Campaigns : Action Against Climate Change
People’s World Conference on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth, Bolivia
23rd to 27th April 2010 | Cochabamba, Bolivia
Beyond Copenhagen collective participated in Conference on Climate Change and Rights of the Mother Earth organized at Cochabamba, Bolivia during 23rd to 27th April 2010. The Conference was called by Bolivian president Mr. Evo Morales, as a response to failed climate congress at Copenhagen in December 2009. Evo had said that developed countries will not be able to solve climate crisis and hoped that people from developing and less developed countries who are the worst victims of climate change should have a say in the negotiations. The climate congress came out with a peoples declaration demanding asking to limit the rise in temperature to 1.5DC, International Climate tribunal, severe cuts in GHG emission of developing countries, and financial and technological assistance to developing countries in their mitigation and adaptation efforts. More than 35000 people and official delegations from 70 countries participated in the climate congress as reported by the CMPCC (organizing committee) Bolivia.
A three member delegation Beyond Copenhagen Collective comprising of Sharad Joshi, Ajay K Jha and Soumya Dutta participated in the climate congress. The participation was extremely important in the view that there was almost no representation of Indian and Asian perspectives in the congress. Soumya Dutta participated in the opening ceremony chaired by the President Evo Morales, along with representatives of five continents, UNFCCC, UN, and the president of Venezuela. Mr. Soumya said that India has a very long tradition of respecting “earth as mother” and it was good that huge number of people from all parts of the world have converged to talk about Rights of Mother Earth. He also congratulated President Evo Morales for providing leadership and inspiration not only to people in Bolivia and Latin America but to the people all over the world as they would have a People’s Agenda in the Conference.
BCPH also organized a workshop on “Mainstreaming Agriculture in International Negotiation on Climate Change”. The collective believes that agriculture and forestry are the only solutions for climate change as well as food security in the developing countries, and developed countries have a duty to assist developing countries in agricultural adaptation through technology and finance. It also advocates including agriculture as the main pillar in climate change negotiations. The workshop witnessed participation of more than 70 people belonging to 38 nationalities.
The panelists in the workshop were Ajay K Jha, (Director Pairvi), Mr. Soumya Dutta (Bharat Jan Vigyan Jathha & SADED), Ms. Whitney Hoot (Brighetrgreen.org). Opening the discussion, Mr. Ajay K Jha traced the debate on agriculture in the climate change discourse and flagged issues related to agriculture and climate change in developing countries in Asia, Latin America and South Africa. He said that agriculture and especially small scale agriculture is the only solution to hunger underdevelopment and poverty in the poorest parts of the world and world leaders owe a duty to larger humanity to address the concerns arising out of climate change on agriculture and food security. He also shared how climate change, flawed policies and rising costs in agriculture has pauperized the peasants in India leading thousands of suicides. Mr. Soumya Dutta spoke on inequity in the proposals on table and how they can be addressed better by focusing on solutions that relate to the lives of greater proportion of human beings. He also emphasized that climate change negotiations are leveraged in favour of the developed countries who are determined to continue their consumerist lifestyle and the cost of poorest people living in the third world. Ms. Whitney Hoot shared her research conducted on the growth of poultry and meat production in India. She focused on climate impacts of the meat production, animal welfare issues surrounding factory farming and invasion of MNCs like KFC, Mc Donald etc. in the developing world.
Half of the time of the two hour panel discussion was devoted to interaction with the participants. The participants also shared the state of agriculture, food security and climate change in their respective countries. A lively discussion was generated around the issues of corporatization of agriculture in India, impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security and water, influence of globalization on dietary practices, lives and culture in developing countries etc. the key message of the workshop was to ensure small subsistence family farming from impacts of climate change, and creating a consciousness and political structures of support local farming. In the context of climate change negotiations, participants felt that it was important to share experiences from developing countries with the global leaders and impress upon them to prioritize agriculture and food security, technical and financial help to developing countries to cope up with the impacts of climate change. Mr. Sharad Joshi (Secretary, CECOEDECON, India) delivered the vote of thanks to the participants.
Besides, the Collective participated in a number of side events organized by partner organizations, and working group discussions to emphasize centrality of agriculture in the climate change discourse. The Collective also spoke to local and international media and conveyed its message. The Collective also spoke to local and international media and conveyed its message. Because of efforts of many similar organizations and networks, Peoples Declaration on Climate Change has laid a welcome emphasis on climate change, agriculture and food security and has demanded immediate redressal of major issues including technological and financial assistance from developed countries.
The Beyond Copenhagen collective was formed just before the Copenhagen COP15 Meeting. Individual members and networks have been following the climate change conference since a long time. Please follow our blog http://beyondcph.blogspot.com.
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