Parliamentarians urged to keep the climate, change the system

Consultation with Policymakers on climate change and the SDGs

A Consultation organized with Members of Parliament, civil society urged them to have strong and principled positions in the climate change and SDGs negations, two critical global treaties that will be negotiated this year. The meeting was organized by Beyond Copenhagen Collective at Constitution Club in Delhi on 11th March 2015. Six Members of Parliament including Anil Madhav Dave, Abhishek Singh, Chandulal Sahu, Ravindra Kumar Pandey, Anupam Hazra, and Lakhan Lal Sahu participated in the Consultation.

Mr. Chandrshekhar Sahu, former Minister, Govt of Chhattisgarh opening the discussion said that the need for this dialogue arises out of lack of parliamentary oversight on the issues, and the effort is to create a regular channel of dialogue with the Parliamentarians. He highlighted the importance of shared understanding and partnership among the stakeholders in facing impacts of climate change and moving towards a low carbon development pathway.
Ajay Jha from Beyond Copenhagen said that while India has provided leadership to developing countries in these discussions, there is a lot of preparation that needs to be done to represent the interests of poor in the climate and SDGs negotiation. He referred to the lack of equity and justice in the international negotiations on climate change and SDGs, and explained that the irony is that even entire atmospheric space is given to the developing countries, they would not be able to take the development at par with the developed countries. In the formulation of the SDGs, he added that in view of lack of means of implementation and global cooperation SDGs will witness the same fate as the MDGs. He lamented on the lack of ambition of developed countries in both the processes. However, he emphasized that people are more concerned on lack of progress and debate on these issues nationally. While he referred to lack of progress in the NAPCC and SAPCCs, he said there is no discussion at all on the SDGs. He suggested that high importance and long lasting impacts of these policies in all countries of the world merits national and parliamentary debates. He underlined that while there is a need to have strong position in the SDGs negotiation, there is also a need to adapt these goals nationally and ensure time bound, meaningful and effective progress on these nationalized goals on sustainable development. He also invited people to bring related issues of local concerns that might have significant bearing on these omnibus issues.

Mr. Om Thanvi, editor, Jansatta said that two communities of the society who can make difference Parliamentarians and media persons are neither aware nor interested in the nuances therefore, there is these issues lack visibility in the public space. He suggested that there should be a continuous dialogue on these new and evolving disciplines with the policymakers and the public.

Mr. Soumya Dutta, from BJVJ said that while in the national policy space there is need for recognition of climate change and proactive actions, in the international negotiation, India needs to increase its physical and intellectual engagement. He also added that in recent negotiations, India has been isolated and seen as a dialogue breaker, while the reality is that country’s per capita emission is still very low compared to other countries and blame should have fallen more on the developed countries. He added that non recognition of adverse impacts of climate change and related disasters in national policy space leads to poor preparation and poorer results both at home as well as in international foras.

Ms. Ranja Sengupta from TWN, said that while India has pitched strongly in favour of poverty and hunger eradication, sustainable consumption and production patterns, enhanced means of implementation in the SDGs negotiations, it need to be careful that goals and targets are not reduced, which will have disastrous effect in view of the enormity of the challenges that we are facing today. She also added that India has expressed reservation on sexual and reproductive rights, on which we expect more progress nationally.

Mr. Pradeep Sharma from Krishak Biradari, shared how the state action plans are made without stakeholders consultation, and have minimal impact on sectoral policies. He said that people in states are questioning the purpose of the Plans. He also shared a citizen led initiative to do climate resilient planning in 100 villages of Chhattisgarh.
Ajita Tiwary from INECC, referred to power and sponge iron projects in Chhattisgarh and their impact on environmental degradation. She added that India needs more preparation for the INDCs that India has to be submit by July this year and the need for a national consensus on INDCs.

Ms. Sandhya Jain, senior columnist, attracted attention towards the plight of forest dwellers and the forests and the urgency to ensure these communities voices in the policymaking.

Mr. Anil Madhav Dave, said that the discussion around these issues have largely focused on the the impacts and probable impacts rather than solutions. He added that since Copenhagen it is clear that a global equitable solution on climate change is not politically feasible. Therefore, we should have more emphasis on national action. He explained that India has a culture and a social spiritual motivation towards environment, which gives an advantage to India as compared to other countries, and therefore, its all the more important that India should provide leadership on these issues. He assured all possible help in expanding this dialogue.

Mr. Abhishek Singh agreed that there is a need for more understanding among policymakers on these issues, and said that government is willing to listen to good suggestions in the spirit of cooperation. He welcomed the initiative and offered all possible help in ensuring that constructive suggestions reach the right audience.

Mr. Chandu Lal Sahu, emphasized the need for more direct engagement with grassroots communities on issues of poverty, and development including environmental conservation and engagement of youth on these issues.

Mr. Ravindra Kumar Pandey, (BJP, MP from Jharkhand) said the country needs energy to take development to all villages, and this might have some environmental costs. However, he also emphasized that in the changed circumstances, sustainability is a bigger concern than it was earlier, therefore we need to strike a balance between developmental needs and environmental conservation.

Mr. Lakhan Lal welcomed the initiative and assured all help in strengthening the dialogue.

Mr. Anupam Hazra (TMC) said that we need to strengthen direct democracy and decentralized planning, which will make policies and programmes more oriented to local needs and responses and enhance climate resilience of the communities. However, he added that India must play a more proactive and engaged role in the international forums, as expectations from India in global cooperation has increased significantly in recent years.  

Mr. Vijay Pratap, (SADED) underlined the need for an institutional arrangement for sustained dialogue with all stakeholders including the communities who have almost no climate footprint, and urged the parliamentarians to work towards creating such a forum.

Mr. Sharad Joshi (CECOEDECON) said that we need to engage with the policymakers across political spectrum on critical issues without any preconceived notions and we must make sure that we present a collective position in coordinated manner rather than working in isolated spaces.

Justice (Retd.) P C Jain delivered the vote of thanks. He underlined that India must enhance engagement on climate change and sustainable development, as these are global issues and require global solutions. However, he added that at the same time we should not lose sight of the fact that there is a greater need for progress in national policy space as India is highly vulnerable and poor people and women are facing disproportionately adverse impacts.

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Adaptation and Agro-ecology; Women’s Strategies for Climate Change

COP 20 side event, 1^st December, Paracas

The COP 20 side event was co-organized by CECOEDECON, Beyond Copenhagen, Action aid International and Practical Action. Since there was no discussion on agriculture in COP 20/SBSTA, the side event hoped to get the attention of the country parties and negotiators as well as CSO participants on the issue of agriculture. The objective of the side event was to convey to the audience that the in the din of the climate smart agriculture, the agro-ecology is getting completely neglected, and the worst affected are women. Women have shown leadership in adapting to climate change and enhancing agro-ecology but the policymakers have failed them by prioritizing mitigation over the urgent needs of adaptation.

Opening the discussion moderator Ajay Jha said that women farmers have huge contribution in agriculture and food security and economy of the countries especially in South Asia, Africa and Latin America. Women have shown leadership in enhancing adaptive capacity of the agriculture through approaches which is ecologically sustainable and less dependant on external inputs, however, they face a number of challenges including that of climate change and policy design, lack of access and ownership being one of the most important among them. He emphasized that in South Asia where more than 65% women workforce is engaged in agriculture, less than 6% of them have land ownership. He added that in view of the fact that the cost of agriculture is rising steeply, agroecology also makes business case. Chris Handerson, from Practical action provided overall concept of agro-ecology, scenario of positioning of agro-ecology in agriculture and case studies of women farmers. He said that lot of farmers are adopting agro ecological approaches, and therefore, it is not something new being proposed. However, he added that existing system was loaded against small farmers, which presents a compelling need for policy reform and financial support. He recommended increased public investment in research, investment to agro ecological approaches and also hoped that a reformed market will also support agro ecological approaches.

Manu Srivastava from CECOEDECON provided case studies from Rajasthan India on experiments to enhance agro-ecology and improved water management, and loss and damage in agriculture due to disasters. She cited case studies from villages in Rajasthan (Paragpura & Bapugaon) where farmer led water harvesting structures and management have been able to bring the water table up and as a result farmers are able to draw two crops in a desert like condition. She also shared the findings of the loss and damage study from Uttarakhand climate disaster (June 2013), and emphasized that farmers were measly compensated for the loss and crops and land due to disaster. She underlined that loss and damage due to disaster cannot be compensated by adaptation alone, and needs separate treatment otherwise the gains from adaptation may be reversed.

Teresa Andersson from Actionaid international shared the position of agriculture in climate change mitigation. She lamented the mitigation focus in agriculture and false solutions being proposed. She added that agriculture is being discussed in multiple platforms in the climate negotiations (ADP, SBSTA, NAPs etc.) but none of them addressing the agro-ecology, which has been shown as the most resilient way of food production reports after report. She also strongly opposed the Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture, which she said was a corporate driven and dominated platform with agribusiness corps like Yarra, Syngenta, Mc Donalds and Walmart.

An animated discussion followed the presentations where participants shared destruction of food systems due to climate change impacts, strategies adopted by women farmers and policy response etc. participants shared coffee being affected in Ethiopia, Potatoes being badly hit in Kenya and drought and extreme flooding in Asian countries. In famers/women farmers strategies participants shared Roof collection of water and other water harvesting technologies, women reviving traditional seeds in Kenya. In Peru women have responded by multilayer coffee farming, mulching, terracing and using home made fertilizers, growing traditional species of potatoes. In Gambia, women have started preferring compost over fertilizer and using traditional early maturing variety of seeds over HYV. Participants also provided examples of lack of ownership of land, economic and trade policies and lack of incentive as major policy gaps in promoting agro-ecology.

The moderator summed up the discussion with few conclusions.

• The current trend in agriculture is posited against enhancing agro-ecology, however, farmers and women have been experimenting with certain adaptations on their volition.
• Adaptation and agro-ecological approaches have been largely beneficial to the farmers, but it was not equally shared with farming community so that each farmer could benefit.
• Adaptation too has a limit, and that brings the role of policies and incentivizing adaptation.
• The climate negotiations by their focus on mitigation are not responding to the needs and aspirations of small farmers.
• There is a need to stand up a resist false solutions and package of practices like Climate Smart Agriculture.

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Cop20 Side Event "Adaptation & Agroecology: Women's strategies for Climate Change" - 1 Dec. 2014, Lima (Peru)

Dear friends

You are cordially invited to participate in our side event at the UNFCCC Climate Change Conference in Lima i.e. CoP20 (flyer below):

Title: "Adaptation & Agroecology: Women's Strategies for Climate Change"
Date: 1 December 2014, Monday, 13:15 - 14:45 ; Venue - Room 'Paracas'

Women small-scale farmers are using agroecology to adapt to climate change. But these gains are threatened by a lack of climate finance, false solutions, and a reluctance to address Loss & Damage.

ActionAid, CECOEDECON, and Practical Action will demonstrate how smallholder farmers and communities' experiences and rights must be key to UNFCCC policies.

In addition to speakers from the 3 host organisations, we'll be trying something a bit unusual, where we will facilitate an audience discussion that seeks to "crowdsource" short interventions from the audience on 3 key questions:

1) Examples of food systems threatened by climate change or other threats;
2) What strategies (particularly agroecological strategies) are farmers (esp. women farmers) using to adapt to climate change?
3) What policies are hampering or helping agriculture in the face of climate change?

We would love to have you contribute your stories and perspectives. Feel free to contact for more information:

teresa.anderson@actionaid.org ; cecoedecon@gmail.com ; chris.henderson@practicalaction.org.uk 

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CECOEDECON at The UN Climate Summit 2014 in New York

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2014 Climate Change Summary – Chair’s Summary from the UN Climate Summit, 23 September 2014, UN HQ, New York City

The purpose of the 2014 Climate Summit was to raise political momentum for a meaningful universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015 and to galvanize transformative action in all countries to reduce emissions and build resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change.

I asked leaders from government, business, finance and civil society to crystallize a global vision for low-carbon economic growth and to advance climate action on five fronts: cutting emissions; mobilizing money and markets; pricing carbon; strengthening resilience; and mobilizing new coalitions.

An unprecedented number of world leaders attended the Summit, including 100 Heads of State and Government. They were joined by more than 800 leaders from business, finance and civil society.  This Summary details their most significant announcements.

Convergence on a Long-Term Vision

A comprehensive global vision on climate change emerged from the statements of leaders at the Summit:

• World leaders agreed that climate change is a defining issue of our time and that bold action is needed today to reduce emissions and build resilience and that they would lead this effort.
• Leaders acknowledged that climate action should be undertaken within the context of efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and promote sustainable development.
• Leaders committed to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.
• Many leaders called for all countries to take national actions consistent with a less than 2 degree pathway and a number of countries committed to doing so.
• Leaders committed to finalise a meaningful, universal new agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at COP-21, in Paris in 2015, and to arrive at the first draft of such an agreement at COP-20 in Lima, in December 2014.
• Leaders concurred that the new agreement should be effective, durable and comprehensive and that it should balance support for mitigation and adaptation. Many underlined the importance of addressing loss and damage.
• Many leaders affirmed their commitment to submit their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) for the new agreement in the first quarter of 2015.
• Many leaders reaffirmed the objectives and principles of the UNFCCC, including the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities. In addition, others highlighted that the global effort to meet the climate challenge should reflect evolving realities and circumstances.

Cutting Emissions

Without significant cuts in emissions by all countries, and in key sectors, the window of opportunity to stay within less than 2 degrees will soon close forever:

• Many leaders, from all regions and all levels of economic development advocated for a peak in greenhouse gas emissions before 2020, dramatically reduced emissions thereafter, and climate neutrality in the second half of the century.
• European Union countries committed to a target of reducing emissions to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.
• Leaders from more than 40 countries, 30 cities and dozens of corporations launched large-scale commitment to double the rate of global energy efficiency by 2030 through vehicle fuel efficiency, lighting, appliances, buildings and district energy.
• The New York Declaration on Forests, launched and supported by more than 150 partners, including 32 government, 20 subnational governments, 40 companies, 16 indigenous peoples groups, and 49 NGO and civil society groups, aims to halve the loss of natural forests globally by 2020, and strive to end it by 2030.
• Twenty-four leading global producers of palm oil as well as commodities traders committed to contribute to the goal of zero net deforestation by 2020 and to work with Governments, private sector partners and indigenous peoples to ensure a sustainable supply chain.
• The transport sector brought substantial emissions reduction commitments linked to trains, public transportation, freight, aviation and electric cars, which together could save $70 trillion by 2050 with lower spending on vehicles, fuel and transport infrastructure.
• Some of the world’s largest food producers and retailers committed to help farmers reduce emissions and build resilience to climate change.

Moving markets and mobilizing money

Moving markets across a wide range of sectors is essential for transforming economies at scale. Mobilizing sufficient public and private funds for low carbon, climate resilient growth is essential to keep within a less than 2 degree Celsius pathway. A new coalition of governments, business, finance, multilateral development banks and civil society leaders announced their intent to mobilise over $200 billion for financing low-carbon and climate-resilient development:

• Countries strongly reaffirmed their support for mobilising public and private finance to meet the $100 billion dollar goal per annum by 2020.
• Leaders expressed strong support for the Green Climate Fund and many called for the Fund’s initial capitalization at an amount no less than $10 billion. There was a total of $2.3 billion in pledges to the Fund’s initial capitalization from six countries.  Six others committed to allocate contributions by November 2014.
• The European Union committed $18 billion for mitigation efforts in developing countries between 2014 and 2020.
• The International Development Finance Club (IDFC) announced that it is on track to increase direct green/climate financing to $100 billion a year for new climate finance activities by the end of 2015.
• Significant new announcements were made on support for South-South cooperation on climate change.
• Leaders from private finance called for the creation of an enabling environment to undertake the required investments in low-carbon climate resilient growth. They announced the following commitments:
  • Leading commercial banks announced their plans to issue $30 billion of Green Bonds by 2015
  • A coalition of institutional investors, committed to decarbonizing $100 billion by December 2015 and to measure and disclose the carbon footprint of at least $500 billion in investments.
  • The insurance industry committed to double its green investments to $84 billion by the end of 2015, and announced their intention to increase the amount placed in climate-smart development to 10 times the current amount by 2020.
  • Three major pension funds from North America and Europe announced plans to accelerate their investments in low-carbon investments across asset classes up to more than $31 billion by 2020.

Pricing carbon

Putting a price on carbon will provide markets with the policy signals needed to invest in climate solutions.

• Seventy-three national Governments, 11 regional governments and more than 1,000 businesses and investors signalled their support for pricing carbon.  Together these leaders represent 52 per cent of global GDP, 54 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and almost half of the world’s population.
• Some leaders agreed to join a new Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition to drive action aimed at strengthening carbon pricing policies and redirecting investment
• More than 30 leading companies announced their alignment with the Caring for Climate Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing.

Strengthening resilience

Strengthening both climate and financial resilience is a smart investment in a safer, more prosperous future.

• A variety of innovative resilience initiatives were announced at the Summit, including many that will strengthen countries and communities on the climate front lines. These include an initiative to provide user-friendly “news you can use” climate information for countries around the world.
• Leaders agreed to strengthen and scale up the risk financing mechanisms for Africa and the Caribbean.
• The African Risk Capacity announced an expansion of its services and coverage, including the introduction of Catastrophe Bonds.
• An initiative to integrate climate risk into the financial system by 2020 was launched by a coalition of investors, credit ratings agencies, insurers and financial regulators in response to the growing number of extreme weather events.
• Leaders from the insurance industry, representing $30 trillion in assets and investments committed to creating a Climate Risk Investment Framework by Paris in 2015.

Mobilizing New Coalitions

Governments, business and civil society are creating the coalitions needed to meet the full scope of climate challenge.

• Leaders welcomed multilateral and multi-stakeholder actions between Governments, finance, the private sector, and civil society to address emissions in critical sectors and support adaptation and resilience, especially in Small Island Developing States, Africa and the Least Developed Countries.
• Leaders from 19 countries and 32 partners from Government, regional organisations, development institutions and private investors committed to creating an 8,000 kilometre-long African Clean Energy Corridor.
• The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, comprised of 16 countries and 37 organisations, was launched to enable 500 million farmers worldwide to practice climate-smart agriculture by 2030.
•  Leaders of the oil and gas industry, along with national Governments and civil society organisations, made an historic commitment to identify and reduce methane emissions by 2020.  A second industry-led initiative was launched by leading producers of petroleum who committed to address methane as well as other key climate challenges, followed by regular reporting on ongoing efforts.
• Industry leaders and Governments also committed to reduce HFCs in refrigeration and food storage. In addition, public and private coalitions announced initiatives to reduce methane and black carbon in the global freight supply chains and municipal solid waste.
• A new Compact of Mayors, representing well over 2,000 cities pledged new commitments on climate action supported by new funding from public and private sources — 228 cities have voluntary targets and strategies for greenhouse gas reductions, that could avoid up to 3 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2030.
• A new coalition of more than 160 institutions and local Governments and more than 500 individuals committed to divesting $50 billion from fossil fuel investments within the next three-five years and reinvest in new energy sources.
• Panels comprised of eminent global leaders, policy experts and citizen activists discussed the need for, and multiple benefits of, accelerated climate action.  Panellists focussed on the need for science-based decision making; strengthening economic performance while cutting emissions, generating jobs and enhancing resilience; pricing and reducing pollution for improved health; mobilizing new coalitions to help move markets; and ensuring that the most affected are at the centre of the global response to climate change.

The Way Forward to Lima, Paris and beyond

I thank all the leaders from Government, business, finance and civil society who came to New York with ambition and commitment.

• If we want the vision laid out by leaders from Government, finance, business, and civil society throughout the day, we must fulfil and expand on all the pledges and initiatives announced today.
• We must maintain the spirit of commitment and action that characterized the Summit.
• As we look forward to Lima, later this year, and Paris in December 2015, let us look back on today as the day when we decided – as a human family – to put our house in order to make it sustainable, safe and prosperous for future generations.
• Today’s Summit has shown that we can rise to the climate challenge.

Source: http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/2014/09/2014-climate-change-summary-chairs-summary/

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