CIVICUS

FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The crossroads at Bali -- Choosing our destiny

Release Date: 28 November 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear e-CIVICUS Subscriber,

For the last two months, The Road to Bali, e-CIVICUS ´ weekly section on climate change, has aimed to raise awareness and encourage citizens and civil society to mobilise for action to influence world leaders meeting at Bali during the 2007 Annual Meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 3-14 December.

Through a diversity of commentary generously contributed by civil society (special thanks to WWF, the global environmental conservation organisation wwf.org and Earth Charter Initiative www.earthcharter.org for their editorial support) and a careful selection of civil society links and news items, The Road to Bali has hopefully helped us understand better the challenges of climate change and, most significantly, how the adverse consequences of climate change fall disproportionately on our most vulnerable communities in developing and less developed countries, including indigenous peoples as well as pockets of poverty and destitution within the borders of some highly developed countries.

It is a tragic irony that communities that have derived little or no benefit from market globalisation and have contributed the least, if anything, to climate change (and are least prepared to adapt to its consequences) are the ones who stand to suffer the most.

The Road to Bali reaches its destination today, five days before the Bali meeting, with a special edition of e-CIVICUS where the voices of diverse civil society organisations reflect on the urgent concerns and legitimate expectations and demands of their constituencies: What are citizens justified to expect and have a right to demand from world leaders meeting in Bali ?

The world’s wealthy nations bear a life-or-death responsibility to help developing and less developed countries adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change, to transfer or grant access to environmentally sound technologies and otherwise assist in their sustainable development, most immediately by ensuring the full implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.

We hope that The Road to Bali and this e-CIVICUS special edition on climate change might have served the good purpose of contributing to enlightening our understanding of climate change and its likely consequences and moving us in solidarity into action in Bali for our own survival and that of our future generations, particularly the poor and more vulnerable among us, as well as countless other animal and plant species.

May this be the turning point where all nations and all peoples come together to allow life once again to flourish on Planet Earth, unimpeded by misguided notions of economic growth at any cost.

In solidarity,

Kumi Naidoo

To send you comments, suggestions or contributions of articles, e-mail editor@civicus.org.

Below you will find all previous columns published.

• 16 Days of nActivism against Gender Violence

• Civil society under siege in Pakistan

• Aid must be more effective...and more accountable too

• Participation will be the focus of the 8th CIVICUS World Assembly

• Islam: The New Fascism?

• Standing Up for the People of Burma

• Closing the gap between volunteering and social activism

• A poor climate makes for poor people

• It starts with you: become a volunteer GCAP organiser and Stand Up and Speak Out Against Poverty and Inequality

• Enforced disappearance threaten us all

• We must plug the leaks: Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness

• October 17: Stand up with millions united as one

• Should the voting age be reduced to sixteen? International Youth Day: a time for reflection

• CIVICUS partners continue to languish in jail