A Call to Reject False Capitalist Solutions to Climate Crisis

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/07-10



As the climate negotiations come to a close, the industrialized countries insist on inaction for the next decade, finding even more ways to escape their historical responsibility, create more carbon markets including one on agriculture and to keep business as usual of burning the planet. While governments continue to prioritize the interests of industry and agribusiness peasant farmers continue producing to feed the world’s people and the planet.

The high level segment of the 18th Conference of Parties (COP 18) and 8th Meeting of Parties (CMP 8) of the United Nations Framework on Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has begun on December 5 with Ministers arriving in the petro-state of Doha, Qatar. But the almost two week long negotiations has produced absolutely nothing. Developed countries are so entrenched in their positions and goals for inaction that when the Chair of the negotiations presented the new text under the Long Term Cooperative Action track, the text literally contained blank pages in areas where the Chair claimed divergences existed; these included adaptation, technology development, finance, capacity building and economic and social consequences of response measures – all issues of great concern to developing countries.

On the crucial issue of emissions reductions, commitments proposed by industrialized countries undercut the already low figures proposed in 2009 in Copenhagen. A United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) study calculated that warming would still go up to 5 degrees centigrade using the numbers calculated in Copenhagen, far surpassing the 2 degree centigrade threshold that scientists said should be mitigated to avoid climate chaos. Regardless, the numbers in Doha have dropped even lower. The EU pledge for example of emissions reduction of 20 percent until 2020 will in reality be only 12 percent because they claim to have already accomplished the 8 percent during the first Kyoto Protocol period. Then for the remaining 12 percent they will not even make real reductions, as they will use market mechanisms.

[newfie11]

1. talk is cheap

I can tell you this small western Nebraska will be in serious trouble next year if we don't get some moisture.