Transcript Climate Justice and UNFCCC Processes

Climate Justice and UNFCCC
Processes
Brian Kagoro
Introduction
 There is compelling evidence that climate change is a serious
sustainable development challenge -- not only an environmental
issue
 Climate change is caused by anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHGs)
emissions
 Energy production and use, land use change (agro-fuels), especially
extractive industry activities, deforestation, fisheries are main
sources of GHGs in Africa
 Climate change impacts will affect all countries in Africa, especially
the rural poor, small scale farmers with women and children been
disproportionately affected
 Developing countries and the poor will bear disproportionately high
negative impacts
 Consequently, climate change may undermine the ability of
developing countries to achieve MDGs
Climate Change and Sustainable Development
in Africa
 Africa contributes only about 3.8% of total GHGs
 Yet African countries are among the most vulnerable to
climate change, because of the following factors:
 High poverty levels
 Heavy reliance on climate-sensitive sectors (e.g. rain-fed
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agriculture, mining, oil & gas, fisheries, forests, tourism,
etc.)
Poor economic and social infrastructure
Existing stresses on health and well being (e.g., HIV/AIDS,
illiteracy)
Conflicts
Low adaptive capacity (limited human, institutional,
technological and financial capacities)
Climate change and Sustainable Development
in Africa
 Africa is already witnessing impacts of Climate change,
which will worsen with time, if decisive actions are not
taken now:
 Constrained agricultural production and increasing food
crisis/insecurity
 Increasing water stress and related water conflicts
 Increasing energy constraints, further impeding industrial
development
 Expanding range and prevalence of vector-borne diseases
(malaria, cholera, yellow fever, rift valley fever)
 Rising sea level impacting livelihoods in coastal areas
 Loss of biodiversity, forests and other natural habitats
 Increased risks of conflicts arising from climate-induced
population migrations (pastoralists)
Facing up to the Climate Change Challenge: Global
Response
 Bali Roadmap: a two-year process of multilateral
negotiation to finalize a post-2012 global agreement
(regime) on climate change by December 2009
 Review of the Protocol scheduled from 2008
 Negotiations to be articulated around:
 Mitigation
 Adaptation
 Technology development and transfer
 Financing
Global Response to the Climate Change Challenge:
Implications for Africa
 Africa’s preparation to ensure that the concerns of
the region are well articulated and reflected in post2012 negotiations and decisions
 Main issues of Concern for Africa relate to:
 Modalities for the review of the Protocol (comprehensive
revision vs. review of specific issues)
 The developmental agenda of the Convention and Protocol
 Funding and capacity building
 Need for increased participation in flexible mechanisms
(e.g. carbon trade and CDM)
 Technology development and transfer
 Fulfilment of commitments under the Protocol by the
developed countries
Facing up to the Climate Change Challenge in
Africa: Suggested ActionAid Response
 Identify and develop a country programmes capacity to
generate and administer an adequate base of knowledge to
address climate change challenge for sustainable development
 Focus on climate-related activities:
 Policy research and analysis: control of activities responsible
for emissions, participatory adaptation cost assessment
 Consensus building at community and national level:
alternative grassroots climate change adaptation strategies
 Holding local corporations to account (responsibility &liability )
 Capacity strengthening, technical advice and assistance
 Communication and outreach and movement building
 Knowledge management and peer learning
FINANCING CONSIDERATIONS
Funding for a new mechanism should be:
Adequate, stable, and secure: Developed
countries should commit to provide stable
funding that is sufficient to the task at hand, and
that will remain so in the future.
Measurable, reportable and verifiable:
Consistent with the requirements of the Bali
Action Plan, capacity building and technology
financing and transfer to support mitigation
efforts in developing countries should be
measurable, reportable and verifiable.
FINANCING CONSIDERATIONS 2
 Additional to existing ODA: Funding for technology transfer
must be new and additional. Developed countries should
not meet their commitments under the UNFCCC and the
Bali Action Plan to finance the transfer of environmentally
sound technologies by diverting funds from other
development assistance programs. Similarly, funding
provided outside of the authority of the UNFCCC should not
be regarded as part of these commitments.
 UNFCCC, Art. 4.3 emphasizes the need for “adequacy and
predictability” in the flow of funds from developed
countries in financing their commitments under the
Convention. See also, Proposal by the G77 & China for a
Technology Mechanism under the UNFCCC.
FINANCING CONSIDERATIONS 3
 UNFCCC, Report of the Conference of the Parties on its
thirteenth session, held in Bali from 3 to 15 December
2007, Decision 1/CP.13, “Bali Action Plan”, para. 1(b)(ii).
 UNFCCC Arts. 4.1c, 4.3 and 4.5.
 Proposal by the G77 & China for a Technology
Mechanism under the UNFCCC; China’s Views on
Enabling the Full, Effective and Sustained
Implementation of the Convention Through Long-Term
Cooperative Action Now, Up to and Beyond 2012, at 2
(September 2008).
 Proposal by the G77 & China for a Technology
Mechanism under the UNFCCC.
Financing considerations
Financing from the new mechanism should be:
 Provided on a grant or concessionary basis: In accordance with basic principles of
equity and “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”
Article 11 of the UNFCCC specifies that a mechanism for the provision of financial
resources and transfer of technology should operate on a grant or concessional
basis. Any new mechanisms created for the post-2012 commitment period should
also operate on this basis.
 Unencumbered by unrelated policy conditions: The mechanism should be used to
support policy reforms to facilitate research and development and investment in
clean technology in carbon-intensive sectors such as energy, transportation, and
forestry. However, it must be sensitive to preserving the domestic political space to
craft policy solutions that are responsive to local needs. Funding therefore should
not be tied to unrelated issues such as reforms in macroeconomic policy. UNFCCC,
Art. 11.1.
 See, e.g. UNDP’s proposal for a Climate Change Mitigation Facility, UNDP, Human
Development Report 2007/2008: Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a
Divided World, Summary, at 30; Proposal by the G77 & China for a Technology
Mechanism under the UNFCCC.
ELIGIBILITY OF TECHNOLOGY 1
The mechanism should prioritize the transfer and dispersion of
technologies that:
 Have been prioritized through an inclusive and participatory
country-driven assessment processes: Technology needs should be
identified through a country-driven process such as Technology
Needs Assessment or a National Adaptation Plan of Action. Key
stakeholders from government, civil society, and business should
have a meaningful voice in assessing technology needs, and
designing and implementing technology transfer strategies plans.
Funds should be available for research and development to
promote indigenous solutions to local needs.
ELIGIBILITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2
 Promote the transition to low-carbon energy pathways: The
mechanism should only finance technologies that will facilitate a
shift away from fossil fuel-based energy sources. It should not
support new investments in incrementally more efficient processes
for burning fossil fuels, such as supercritical coal technology.
 Improve the efficiency of existing infrastructure and systems: The
mechanism should prioritize end-use efficiency and demand side
management systems that are often the least-cost energy solutions.
(Climate Technology Initiative, Methods for Climate Change
Technology Transfer Needs Assessments and Implementing
Activities (2002).UNFCCC, Decision 5/CP7 and Decision 28/CP7
(2002). World Resources Institute, Contributions to a World Bank
Administered Clean Technology Fund, at 2 (2008).
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT &
POVERTY ERADICATION 1
The mechanism should also prioritize the transfer and
dispersion of technologies that:
 Expand access to essential energy services for the
poorest: The mechanism should prioritize affordable,
locally controlled technologies that can provide secure
and affordable energy services to the 2 billion of the
world’s poorest citizens who currently lack such
services.
 Promote economic self-determination and
empowerment of the poorest: The mechanism should
also finance technologies that reduce dependence and
promote self-sufficiency for poor communities.
SSD & POVERTY ERADICATION 2
• Address the particular needs of women:
Priority should also be given to energy
technologies that may alleviate the
disproportionate burdens of poverty that fall
on women, such as the physical and health
burdens associated with collecting and
cooking with firewood.
BARRIERS 1
inadequate access to information about clean
technology, including cost comparisons, records
of performance, technical specifications, and
suitability
technical barriers to transferring technology,
including a lack of infrastructure, limited skills
and technical capabilities of firms to manage
and adapt technologies, as well as a technology
knowledge-base with capacity for operation and
maintenance.
BARRIERS 2
lack of access to financing instruments and
credit for higher-cost of clean technologies, as
well as insufficient investment for research and
development.
cultural barriers exist, such as consumer
preferences and social biases for absorbing,
adapting, and accepting technologies.
 Many developed countries cite political
instability, corruption, and lack of civil society in
the developing world as barriers to transfer.
BARRIERS 3
 intellectual property rights (IPRs) has emerged as a
one of the most serious potential barriers to
transferring clean technology. IPRs are creations and
inventions, including copyrights, trademarks, and
patents that provide the holder of these properties
exclusive legal rights to control how their inventions
are used, especially for commercial purposes.
 Developing countries, however, see IPRs as limiting
their access to at least two of the most essential
ingredients of sustainable development: knowledge
and technology.
BARRIERS 4
The degree to which IPRs will act as a significant
barrier to transferring technologies depends on
many questions, including whether the
particular technology already patented or will
be patented, whether substitutes are available
and affordable, and, if so, whether they are
competitive in cost and performance. Another
key question is whether the licensing terms of
technology will be acceptable to those who most
need it.
Barriers 5
• some broad patent might complicate the
development of a major category of new
more-efficient or less-expensive
technologies,” blocking the way for
innovation by others, including in solar but
particularly in wind, where four firms control
seventy-five percent of the global market.
IPRs can restrict access in several ways,
including ripple effects due to the existing
concentration in the industry.
FINANCING POST-2012 1
• Shifting financial incentives to make climate
technologies not only affordable to buy but
profitable to sell
• Share Clean Energy “Software” by CapacityBuilding with Lessons Learned
• Share Clean Energy “Hardware” by relaxing
Intellectual Property Rights
• relax IPRs for climate friendly technologies
Ecological Debt
 Ecological Debt may result from: the looting of developing
countries during colonial occupation; inequitable terms of
trade; natural resource extraction and degradation as a result of
the pressure to increase exports , and the intellectual
appropriation of traditional knowledge related to medicinal
plants and the additional fees that African countries pay in
licenses.
 Ecological debt may also manifest itself in a variety of forms.
E.g. Climate change is a consequence of over-consumption,
desertification that results from the overuse of land and water,
the depletion of fish stocks as a result of over-fishing; and the
poisoning of water sources that results from the unsustainable
methods of waste disposal or toxic waste dumping
 NB. The amount of waste and/or depletion of natural resources
is directly related to the rate and nature of irresponsible
consumption
Defining the Concept?
• Ecological debt is premised on the overconsumption of natural resources by northern,
Emerging economies and corporations and the
effect this has on ecological sustainability in
Africa
• The major cause of ecological damage is
unsustainable production and consumption
patterns by countries, corporations and
individuals
• The concept is sometimes used inter-changeably
with the term ‘ecological over-shoot’
Defining Concept 2
• Depletion of minerals and other nonrenewable
resources, dumping of toxics, bio-piracy and
excess use of the planet’s CO2 absorption
capacity are merely some of the many ways that
Africa is being exploited on the ecological front.
Africans are most exploited in this regard
because non-industrialized economies have not
begun to utilize more than a small fraction of
what should be due under any fair framework of
global resource allocation. The amounts
involved would easily cover debt repayments.
Defining the Concept 3
• Ecologically unequal exchange is one of the reasons
for the claim of the Ecological Debt. The second
reason for this claim is the disproportionate use of
Environmental Space by the rich countries.
• . Martinez-Alier elaborates with examples of Ecological
Debt that are never factored into standard trade and
investment regimes: ‘nutrients in exports including
virtual water… the oil and minerals no longer available,
the biodiversity destroyed.
• NB. These are difficult figure to compute, for several
reasons.
Defining Concept 4
• Unpaid costs of reproduction or maintenance
or sustainable management of the renewable
resources that have been exported;
• actualized costs of the future lack of
availability of destroyed natural resources;
• The Ecological footprint (CO2 emissions)
• (‘Bio-piracy’). For agricultural genetic
resources, the basis for such a claim already
exists under the FAO’s Farmers’ Rights.
Defining Concept 5
• Compensation for, or the costs of reparation (unpaid) of
the local damages produced by exports (for example, the
sulphur dioxide of copper smelters, the mine tailings, the
harms to health from flower exports, the pollution of
water by mining), or the actualized value of irreversible
damage;
• (unpaid) amount corresponding to the commercial use of
information and knowledge on genetic resources, when
they have been appropriated gratis
• Compensation for amounts spent by African governments
and citizens adapting to climate variability (often given as
loans by culpable northern lenders)
Def. Concept 6 : Environmental Space
• (unpaid) reparation costs or compensation
for the impacts caused by imports of solid or
liquid toxic waste;
• (unpaid) costs of free disposal of gas residues
(carbon dioxide, CFCs, etc), assuming equal
rights to sinks and reservoirs.
The Three Core Basis of Ecological
Debt in Africa
• FINANCIAL: This deals with the link between Aid flows,
debt relief, and investment (e.g. an expanded CDM
and/or new funds /technology for clean development )
• POLITICAL: This deals with the link between aid
dependency and aid volatility and the lack of political
space to regulate activities at a global level
• ENVIRONMENTAL: Deals with the actual scientific
evidence on ecological damage suffered as a result of
these activities(public health problems , damage to
environment and climatic changes,etc.....also includes
capacity development )
Ecological Debt and ODA
Development aid , climate funding mechanisms and weak
regulation/commitments re: emission targets are major factors
exacerbating ecological and social injustice and inequality in Africa.
Three(3) channels can be identified to show the linkages between
development aid and investments in the extractive industry.
• The first is the donors’ explicit exploitation of African
countries’ aid dependency and their manipulation of debt
relief to promote ecologically unsustainable policies.
• The second is the fact that. aid and loans have been given
to facilitate unsustainable forms of direct resource
extraction
• Thirdly, loans have been made to address environmental
damage created by multinationals, whose host countries
facilitated their original entry via policy-based aid.
Ecological Debt and Commodity
Production/Exports
• Closely linked to aid dependency is over-reliance upon
commodity production for export revenues. Most African
countries are dependent on the exploitation of only one or
two primary commodities for export earnings required to
service their debts, and to facilitate development
programmes.
• In Nigeria, for example, petrol comprises 95% of export
earnings and 80% of total revenues. In Cameroon, petrol
comprises 48.8% of export earnings. In DRC, diamonds
contribute 42.6% to export revenues, and, in Zambia,
copper earns the country 55.8% of its foreign exchange
earnings.
African Development Indicators, World Bank, 2007.
Why Climate Justice?
• Harm to the Ecology, Bio-piracy and Climate change have
devastating impacts on the rights ,livelihoods and dignity of
communities, poor women , children and other vulnerable
groups
• The cost of repairing the damage are astronomical and
African countries and peoples are often forced to borrow
money from violators to deal with adaptation needs
• There are internationally recognized rights that MNCs and
defaulting governments violate with impunity and a
measure of immunity
• The Africa of the future and future of Africa requires that
this matter be dealt with to avert harm to posterity
It is a Rights Issue!
• Right to development and sovereignty over
natural resources
• Right to economic, social and political selfdetermination
• Right to highest standard Health and Well-being
• Right to Food and Freedom from Hunger
• Right to clean and healthful ecology
• Environmental and Industrial hygiene
• The Rights of Indigenous peoples(Institutions ,
property , labour , cultures & environment)
Rights at Stake 2
The Right to Global Public Goods of Indigenous Peoples:
 Right to participate in the use , management and
conservation of natural resources by local
communities;
 Right to participate in the benefits of exploration of
mineral or other natural resources within their
territories;
 Right to receive fair compensation for any damages
which they may sustain as a result of expropriation or
other exploitation of natural resources
Its a Moral Issue!
The Idea of Climate Justice is premised on the following:
• Big polluters must “DO NO HARM "to Africa(or stop
their harmful consumption patterns; reduce CO2
emissions significantly)
• Cost of adapting to, mitigating and ensuring nonrecurrence of climate catastrophes must be borne by
the polluters
• Make available sustainable forms of technology and
know-how to achieve sustainable clean development
• Avail Reparations for the harm you have so far
caused(debt cancellation, rescheduling , new
grants,etc)