STATEMENT
Finance for Socioeconomic and Climate Justice
Bangkok, September 28, 2009
We, the undersigned social organizations, movements and networks working towards climate and socioeconomic justice, gathered in Bagnkok for an International Strategy Meeting on Climate and Finance in parallel to the United Nations climate talks, call for:
- the recognition of the Global North´s historical responsibility and obligation to guarantee reparations for ecological debt, including climate debt, owed to the Global South;
- the creation of alternative funding mechanisms and flows that recognize the above and respect, protect and promote the sovereignty and rights of peoples and nature;
- an immediate end to any role for International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in climate financing, and other financial mechanisms and institutions that exacerbate and intensify climate change and increase ecological and other debts;
- rejection of market-based instruments which do not solve the climate crisis – but intead increase climate debt by allowing the North to offset its own greenhouse gas emissionss by transfering its emissions reduction obligations to the South.
Reparations Now!
We recognize that each human being has an equal right to ecological and climate space. Climate debt is a part of the larger ecological debt the Global North owes the Global South, accrued through centuries of theft of natural resources and the violation of human rights. Reparation of this ecological debt must include the complete restoration of territories and ecosystems, reconstruction of infrastructure critical to peoples well-being, recovery of social rights and recuperation of local agricultural systems in the Global South. Reparations must also include curtailing rampant consumption and making immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in the North. Reparations must be based on the self-determination of all peoples in order to guarantee that no new ecological debts are accrued.
Alternative Funding Mechanisms and Flows
Genuine reparations must come from public sources and be founded on the sovereignty of and respect for the rights of peoples and nature. These funds should not reinforce political and economic models that contribute to climate change. Instead, they must prioritize financial, food, and energy sovereignty, strengthen small-scale agriculture, women, indigenous populations, fisher communities, and the defense of peoples` rights to protect their forests and other resources. They must enable the transition to non-hydrocarbon-based, sustainable societies and be additional to the unconditional annulment of illegitimate debts imposed on countries of the South.
International Financial Institutions Out!
IFIs, such as the World Bank, regional, and national development banks – responsible for the current economic, financial, and climate crises – are using these crises to increase their lending and influence to maintain the status-quo. They continue to fuel the climate crisis by supporting extractive industries and other harmful industrial sectors. These institutions are selling market-based false solutions and pushing new loans on countries of the Global South to deal with a catastrophe they did not cause.
No more false solutions!
People and the planet are experiencing a systemic crisis due to the false logic of unlimited ¨growth¨ in an ecologically limited reality. Solutions to this crisis should overcome unsustainable and unjust forms of production and consumption and fundamentally transform economic systems. False solutions include carbon markets, offsetting, nuclear power, monoculture agrofuels and tree plantations, mega-infrastructure projects, and carbon capture and storage. False solutions perpetuate climate and social injustice and financial instability – they are unacceptable.
Within this context of urgency, we will continue to struggle and mobilize for socioeconomic and climate justice for all.
The struggle goes on.
IFIs and private corporations out of climate finance – reparations now!!
SIGNATORIES:
Acción Ecológica
Africa Jubilee South
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Philippines
AMA Kilusang Mangingisda, Philippines
Association pour la Taxation des Transactions Financieres et pour l’Aide au citoyans – Togo (ATTAC-TOGO)
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Philippines
Campagna par la Riforma della Banca Mondiale (CRBM), Italy
Comite Centroamericano de Cambio Climático
Coastal Women’s Movement, India
Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center, Kenya
Equity BD, Bangladesh
FASE
Focus on the Global South
Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines
Friends of the Earth International
General Federation of Nepalese Trade Union
Gitib Inc. Pilipinas
Global Forest Coalition
Himalaya Niti Abhiyan, India
IBON Foundation
Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), India
Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), Indonesia
International Federation of Hawker and Urban Poor
Jubilee South Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS APMDD)
Jubileo Sur
Just Environment USA
Kerala Independent Fish Workers Federation (KSMTF), India
Klimax Copenhagen, Denmark
Koalisi Anti Utang, Indonesia
Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod, Philippines
Korean Federation of Public Services and Transportation (ICPTU), Korea
Labor Party – Philippines
LDC Watch
LRC-KsK (FOE Philippines)
Monitoring Sustainability of Globalisation (MSN), Malaysia
National Forum or Forest People and Forest Workers, India
National Hawker Federation
National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), Malaysia
NGO Forum on the ADB
Oilwatch
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum
Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance – West Africa
PATTAK Philippines
Rede Brasil sobre Instituições Financeiras Multilaterais
River Basin Friends, India’s North East
Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), Nepal
SEAFISH for Justice Network
Sobrevivencia, Paraguay
Solidaritas Perempuan (SP), Indonesia
South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)
Sustainable Energy and Economy Network
Unidad Ecologica Salvadorena (UNES), El Salvador
Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment (VOICE), Bangladesh
Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia/Indonesian Forum for Environment (WALHI), Indonesia
praxis makes perfect 
[…] more than 50 social movements, trade unions, environmental groups and NGOs from 17 countries issued a statement at the United Nations in Bangkok, where UNFCCC climate negotiations move into their fifth […]
[…] more than 50 social movements, trade unions, environmental groups and NGOs from 17 countries issued a statement at the United Nations in Bangkok, where UNFCCC climate negotiations move into their fifth […]
[…] more than 50 social movements, trade unions, environmental groups and NGOs from 17 countries issued a statement at the United Nations in Bangkok, where UNFCCC climate negotiations move into their fifth […]
The “North” is going bankrupt. There is no way that they will be able to pay, except in misery, for all the damage that has been done and that will be done if post-peak oil, climate change, peace, and equity issues are not addressed and committed to (i.e. amends are made, inculcated, and carried forward from here on out).
I am posting two brief essays as suggestion for action. The first is of a political nature, but it is fundamentally economic. The second is an environmental strategy that the world, but most particularly the most guilty, the United States needs to commit to and begin implementing immediately.
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I. Militaristic Capitalism or Cooperative Socialist Unity?
I choose socialism, an economic democracy.
We have turned the corner during the week of September 20, 2009. The “Financial Fools” of the dying Capitalist economy met in Pittsburgh to trivialize and tread water before going under. Meanwhile, the emerging socialist economies met in Venezuela and formed a Latin American Bolivarian/Union of African States socialist economic coalition and announced the formation of an alternative “fair trade” Equity Union which will grow as the Maoist tradition being championed by Chavez spreads to the OPEC Nations and the Peoples Republic of China and to a world unity and cooperation majority that favors peace, meeting the needs of the workers and the poor, inclusion, humanity, equity, rational planning, ecological economic democracy, village/neighborhood sovereignty, inter-community and inter-regional unity and cooperation, quality of life, environmental/public health and wellness, and sustainability.
Concurrently, the militaristic political sham of the UN Security Council was being sufficiently challenged.
There exists a terrible, terrible, opportunity cost relative to the militaristic ways of Capitalist Empire (primarily the USA), the resisting and/or non-subservient nations and popular movements, the patient, but burdened, Communist State (Peoples’ Republic of China) and the need to dedicate and allocate resources for life needs (habitat improvement and sustainability) in the face of unprecedented resource constraints (particularly but not limited to the fossil fuel resource), population pressures, and the gap between “rich” and poor.
A legitimized UN General Assembly ( a “house of commons”) with a mission to foster and facilitate a cooperative communitarian, mutualist, socialist, peaceful world without divisive borders and banners needs to take center stage in our evolution, in our governance, our transition to a libertarian economic democracy based on the principles previously enunciated.
Meanwhile, the Capitalist Empire must surrender and work out a cooperative economic transition strategy.
Much work is left to be done.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
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II. Post-Peak Oil, Climate Change and Green Jobs
PVs and Wind are somewhat of an illusion. Neither supplies the voltage and amperage needed to do the great majority of the electrical work that our society has grown accustomed to.
The key to a bountiful green building economy is the reversal of the thirty, fifty, one hundred year trend of sprawl development in the United States.
By rebuilding neighborhoods and reallocating goods and services to those renovated neighborhoods (made walkable, meaning that the great majority of Americans will be able to get what they need within walking distance of their homes), we can succeed.
Such a tremendous dedication of resources will be a boom to the building trades and will create the effect of reducing automobile usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years. Neighborhood commercial, community and work/telecommute centers will be centrally placed in what are now alienating, automobile dependent, strictly residential areas, alleviating the problems associated with post-peak oil and climate change and bringing with it the quality of life associated with communities and neighborhoods, that most individuals and families currently lack.
If we do this, we can take the opportunity to retrofit for weatherization, passive solar design (heating and cooling), electronic environmental controls, solar assisted hot water applications, limited PV and wind applications, etc.
Also, if done correctly, we can make changes in ownership arrangements that are much more fair and just, and work towards an equitable distribution of wealth among neighborhoods.
The environment is each and every individual and her/his relationship to their environment. The environment is not an issue. It is THE issue!
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
[…] is a statement from several NGO’s, non-profits, and other groups demanding justice on climate debt, produced […]
[…] more than 50 social movements, trade unions, environmental groups, and NGOs from 17 countries issued a statement at the United Nations in Bangkok, where UNFCCC climate negotiations move into their fifth […]
[…] more than 50 social movements, trade unions, environmental groups, and NGOs from 17 countries issued a statement at the United Nations in Bangkok, where UNFCCC climate negotiations move into their fifth […]
[…] Finance for Socioeconomic and Climate Justice Statement – Bangkok 28/09/2009 – https://joshuakahnrussell.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/finance-for-socioeconomic-and-climate-justice-stat… […]
[…] entity or nation to answer. The longer we wait in the United States to even pose the question of climate change reparations, however, the more the oil wells, pipelines, tailpipes and smokestacks will be uncontrollably […]