Climate injustice

2014 will probably end up being the hottest year since records began in 1880, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We have already matched 1998's temperatures, previously the warmest year on record. Time is running out. Inaction will lead to severe and irreversible damage.

Climate change will affect everyone, everywhere, in every nation and in every echelon of society in the developing and developed world. We will all suffer the catastrophic consequences of: rising sea levels, desertification, food and water scarcity and political unrest. But some of the most vulnerable communities in the world are bearing a disproportionate burden of the harm without having significantly contributed to the cause. This is a terrible injustice.

Hearing delegates' responses to the ADP text this morning, reinforced my opinion that there is a bias and injustice inherent in these negotiations. Failure to acknowledge different countries' different responsibilities can only end in failure. A comprehensive, legally binding, global climate deal must make provision for the rights of all and acknowledge that some countries are more responsible for climate change than others. We must achieve Climate Justice, recognition that climate change will disproportionately affect people who have less ability to prevent, adapt or otherwise respond to increasingly extreme weather events, rising sea levels and increasing resource scarcity.

The COP has always drawn lines drawn between the 'haves' and the 'have nots', between so-called 'developing countries' and the developed world, between the 'global north' and 'global south.' The climate talks are often fraught with bias and discrimination towards the global south, women, indigenous people and the poor as well as protesters. Their voices and that of civil society are often ignored in negotiations.

Sometimes even freedom of expression is curtailed at the COP, as we have seen here this week.

COP rules require protesters to submit their banners and slogans for approval, and prohibit the mention of specific names, officials and projects. Alyssa Johnson Kurts, with the US youth delegation SustainUS told Democracy Now, "We tried to submit a banner that would have an arrow with Keystone XL in one direction and a liveable future in the other direction, and they rejected that proposal," she says.

In contrast, very few restrictions are placed on the fossil fuel companies that come to the COP. Corporations and fossil fuel companies have always had a presence at the negotiations. Yesterday, December 12th, 350.org delivered a petition with 53,000 signatures to the COP organisers, calling for fossil fuel corporations and their lobbyists to be banned from the negotiations.

Hoda Baraka, Global Communications Manager for 350.org, said 'The fossil fuel industry is actively lobbying against climate action and standing in the way of progress. When you're trying to burn the table down, you don't deserve a seat at it.'

REDD+

REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) was identified as a key area of focus for Lima. COP20 President, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, announced forests as a critical theme and set the goal of realising "progress made in regards to the role of forests (REDD+)." REDD+ is our opportunity to make a global commitment to forest conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

It is critical that these developments should respond to the concerns of indigenous people and guarantee full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in all processes, programmes and actions at all levels, including their access to funding mechanisms, financing and capacity building. This must include a robust and enforceable system of social, environmental and human rights safeguards.

REDD+ is beset by a fundamental difference in thinking. Some see REDD+ as an important framework that will bring both forest preservation and will benefit indigenous tribes. Rainforest Foundation Norway for example has "a rights-based approach to rainforest protection. We believe that the peoples who for generations have developed their cultures and societies in balanced interaction with the highly complex yet vulnerable ecosystems of the rainforest have fundamental rights to these areas. Legal recognition of the collective territorial and cultural rights of forest-based peoples and communities is crucial to the fulfilment of their human rights. It is also a major prerequisite for protecting the rainforest." Unfortunately there is another school of thought, dangerous dissenters who see REDD+ only as a profit making new market that exists to be exploited.

The negotiations and decision-making should have been easy - protecting and advancing the land rights of indigenous people will advance their human rights protections and will also reduce cumulative carbon emissions through healthy and flourishing forests. But the REDD+ negotiations at COP20 collapsed. Climate justice remains a long way off.

I gave the keynote address at the REDD+ Implementation Working Group: Legal and Governance Foundations, Indigenous Peoples Rights and Safeguards on December 5th... Morale was low among the negotiators, and sure enough, negotiations reached a deadlock, or REDDLock, and came to a complete halt that Friday here in Lima.

The REDD+ talks broke down in part because there has been no agreement on guidance for the safeguards. Countries like the United States and Norway were pushing for more clarity on how these safeguards are reported, but nations like Brazil and Panama among others claimed guidance would be burdensome, slowing implementation of forest protection measures.

The REDD+ Safeguards Working Group stated as far back as Cop15, 'No rights, no REDD.'

Shamefully, there will be no concrete outcome on forest protection at COP 20, despite this COP being held in Peru, one of the world's largest rainforest countries. Deliberations have concluded for this session.

Once again, a critical decision regarding indigenous rights and environmental protection has been postponed until the next UNFCCC inter-sessional meeting in June 2015. Time is running out.