Transcript The Yasuni-ITT Initiative. - Development Studies Association

The Yasuni-ITT Initiative.
Assessment of CDM and REDD in
Ecuador
Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms
• Understanding the ‘cost’ of climate change in economic terms
has been a main feature of integrating the science of climate
change with recommendations for action.
• Examples:
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The Stern Review (2007) frames climate change as the greatest market failure –
climate change will impede economic growth and the benefits of strong early
action outweigh the costs.
Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study. It relates the global
economic benefits of biodiversity, highlighting the costs of biodiversity loss and
ecosystem degradation. The study aims to make the ‘invisibility’ of the value of
biodiversity to the economy tangible by predicting the cost of biodiversity and
ecosystem damage at 18% of global economic output by 2050.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in
Ecuador.
• CDM - carbon trading avoids the most effective and obvious
solution: to leave fossil fuels in the ground.
• UK companies account for 26.7% of all CERs earned
through CDM. Involvement in 1183 projects worldwide,
means that they are at the centre of the global carbon
market
• UK funds seven out of the 16 CDM Projects in Ecuador
• Contradicted by increased emission production at home:
expansion of Heathrow Airport (expected to produce an
extra 180 million tonnes of CO2 per year, equal to 3.1% of
the UK’s over all carbon emissions)
REDD and REDD+
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation
• REDD is a set of proposals designed to use market incentives to
reduce GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,
creating a financial value for the carbon stored in these forests.
• REDD+. This goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and
includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of
forests and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks
• REDD is relevant to the Yasuní-ITT Initiative because the Amazon
accounts for one tenth of the total carbon stored in land ecosystems and because it is a mechanism being considered for a postKyoto Protocol climate regime that addresses the prevention of
potential carbon emissions, the protection of biodiversity and has
huge implications for forest dwelling peoples.
Criticisms of REDD
• GHG emissions need to be reduced as well as
stopping deforestation
• REDD is vulnerable to corruption:
1. Setting baseline levels
2. ‘Double counting’, and
3. There are strong financial motives for corruption
REDD Crit. cont…
• REDD also fails to address the main drivers of
deforestation
• Monoculture plantations
• Introduce non-native plants
• Provide enormous subsidies to the timber
industry, while not contributing to GHG
emission reduction
REDD in Ecuador: Impact on forest dwelling
peoples
• UNFCCC REDD policy is limited in its ability to
affect equitable and just outcomes for indigenous
people.
• Fails to recognise that forests are central to
numerous human and biological processes
• Market based approaches produce unequal
power relations between actors, as they are
founded in a system of governance that does not
give an official voice to non-state actors.
REDD and Ecuador
• REDD creates pressures to centralise forest
governance, undermining the social, ecological
and carbon benefits of traditional forest
management and the traditional livelihoods of
forest-dwelling people.
• Indigenous peoples in a weaker negotiating
position
• Undermines local autonomy and leads to
increased corporate governance of forests.
REDD and Indigenous groups in
Ecuador
• 2008, the Ministry of the Environment of
Ecuador started implementing the Socio
Bosque project as part of REDD.
• One of the obligations is to refrain from
activities that are fundamental to traditional
subsistence livelihoods and food sovereignty
Opposition to REDD from Indigenous
groups within Ecuador
• ECUARUNARI*: The ecosystems of the Andean and Amazonian forests
are a source of life and home to their communities. REDD transfers the
responsibilities of countries whose economic models have caused
climate change to the people who have traditionally cared for them.
• “REDD would mean a new colonialism in the North and the South,
linking to new financial mechanisms, more debt, land grabbing and
loss of rights of peoples and communities in the South, while the
consumption of fossil fuels by capitalism will continue to increase, with
responsibility for climate disasters”
*ECUARUNARI: The Confederation of Peoples of Kichwa Nationality. Spanish: Confederación de Pueblos de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del
Ecuador) is the organization of indigenous peoples of Kichwa nationality in the Ecuadorian central mountain region. Twelve ethnic
groups of the region - Natabuela, Otavalos, Karanki (Caranqui), Kayampi (Cayambi), Kitu Kara (Quitu), Panzaleo, Salasaca, Chibuleo,
Puruhá, Guranga, Kañari and Saraguros
Opposition to REDD from Indigenous
groups within Ecuador
• CONFENIAE* highlights the misrepresentation and the non-inclusion of
indigenous groups with regard to REDD and refuse to be represented
by any NGO without authorisation. They demand to be consulted
directly and will not negotiate without the consent of their grassroots
base, which is comprised of indigenous centres, communities,
associations, federations, organisations and nationalities.
• “We reject the negotiations on our forests, such as REDD projects,
because they try to take away our freedom to manage our resources
and also because they are not a real solution to climate change, on the
contrary, they only make it worse”
*CONFENIAE: The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Spanish: La
Confederación de las Nacionalidades Indígenas de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana. Representing nine indigenous
peoples present in the region - Quichua, Shuar, Achuar, Huaorani, Siona, Secoya, Shiwiar, Záparo, and
Cofán.
Evaluation
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Difficulties of applying a market value system onto ecological processes.
Fails to address the causes of deforestation
A universal shift in the consumption of fossil fuels needs to happen.
Attempts to address indigenous rights, biodiversity protection, and GHG
emission reductions in climate change mechanisms have been inadequate
The economic incentives in trading CERs demotes ethical and socially just
objectives, leaving programmes vulnerable to distortion.
There is a lack of inclusion and participation with parties and interests
outside these financial arrangements.
cheating and corruption attractive to polluting agents.
What is needed is a model of economic development that moves away
from tradable GHG emission reductions and toward a cessation of GHG
emission production.
Yasuní-ITT Initiative
Proposal:
It addresses THREE issues simultaneously:
Not to drill 846 million barrels of
crude oil under the Yasuní National
Park - 20% of Ecuador’s reserves.
Preserving it underground.
1. It is an innovative option for combating
global warming, by avoiding the production
of fossil fuels.
In exchange for:
Compensation of 50% of the
projected revenue from the
international community.
2. Protecting the biodiversity of Ecuador and
supporting the voluntary isolation of
indigenous cultures living within the Yasuní
National Park.
3. A move away from an oil dependent
economy and toward the use of renewable
energy sources, as part of a strategy aimed at
consolidating a new model of sustainable
human development in the country.
Yasuní-ITT Initiative
Outline of Yasuní-ITT Initiative
• The Multi-Donor Trust Fund Office
• The Yasuní-ITT Trust Fund will have two windows:
• The Capital Fund Window funds renewable energy projects (hydro,
geothermal, solar, wind and biomass).
• The Revenue Fund will fund conservation, reforestation, energy efficiency,
agro-forest management, social programmes, and research.
• The minimum capital compensation needs to be equal to half the sum
Ecuador would otherwise receive through the extraction of oil in the ITT
block
• The contributions to the Yasuní Fund must reach a minimum threshold of
US$ 100 million by the end of 2011.
Outline Cont…
• Ecuadorian Government will issue Yasuní Guarantee
Certificates (CGYs).
• Funds generated by the sale of CGYs will be invested into
renewable energy projects.
• They will fund Ecuador’s National Development Plan.
a) Preserving and preventing deforestation in 44 protected
areas
b) Research in science and technology
c) Investment in social development programmes
Alternative Development Model
• Preferable development model over Ecuador’s previous oil dependent
economic model - reverses the trend of oil as a ‘resource curse’
• It incorporates the objectives of CDM projects and REDD, with clear
objectives for social outcomes
• It avoids the devastating consequences of oil pollution
• Embodies a different relationship with natural recourses
• Can bring about a non-oil dependent economy.
• According to President Rafael Correa, it is a new development model that
embodies a value shift,
“[The project] would not only reduce global warming, which benefits the whole planet, but also
introduce a new economic logic for the 21st century, which assigns value to things other than
merchandise” (Correa, 2007).
Issues and Contradictions
• Still hooked to the Carbon Market
• CGYs to have the same function as CERs and allow GHG
emissions to be offset elsewhere. As we have seen from CDM
and REDD this is not an adequate solution for global GHG
emissions reduction
• Correa accused of hypocrisy – expansion of extractive
industries elsewhere in Ecuador
• Accused of ‘holding the world to ransom’ – threatening to drill
if money is not received
Initiative led from the South
• Yasuní-ITT Initiative has signified a shift in international norms
• Civil society led initiative
• The initial development was driven from ‘below’ with
considerable representation from indigenous groups in the
area.
• However, Ecuadorian government has been the channel
through which the Initiative has been enacted.
• Therefore the further it has developed, the more distant from
the local people it has become.
CONCLUSIONS
- UNFCCC - limited vision for the possibilities for
climate change mitigation
- Failing to recognise the complexity of forest
eco-systems and the simplicity of forest
protection (to leave them alone!)
- Yasuni-ITT Initiative is an innovative, farreaching and holistic model
- Initiative needs support and constant pressure
to re-iterate the objectives
Questions raised about the role of
UN and international action
• If the Initiative is not included in the Carbon Market what are
the incentives for governments and Corporations to donate?
• Germany has withdrawn its pledged $700 million, citing: “a
lack of a comprehensive rationale, a clear structure of goals
and concrete statements on which guarantees will be given”
• Could it be funded by civil society, NGOs, Campaigns?
• Role of UNFCCC?
Money pledged so far through UN
Multi Donor Trust Fund
Contributions
Civil Society Contributions