2010

We're calling on developed countries to tackle climate change by urgently making real changes at home. Carbon offsetting – when developed countries buy carbon credits from developing countries to avoid cutting emissions themselves – has no part to play in a just international agreement to fight climate change.

We believe in Climate justice which means emission cuts in developed countries, and money for developing countries to grow cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change – but it also means a change in our consumption patterns.

Read our demands in full

closing press releases and analysis

Cancun package merely prevents collapse and leaves Kyoto protocol on life support

Friends of the Earth Europe: The Cancún agreement: Not worth cheering

blogs and comment

Henry Rummins blogs for Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Manuel Graf blogs for Friends of the Earth Germany

Watch the latest videos from Cancun

View photos from the International Day of Climate Action

View the latest Friends of the Earth Brazil photos

View the latest Friends of the Earth International photos
View the latest Friends of the Earth US photos

The action, which took place during the second week of the UN climate change negotiations, demanded that all money to fight climate change should go through the United Nations, not the World Bank or any other multilateral development banks. The decision to establish a global climate fund under authority of the UN should be adopted at the climate negotiations currently taking place in Cancún.

The World Bank is the largest multi-lateral lender for oil and gas projects and a major actor in deforestation. It has failed to accept its own internal recommendations to stop funding destructive coal, oil and gas extraction. The World Bank is not a transparent or democratic institution and its decision-making is dominated by donor countries. It is also the world's largest carbon broker and it would be a conflict of interest for it to become the world's largest conduit for climate change mitigation funding.

The action also called for the European Union and other developed countries to provide transparent and appropriate finance, technology transfer and adaptation funding to developing countries. This is part of repaying the “climate debt” that they owe developing countries due to the large amounts of greenhouse gasses that they have emitted.

Susi Hammel, who took part in the action, said: “The European Union, and other rich industrialised countries, have a historical responsibility for causing climate change. As well as cutting their own emissions, rich nations have to transfer money and technology to developing countries to help them cope with the impacts of climate change, and develop in a sustainable way. We cannot trust the World Bank to deal with climate finance, as it is not democratic or transparent, and is a major supporter of fossil fuel projects. Instead, we need to see agreement in Cancún on a global climate fund under the authority of the UN.”

Any climate finance mechanisms must be designed to ensure human rights including Indigenous Peoples’ rights are protected, false solutions are rejected, and governance structures provide transparency and accountability. Carbon trading and international offsets must not replace new public money to enable developing countries to cope with the impacts of climate change.

As part of an international day of action to oppose false solutions to the climate crisis on December 7, 30 young people from across Europe targeted European institutions and corporations which support and fund nuclear energy. The message was simple: nuclear power is unsustainable and unacceptably dangerous.

"Nuclear energy is promoted as a clean technology but the mining of uranium has massive social and environmental impacts and the problem of safe nuclear waste disposal is yet to be solved. Young people are being locked into an uncertain future where they will have to shoulder the burden of this false solution." Susi Hammel, Young Friends of the Earth Europe.

As part of a series of actions, youth demonstrated outside the European Commission to highlight its ongoing support for this dangerous technology. They also took action outside the Foratom offices, a powerful pro-nuclear lobby group, and BNP Paribas whose significant financial contributions enable the ongoing development of the nuclear industry.
 
"What we need are real solutions. If the negotiators in Cancun care about our future, they will choose renewable resources and opt for decentralised production and distribution of energy. This will empower communities to directly produce their energy from local, sustainable resources." said Sebastian Power from the Federation of Young European Greens.

The action took place as part of the ‘1000 Cancun’s action day’ called for by the International peasant farmers network La Via Campesina. Participants in the action are youth who have gathered from all over Europe for a two week long Climate Justice Convergence in Brussels, in parallel to the UN Climate talks in Mexico. For two weeks, over 60 young people have gathered to take action and demand climate justice.
 
Find out more about the Youth Climate Justice Convergence

The event gave a clear signal that the UN climate negotiations, taking place in Cancún, Mexico must not be used to further the interests of rich industrialised countries, and big business. 

The participants also discussed the way in which European countries are responding to the climate crisis – and specifically the need to ensure that action to tackle climate change also brings us closer to achieving justice within and between countries.

The assembly was inspired by the call made by La Via Campesina for “Thousands of Cancuns” during the negotiations in Cancun. 

On the first day of the climate talks in Cancun, activists from the climate camp in Belgium, FoE Flanders and Brussels and the youth climate justice convergence in Brussels occupied the offices of IETA (international emissions trading association) for the whole afternoon. IETA was nominated in 2009 for the Worst EU Lobby awards.

 

For the whole of the Cancun talks, Young Friends of the Earth Europe is organising a "Cancun in Brussels" space for young European climate activists to come together, learn and create actions! 

 

On Thursday they took the Friends of the Earth online targeting Japan a step further by paying a visit to the Japanese Embassy in Brussels to deliver a letter and talk with a representative from the embassy.

View photos from the IETA sit in

View photos and video form The European Assembly for Climate Justice

Find out more about 1000 Cancuns

Thousands of women and men, people affected by the destruction of the environment, farmers, landless, Indigenous Peoples and activists from all sectors of society will gather in Cancun to propose thousands of solutions to confront the climate crisis. They will show the world leaders their opposition to the false solutions to climate change being discussed at the climate conference, such as market-based proposals on carbon trading; REDD; agrofuels; and geo-engineering.

Friends of the Earth International, together with Via Campesina and World March of Women, are calling for social movements, popular organisations and individuals around the world to amplify the calls for climate justice and to organise protests and actions rejecting false climate change solutions and to support a people’s agenda for climate justice. 

Please organise or take part in a mobilisation near you on December 7, the International Day of Action. Mobilisations can take the form of marches, demonstrations, parties, festivals, discussions and much more. They can take place wherever you like: in cities, villages, schools and community centres. 

Let us know what you're going to do by submitting your plans to our website

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Wealthy nations legally bound to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the U.N. Kyoto Protocol. They are responsible for the vast majority of GHG emissions historically and thus the most responsible for climate change. In the UNFCCC they are listed as 'Annex I countries'.

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

All the 'non-Annex I' countries of the globe, from China and India to the Least Developed Counties (LDCs). They are historically the least responsible for climate change.

ADAPTATION (to climate change)

Actions countries take to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2)

The main greenhouse gas. The other main ones include nitrous oxide and methane.

CDM (Clean Development Mechanism)

A mechanism used by developed countries to try to ‘offset’ their emissions. The CDM is riddled with loopholes and leads to increased emissions globally.

CARBON MARKET

Speculative market where carbon certificates are traded.

CARBON OFFSETTING

Paying someone else to reduce their carbon emissions instead of cutting your own. If carbon offsetting worked optimally it would lead to zero net emissions. This system has been proved not to work but most importantly, does not lead to emission cuts. It therefore allows business to pollute as usual.

CLIMATE DEBT

Developed nations owe a climate debt to developing ones because developed countries have emitted the vast majority of the greenhouse gases currently in the atmosphere.  Since this is far more than their ‘fair share’ and developed countries have over-occupied their slice of the carbon budget, it is considered a ‘debt’ that the developed world owes the developing one.

This debt must be repaid not only through money to help developing countries adjust to and prepare for climate change damage and to embark on clean energy pathways, or technology and knowledge to help build green economies, but also through action – cutting the emissions in the developed world.

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Climate Justice means addressing the climate crisis using a rights-based approach. Climate justice will be achieved when the developed countries reduce their consumption and their control of the world's resources through real solutions rather than false solutions which continue to privilege a minority of the world's population.

Climate justice will be achieved when the perpetrators support the people who have to adapt to impacts of climate change. Climate justice requires a global transformation away from dominant development and economic paradigms to recognising all people’s right to a dignified life within ecological limits.

GREENHOUSE GASES (GHG)

The gases which cause the 'greenhouse effect' which is the main cause of climate change. The main GHGs are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane.

MITIGATION of climate change

Actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

MONOCULTURE TREE PLANTATION

Large scale area planted with only one tree species.  They are even-aged, even-spaced plantings - often exotic tree species - which decrease the biodiversity of birds and insects in the area and tend to require the intensive use of chemicals to maintain them. This is not a forest but rather a ‘green desert’. 

The People's Agreement

REDD

A market-based mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries. REDD allows developed countries to offset their carbon emissions by purchasing forest carbon credits from developing countries.

Including forests in carbon offsetting initiatives allows developed countries to buy up forests whilst continuing to pollute.  It is ineffective, dangerous, and undermines efforts to stop climate change and halt deforestation.

UNFCCC

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the name given to the climate talks conducted by the United Nations that take place at various times throughout the year. The meetings where the agreements are adopted are the COPs (conference of the parties) that take place in late November/early December each year. Last year COP15 was in Copenhagen, this year COP16 is in Cancun and next year COP17 will be in Durban, South Africa.

The National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction reported that in the wake of the most recent storms, September 7, 46 people died, 272 were injured and 40 are missing. Meanwhile 13,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. 

The Inter-American highway has been damaged and part of it is temporarily closed whilst rivers, already swollen as a result of tropical storm Agatha, continue to burst their banks. 

On September 6 a bus lost control as a result of the bad weather and ended up in the Selegua river killing seven people and injuring 24. Of the injured several were associared with CEIBA/ Friends of the Earth Guatemala. Those people were Milton Santos Velásquez, Francisca Sales Velásquez, Francisca López Morales and Humberto Maldonado Méndez who were strong advocates of equal rights and the defence of territories. 

Guatemala is currently in a state of emergency as a result of the recent incidents. The mudslides caused by the tropical storms Agatha and Alex have caused a great deal of damage to the country's infrastructure and the most recent storm has led to the death of many people buried by mudslides on the route of the Inter-American highway. As a result part of this vital artery linking the region's major cities is closed. 

The Guatemalan President has estimated the country's losses to be more than $US160 million. 

Speaking on the dire situation a spokesperson for Friends of the Earth Guatemala said:

"We need to start listening to nature's call and urge the rich developed nations to stop exploiting Mother Earth and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming and environmental destruction."

The global delegation consisting of Friends of the Earth, Via Campesina, 350.org, Hemispheric Social Alliance, Third World Network, Council of Canadians as well as the Indigenous Environmental Network aimed to be representative all the peoples of the world as well as every continent of the world.

At this historic and unprecedented meeting with the Secretary General (he doesn’t usually hold meetings with civil society groups) President Morales introduced the delegation from the global movements and gave the floor to FoEI Chair Nnimmo Bassey and, member of the FoEI Executive Committee, Meena Raman. They had been selected as spokespeople to present the conclusions of the Peoples Summit to Ban Ki-Moon. The presentations were forceful, direct and reiterated our demands for a strong and fair global agreement within the framework of the multilateral process.

Later in the afternoon a press conference was held at the UN with Meena and Nnimmo and other representatives of global civil society. At the press conference we spoke about the Peoples Summit, the inadequacy of the Copenhagen Accord as well as the ongoing international climate negotiations. Following the press conference we joined President Morales in presenting the outcomes to the formal meeting of the G77 plus China (the UN Ambassadors of 132 countries).

The outcomes of the Peoples Summit have also been included in a formal submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requesting that they be negotiated in the next round of climate talks in Bonn this June.

• Watch the press conference held by Evo Morales and the FoEI delegates.

The 30-second television advertisements will run in South Carolina, where the state Supreme Court is set to hear a Friends of the Earth appeal related to two proposed nuclear reactors in the state; and in Georgia, where the first of the Obama Administration’s loan guarantees are slated to go to the construction of two nuclear reactors.

Find out more on the Friends of the Earth US website