PWCCC to give a voice to world's poor

Cross posted from http://envivo.cmpcc.org.bo/Bolivia-climate-change-talks-to?lang=es

By Andres Schipani in La Paz and John Vidal, Guardian, April 18, 2010

Rafael Quispe is gearing up for his trip. He packs a small leather bag, puts on his black poncho, an alpaca scarf sporting the rainbow-coloured, chequered Andean indigenous flag and his black hat. "This will be an important gathering, a very important gathering. It is about saving our Mother Earth, about saving nature," he says.

Quispe, an Aymara indigenous leader, is heading for Bolivia’s central city of Cochabamba for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the grassroots alternative to last year’s ill-fated UN talks in Copenhagen.

At least 5,000 people from worldwide indigenous movements and civil-society groups, as well as presidents, scientists, activists and observers from 90 governments, are expected to attend what is being called the "Woodstock" of climate change summits.

"According to some analyses, about 80% of the world’s pollution comes from developed nations and harms, mostly, developing nations. So we feel we have to do something, we must be heard, we must be compensated," says Quispe, who last December lobbied the case of his community at Copenhagen.

"The COP15 was a total failure, so brother President Evo Morales has decided to call for this climate change conference to do something about it. We the people are the ones that should take the lead on how to tackle the climate crisis," says Quispe.

Even if the Cochabamba meeting will have no bearing on the UN climate talks, the idea is to give a voice to the world’s poorest people – those most affected by climate change – and to make governments more aware of their plight.

The main goal is to present draft proposals to the UN climate meeting due to be held in Mexico later this year.

Morales will also use the meeting to announce what could be the world’s largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an international climate justice tribunal.

"The only way to get climate negotiations back on track, not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth, is to put civil society back into the process. The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy," said Bolivia’s UN ambassador, Pablo Solon.

"There will be no secret discussions behind closed doors. The debate and the proposals will be led by communities on the frontlines of climate change and by organisations and individuals from civil society dedicated to tackling the climate crisis," he added.

Bolivia is playing an increasingly important role in the climate negotiations by leading attempts to force developed countries to slash their emissions further than they have so far pledged.

It was one of seven countries that refused to sign up to the deal that emerged from Copenhagen, incurring the wrath of Britain and the US, which this month withdrew $3.5m (£2.3m) of climate aid from Bolivia.

Last April, the UN general assembly approved Morales’ initiative of launching the International Mother Earth Day every 22 April to protect the rights of the Andean divinity, Pachamama (Mother Earth), and of "all living beings".

"What is behind all this discussion is that we have broken the harmony with Mother Earth, with nature, and because we have broken that harmony we are now suffering the consequences of climate change," said Solon.

In an office plastered with images of Che Guevara, Solon says Bolivia is taking the initiative because of its indigenous constituency. "Things are moving in a bad direction. Governments know it, scientists know it, but things are not changing. I would say this is the only scenario to make a balance between the pressure that at this moment the corporations are putting on governments, versus the pressure that can emerge from civil society."

Eco-activists mass for alternative climate summit in Bolivia

Cross posted from http://envivo.cmpcc.org.bo/Eco-activists-mass-for-alternative?lang=es

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — Environmental activists, indigenous leaders and Hollywood celebrities are gathering in Bolivia ahead of a self-styled global people’s conference on climate change starting Tuesday.

Thousands of attendees intend to highlight the plight of the world’s poorest who they argue were largely ignored at the official United Nations-sponsored summit in Copenhagen last December.

The Copenhagen meeting was widely drubbed for failing to produce a new treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions, with Bolivia, along with Cuba and Sudan, among the leading voices questioning the climate accord.

Critics say that deal will not avert a catastrophe and the "People’s World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights," which runs through Thursday, aims to draft new proposals for consideration at the next UN meeting in Mexico at the end of the year.

Bolivia’s UN ambassador Pablo Solon said the conference, which was expected to be attended by some 18,000 people, was "the only way to get the climate change talks back on track."

And Bolivian Environment Minister Juan Pablo Ramos described the Cochabamba meeting as "a major mobilization to fundamentally influence the next climate summit in Mexico in December."

Developing nations have resisted a legally binding climate treaty, arguing that wealthy nations must bear the primary responsibility for climate change.

Nearly 130 countries, including many of the world’s poorest, will be represented at the Cochabamba conference, which symbolically reaches its climax on Earth Day.

Individual participants include an assortment of anti-globalization activists like writer Naomi Klein of Canada and Jose Bove of France.

Also invited is James Cameron, the Canadian-born director of the blockbuster film "Avatar" and James Hansen, a US researcher who was among the first to warn about climate change.

Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, noted for his demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, was also due to take part, as was Hollywood actor and political activist Danny Glover.

"We have great extremes of heat and cold, and as a result we’re seeing illnesses and outbreaks that once had disappeared," said Nilo Cayuqueo, a Mapuche Indian preparing to attend the summit.

Cayuqueo described seeing the effect of climate change every day in his Argentine homeland, saying "there are no more butterflies in the air or worms in the earth" due to the impact of global warming.

This week’s gathering will also give a giant megaphone to a left-leaning bloc of Latin American leaders, including presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales, the indigenous president of host nation Bolivia.

The conference will seek to refine proposals presented by Morales in Copenhagen that included the creation of a world tribunal for climate issues and a global referendum on environmental choices.

Presidents Chavez and Morales were among the harshest critics of the December 2009 Copenhagen conference, arguing that developing countries were largely ignored in the debates.

The conference begins the day after representatives from the world’s leading economies gathered in Washington for a preparatory meeting ahead of the December UN summit in Cancun.

The US-led Major Economies Forum comprises 17 countries responsible for the bulk of global emissions and excludes smaller nations such as Sudan whose firebrand negotiators held up sessions at December’s Copenhagen summit.

Washington hopes the closed-door talks will allow key nations to quietly assess what they can achieve heading into the next major climate summit in December in Cancun.

"Clearly, there is still a gap between the views of the developing and developed world," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "We’re going to see if we can, through the course of this discussion, narrow that down."