Lima in Brussels

Mobilising for Climate Justice, December 6th-13th !

[limainbrussels]

A Christmas carol for Climate Justice!

At Lima in Brussels, Young Friends of the Earth Europe took their re-worked version of Jingle Bells to the streets and squares of Brussels, calling for climate justice and environmental protection this Christmas. 

Watch the video here.

[limainbrussels]

Lima did not call for climate action

Tale Hammerø Ellingvåg from Young Friends of the Earth Norway gives us a final reflection on the UN climate talks in Lima.

"The last stop before Paris" is history. Many governments are happy with the outcome, but impacted people all over the world did not wake up safer or more assured that the world took responsibility to clean up the climate mess.

The climate talks of 2014 took place in Lima, Peru, in a building called El Pentagonito or Little Pentagon. El Pentagonito is Peru's military headquarters and was built in '75 by the dictator Juan Velasco Alvarado and has a dark past which includes being a torture chamber. It goes without saying that the location meant a pretty heavy security, so the possibilities of doing the classic actions outside the climate negotiations was limited, to say the least.

Lima is also known for its outrageous traffic. The city is so big and the traffic is so dense that one must calculate an hour of travel almost wherever one wants to go. This meant that there was an hour of travel from the hotel districts to the climate talks’ venue, and an hour from the venue to the activist hub CasActiva and the “People's Climate Summit” nearby. The distance and inaccessibility of the negotiations limited the impact opportunities to both Peruvians activists and activists from around the world, who remained outside the negotiations.

Inside the negotiations, I sometimes felt I was at a festival. Large tents, super expensive food, a burning sun, corporations with booths pushing their crap (fossil fuels and false solutions in this case) and people from around the world who meet each other at this regular event once a year. But, the most obvious similarity between negotiations and a festival was perhaps that content could be exciting when you sat in the midst of it, but the result (a text called “Lima Call for Climate Action”) was not very useful for the rest of the world.

These negotiations had a few major conflicts. The most significant was the conflict about what the INDCs should be and contain. I am sorry I do not have a less geeky term than “INDCs”, but it is an acronym for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. In other words – the climate contributions (OBS: not commitments) each party intend (OBS: not commit) to deliver to the Paris agreement, that is determined nationally (OBS: in other words – global south cannot tell global north if they are too lousy or leave out their fair share according to historic responsibilities).

The biggest conflicts under this was 1) whether Common But Differenced Responsibilities (CBDR) between developed and developing countries should stay strong or not. And, 2) whether the climate agreement of Paris next year should bind developed nations to contribute on finance for mitigation and adaptation, technology transfer, capacity building and the crucial, but ignored, point of help for loss and damage caused by already occurring climate change events.

Another conflict point was revising and pushing for more ambitious pre-2020 targets and commitments on climate action before the Paris agreement comes into effect in 2020.

The huge rift between global North and global South on a general international basis pervades these negotiations. A lot of people make the mistake of assuming global North and global South meet in this space on equal terms. The major, underlining issue is that power structure, historic bonds and outcome of other negotiations and events are not left at the doorstep of the climate talks. We say the climate fight is global. Still, we tend to leave out that the fight is not the same for everyone. The global North fights to keep status quo as much as they can, often on behalf of big corporations. The global South fights to change structures in the world.

This is reflected in the question of process in the climate talks as well. One example is the conflict of the negotiating procedure. Normal UN procedure is to project text-on-screen and negotiate the text while all parties are able to follow on screen. Developing countries and the Co-Chairs pushed through to negotiate based on text printed and presented by the Co-Chairs themselves, making the process a lot less transparent and democratic, while framing the case as the developing countries wanting to slow down the process.

Lima did not bring us any closer to getting a fair, just and ambitious agreement for the climate and people in December 2015. El Pentagonito continues to remain an area limiting people more than helping them. Or, as many of the world’s climate justice movement state:

“The Lima Conference should have been a milestone that marked out how governments will take urgent action to tackle climate change and to support vulnerable people across the world to adapt to its locked in impacts. (…) Lima prepares us for an agreement in Paris that ignores the needs and rights of impacted people across the world by precluding binding commitments on finance, adaption, loss and damage and technology transfer.”

I will go as far as to say that these talks halted the process and the needed progress, as many of the most important, political decisions and clarifications was postponed to talks in 2015. Starting with Geneva in February, a space even less transparent for the world’s civil society.

A tiny speck of light in the negotiations was that energy and climate finally were discussed in context to each other. A carbon world has gone from being viewed as a green utopia to be a real discussion point on negotiations. Inside the negotiation bubble, the African Group for example came up with a proposal that would build large amounts of renewable energy on the continent, paid by polluters and on the citizens own terms. Over 50 countries already supports a total phase-out of fossil energy by 2050.

Outside the negotiation bubble, incredibly many things happen. The Reclaim Power movement is growing, more and more universities divest from fossil fuels and 20 000 people marched for climate justice in the Lima Climate March during the climate talks.

People all over the world are now fighting for a just energy transition, for preparing for disasters through climate adaption and for rebuilding communities after disasters have occurred. People are fighting for their rights as indigenous people, as fishers and farmers, and as citizens on the same planet, but with different starting points and privileges.

We will all continue to push for a just and ambitious outcome in the coming year and also at the final lap in Paris in December, and resist a “climate agreement” who does little or nothing for earth and people. However, it is clearer now than ever that we need to have two thoughts in our heads at the same time.

The Global Climate Justice Movement for and by the world’s people is growing, and we need to fight for it to grow even bigger, stronger, more visible and louder - fast. In Paris, we should be the majority of the people attending that chaotic festival. However, we need to fight governments and corporations in our local space as well as the international, and hold our politicians accountable of fighting for us, not for big money, inside as well as outside of the UNFCCC space.

Finally, I will end with these climate talks’ unofficial mantra: They tried to bury us, but they forgot we were seeds, and we will grow to a forest of resistance.  

Pictures courtesy of Luka Tomac

[limainbrussels]

Policy update: What has Lima brought along?

In Lima, Arnstein from Young FoE Norway gives an update on what is being currently discussed in the climate talks @ Lima as the climate talks are closing in on the last day.

So this post isn’t gonnna go into detail on the whole UNFCCC process, for that I’ll point you in the direction of this excellent post and these clips from [Earth] and CICERO, I’m just gonna do the updates.

Tuvalu @ UNFCCC climate talks

The last two weeks has been frustrating. While typhoon Haugpit is clashing onto the coast of the Philippines, with a million people evacuated from their homes, negotiators are hardly moving at all in the direction of getting us a deal which will counter climate change.

What's the fight?

The big fight of this year is the so-called “INDC”s. This secretive acronym encompasses the main disagreement in these year’s negotiations: What will be the scope of the Paris agreement?

Please meet M.P Vidal, president of this year's climate conference

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

So the INDCs are what the different countries intend to contribute to the Paris deal. As the name implies, they are nationally determined, not determined by what's actually needed. It's like trying to fix the holes in a sinking ship, only the passengers of the ship will only fix the holes they feel like. Blub blub.

Instead of looking at what’s needed and distributing the responsibility for emission cuts, countries are saying how much they can manage, and we'll se if it's enough.

This sums up to the fact that we are not actually discussing the deal we need, or a deal which will avoid further climate change. A new agreement, concluded in Paris in one year, will only take us part of the way.

A new agreement in Paris or elsewhere will not counter climate change. Sadly

Okey, so that’s all and good, but if every country can determine their own contribution, why is there any disagreement? 

Surviving – not adapting: what's the deal all about

The countries from the global north presses on for a deal that is only intended for emission cuts. And that sounds reasonable – after all the goal is to turn the emissions curve, isn’t it?

Every year during negotiations, a typhoon has hit the Philippines. Last year resulting in enormous casualities. This year 1 million evacuated in the biggest peace-time evacuation ever

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

While some countries might have to refit their drainage systems to adapt to climate change, most developing countries are already struggling to survive the enormous impacts of floods, disasterous typhoons, drought and forest fires. They have firstly to use the funds they have for adapting – or more so: Surviving.

The US and EU usually get to draw their red lines in the negotiations. The red line of Tuvalu is the line to where the sea level reaches. It is rising. And most often ignored.

This is why the disagreements are so big in this year's negotiations. Countries from the global south are clear: There can be no deal if there isn’t a fair deal.

Is there hope?

On Wednesday, 20 000 people marched the streets of Lima. All over the world people are standing up for climate change. And countries from the global south are not budging.

We won’t get a deal in Paris which is what we need. What’s important, and what we need, is a fair system that enables people all over the world to combat climate change where they live.

20 000 people marching for an ambitious climate deal

And more importantly

This isn't the process which will stop further climate change. This isn't the deal we wanted, and will not be the deal we want. The real climate action has to happen in every country around the world. The emissions causing climate change don't come from a large chimney at a conference center in Lima, Paris or Bonn.

There is still hope. But there is only one solution: We, as a movement, have to give them hell back home.

Pictures courtesy of [Earth], Friends of the Earth International and google.

[limainbrussels]

Enough talk, we need action for our climate impacted people

As the climate talks in Lima draws to a close, countries continue to skirt around the real problem.

Today people from all over world staged a mass “lie in” to bring the story back to those hugely affected by climate change.

People from Africa, Asia and Latin America spoke up for the forgotten voices whilst those in the "lie in" beated their chest creating the sound of a heartbeat.

Standing amongst those lying on the ground and listening to the rising heartbeat, it felt so overwhelming powerful and moving.

At the very end of the action members from “Earth in Brackets” sang a song in Spanish, accompanied by a guitar and violin, called “Money man” with the lyrics ” When are you going to understand when are you going to learn that life cant be sold”.

This issue of climate change is real, there is no denying it. People’s lives are at risk here, its our duty to stand with them and not only do what is necessary but what is right.

[limainbrussels]

From Democracy Now! - a report from the “world march in defense of mother earth” yesterday - 20,000 people flooded central Lima calling for “Climate Justice Now!” and marking the International Human Rights Day, featuring a report from the Casa Activa, where the march was organised from. Look closely and spot the Young Friends of the Earth members!

The night before the march, we showed solidarity with human rights and environmental defenders at the Stop the Killings march in Brussels.

[limainbrussels]

How meeting MEPs forced me to think clearly about what climate justice means

During Lima in Brussels, some participants reached out to and met with some of their MEPs in the European Parliament. Ciara Ryan-Gerhardt from Ireland reports...

Two things stopped me in my activist tracks at the European Parliament Building this week. I am here to learn about, campaign and build awareness for climate justice; today I was reminded what a complex and difficult to define topic, and more hopefully movement, it is. The first meeting was less serious: my friend Rob and I were about to pass through the security screening in the front lobby when he said quietly ‘I have an egg in my pocket.’ (At breakfast in our Hostel he’d taken one and forgotten to eat it.) I laughed and said I reckoned we’d be ok—the security check wasn’t as strict as airports. We moved on through and followed our Member of European Parliament (MEP’s) assistant whom we were going to speak to.

The second meeting with another MEP made me stop for a more serious reason.

As activists we are fighting for a cause with our words; we have to be clear and precise. I sometimes feel that as an activist I put on my ‘Activist Hat’ (or in the words of a podcast interview commentary on Jeffrey Sachs, my ‘Advocacy Hat’). I get idealistic, big and global on a highly complex, politicised issue…and, I hate to say it, but a little naïve. But here’s the thing (and this is where it gets very interesting and why some would say ‘idealistic’): no increase is safe.

The United Nations (IPCC) says a 2°C increase is safe, climate scientists say 1.5°C is safe, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and other environmental organisations and groups say no increase is safe. And current knowledge says that if business as usual continues we’re faced with a 5-6°C increase by the end of this century. Climate science is interwoven with a lot of uncertainty, But in the words of an atmospheric physicist in Thin Ice: I don’t worry that we are going to all get killed by this ‘thing’ [he refers to our adaptable and resilient nature]. I do worry [though] that our children are not going to thank us for giving them the headache we’re going to be giving them if we carry on the path were following... Because if we don’t get out of this, they will have to. He says thateach decade we postpone action to combat climate change and global warming,is another billion of tons or so of CO2 released in to the atmosphere.He says that that is the sort of climate where we really can’t predict where the warming will stop.

So what is climate justice? I’m still not sure I have an answer to that question but for me it’s got something do with the following: the global North is historically responsible for our climate crisis so it’s really up to us to lead. We have the finances, we have the technology, and we definitely need it: whether people are aware or not it is a human rights issue too and affects marginalised groups and sectors of society. That means working directly on local, practical and community-invested ownership of resources and energy, and local and sustainable jobs. It also means at an EU and local level, binding targets that are more ambitious than our current one that meant once we’d reached it (on overall EU level), there’s no more action until post 2020 (Yes, that’s right!). Given that once a Climate Bill is passed it has already been through the Parliament, Commission and corporate/industry-lobby hands, and is watered down each time, this is particularly important. Accountability (for example ensuring the advisory body is independent in their duties) Intergenerational equity is important, this is an issue that will affect our generation and many more into the future – that is actually where the whole issue gets quite scary, because as of today it is very difficult to say what this looks like.

It was hard learning but thanks to my MEP for pointing out the loopholes in my argument and my attempting to get clear.

Resources: I highly recommend watching the film ‘Thin Ice,’ which gives an overview of climate science by the researchers that are at the forefront of this interdisciplinary science. Physicists, biologists and chemists combine to make this film interesting and informative. You’ll find it here: http://thiniceclimate.org/watch-the-film

[limainbrussels]

Marching for the rights of all

Meanwhile in Lima... Charlotte Chan from Young Friends of the Earth reports back on the "world march in defense of mother earth" yesterday when 20,000 people flooded central Lima calling for "Climate Justice Now!" in the largest demonstration the city has seen since 2010....

Human rights is no laughing matter, its a basic need for everyone.

It doesnt matter whether you chose to wear a suit or a poncho when you wake up, we all freely have the right to clean water, fresh air and a place to call home.

Side by side we marched and chanted making a stand for climate justice.

Brimming full of colour, music and passion the march packed a punch, attracting thousands if supporters from all over South America and the world making it Lima’s largest march to date.

Banners were held up high speaking of climate justice, indigenous rights and womens' rights, amongst others. A group of very tall papier mache people attracted attention as they danced around accompanied by their own brass band. Music filled the streets.

The youth banged their plastic container drums with their hand designs, others drummed with additional percussion and the indigenous group blew their pan pipes. Overgrown maize even made and appearance and a giant bike (created at casa tierra), Captain America tagged along too.

At times the march became a sprint to close the gap from one banner to the next, making it more of a climate dash - and why not? This is one emergency we cant avoid if we want any chance of staying alive, so lets run to the solution with urgency.

Although the threat is clearly there with increased droughts, floods and sea level rise; developed countries continue to take the back seat instead of leading on clearing up their mess.

Let’s hope they get the message loud and clear and start looking at ways to change the system not the climate.

[limainbrussels]

We marched for human rights and justice for environmental defenders. Justice now!

[limainbrussels]

Public money undermining real climate change solutions? No way!

Today, we decided to call (and god, it was loud!) on the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Brussels to stop funding fossil fuel projects and false solutions to the climate crisis like shale gas, and to make a complete shift towards renewable energy investments. Why now – like, what has the EIB got to do with the COP in Lima? Well, you would not believe – the EIB is actually sponsoring a corporate climate summit in Lima, running parallel to the UN climate talks, promoting business driven, ‘low carbon‘, false solutions. As a public instituton with a responsibility to European citizens and the environment, it should promote genuine, responsible climate solutions.

The action helped those of us who were preparing it, to learn how important reconaissance is when planning a protest. You do not want to come to protest to a bank and find out, at the last minute, that it actually is on the 6th floor, while on the ground floor there is a Catalunyan information center. Which is what happened to us... Still, if you chant enough for the employees up there to hear you, it is actually possible, that someone will come down to hear your demands (yes, this actually happened!).

And the EIB certainly makes you wanna shout, as it is not all as nice as its individual employees - the EIB still lends three quarters of its research funds (around 10 billion euros annually) to the automobile industry in spite of its Climate Action Programme. What is more, efficiency improvements at coal or gas plants are categorised as climate-friendly when in fact they prolong the lifetimes of these polluting plants; any such improvements should be targeted at communities who live in energy poverty. And the bank’s stance remains ambiguous on new forms of energy that are a threat to the climate like shale gas.

Our aim was to act in solidarity (yesterday was the great march to defend Mother Earth in Lima!) with Peruvian and other Latin American social and environmental movements. Transnational corporations are plundering the lands of Latin America and driving the climate crisis.  Climate change is already happening and corporate actors have overwhelming power on the climate negotiations, promoting false solutions to protect their profit-at-all-costs business practices. People who are trying to stop the ravages of the system and defend their rights have been killed in the name of those same transnational corporate interests; however they represent only a fraction of those who climate change has killed and will continue to kill.  

As we marked International Human Rights Day, we stood in solidarity with environmental defenders in Latin America and worldwide, and demanded that the EIB and other financiers divest from dirty energy and pour their resources into supporting real climate solutions like community-run renewables: it‘s our climate, not your business!

[limainbrussels]

Stop TTIP party for M. Juncker's 60th birthday! Happy birthday M. Juncker, here are 1.000.000 signatures against the transatlantic free trade agreement.

[limainbrussels]

Our action in front of the EU commission on December 8th EU: up your targets, 40% is not enough!

Solidarity, not just sympathy!

[limainbrussels]

Casa Tierra: House of Action

Meanwhile in Lima, Charlotte Chan from Young Friends Of the Earth writes...

There’s a house in Lima on a corner of the street next to the park that looks unassuming to passers-by, however inside is a different story. Inside is bustling with creativity plastered with art everywhere you turn from posters, murals, and installations propped up against the wall.

Casa Tierra is a temporary open space house for artists to meet and create. It was set up by Tierra Activa and funded by a group called “Global call for climate action”. But fundraising is still ongoing to provide the free materials for artists to use.

The place is a real hub for creative activism.

A day before the big Human Rights March “March for protection of Mother Earth” the house was bursting with activity. We turned up to create our very own Friends of the Earth banner for the march, and we weren’t alone, a handful of others were doing the same too.

Walking around the house I met a handful of amazing artists.

- A guy sitting on the floor was creating a gigantic Maiz plant, standing up against corporations. - A girl sewing a banner, in the hope of protecting Peru’s amazing mountain. - A student cutting and shaving bamboo, making an instrument to protect themselves incase the march got crazy. - A guy from America hand painting a banner with the quote “they tried to bury us but they didn’t realise we were seeds”

I’m so excited to see all of the amazing art installation that have been created by the people here. If this house is anything to go by, it’ll be big, it’ll be loud and full of colour. This house really makes you feel like anything is possible.

[limainbrussels]

Stop the Killings action - solidarity with human rights and environmental defenders

“Climate change is a human rights issue”, said our banner as we joined a number of Belgian human rights organisations last night to march through Brussels for the annual “Stop The Killings” awards, an annual solidarity action with human rights defenders across the world who are persecuted by their national governments.

Around 150 people gathered at the central station, where we lit torches in symbolic support of the four candidates for this year’s awards. Reuben Herrera from Guatemala, an activist supporting indigenous protests against huge energy and mining projects in Huehuetenago, was nominated. For very different reasons, Jovito Palparan from the Philippines was also nominated. A former General in the army, Palparan had been responsible for the assassinations of dozens of local activists, and was finally arrested by the army this year.

A delegation of syndicalists fighting for workers’ rights in the Philippines were nominated, as was the eventual ‘winner’, Huber Ballesteros from Colombia, a union leader who was one of hundreds imprisoned after a general strike in 2013.

But of course, human rights solidarity is not about promoting individual causes above others, and as we wound our way through the streets of Brussels, torches held aloft, we chanted in solidarity with tho

se whose banners were held up that night, as well as all those who fight against, and are affected by, human rights abuses across the world.

[limainbrussels]

TTIP BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR JUNCKER

or, why we oppose TTIP

Today, on the 9th of December, the fourth day of our Lima in Brussels gathering, we showed our solidarity with the coalition Stop TTIP CETA and TISA and the Federation of Young European Greens by taking our banners, spirits and vocal cords and getting together in front of the European Commission main building. Our objective was to show our immense discontent with the secretly prepared TTIP trade agreement between the EU and the USA that the European Commission is negotiating under Jean-Claude Juncker’s leadership.  More than 1 100 000 people have already signed the self-organized European Citizens Initiative against TTIP, which means that it is time that the Commission took our voices seriously!

So, what is actually wrong with the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)? Mainly this: TTIP would introduce a parallel judicial system, unchecked by democratic institutions. This would allow big businesses to sue governments over changes in national laws that put people and planet first, but may dent corporate profits. What is at stake? Literally every piece of future legislation that would limit corporate profit in the name of any other interest. This would open the door to a storm of corporate lawsuits, possibly demolishing every single piece of labour-legislations, social security measures, and, last but not least, environmental safeguards. In other words – want to put a tax on carbon emissions? Subsidize community renewable energy? Ban fossil-fuel companies from drilling? Forget all that – you would have to expect lawsuits piling up, demanding fat compensations. TTIP would seriously limit the power of democratic institutions to prevent corporate destruction of standards that protect social and environmental wellbeing – or at least those that we still have left.

Surprising? Not at all. It is precisely these corporations, which have the secret negotiations in their hands, just as they unfairly and excessively curb the climate talks in Lima for their interest. That is why we had to say clearly: it is high time we put a check on corporate power, both in Brussels – and Lima. Get the FF out!

Photo credit: @eci_TTIP

So that is why around 100 people – including us – gathered to bash Mr. Juncker’s 6oth birthday party with a very special gift: over one million people’s voices chanting: “TTIP, NOT FOR ME!”. We need more ambitious climate action and real solutions to climate change –not even more concessions to dirty corporations! Unfortunately, Jean-Claude did not arrive to receive his present, but we sang the following birthday song (hopefully) loud enough for him to hear us to hear us:

Happy birthday to you x2 Happy birthday president Juncker Happy birthday to you

After two months only Juncker listen carefully We gathered a million Voices te – e – lling you:

We don’t want TTIP

We don’t want  CETA

And the movement is growing

Come out, see what we are showing

Feel free to share your own birthday wishes to Mr. Juncker with us!

[limainbrussels]

Bund Jugend here in full force!

[limainbrussels]

Fossil fuels have no business in climate talks!

[limainbrussels]

ACTION in front of the EU commission, we stand with the Philippines! We demand more than sympathy, we want ambitious climate action from the EU NOW!

_______________________

A year ago, in Warsaw, on the first day of COP19, we mobilised for the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan had killed thousands of people, bringing Philippino negotiator Yeb Saño to tears in the plenary hall of the UN climate talks. "How many more?" our signs read.

A year before in Brussels, during the Doha talks, we had organised 3 actions following typhoon Bopha, one of the strongest to have ever hit the country . 

This year, as the Lima climate talks opened, history repeated itself for the third time: the world witnessed the formation of yet another super-typhoon in the Pacific ocean, typhoon Hagupit, the strongest of 2014, displacing more than 500 000 people. It is striking to notice how these events develop in parallel. Striking to compare the catastrophic and deathly first effects of climate change, with the ineffective and unjust political measures negotiated in the climate talks. As European youth, we are most unnerved by the new EU climate package, which proposes a mere 40% emissions reduction by 2030. The EU has already achieved its 2020 objective of 20%, and it refuses to do significantly more, turning its back on what science and equity demand: an 80% reduction. The climate crisis is spinning out of control. Nature is sending us multiple and timely warnings. Why aren't we raising our targets and ambition? How many more deaths and tragedies must the people suffer before real ambition is to be shown from the Global North, historically responsible in the climate crisis?

We stand in solidarity with the people of the Philippines. More than sympathiy, we need real solidarity, climate justice now!