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These efforts have failed to reverse global warming, however. Environmentalists are accusing rich countries like the United States of deliberately ignoring the Kyoto Protocol. But it is also reasonable to criticize the inadequate content and wrong framework of the climate change agreements.
Activist groups are pinpointing the failure of the Kyoto Protocol to include the concerns of the marginalized sectors in the world. They describe the Kyoto Protocol as a “false compromise” since it has not acknowledged the real roots of climate change – neoliberal globalization and the “mad pursuit” of transnational companies for profits.
Thus, the People’s Protocol on Climate Change was initiated. This is a global campaign that aims to provide a venue for grassroots participation in the process of drawing up a post-2012 climate change framework.
The proposal was conceived in Bangkok, Thailand, in October 2007. More than 170 participants in an environmental conference supported a resolution to launch a People’s Protocol on Climate Change. During the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia, alternative workshops were held in East Java to gather more feedback about the proposed climate change agreement.
National and regional assemblies are to be held this year to reflect the demands and sentiments of the people on climate change. The People’s Protocol on Climate Change will be a key instrument for grassroots groups to pressure their governments at the global climate change negotiating table.
This document views the crisis as a social justice issue, and not merely an environmental problem. Global warming is rooted in the overexploitation of resources by northern nations and transnational companies. Or, as explained further in the preamble, “On one hand a privileged global elite engages in reckless profit-driven production and grossly excessive consumption. On the other hand, the mass of humanity is mired in underdevelopment and poverty with merely survival and subsistence consumption, or even less. The powerful industrialized nations of today were built on the severe exploitation of the human and natural resources of the global South. The pursuit of growth and profit is at the core of exploitation, structural poverty and global warming.”
The document notes the inherent conflict between the pronouncements of rich countries that they will curb harmful greenhouse emissions and the free trade agreements they are clinching with poor nations. This analysis is important since China, India and other emerging economies are often criticized today for their rising carbon emissions.
As correctly pointed out by the People’s Protocol, “We must acknowledge the role that Northern consumption plays in driving rapidly increasing Southern emissions. We recognize that a very significant part of supposedly Southern emissions actually result from the energy-intensive operations of Northern transnational companies located in the South for the purposes of exploiting local labor and natural resources.”
The People’s Protocol on Climate Change rejects market-led development as the solution to the global poverty crisis or climate change. It emphasizes the limitations of technological fixes in addressing the climate crisis if current levels of growth and consumption are maintained.
The alternative agreement proposes a paradigm shift away from market-based development models “which perpetuate the exploitation of people and the planet” toward people’s sovereignty over natural resources. The basic principle is to put the needs of the people and the planet above those of global capital.
The People’s Protocol on Climate Change recognizes that many communities around the world are dependent for their survival on their access to and use of natural resources. It is then vital that the specific needs of farming communities, indigenous peoples, coastal communities, and other rural producers should be given special attention in all adaptation efforts. In short, the marginalized peoples, rather than the big foreign companies, must have real access and control over the natural resources. This is the essence of the concept “people's sovereignty over natural resources.”
The protocol wants rich countries to contribute more to the global mitigation fund. Transnational companies should increase “unconditional financial compensation to directly address the climate crisis in the South.”
Restorative justice is introduced, which requires “distribution of responsibility according to historical per capita emissions, not just on a by-country basis, but more significantly on a by-polluter basis.” Transnational companies, whether they are located in the North or South, must be compelled to pay for the damages they cause to the environment.
At a minimum, there should be an overhaul of international trade and investment rules to promote sustainable development. Production should be based on the actual needs of the people to reduce waste and over-consumption. This will then curb carbon emissions. Polluting industries should also not be transferred from the North to the South.
People’s lifestyles must change. Old habits and views that hurt the environment must be modified. Governments must act quickly by enjoining the support of their constituents, especially the marginalized sectors.
But we must not forget to grasp the bigger, harder and more important challenge: “Climate change crisis is not simply about adaptation and mitigation, but changing the whole economic framework into one of eco-sufficiency and sustainability.”
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(Mong Palatino is a Filipino youth activist, news editor of Yehey!, a Philippine-based web portal and regional editor for Southeast Asia of Global Voices Online. He can be contacted at mongpalatino@gmail.com and his Web site is www.mongpalatino.motime.com. ©Copyright Mong Palatino.)
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