Bolivian President Evo Morales on Climate Debt, Capitalism, Why He Wants a Tribunal For Climate Justice

Media briefing: For immediate release Thursday 17 December Contacts: Press officer Kate Blagojevic +44 7711 875345 Policy officer Tim Jones inside the Bella Centre +44 7817 628196

Bullying and bribery in Copenhagen are wrecking the climate

Before COP13 in Bali in 2007, World Development Movement warned there is a danger climate change negotiations would become like trade negotiations (see Table on page 4). Unfortunately in Copenhagen this has become true. Rich countries have had an aggressive strategy to maintain their dominance in the world economy. They have used the same arguments and tactics as have been witnessed in the stalled Doha round of trade negotiations for the last eight years.

World Development Movement Policy Officer Tim Jones said: "It is scandalous that developing countries are being told that international aid and finance to cope with the impacts of climate change is dependent on cooperation at these talks. The bullying and bribery tactics being employed right now by rich countries to force through a bad deal are incredibly and deeply immoral.

"These talks are being darkened by rich countries trying to save face, but not the climate. Rich countries have caused this problem and now they are trying to blame developing countries for stalling the talks because they are standing up to these insulting and outrageous bribes. The very survival of some of these countries depends on the outcomes of these talks but rich countries can not see beyond the survival of business as usual."

Rich countries have sought to use the high profile nature of Copenhagen, and consequent pressure for a deal, to push through an unfair and unjust agreement. The most likely outcome is stalled climate negotiations, threatening just and effective solutions to the climate crisis.

Bullying and bribery

Knowing that the deal they want is a bad one for the global south, rich countries have resorted to bullying and bribery in an attempt to get their way. But negotiators are no strangers to this, having suffered the same for many years in the WTO. So far developing countries have resisted succumbing to the pressure they have been put under.

1) Controlling the process

The Danish government has been working on a separate agreement independent of the UN process, to suddenly be pushed on heads of government at the end of the Conference. One version of this was leaked in the first week. Prime Minister Rasmussen tried to push a second version on 16 December. A group of developed countries has been formed, chaired by Gordon Brown, to help write the political statement for 18 December.

Developing countries have collectively resisted this imposition of an unjust deal. It is the attempted imposition of an agreement by Denmark acting on behalf of rich countries which has caused the continued stalling of negotiations.

2) Offering bribes

Rich countries have sought to get bad long term agreements signed with offers of short term money now. Lesotho, head of the Least Developed Countries, has been told decisions on extension of $7 million in aid will be decided this week depending on its cooperation.

Palau has been told negotiations on a funding package with the US will be decided soon, so it should support the US’s emission reduction target.

For the last two weeks, rich countries have been pushing their $10 billion in short-term finance. This money is being channelled through the World Bank, and so the Bank’s paymasters in rich countries can choose which countries will receive the money. Over recent months, the UK told Bolivia its eligibility for funding could be determined by its cooperation. The UK has told Bangladesh it will only get money for adaptation if the South Asian country agrees to the finance going through the World Bank.

3) Misleading the media

Rich countries have used their greater access to the media to spin the stalling of negotiations as being due to developing countries raising pointless concerns over the process. UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband was reported as saying on 16 December that: "Things are getting held up by procedural wrangling. People can kill this agreement with process arguments. It will be tragedy if we cannot reach an agreement on substance, but it will be a farce if we cannot agree on process."

This is intentionally meant to mislead. The deadlock in the talks has entirely been because of substance. The lack of any serious commitments to reduce emissions by rich countries is what has stalled talks.

4) Pick countries off one-by-one

Most of the negotiations have been happening in small or one-on-one meetings behind closed doors. Collectively developing countries have been able to resist the unjust demands of rich countries. Therefore rich countries have tried to resort to splitting them in one-on-one negotiations.

On 15 December, Nicholas Sarkozy struck a bilateral deal with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, endorsing the EU’s unjust deal. The French government then presented Ethiopia as speaking for Africa. This was entirely misleading. Africa has maintained its position that the EU should cut emissions by at least 45 per cent by 2020, that $400 billion is needed in short term financing, and that the increase in global temperatures must not go over 1.5°C.

Delegates from across Africa were surprised that the Ethiopia-France position was being presented as representing Africa, including Senegal, Burkina Faso and Eritrea. Mauritania was so surprised they assumed it was not the real French website.

The UK and EU have invented a new group of countries, “the most vulnerable”, which would be most eligible to receive climate finance. Who is in and out of the group would be chosen by rich country donors.

5) Build up the pressure for a deal

In his speech to the conference on 17 December, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said: “Let me tell my African friends, you will be first to suffer if we do not reach a deal.” Rich countries are now using the pressure to get a deal to push through a bad deal. With the arrival of heads of government, the focus has become entirely on whether or not there will be a deal, rather than what a deal consists of.

Heads of government from rich countries continually assert their willingness to reach a deal. But it is a deal on their terms which would destroy justice and wreck the climate.

Table. Similarities between climate and trade negotiations[3]

PLEASE NOTE: This is a confidential doc that has been leaked, with the Annex 1 countries’ pledges…when added up they amount to 550ppm and a 3 degree temp rise.

A link to the scanned document: http://live.tcktcktck.org/wp-content/uploads/leaked-secritariat-doc-degrees.pdf

Confidential Very Imintial Draft Draft, 15/12/09

Priliminary assessment of pledges made by Annex I Parties and voluntary actions and policy goals announced by a number of the non-Annex I Parties

story on www.mediapart.fr

Climate summit closed to civil society, but remains open to big business
By Belen Balanya

Yesterday hundreds of activists were beaten and arrested in the streets of Copenhagen and Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth and other NGOs were banned from the Bella Center, where the UN negotiations take place. But this morning, representatives of big business were inside the Bella Center having a high-level breakfast with 10 ministers, an event jointly organised by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the UNFCCC. The WBCSD has 230 accredited delegates in Copenhagen.

The WBCSDs President Björn Stigson hosted todays breakfast with summit chair Yvo de Boer, and his message, according to the WBCSD, is a simple one: You (governments) will not tackle climate change without business at the table as an engaged, involved partner. Governments cannot deliver the targets which are being talked about without business.

Later in the morning the WBCSD co-organised another event in the Bella Center to discuss Private Sector and the UNFCC: Options for Institutional Engagement. The event title is more than wishful thinking. Only a few weeks ago the EU awarded a contract to the WBCSD and consultancies Ecofys and Climate Focus to do a study that should define options for formal engagement of the private sector within the UNFCCC process.

The EU has also been promoting this initiative during the summit. On 12 December, an event on Private Sector Engagement in the International Climate Change Policy Process took place in the EU pavilion in the Bella Center, co-organised by the Commission, DG Enterprise and the three groups contracted to do the study.

The WBCSDs privileged access today to the Bella Center and to high-level decision-makers and the fact that the EU is funding the WBCSD to make proposals for involving business even closer in international climate talks is outrageous and unacceptable. Since its foundation in 1992, the WBCSD has only been advocating industry self-regulation, a global carbon market and false solutions like nuclear energy, agrofuels, coal (CCS) and carbon credits from plantation forests.

The EUs and the UNs preferential treatment of the WBCSD are deeply flawed. Effective and just climate policies are only possible if governments keep a healthy distance from companies that have a direct economic interest in the decisions taken.

http://climatecrashers.blogspot.com/2009/12/climate-summit-closed-to-civil-society.html

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