Call for the climate negotiators at COP 17, Durban

Call for the climate negotiators at COP 17, Durban

Roundtable on Climate Crisis and State Response
2nd and 3rd November 2011, Delhi

We the members of Beyond Copenhagen Coalition, an umbrella organization of more than 40 organizations and networks, civil society organizations, women’s groups, agriculture workers unions, and individuals, having met at Delhi on 2nd and 3rd November , 2011 in Roundtable on climate crisis and state response, and having discussed the current state of play at climate change negotiations, position of government of India in climate negotiations, priorities of developing countries and national priorities in climate stabilization, also having discussed National Action Plan on climate change (NAPCC) of government of India and State Action Plans of various states in India, and other policies aimed at combating climate change in the country; express serious concern on the lack of ambition and development in the climate change negotiations, and trend of shifting burden of both mitigation and adaptation on developing and poor countries who have least or no contribution in brining climate crisis,

We also express serious concern on impacts of climate crisis and climate change response policies on poor communities, farmers and agricultural workers, indigenous populations, dalits, women, climate refugees and migrants in developing countries and South Asia in general and India in particular,

Noting significant climate change impact on agriculture and food security in the form of extreme variability and unpredictability in monsoon and weather pattern, increasing temperature and reduced precipitation, reduced number of rainy days and due formation, increasing costs of agriculture and livestock rearing, and reduced farm incomes, which have resulted in increased migration, distress sale of land and livestock, and increased agrarian distress and increased burden on women,

Recognizing that climate change policies must be based on the needs of rural poor communities and farmers in developing countries in South Asia, Africa and Latin America, and must meet the needs of small farmers, indigenous population, women, and climate refugees and victims
Also recognizing that national climate change policies must not be influenced by the trajectory of imperfect rules and proposals advanced by developed countries, neo-liberal policies and corporate interests in climate change,

Emphasizing that agriculture, rural development, livelihood and food security must be the pivot of global response to climate change and national policies, as must recognize the multidimensional role that agriculture provides in developing countries in providing sustainable solutions to the multiple crises of economies, food, climate change and sustainable development that world is facing today,

Recalling that food security has a central role in the UNFCCC, which is to avoid dangerous climate change within a time frame sufficient…to ensure that food security is not threatened (Art.4),

Recalling that UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol confirms the role of developed countries in bringing about the climate crisis by having “ largest share of historical and current global emissions” and the duty that they owe to the developing and countries, LDCs and small island nations in collective task of climate stabilization,

Also recalling that sustainable development will be achieved only to the extent of our having enabled the mother earth and nature to regain their regenerative capacity,

Recalling that IPCC and various other studies have identified India as one of the most vulnerable country, and South Asia to be severely affected by climate change impacts besides Sub Saharan Africa, and has projected a severe decline in agricultural and food production even to the extent of 40%,

Expressing serious concern that various scientific studies have projected an increase in temperature in the range of 3.5DC to 5DC unless the developed countries efforts are lifted to ambitious levels, and further that emission reduction pledges of Annex 1 countries are thoroughly inadequate to keep the rise in temperature below 2DC,

Emphasizing that annex 1 countries are trying to replace the science based, rules based and commitment based system of the Kyoto Protocol to pledge and review, which is completely not accountable and will result in further rise in emissions and global warming

Also emphasizing the urgent need to inform climate change negotiations of the impacts taking place in developing countries, LDCs and small island nations, need for more participatory, transparent and accountable, just and fair process to address the crisis and need for a farmer, affected community and civil society based approach to climate negotiations, demand

1. On agriculture and climate change
1.1 We demand that climate change negotiations, must pay due attention to the importance and multidimensional role of agriculture and must respect its linkages with livelihoods, food security, rural development, and equity, and treat agriculture as one of the central concerns in climate change negotiations.
1.2 The response policies should be designed in consultation with farmers, farmers organizations and affected farmers and must be responsive to the needs of small farmers in developing countries.
1.3 We strongly oppose the mitigation focus in agriculture and demand that negotiations must make a distinction between highly industrialized, mechanized, input intensive, and export oriented agriculture in developed countries and low input, low energy sustainable agriculture in developing countries
1.4 We also strongly oppose to use agriculture as a sink and undue emphasis on including soil carbon sequestration in approved mitigation technologies. We completely reject the technological fixes in agriculture those are being promoted by developed countries on the behest of agribusiness companies, which takes away the focus from source of greater emission in developed countries and puts undue burden of mitigation on developing countries and farmers. These methodologies will not only harm agriculture and farmers but also exacerbate the climate change.

2. On mitigation and emission reduction
2.1 We demand that developed countries must adhere to their legally binding reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and reduce their emission at source as per the demands of the science, acknowledge their historical role and undertake common but differentiated responsibility in mitigating climate change.
2.2 We also demand that Annex 1 countries as per the decision in Cancun must undertake second commitment period, and should not put any precondition to their going into second commitment period of the protocol.
2.3 We also reject the efforts of some developed countries to merge the two tracks of AWG LCA and WAG KP in the second commitment period in order to repudiate their binding commitments.
2.4 We also strongly demand that countries who decide not to go into second commitment period must have comparable reduction commitments.
2.5 We call upon the Annex 1 countries to address emission at source and at domestic level without having recourse to increased use of market based mechanisms. The market based mechanism should not be used to offset more than one-quarter of Annex 1 countries emissions.
2.6 We also call upon the developed countries to reform their highly industrialized and mechanized and high carbon footprint agriculture and agricultural subsidies. And we also demand an immediate closure of loopholes in the LULUCF which they have been using to hide their agricultural emissions.
2.7 We demand that developed countries not to resort to unilateral trade measures such as Border adjustment tax, subsidies, carbon labeling requirements, environmental payments and subsidies, which have the potential of making exports and agricultural exports from developing countries less competitive.

3. On climate change adaptation
3.1 We demand that developed countries to compensate developing countries for encroachment of their atmospheric space and current climate change impacts according to the principles of the CBDR laid down in the Protocol.
3.2 We emphasize that agricultural adaptation is the most important component in the adaptation and must be addressed forthwith through a variety of efforts including finance, technology, capacity building and research.
3.3 We call upon the Annex 1 countries to allocate at least 2.5% of their GNP for support to the costs of adaptation in developing countries and especially agricultural adaptation, which should be also supported through variety of other resources mainly through public sources.

4. On climate finance
4.1 We demand that climate finance architecture should be transparent, accountable, and easily accessible. We also support the G-77 demand that it should not be administered by World Bank.
4.2 We also demand that climate finance should be provided by public sources rather than through market based mechanisms and finance should be in addition to overseas development assistance, and should be provided as a grant rather than as loan. We also regret that finance being made available through 2010-2012 has been largely repackaged ODA rather than new and additional funding.
4.3 We also reiterate that climate finance administration mechanisms must co opt representatives from farmers and affected communities, besides having equitable representation from all country groups.
4.4 The climate finance must be human rights based, country led and democratically owned
4.5 We call on the GCF to support adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer and ask for a new fund in the agriculture sector to support adaptation.

5. On technology transfer
5.1 We reiterate the urgent need to scale up existing technologies and facilitate expedited transfer and knowledge to help small farmers adapt top climate change. The knowledge created must make due appreciation of the knowledge of farming community and create a synergy between scientific and technical knowledge.
5.1 We also call upon for immediate and full assessment of technology by civil society and farmer led approaches to ensure that technologies developed and transferred are appropriate, based on the needs of small farmers, environmentally sound and financially viable.
5.2 We also demand that UNFCCC prevent all agribusiness companies from acquiring patent of climate resilient plant and seed varieties invented, demonstrated and used by farming and traditional communities for years. We also strongly demand that IPR regimes should be reformed to facilitate easy access of technology at reasonable costs for countries and communities in need.

6. On compliance, enforcement and climate justice
6.1 We reiterate that costs of inaction on climate stabilization is being borne by poor communities in developing countries, who have no contribution in climate crisis, the rising number of climate refugees and migrants and increasing extreme climatic events along with subtle and chronic impacts of climate change is leading to social conflicts, inequity and poverty.
6.2 We express serious concern at repudiation of legal commitments by developed countries, and lack of legal framework for enforcing compliance and institutional mechanism for addressing climate change impacts
6.3 We underline the need for judicial mechanism, besides finance and technology, accessible to communities and countries and having expertise and powers to appraise and take action against state and non-state parties for climate crimes
6.4 We also express serious concern that existing legal, judicial and quasi-judicial institutions including PCA, ICJ, DSB of the WTO, or the UNCLOS are either restricted by jurisdiction or by expertise to deal with issues related to environment and climate justice.
6.5 We demand an International Tribunal on Climate and Environmental Justice to strengthen environmental and climate justice laws, identify the countries and communities at risk, state and non-state parties in violation of climate justice principles, lay down rules of state and non-accountability and liability for climate change impacts, award compensation and sanctions to state and non-state actors.
6.6 We also take note of the express appreciation for the demand of International Environmental Courts raised by civil society organizations, judicial bodies , countries and demand for International climate justice Tribunal (by Peoples Conference on Climate Change and rights of the Mother earth, Bolivia), and call upon the UNFCCC to take immediate steps for prompt realization of this

We express solidarity with farmers and civil society groups in South Asia, Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America and completely identify with their concerns with rise in temperature and its concomitant effects on agriculture. We call upon the developed countries to raise their level of ambitions at COP 17, to keep the rise in temperature below 2DC with the incremental goal of capping it 1.5DC. We also express our solidarity with the concerns raised by Peoples World Conference on Climate Change and Rights of the Mother Earth and express our confidence in the justice of nature and Mother earth.