« GLBT Orgs Demand Retraction of Morales’ Comments | Home | Family Murdered in the Altiplano »

PWCCC Accord Strikes Decidedly Different Tone

Posted: Nate on Apr 27 | Environment, International

The World People´s Conference on Climate Change, which concluded on Thursday in Cochabamba, Bolivia, drew over 35,000 attendees from over 100 countries to the University of the Valley. After three days of working group debates, independently organized panels, and political speeches, a concluding “Peoples Agreement” was published summarizing the themes of the summit and calling for further international cooperation on climate change. The agreement criticizes the Copenhagen Accord for setting the limit of global warming at 2º C, an increase of which would put many developing countries in peril. At an increase of 2º C says the agreement, the rate of melting in the alpine glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas would increase dramatically, already suffering African nations would experience severe droughts, and small island nations would literally disappear beneath the oceans. The Peoples Agreement accuses the Copenhagen Accord, which was largely drafted by developed nations, of sacrificing third world lives for short-term economic gains.

The agreement also strongly criticizes the capitalist economic system, pointing to capitalism as the root cause of climate change. In a pointed departure from the scientific and detached tone of the Copenhagen Accord and previous climate change agreements, the People´s Agreement emphasizes a more emotional connection with the issue, calling for “harmony and balance among all and with all things” and putting “people in harmony with nature.” The agreement asks developed countries to commit to “ambitious targets for reducing emissions” and places the blame for global warming on developed countries and their unchecked process of industrialization since the 19th century. According to the agreement, developed nations owe a substantial “climate debt” to the world, not only in the form of financial compensation but also in “restorative justice, understood as the restitution of integrity to our Mother Earth.” The People´s Agreement also calls for the establishment of an International Climate Court in which countries violating climate accords could be tried. The agreement acknowledges that the United States was the only Annex 1 country, defined as rich, developed nations, which refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol and asks the US to ratify the protocol at the Cancún Summit later this year.

The agreement, the summarizing document of the four-day summit, issues a direct challenge to the kind of top-down global climate legislation that has prevailed in the past. Ironically, neither the event or agreement received extensive media attention in North America or Europe. Several blogs and news agencies mentioned the climate conference but news of the final agreement and the content of the conference failed to reach large American or European audiences. The one story from the conference which did attract the attention of the international media, Bolivian president Evo Morales´ comment on the relationship between hormone use in commercial chicken farms and male baldness and homosexuality, did little more than make a mockery of the actual work of the summit, complained many atendees and observers.

Overall, many commentators have questioned whether the conference will produce the concrete, governmental responses that many attendees wanted, but the bringing together of over 35,000 concerned world citizens and organizations and their sharing of ideas is expected to help foster future discussion and analysis of the climate crisis. As world leaders and the world community prepare for the Cancún Summit later this year, leaders and activists hope that the citizens and leaders in developed nations will take note of this outcry from the peoples most affected by climate change and its effects. Whether the developed nations are willing to make the necessary changes to respond to this impending global crisis remains to be seen.

For more in English see:

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/23/bolivia-climate-summit-en_n_549485.html