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A view from the United Nations
February 2008
Climate
Justice: Fighting climate adaptation apartheid
By Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS´ UN Representative
Release Date: 28 February 2008 - e-CIVICUS 377
Sustainable development and climate change are one and the same challenge, and we cannot solve one without solving the other. This basic principle received wide recognition during the recent UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on
climate change (
This is something that many of us in civil society have known for some time now, particularly those who live and work in climate vulnerable communities, amid the poverty, suffering and desperation of large swaths of the population in many developing countries. They know that poverty is
exacerbated by higher food prices due to drought, desertification, flooding or lack of water, and they realize that sustainable development, and most immediately, the Millennium Development Goals, offer the only hope to break out of this vicious cycle. It’s
a good thing that governments at the UN have finally reached a consensus on this.
The world is one and we are all connected. No one individual, group or nation exists in a vacuum. Actions in one part of the world produce consequences in another. Destroy our ecosystem in one place, and we are destroying ourselves everywhere.
Poverty, underdevelopment and climate change are global challenges that are intrinsically connected. And they all share a common root, too: the unsustainable and profligate ways in which economic growth and wealth accumulation have been pursued in the developed countries since the time of the
industrial revolution.
It bears remembering that the developed countries became so through unrestricted access to natural and human resources from faraway lands. The industrial revolution set in motion an unsustainable economic system leading to the present climate change predicament. In addition, unregulated
market globalisation, a product of the prevailing economic system, has served to concentrate huge wealth in the hands of a tiny economic elite in both developed and developing countries. Income and net worth disparities have reached obscene levels while poverty, inequality and exclusion remain
rampant. Unable to reach even the first step on the ladder to development, billions struggle to survive without the most basic necessities. Women and children are hit the worst.
It is a grotesque irony that these women and children are also the ones who stand to bear the brunt of extreme climate change impacts in the years ahead. Poor people from vulnerable communities in developing and less
developed countries (and in pockets of poverty and exclusion in some developed countries) stand to suffer the most from already unavoidable climate change impacts even though they have contributed little, if anything, to the problem. They are also the
least prepared to do something about it.
We are not necessarily talking “reparations” here, the idea that colonial powers must pay their former colonies for historical abuses. But rich countries do have an ethical as well as a legal obligation to support generously the developing and LDC countries in their quest for sustainable
development and their efforts to adapt to the unavoidable adverse effects of climate change, by providing these communities and countries with development aid and adaptation assistance, and the clean energy technologies necessary to ensure that development in poor countries goes forward and remains
sustainable. (See UNFCCC Art 4, and particularly Section 4.4 at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf).
Unfortunately, large numbers of citizens around the world either remain unaware of the potential for loss and suffering that climate change impacts can
thrust upon their families and communities, or feel impotent about taking effective action. In many poor areas of developing countries, possible climate change impacts are hardly the main priority. When your own life and that of your children may depend on whether you find access to food and water
today, the words “climate change” don’t have that much meaning. At most, climate change may sound vaguely like something some governments are said to be concerned about, particularly in the North.
And yet, in the next few decades it will be essential to these communities’ very survival that they become aware of the gravity of the situation -- of
how, for example, food scarcity and lack of water are intimately related to climate change; and beyond that, it will be necessary that these communities organise themselves for effective action both in terms of joint adaptation efforts and efforts to
ensure that they are treated with justice and equity in international climate negotiations; and that they have access to the financial, technological, and both adaptation and development assistance to which they are entitled.
These vulnerable communities are paramount in our hearts and minds. In solidarity, the larger civil society is increasingly engaging, at all levels and in
diverse partnerships and collaborations, aiming to help improve the capacity of these communities for adaptation to climate change. Civil society organisations that focus on sustainable development, the environment or climate change, trade, etc. -- and of
course the scientific community -- are doing their equally important part by contributing their expertise, knowledge and latest findings. Many civil society organisations also engage in climate change advocacy, and their goal is to ensure Justice and Equity in the way climate-related
issues and, most of all, adaptation issues, are dealt with in UN Climate Change negotiations, which are just starting under the
At the forthcoming 2008 CIVICUS
We all have something of value to offer, and we must all come together in solidarity for effective civil society action on climate change calculated to
benefit all of Humanity and particularly the most vulnerable among us.
In solidarity,
Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS´ UN Representative
Please send your comments to CIVICUSUN@aol.com or editor@civicus.org
Below you will find all previous columns of Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS UN Representative (New York):Taking into account the full range of consequences --UN DPI/NGO Conference calls to action on Climate Change
• Taking into account the full range of consequences --UN
DPI/NGO COnference calls to action on Climate Change
• NGO Accountability: One size does not fit all
• Global Challenges call for Globalising Democracy
• October 24, UN Day-Cause for celebration; reasons for concern
• Digital Divide or Digital Solidarity: Bridging the gap between the information-rich and the information-starved
• The UN: Limping along
• The last thing the world needs: Dismantling the UN
• The world needs a more democratic United Nations
• UN Management Reform hits a nerve: roadblock or power grab?
• A UN Secretary-General for “We the Peoples”: Civil society calls for a more democratic selection process
• Charting new ways of participation: Is it time for a Parliamentary Assembly at the UN?
• Changing the tone: General Assembly President Jan Eliasson reaches out to Civil Society
• Changing the tone: General Assembly President Jan Eliasson reaches out to Civil Society
• Argentina: Thriving without the IMF
• The Big Letdown: UN Summit shortchanges the poor
• The World Summit : UN Reform will mean little unless poverty eradication tops the agenda
• Millions roar but the G8 whispers - Let the Millennium+5 Summit make up the difference
• “Global Justice - Northern citizens have a special responsibility to make it happen”
• Letting the United Nations be all that it can
• “Appointment with History: The world looks up to John Bolton to help achieve the MDGs”
• “We are rolling!: Civil society’s call for poverty eradication impacts the World Economic Forum and the Group of Seven”
• No more excuses!: The Tsunami must not be allowed to wash away the Millennium Development Goals
• A Call To Action 2005: Global Civil Society mobilizes to demand an end to poverty and the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals
• TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: Should civil society and the Global Compact live under the same UN roof?
• The UN Global Compact: A big red herring disguised in UN blue?
• Happening now: A global revolution of consciousness
• Lasting security for all: Shifting from state security to security of the people
• The UN – Permanently relevant or temporarily relevant?