CIVICUS

FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

A poor climate makes for poor people
Introducing an e-CIVICUS special edition on climate change

Release Date: 26 September 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear active citizens,

On 24 September, members of the United Nations gathered in New York for a special meeting on climate change. They were invited, if not urged, by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to reach real answers to climate change. Whether momentum is needed is no longer in question. Early in 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body connecting over 2500 scientists from all over the world, announced that climate change is irrefutable. The fact that climate change is man made, as the IPCC stated in its report, is a certainty of 90%. Some may say that a 90% certainty is still a far cry from 100%. They’d be reminded that the odds of dying in a car crash are significantly lower, yet most if not all countries have made it legally mandatory to wear seatbelts when driving a car.

What exactly do these severe climate change forecasts mean for us? The IPPC report says the global climate is likely to warm 3.5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit if carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere reach twice the levels of 1750, before the Industrial Revolution. Many energy and environment experts see such a doubling, or worse, as a foregone conclusion after 2050 unless there is a prompt and sustained shift away from the 20th-century pattern of unfettered burning of coal and oil, the main sources of carbon dioxide, and an aggressive expansion of non-polluting sources of energy. But even that may not be enough as estimates state a 1-in-10 chance of much greater warming than the 3.5 to 8 degrees, a risk that many experts say is far too high to ignore. Let’s be honest; if there was a +10% chance of your house burning down, would you let your children sleep there?

The cruel truth is that those who will suffer most from climate change are those who have done the least to cause it. Poorest countries suffer most and foremost, and are already suffering. As spokesperson of the Global Call for Action against Poverty, I have often stressed that if one Millennium Development Goal ( MDG ) is not achieved, none of them has been achieved. In that regard, I would like once more to underscore MDG seven, to ensure environmental sustainability. The poor depend most directly on natural resources so, without environmental sustainability, many will get even poorer and pushed further into hunger and poverty. There really is no way to address poverty without addressing climate change. Already pastoralists in Eastern Africa are facing the consequences. According to Christian Aid, the wealthiest pastoralists are now living in the same way as the poorest. They have nothing to share between them – no milk and no cows.

But the reverse holds true as well: we cannot address climate change without addressing poverty. Many technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions are high tech, expensive solutions. The same goes for devices that are more energy efficient. So not only should the biggest polluters make the biggest efforts to cut emissions drastically, they must also provide sufficient financing for poor countries to adapt to climate change as well as develop renewable energy technologies that provide for those countries’ development needs, and allow them to leapfrog the dirty development path that high income countries have taken.

Still, it would be too easy and too irresponsible to let newly developing countries off the hook entirely. While they may not be the historical polluters, they do have the knowledge and some cheaper technical means to make different choices compared with the choices made for instance in the US in the eighties. Take my country, South Africa . Here the government is moving towards a decision to build one or more nuclear power plants while at the same time intensifying the use of charcoal for energy. This while South Africa is one of the sunniest countries in the world and is surrounded by wild oceans. On top of that, at the South African Wits University, a breakthrough was established recently in the field of solar energy: panels that are half as expensive and create double the amount of energy. So why doesn’t the South African government invest more in renewable resources like solar and sea energy rather than in nuclear power plants and charcoal?

The above questions need to be answered in a fair and globally agreed fashion to make headway with a new climate treaty. On the beautiful Indonesian island of Bali from December 3-14, countries will meet to negotiate what is to be the successor of the Kyoto treaty which expires in 2012. Then and there, the world’s leaders will have the opportunity to turn the decisive corner on pollution and reckless consumption of non-renewable resources. This time, contrary to the Kyoto agreement, all countries should agree to an all-encompassing treaty that does effectively address climate change or, in twenty or so years from now, Bali may not be there anymore.

To get the world’s leaders to engage progressively, we as citizens of the world must tell our leaders that we will not accept any other result than a comprehensive treaty. To support such citizen participation, CIVICUS has engaged the Earth Charter International and WWF, the global environmental organisation, to help us gather, produce and disseminate information through e-CIVICUS . This week’s special edition on climate change heralds the launch of a new section in e-CIVICUS on climate change called “The road to Bali ”. In this section we will provide you with essential background information and involve you in the actions of citizens all over the world gathering momentum for a new treaty. We will provide a diverse array of information and we will showcase articles from all over the planet. Needless to say, we do not necessarily agree with all the views and perspectives that are communicated in e-CIVICUS , nor do WWF or Earth Charter International for that matter. As you have come to know e-CIVICUS , this newsletter does not attempt to impose our views on you, it merely aims to keep you updated with contemporary issues regarding civil society action.

The week before the Bali Summit, e-CIVICUS will provide active citizens with pivotal information to prepare for successful citizen participation at the Bali meeting. Given the importance of the Bali meeting I would like to invite all of you to engage with us in this historical opportunity to save our planet, our wildlife and ourselves in a fair and just way. One of the ways to do so is by engaging with activists like you from around the globe on www.onclimate.org. Or, if you have started to notice shifts in our climate and how these changes impact on the local environment, you could become a climate witness for WWF and leave your testimonies on the climate witness website. For more ways to take action, please click here to check out WWF’s suggestions for action.

Making global consumption patterns sustainable will be one of the key solutions to climate change, but individuals cannot do it alone. We also need to speak out and purposefully engage with our governments. We need unambiguously to express demands for urgent action from our leaders to tackle dangerous climate change now. For, by engaging globally, we can make sure that curbing climate change is not a lost cause, but a fact.

Warmest regards

Kumi Naidoo

Below you will find all previous columns published.

• 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

• If civil society organisations cannot change how governments can?

• Climate Change: How much longer can we ignore this catastrophe and how will climate change affect the work of civil society?

• Civil society engaging with inter-governmental organisations: is the feeling mutual?

• 07/07/07: Reflection on the mid-point of the Minimalist/Millennium Development Goals