Fossil fuel industry lobbyists have no place at a climate
conference, charged activists who on Monday shut down a "greenwashed"
fossil fuel industry panel at the United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru. Activists
from indigenous communities in Colombia, Peru, Canada and other communities
affected by fossil fuel development spoke about the environmental and human
rights violations frequently perpetrated by fossil fuel companies. The lobbyist's evidence is typically used as a weapon—mangled and used selectively in order to claim that it supports a predetermined position. That is policy-based evidence, not evidence-based policy.
"We’d be outraged if we thought the tobacco industry
was dictating our government’s policy on public health, but that’s exactly
what’s happening with climate policy," protested Pascoe Sabido of the
Corporate Europe Observatory. "Without tackling the influence of the
fossil fuel industry, we’re never going to stop dangerous climate change,"
Sabido added. "That means banning fossil fuel lobbying at all levels, not
just in the UN talks, by which time it’s often too late to make a
difference."
"Shell has left the Niger Delta an environmental
disaster area, a crime scene that is tantamount to ecocide, and crimes against
humanity," complained Godwin Uyi
Ojo, Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth
Nigeria. "They have no place in Nigeria, or in the climate negotiations,
and there is no place for dirty energy in a sustainable energy future."
These negotiations take place against a devastating backdrop
of Typhoon Hagupit, a so-called 'extreme weather event', something that climate
scientists have been warning us about if we don't take urgent action. Tragically,
we are not taking urgent action. Nature does not negotiate, it responds to our
intransigence. For sure typhoons have been occurring long before climate change
due to humans but not as big and not as often as now. The climate trends moving
towards more extreme events with more frequency. For the people of the Philippines, and in many
other parts of the world, climate change is already a catastrophe. Climate
change is not a future threat to be negotiated but a clear and present danger
that requires urgent action now. Each year, the people of the world learn the
hard way what inaction on emissions mean yet these climate meetings seem to continue
in a vacuum, not prepared to take meaningful action, not able to respond to the
urgency of our time and not holding accountable the cause of the pollution –
capitalism.
Saleemul Huq, from Bangladesh, senior fellow in the Climate
Change Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development and
a lead negotiator for the group of Least Developed Countries told a fringe meeting at the UN climate change conference in Lima, Peru, that South Asia
countries face a range of climate-related events. “Countries in the region must
co-ordinate climate action to cope with adverse climate impacts, such as flash
floods, forest fires, cyclones, migration and sea-level rise.” said Huq,. The
South Asia region is home to more than one-fifth of the globe’s population, but
is also regarded as one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, Huq
told delegates. “Extreme weather events are also forecast across the region”
said Huq. In turn, Huq said, this will negatively impact on crop yields
throughout the region, as already crops in many areas are already being grown
at close to their temperature tolerance threshold.
Co-operation between the region’s countries on climate
change is minimal. Pakistan and India, for example, remain deeply suspicious of
each other, and data on such key issues as river flows and erosion rates are
classified as state secrets. China and India are competing for water resources,
and large-scale dam building programmes in both countries are creating
environmental tensions in the region. Less powerful countries in the area—such
as Bangladesh and Nepal—are squeezed between the competing interests of their
powerful neighbours.
The starting point for any understanding of the environment
is the awareness that all is interconnected. This includes human social,
political, and economic conditions. Yet look at the way too many environmentalists
have everything neatly compartmentalized. Some say that if we all go vegan that
is the answer. Some say we need to ride bikes. Some say that we should worry
about storms. Some say that if all farming were converted to organic, that
would solve the problems. Others blame cow farts, others see nuclear power as
the greatest threat. Buy very few have a coherent and comprehensive framework,
very few can see beyond the paradigm of personal individual lifestyle choices,
very few can integrate politics with environmentalism, very few are willing to
challenge the social, political and economic system. They are going to make a
few personal lifestyle changes, and tell others that they should to. They are
going to try to shop their way to saving the environment. They are going to
recommend reforms and regulations of one sort or another. All of that is held
within the context of the existing social, political and economic arrangements.
No one would ever believe that any of those strategies could possibly work if
they had a full understanding of the scope of the crisis. This fragmentation,
this obsession with the personal and the individual, this ‘understating’ of the
crisis, all happen to be expressions of alienation and estrangement and
alienation and estrangement just happen to be prime features of a particular
system - the social, political and economic arrangements dictated by capitalism.
The rich are going to carry on getting richer. The
politicians are going to continue to sell themselves to the highest bidder.
Change is not going to come willingly, it's going to be forced upon them by the
people
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