the already increasingly devastating floods.

Unfortunately the UK government knows this. Climate secretary Ed Miliband and international development secretary Douglas Alexander were both in Bangladesh in September. ‘Unfortunate’ you say, ‘surely it’s a good thing UK politicians know what is happening in Bangladesh?’

The UK is using the prospect of money now to split developing countries, and force through agreements the UK likes. There’s nothing like desperate need to bring countries into line.

One objective...

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.

Climate justice banner, Copenhagen

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...

We need people to act fast for real results to get a deal with justice at its heart. Already the climate talks have a distinct stench of scandal over the draft documents known as the Danish text, leaked to the Guardian and showing rich countries abandoning any principle of climate justice.


The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as "a very dangerous document for developing countries”. In particular, the text is understood to:
• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;
• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";
• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance, whilst strengthening the role of the World Bank;
• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes;
• Make money to help countries adapt to climate change conditional on them reducing emissions.
 

This is outrageous and cannot be allowed to happen. We need you to make a noise now.
1) Email Gordon Brown calling on him to distance...

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 set off early from Lille, where we had been hosted by members of the Confederation Paysanne. We have had an incredibly warm welcome in all the places we’ve stayed, and Lille was no exception. Everyone from the caravan was put up by someone from the Confederation in their home, and we left early on Sunday morning well fed and well rested.

This was just as well, because from Lille we travelled to Brussels where we were being hosted by the Corporate Europe Observatory, an organisation campaigning against corporate lobbying and influence within EU policy. They had an action packed agenda ready for us, and we soon set of for an activist’s tour of Brussels...


Our first stop was the European Commission. The Commission is heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists who have been successful in pushing through aggressive trade agreements and flawed climate policies which favour high carbon industry, intensify the exploitation of natural resources and discriminate against developing countries. The EU’s climate policy is mainly based on carbon trading and other false solutions that benefit big business without tackling climate change.
 

We were joined there by...

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...

The Trade to Climate Caravan

Organised by Klimaforum (www.klimaforum09.org)

From the WTO meetings in Geneva to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, the Trade to Climate Caravan is taking the social and climate justice message through Europe, direct to the policy makers.

Activists from social and environmental struggles all over the world have come together to tell the politicians, the lobbyists and the multinationals that we demand system change, not climate change. The caravan has brought together campaigers and activists from throughout the global south; people who are suffering directly as a result of unjust and exploitative trade agreements, environmental devastation including destructive 'environmental' mega projects, and the socially reprehensible behaviour of governments as they resort to violence to evict people from their lands and pave the way or multinational corporations and agribusiness.

So, from Colombia to the Congo, the Phillippines to Mexico, Belarus to South Korea, and India to Peru, southern activists have come together in the run up to the UN Climate Summit to demand that the politicians and corporations stop polluting the poor for profit. This blog is devoted to sharing the messages and stories of those on the caravan as I...

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.

...

I mentioned roosting chickens in an earlier blog, I’m not obsessed with them honestly but chickens have come up again during my time in Geneva. Ghana used to have a buoyant poultry industry but subsidised poultry from the EU has decimated the Ghanaian poultry industry.

I heard Kenneth Quartey who represents Ghanian poulty farmers say that: “If the Doha Round concludes we see little space for agriculture in Ghana and in Africa, where 60 per cent of the population relies on agriculture for its income. We just simply do not know what to do next.” This sentiment is echoed around the world by farmers and fishers, labour groups and environmentalists who all see a Doha conclusion as a complete and utter disaster.

The WTO ministerial closed today with the reaffirmation that development is still central to the Doha round and a 2010 deadline is still on the cards. It beggars belief, that the WTO has the cheek to use the word ‘development’ when its rules and policies are decimating entire sectors (e.g. chickens in Ghana and cotton in West Africa) causing massive job losses in its wake and derailing much needed poverty alleviation in developing countries.

Development is also about enabling countries to...

Tim Jones

In Trinidad on Friday Gordon Brown got some headline coverage for his latest announcement of billions of dollars for developing countries to tackle climate change.

The prime minister became as expert as a derivatives trader in repackaging, reselling and reannouncing money when he was chancellor. Unfortunately the latest ‘news’ was no exception.

Mr Brown said rich countries should be creating a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’ worth $10 billion (£6 billion) to help developing countries adapt to climate change and develop in a low carbon way from 2010 to 2012. Let’s not get hung up on that amount as he wasn’t actually saying the UK would write a cheque.

What Gordon Brown did say was that “the UK Government would contribute £800 million in total over three years, which has already been budgeted for”. In fact it was budgeted for in the budget in 2007. The prime minister should know; he was chancellor at the time.

The same £800 million has been reannounced so many times since it’s enough to make you dizzy.

The money cannot go into a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’, because all of it has already been pledged to the World Bank. Some cheques have already been sent, and the final ones are due in April.

The use of the World Bank for climate...