Climate justice

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The Ouarzazate solar power project, to be built in Morocco, will on completion be one of the largest solar power plants in the world. It is part funded by UK aid money, yet it is designed to prioritise energy export to Europe rather than to ensure that ordinary Moroccans can access affordable electricity.

The project is being funded by the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund, which has received £385 million, or 14 per cent of its total funding, from the UK overseas aid budget.

This study funds that: 

• The Ouarzazate project is being driven by EU interests and policies, and is unlikely to address the energy needs of poor communities.
• Big business and the EU are likely to be the main beneficiaries, rather than the Moroccan population which is likely to face higher domestic electricity prices.
• The project risks burdening the Moroccan state with significant debts as the guarantor of loans taken out to subsidise the public-private power company that will build and run the plant.
• In Ouarzazate as in other Clean Technology Fund projects, the concentration of investment in energy utilities and the private sector in middle income countries...

Jane Herbstritt, Scottish campaigns assistant

Here in Scotland there is a lot of pride amongst parliamentarians over our climate change act, considered one of the most ambitious pieces of climate change legislation in the industrialised world. Of course, as climate change campaigners, we realise the challenge lies in its implementation, but we have been watching with interest the gusto with which the First Minister Alex Salmond travels the world (carbon emissions from aviation aside!) promoting Scotland’s climate change act. In January, at a renewable energy conference in Abu Dhabi, Salmond argued that 2012 should be the ‘year of climate justice’. And the international focus continued this month with a debate in the Scottish parliament on climate justice. Apparently, Holyrood’s debate was the world’s first ever parliamentary debate on the issue (and about time too).

Led by Stewart Stevenson, the climate change minister, MSPs of all parties agreed that climate change is at its heart an ethical issue, affecting the human rights of the poor in countries that bear little responsibility for the problem in the first place.

As SNP MSP Marco Biago said: “I am drawn to the World Development Movement’s phenomenal statistic—which I have no reason to doubt—that...

Frequently asked questions about our climate debt campaign

For more in-depth answers check out our four page climate debt briefing or our full reports, The climate debt crisis and Climate loan sharks. 

• Why does the UK owe a climate debt?
• Why is the climate debt campaign important?
• How can the climate debt be paid?
• How is the UK Government using climate finance to reinforce existing inequalities?
• What is WDM calling for?
• What's so bad about the World Bank?
• Wouldn't it be easier to reform the World Bank rather than creating new institutions?
• Hasn't debt cancellation cleared 'Third World Debt'?
• In a time of cuts, where can this money come from?
• Aren't there problems with the UN too?
• Doesn't corruption in developing countries make paying our climate debt pointless?
• Why does...

Posted by Kirsty Wright, WDM climate campaigner

UPDATE: Bettina has now been released. However, she still faces the charges. We have updated the information below, so please write to the contacts listed below challenging these charges. We have suggested some points you could make.

I have just heard news through friends in Mexico that Bettina Cruz Velázquez, an indigenous Mexican activist who WDM has been campaigning with, has been arrested. The information available suggests that she is the target of unfounded charges and detention as a way to deter her from her campaigning to defend the rights of indigenous people over the interests of multinational corporations. Please read on to find out what has happened, and how you can take action to support Bettina.

For the past two years WDM along with the Jubilee Debt Campaign have been campaigning for the UK government to deliver its climate finance to help countries cope with climate change as grants through the UN Adaptation Fund rather than loans through the World Bank. We are pleased that the UK government will now be putting £10 million towards the UN Adaptation Fund.

It will also give another £85 million through the World Bank’s adaptation fund. Although it’s disappointing that the money is going to the World Bank, the good news is that this time the UK has given the majority of its money, £70 million, as grants, not loans. This is a significant change from its previous policy.

WDM and JDC campaigners have done an amazing job in bringing this issue to the attention of politicians and decision makers in a way that they could not ignore.

Here is a slideshow of images from key moments in the campaign. 

Kirsty Wright and Sarah Reader, climate campaigners

For the past two years WDM along with the Jubilee Debt Campaign have been campaigning for the UK government to deliver its climate finance to help countries cope with climate change as grants through the UN Adaptation Fund rather than loans through the World Bank (see the bottom of this page for a slideshow of our campaigning).

With the UK’s latest announcement of climate finance made in Durban, South Africa, we saw significant movement on this issue. Two major things have happened.

Firstly, the UK government has announced it will put £10 million towards the UN Adaptation Fund. This is the first time that the UK has said it will contribute to the fund, despite being on the fund's board. The announcement came as the chair of the UN Adaptation Fund was suggesting that it may have to close unless rich countries started contributing funds. 

Secondly, the UK announced that it would give another £85 million through the World Bank’s adaptation fund (the focus of our Climate Loan Sharks report). Although it's disappointing that the money is going to the World Bank...

To highlight the fact that the UK government had not given any money to the UN climate adapation fund, we asked members of the public to send donations to the fund via the Department for International Development (DfID). DfID refused to accept them and instead sent the funds to us.

Here WDM campaigners present a giant cheque to the chair of the UN Adaptation FUND at the climate talks in Cancun, December 2010. 

Kirsty Wright, climate justice campaigner, writes from Durban

Alongside the UN climate talks that took place earlier this month, Durban’s KZN university hosted a ‘people’s space’: an alternative space where people could come together to talk about the struggle for climate justice. Bringing together activists from across the world, the space saw some fascinating exchanges, where people shared what climate justice means in the context of their own lives, and the complicated web of systemic issues that need to be tackled on the pathway for climate justice.

Whilst the mantra for many concerned citizens in the UK is to reduce energy consumption, a key demand for activists is for their right to energy access to
be met. This was one of the key issues under discussion at the people's space.

In South Africa, and across the continent, energy access is a
vital part of the struggle for climate justice. The statistics remain shocking: in Durban, nearly three-quarters of the population have no access to energy. In rural Africa, that figure is a phenomenal ninety-four percent of people who have no access to the energy they need to drill for water, power hospitals, and cook food. Yet, in a twisted misfortune of geography, Africa is warming faster than...

Kirsty Wright, climate campaigner, writes from the UN climate talks in Durban

At 3pm today, on the final day of the UN climate talks, I joined hundreds of people to occupy the conference centre where the final plenary talks were taking place.

Here are some videos telling the story of what happened.

People sang together as they moved towards the entrance of the plenary:

Durban, 16:45, 9 December 2011

As negotiations on the final outcome of the UN climate talks look set to continue late into the night, negotiators remain focused on the EU’s proposed roadmap to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a package that makes the same demands of poor developing countries as it does of rich industrialised countries. The talks have paid almost no attention to the two most urgent issues for developing countries: emissions reductions by developed countries, and finance to help people in poor countries cope with climate change.

On the last day of the talks, Murray Worthy, policy officer at the World Development Movement said:

“The UK and EU’s talk of a new global deal is little more than a distraction from their inaction. The EU is failing to take responsibility for its part in causing climate change.  It should be taking the lead through meaningful action. Instead, the EU ‘roadmap’ has been a smokescreen for developed countries’ failure to do what is needed. It is the world’s poorest people, those least responsible for this crisis, who will end up paying the highest price.”

The talks look set to result in a new Green Climate Fund to deliver finance to developing countries. But the World Development Movement...

Talk of a long-term climate deal to cut carbon emissions is allowing industrialised countries to delay taking action, says World Development Movement policy officer Murray Worthy, writing from Durban.

The main story coming out of the UN climate talks in Durban so far has been whether or not the summit can agree to start negotiations on a new long term deal. The EU doesn’t want to talk about much else, and many media reports are focusing on whether developing countries like China and India will come on board. However, lurking behind the positive spin of a new ‘comprehensive deal’ lies the truth – developed countries are ignoring their responsibility and failing to act, and the clock is ticking. Talk of a ‘Durban mandate’ is little more than a smokescreen.

Unless you’re Lord Monckton or Lawson, the science is clear. No one at this summit disputes that humans are causing climate change. At the climate talks in Cancun, countries pledged to keep temperature rises below 2C, thought to be a key...

Kirsty Wright, climate justice campaigner writes from the UN climate talks in Durban

A year on from the World Bank out of climate finance campaign launch at the Cancun talks, last week members of the global coalition reunited outside COP17. Last year’s talks concluded with an agreement to design a new Green Climate Fund within the UNFCCC. While many welcomed this, others remained cautious because of the World Bank’s role as ‘trustee’. As the fund had not been designed, over the last year there has been much still to play for in terms of how the fund would be shaped, and to whose benefit.

Since then, rich industrialised governments, spearheaded by the UK, have continued the perpetual shift towards financialisation and corporatisation of seemingly everything proposed within the climate talks. By the time the Durban talks began, the inclusion of a ‘private sector facility’, which would inevitably preference the financial sector and corporations over the people impacted by climate change, meant the fund was already looking more like a Greedy Corporate Fund. Read the letter from 163 civil society...

As campaigners focusing on climate justice, we tend to think wind energy is a good thing. And so it can be – but not when it robs indigenous people of their land. 

Last year, the World Development Movement’s climate campaigner Kirsty Wright went to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, and met indigenous activist Bettina Cruz Velazquez. Bettina told Kirsty how wind farms run by multinational corporations are being built without the consent of the indigenous people who own the land.

In October, Bettina and others were attacked and received death threats during a protest against one of the wind farms. Amnesty is concerned that the death of a man in unclear circumstances during the protest is being used to ‘unfairly prosecute protestors and to deter future protests,’ and it is asking people to write to the Mexican authorities expressing their concern.

Incredibly, one of the other wind farms in the area, also being opposed by local people, is being part financed from the UK’s overseas aid budget. It produces enough electricity to power 160,000 homes. So at the very least, it must be providing energy for the people of Oaxaca, seven...

A report launched today by the World Development Movement reveals that UK climate aid is being used to produce cheap electricity for the US multinational Walmart, through a project that violates the rights of indigenous people in Mexico.

The report, ‘Power to the people?’, details how money taken from the UK aid budget has been used by the World Bank to finance wind farms in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, built without the consent of the indigenous people who own the land. The project produces enough electricity to power 160,000 homes, but is instead being sold at a discounted rate to Walmart. The project is 99 per cent controlled by French electricity giant EDF.

The La Mata and La Ventosa wind park is part funded the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund, which receives 14 per cent of its money - or £385 million – from the UK overseas aid budget. The fund’s objectives include poverty reduction, but the wind park has done nothing to increase energy access among the seven per cent of Oaxaca’s population who have no electricity.

Local indigenous woman Bettina Cruz Velazquez told the World Development Movement:

With the pretext of advancing renewable energy, big corporations are occupying our...

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The La Mata and La Ventosa wind park in the state of Oaxaca is the World Bank’s flagship Clean Technology Fund (CTF) project in Mexico. The UK government has provided £385 million in capital to the CTF from its overseas aid budget, 14% of the CTF’s total funding.

This study shows that:

The wind park will produce 67.5 MW per year, enough to power 160,000 homes in a state where around 7 per cent of the population lack access to electricity. However, it will not power any homes as all of the electricity will be sold at a discounted rate to Walmart, the world’s largest company (and owner of Asda in the UK).

This is achieved by exploiting a loophole in Mexico’s energy laws, which allows Walmart to officially claim that it has produced the power itself. In fact, the company owns just a nominal stake in the wind park, which is 99 per cent controlled by EDF (Électricité de France), the world’s largest electricity utility.

Instead, the World Bank hopes that the project will encourage a broader transformation in the Mexican electricity sector, where the state controlled company currently charges companies more for...

A report launched by the World Development Movement reveals shocking bullying and bribery tactics employed by countries including the UK and the US to try to kill the Kyoto Protocol, as negotiators from the world’s governments gather today in Durban, South Africa, for the start of the 2011 UN climate talks.

Through exclusive new interviews with negotiators from developing countries, the report exposes the ‘unfair, undemocratic and deceitful’ tactics used by developed countries to skew the climate change negotiations in their favour and backtrack on their legal commitments.

The report features previously unpublished testimonies from insiders at the Copenhagen and Cancun climate summits in 2009 and 2010. They reveal how key agreements such as the Copenhagen Accord were developed, including though secret meetings and the sidelining of developing country negotiators, followed by agreements being presented to developing countries on a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ basis.

The Copenhagen Accord marked a unprecedented shift in the UN climate negotiations, away from the...

Kirsty Wright, climate justice campaigner writes from Durban

It is the eve of the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa. Two years on from the catastrophic talks that took place in Copenhagen; there has been little progress on a global deal on climate change. In fact, as the science demands ever stronger action, with people’s lives becoming increasingly impacted by extreme weather events, disease, failing crops and reduced water supplies as a result of climate change, the same rich industrialised countries that grew wealthy by causing the crisis have only lowered ambition.
 
Inside the talks, the picture looks bleak. Rich industrialised countries are doing their best to destroy the only legally binding framework on emissions reductions that exists, aiming instead to replace it with a voluntary ‘pledge and review’ system which current figures suggest would lead to disastrous global temperature rises of over five degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. Furthermore, there is a strong push to do away with any notion of historical responsibility for the big polluters, now reluctant to either reduce their emissions or...

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• Download the executive summary

Bullying and bribery are tried and tested techniques often employed by powerful countries in international trade negotiations, where short term economic interests tend to be the order of the day. It is disturbing to see that these same motivations and tactics have now been brought into the climate change negotiations, even though governments are supposed to be working collectively to bring the planet back from the brink of disaster.

Bullying tactics include overt threats, to remove financial aid flows for example, but can also be more subtle and hidden. In general, experienced intergovernmental negotiators, especially those adept at deploying the nuances of the English language, tend to be skilled in using and abusing procedural rules and linguistic niceties to advance their national priorities. But if necessary, some are clearly prepared to resort to outright deception to achieve their goals, as this report shows.

Tactics include the use of exclusive ‘green room’ type negotiations, more...

Kirsty Wright, climate campaigner

WDM campaigners protest against climate loans and the World Bank's involvement in climate finance

Last month, the transitional committee, tasked with designing the new UN Green Climate Fund, met in South Africa. This was set to be the meeting of the committee where a final proposal was to due be agreed before being sent for approval by the UN climate summit in Durban.

However, the US (followed by Saudi Arabia) refused to consent to the proposed document, leaving the whole process in a mess. Many countries still had reservations about the final proposals but were willing to put them aside to reach consensus.

But the US held out and would not support the document on range of issues. It vetoed the process that would choose which country would host the new fund, demanded that developing countries provide climate finance and wanted more to go to the private sector.

The proposals will now be sent to the UN summit but without the consent of the committee. It is clear that the US refused to agree because it believes that the fund will be a key bargaining chip at the talks and wants...

Sarah Reader, climate justice campaigns assistant

This week the G20 heads of state are meeting in Cannes on the south coast of France. Just over 30km away, the alternative summit, the ‘people’s forum’, is taking place in Nice, where thousands of people from different countries, organisations, social movements, unions and campaigning groups have come to discuss alternatives to the current financial system and take action against it.

Cannes and Nice are both towns on the French Riviera. This is France’s most affluent holiday destinations- play ground for the rich and famous and a fitting setting to be talking about the unjustness and inequalities of the current financial system. And with Monaco, one of Europe’s most famous tax havens, less than 20km away, the counter summit is in a convenient location to be talking about tax justice. 

The week of mobilisations was kick-started yesterday with a (heavily policed) march from the centre of Nice to the convergence space for the people’s forum. The convergence space is based in an old abattoir, and is where many of the sessions will be taking place. I’ve come to Nice to meet people...

Scotland has a world-leading climate change act with ambitious but achievable targets to reduce carbon emissions by 2020 and 2050. But these can only be achieved if public money finances our transition to a low carbon society.

In order to meet the first target, eight years from now, the next Scottish budget must properly fund action to cut Scotland’s carbon emissions.

As the next budget is being prepared, WDM Scotland is working with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland on a campaign to make sure that public funding for action on climate change is given priority.

What we would like you to do

If you live in the following constituencies then your MSP is an important decision-maker in the budget process. We need your help.

Click on the link to your constituency to join this Stop Climate Chaos Scotland e-mail campaign:

• Aberdeen South and North Kincardine: Maureen Watt MSP, Convenor of the...

Katharine Talbot, senior networks officer

Eight events in towns and cities across the UK, two amazing activists from South Africa, local speakers, and countless train journeys.... our speaker tour, ‘Africa demands climate justice’ has just come to an end.

However, we were determined when planning this speaker tour that we would avoid simply creating a series of one-off events that people attended and left, feeling better informed about climate justice but taking little else away.

We aimed to galvanize people into planning actions between now and the UN climate talks in Durban, starting on 28 November. We’ve seen some really exciting discussions taking place and it’s incredible how much energy can be created in a room, when a number of like-minded people come together, fired up by the very real stories of injustice faced by poor communities in South Africa.

We know that it’s vital that WDM’s work with our allies in the global south incorporates the opportunity for UK campaigners to hear directly from southern activists. As one WDM group member said: “It's personal stories and experiences like Bongani's that keep me inspired...

Guest post by Bandile Mdlalose

Bandile is general secretary of Abhalali baseMjondolo, a shack-dwellers movement representing tens of thousands of people in South Africa. She's taking part in our speaker tour, Africa demands climate justice, which runs from 3-13 October 2011.

Climate change is one of the main issues facing the world at this moment. We all know that when things go wrong, like when there is an earthquake, a flood or a drought poor people are most vulnerable. And usually the response to these disasters is a second disaster for poor people. 

For instance in Sri Lanka the so-called ‘development’ after the Tsunami forcibly removed fisherfolk from their coastal land and gave it to developers to build hotels. Sometimes the attempts to prevent disaster are also a disaster for the poor. In South Africa when it is acknowledged that we are using too much electricity it is not the big companies or the rich that have the police and the security guards kick down their doors to disconnect them. In other countries in Africa, poor rural people are being forced off their land so that it can be used for bio-fuels. Maybe this...

The UN climate talks in Durban, in late November 2011, could be our last chance to save the current international climate deal. The first period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, and its continuation is in doubt as rich industrialised countries push to replace it with a system that allows them to pledge the reduction of emissions on a voluntary basis.

The talks are also expected to set up a new fund to deliver finance needed by countries affected by climate change.

Huge divisions remain between rich and poorer countries over the design of the fund, on issues such as whether it should be an independent institution and whether the money should be given or leant. The role of the discredited and undemocratic World Bank is also likely to be controversial as it, and rich countries, push to give it a central role in climate finance against the wishes of developing countries. 

Download briefing (PDF)

Aamina Ahmad, campaigns and policy intern

Last week Sarah Reader and I ventured down to Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh - in energy and climate change minister Chris Huhne's constituency - to talk about our climate justice campaign.

Chris Huhne will be taking part in the upcoming UN climate negotiations in South Africa and we are keen to make contact with people in his constituency who can lobby him over his view that the UK's climate finance should be given as loans through the undemocratic World Bank. The World Bank has a long history of funding projects which are destructive to the environment and one of the aims of our campaign is for UK climate finance being given as grants through the more transparent UN Adaptation Fund instead. In the run up to the climate talks it is necessary that we increase the pressure on Chris Huhne.

We spoke to a group of sixth-form students and at first I was slightly perplexed over how to engage 16-18 year olds in the campaign. But I had underestimated the ‘alternative’ kids who were really responsive to us and willfully signed their...

Kirsty Wright, climate justice campaigner.

This June, we launched our Climate Loan Sharks report to coincide with a meeting of one of the World Bank’s climate funds, the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR). The fund was set up by rich donor countries such as the UK to provide finance to developing countries to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change. However the fund actually locks these countries into deeper debt by giving out finance as loans, rather than grants, in the name of tackling the impacts of climate change these countries did nothing to cause.

Meeting outcomes

The meeting of the PPCR, which took place in South Africa, was set to decide new climate loans for Cambodia, Mozambique, Nepal, St Lucia and Zambia. At the meeting the proposals for all five countries were approved; meaning that in total over $400m of new debt will be created. These countries are all already debt burdened, with two having already qualified for partial debt cancellation, highlighting the absurdity of building up this debt once again. In total, for the 11 countries that have had funding approved by the PPCR so far, over $1...

In recent meetings with NGOs, the government has finally admitted concerns with the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds (CIFs). In spite of these concerns, the UK government continues to provide over 80 per cent of its climate finance, siphoned off from its aid budget, through these funds, ignoring opposition from developing countries. Meanwhile, the UK has failed to give a single penny to the fairer and more democratic alternative: the UN Adaptation Fund, which was set up through the UN climate talks.

The government listed the following concerns:

• development impacts, including gender issues;
• recipient country ownership and transparency;
• results;
• lessons learned and knowledge management.

Given this list, it’s a struggle to identify what issues the government isn’t concerned about, or why they are supporting this fund.

Concerns about the World Bank’s operations are nothing new. WDM, along with campaigners from across the global south, have been speaking out about these for...

By Emma Rubach. This article originally appeared in The Big Issue

There’s been a lot in the press recently about the fact Britain’s aid budget is one of the few areas of public spending not facing cuts. Despite detractors wondering how we can spend money overseas when we don’t seem to have much to spend at home, the government has been vocally proud of its commitment to helping poor countries out of poverty and to reaching the Millennium Development Goals.
 

Unfortunately, a recent report by campaign group World Development Movement (WDM) suggests that while we’re giving with one hand, we could be taking away with the other, thanks to the decision to offer climate adaption loans to poor countries through the World Bank. Much like the payday loan companies who target vulnerable people in need, desperate countries on the frontline of climate change will be offered cash to help adapt to the problems climate shifts create. The World Bank appears to be offering a kindly leg-up in a time of need – but as we cash strapped folk well know, all loans have to someday be paid back.
 

As WDM points out, it’s unfair to expect developing countries whose emissions could fit into a thimble to pay for...

Kirsty Wright, climate campaigner

Today, decisions are due to be made on new World Bank ‘climate loans’ to Cambodia, St. Lucia, Mozambique, Nepal and Zambia. To protest against these new loans and say no to the World Bank being involved in climate finance, WDM and the Jubilee Debt Campaign gathered outside the Department for International Development in London. 

We were there in solidarity with over 50 civil society groups from the 13 countries due to receive UK sponsored loans through the World Bank’s climate funds. At the end of the protest, two 'intrepid sharks' went in to hand a copy of a statement signed by these groups to DfiD staff to pass on to international development secretary Andrew Mitchell.

...

This statement is from civil society groups from countries that have been chosen as recipients to the World Bank’s ‘Pilot Program for Climate Resilience’ (PPCR) which is being supported by the UK government. The countries include: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Tajikistan, Yemen, Zambia, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. 

June 2011

To Andrew Mitchell MP, UK secretary of state for international development and Chris Huhne MP, UK secretary of state for energy and climate change. 

Dear Andrew Mitchell MP and Chris Huhne MP,

The changing of the world’s climate, primarily caused by the rich industrialized countries, is already having a devastating impact on the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world. As people from countries who are the first recipients of climate loans, we are already seeing lives being destroyed. This is especially true for people from poor and marginalized social groups such as farmers...

Don't have time to read the full Climate loan sharks report? This easy to follow presentation explains the key elements of the UK's disastrous approach to climate finance. Click 'more' to view it in fullscreen.

Guest post by Patrick Bond, director of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society

Judging by what transpired at last week's global climate negotiations in the former West German capital, Bonn, it appears certain that in just over five months time, the South African port city of Durban will host a conference of procrastinators, the 'COP 17' (Conference of Parties), dooming the earth to the frying pan. Further inaction on climate change will leave our city's name as infamous for elite incompetence and political betrayal as is Oslo's in the Middle East.

It also appears certain that Pretoria's alliance with Washington, Beijing, New Delhi and Brasilia, witnessed in the shameful 2009 Copenhagen Accord, will be extended to other saboteurs of the Kyoto Protocol, especially from Ottawa, Tokyo and Moscow, along with Brussels and London carbon traders.

What everyone now predicts is a conference of paralysis. Not only will the Kyoto Protocol be allowed to expire at the end of its first commitment period (2012). Far worse, Durban will primarily be a conference of profiteers, as carbon trading - the privatization of the air, giving rich states and companies the property-right to pollute – is cemented as the foundation of the...

The Department for Transport consultation document on adding capacity at Heathrow says that the consultation “is concerned with the local environmental impacts of future development and operations at Heathrow airport” and that “the global challenge of climate change” is “outside the scope of this consultation”.
The global challenge of climate change should form part of the scope of the consultation for adding capacity at Heathrow. WDM’s response to the consultation therefore focuses on the implications of extra capacity at Heathrow for tackling climate change.
 

WDM’s submission to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into the role of carbon markets in preventing dangerous climate change. The focus here is on the following issues: “prospects for the success of Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)”, “the robustness and effectiveness of "offset" schemes”, “effects of the expansion of the EU ETS to encompass aviation”, “the relationship between emissions credits and the UK carbon budgets set up under the Climate Change Act” and “transparency of and justification for counting the purchase of emissions credits...as decreasing emissions from the UK”.
 

Deborah Doane, WDM director

Today is the final day of the 13th UN Adaptation Fund meeting in Bonn. This is the UN fund set up by the main UN climate negotiations to help the poorest countries in the world adapt to the effects of catastrophic climate change, by channelling funds from rich countries into adaptation projects. While it sounds somewhat techy, WDM has a keen interest in the outcomes of this meeting.

When we learned last year that the UK would only give funding to World Bank loans for climate adaptation, we thought we would raise our concerns to DfID, by showing the public’s support for the UN adaptation grants. Our supporters even offered to put their own money towards UN grants. The consequent “send-a-pound” action resulted in over £1500 being given to DFID to help pay for the grants.

Unfortunately, DFID didn’t take us up on our generosity, and actually told us that it was against the law for them to take the money. So they asked us to come and take the money back, or they would donate it to a ‘local charity’.

After some debate with DfID, we reluctantly agreed to take the donations back,...

This submission focuses on UK aid in the context of its contribution towards efforts to tackle global climate change.

Pontus Westerberg, web officer

Despite its pro-poor, pro-climate rhetoric, the World Bank’s fossil fuel lending has increased 400% since 2006. What’s worse, according to Oil Change International's independent analysis, 0% of these projects were funded specifically to provide energy access to the poor. 

At the same time, the International Energy Agency (IE) predicts that continuing to pursue centralised coal powered electricity will only lower the un-electrified population from 1.4 billion today to 1.2 billion in 2030. In fact, it stated in the 2010 World Energy Outlook that in order to achieve universal energy access 70% of today’s un-electrified population will rely on decentralized renewable energy systems. 

So how do we get the World Bank to change it’s disastrous lending? The first step is updating the World Bank's energy strategy so that it is more effective in fighting poverty, reducing global warming, and environmental impacts. 

On March 1st, NGOs and activists will hold actions in London, Paris, South Africa, and elsewhere across the globe to call on the World Bank to update its energy strategy to phase out fossil fuel lending. Participants will dress up as prisoners with balls and chains, with the balls representing CO2...

Several civil society organizations focused on climate justice have compiled a set of briefing papers to help government delegates, advocates, journalists and members of the public understand various topics being discussed at the climate change negotiations and their real world impacts.

The goal of the briefs is to connect some of the ideas and energy of the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia (April 2010) with issues on the table at the UN climate talks. Please feel free to use these as a resource and to distribute them further. We hope you find them useful.

Links to the briefing papers follow, please note that these materials have been produced by a number of different organisations listed in full on each brief, but the content of each is not endorsed by all the contributors

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Several civil society organizations focused on climate justice have compiled a set of briefing papers to help government delegates, advocates, journalists and members of the public understand various topics being discussed at the climate change negotiations and their real world impacts.

The goal of the briefs is to connect some of the ideas and energy of the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia (April 2010) with issues on the table at the UN climate talks. Please feel free to use these as a resource and to distribute them further. We hope you find them useful.

Links to the briefing papers follow, please note that these materials have been produced by a number of different organisations listed in full on each brief, but the content of each is not endorsed by all the contributors

Climate change is now producing profound impacts on agriculture and the ways of life of indigenous peoples and farmers throughout the world, and these impacts will worsen in the future.