Climate change

We left Paris for Lille on Sunday morning, having been hosted by the Confederation Paysanne overnight. No sooner had we set off on the bus than Olivier, who has been one of the main organisers of the caravan, announced that we had an emergency on our hands...

One of the climate caravan participants, José Goyes, is part of a movement in Colombia called the Resguardo de Honduras Cauca. He lives in a fertile area in the south of the country, which is rich in vegetation, but also in mineral resources such as gold. This area has recently become the sight of a bitter struggle by the indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on this land, and the multinational corporations who are intent on exploiting it, apparently at any cost.

As I write, Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.

Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo...

Kirsty Wright, WDM’s climate campaigner reports back on a tour around G77 embassies on her way to Copenhagen.

I write this as the train is pulling out of Cologne station. I’m on route to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. It’s late, and I’m tired, filled with anticipation about what’s to come, and if I’m honest, also exhausted and slightly overwhelmed by the past few weeks.

In the run up to Copenhagen WDM have been working with the Jubilee Debt Campaign and activists all around the UK to make sure the government hears our demand for climate justice. In the process of becoming wealthy through a high carbon development model, the UK along with the rest of the rich world has built up an historic responsibility for causing climate change, and has left little space for the rest of the world to develop in the same way. This means we now owe a massive climate debt to the rest of the world. Over the past few weeks, thousands of people have joined us in sending climate debt invoices to Gordon Brown, along with messages of support to the G77 countries (a group of 130 developing countries negotiating together for a fair outcome in the talks). Yesterday, we delivered these messages.

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Tim Jones

In Trinidad on Friday Gordon Brown got some headline coverage for his latest announcement of billions of dollars for developing countries to tackle climate change.

The prime minister became as expert as a derivatives trader in repackaging, reselling and reannouncing money when he was chancellor. Unfortunately the latest ‘news’ was no exception.

Mr Brown said rich countries should be creating a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’ worth $10 billion (£6 billion) to help developing countries adapt to climate change and develop in a low carbon way from 2010 to 2012. Let’s not get hung up on that amount as he wasn’t actually saying the UK would write a cheque.

What Gordon Brown did say was that “the UK Government would contribute £800 million in total over three years, which has already been budgeted for”. In fact it was budgeted for in the budget in 2007. The prime minister should know; he was chancellor at the time.

The same £800 million has been reannounced so many times since it’s enough to make you dizzy.

The money cannot go into a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’, because all of it has already been pledged to the World Bank. Some cheques have already been sent, and the final ones are due in April.

The use of the World Bank for climate...

The day started with the news that three members of the Korean delegation were being detained at the airport. Yoon Geum Sum, from the Korean Women Peasant Association, La Via Campesina told us how the three members were stripped naked and searched. She said: "This is a violation of human rights and a criminalisation of social movements." I've just heard that they have already been sent on a flight back home.

So the mood was dampened by this news but then we had to start getting ready for the mass demonstration which had been arranged by the local Swiss campaigners.

I was really looking forward to this demonstration as I had heard about it months ago and at WDM we have been encouraging our local groups to stage media stunts in their local areas in solidarity with the Geneva based protest today.

So I was spurred on knowing that many of our own activists and groups were doing likewise back home.

However, halfway through the march, I started noticing shop after shop had smashed windows,

...

I arrived in Geneva at 5pm this evening (having left my home in London at 6am) and I had to quickly drop my luggage off at the hotel, work out the tram system and then get myself to a meeting with other trade campaigners from around the world. I arrived at the meeting, just as the pizza did, so not bad timing I thought.

I’m here for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference which is taking place on 30 November – 2 December. Ten years on from the Seattle protests that shut down the talks in 1999, the world finds itself in a perilous state faced with global emergencies in the economy, food, climate and employment. The chickens have come home to roost. Let me explain why…The economic crisis finds its roots in the deregulation of financial markets that enabled banks and lenders to engage in reckless lending and ultimately brought the global economy to its knees. The US and EU were key drivers behind this move to deregulate, they exported their deregulation agenda and got it enshrined in the WTO rules but now it is biting them back.

Last year, world leaders agreed on the need for more regulation to prevent a reoccurrence of the financial crisis, yet there are WTO rules that actually constrain governments from regulating their financial sectors. There is...

We've had a twitter equivalent of STOP PRESS - apparently Ed Miliband definitely doesn't think it's serious to say 'UK's credibility at Copehnahgen will be shattered by his new coal plant plans. 

Ed Miliband is of course at pains to say that we have the world's most environmentally stringent policy, so of course our credibility at Copenhagen will remain intact, pretty much what ever we do. But we, and many others, disagree strongly with that. We have got climate legislation, yes, but unfortunately within the Climate Act, there are loopholes the size of several coal power stations. And that's where our credibility will fall.

The government’s own committee on climate change has said: “there can be no role for conventional coal generation in the UK beyond the early 2020s”. But Ed Miliband’s statement yesterday allows hundreds of megawatts of new conventional coal to be built, and does nothing to ensure old conventional coal plants shut down in the early 2020s.

In our view, and the view of campaigners across the globe, it's just not serious enough to say we've got a tough climate law but we're...

In response to Ed Miliband's energy statement to parliament today, the World Development Movement reacted with disappointment and argued that the UK's credibility at Copenhagen has been 'shattered'.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:
"Ed Miliband today has shattered the UK's credibility at the Copenhagen summit by going ahead with disastrous plans for new coal. His decision to allow two new dirty coal power stations to be built will see increasing emissions long into the future. He has acknowledged that carbon capture technology may not work, but nonetheless hasn't introduced a safety net to protect the climate if this unproven technology fails.

"Furthermore, he's done nothing to shut down old coal plants which can continue to pollute for decades to come. This policy flies in the face of recommendations from the government's own climate advisors.

"This will continue to increase our climate debt to the world's poorest people. And in turn, this will lock in greater inequality and injustice faced by people, like those in the Philippines or El Salvador who are currently suffering from climate-change related weather disasters, such as flooding and typhoons."

The UK government comes under fire today in a new report which reveals that the current climate finance proposals, likely to dominate the weekend’s G20 talks, are likely to increase third world debt, and will be 'grossly inadequate' to tackle the scale of the problem.

The report by anti-poverty groups the World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign calculates that the UK alone owes a 'climate debt' to developing countries of over £17 billion each year for its contribution to climate change – an amount that is significantly more than that pledged so far.

They issued a stark warning that the issue of climate debt will be a 'Copenhagen deal-breaker' for developing countries, and the hope of getting a fair deal hangs in the balance.

The report, 'The Climate Debt Crisis', heavily criticises the UK's current policy of channelling its 'climate aid' through the World Bank, and of promoting the World Bank as the main hub of climate finance. It condemns the World Bank for distributing climate finance as loans, not aid, and for allowing finance to be used for new coal power stations, not low carbon energy investment. The campaigners are...

This December 7-18 negotiations will take place in Copenhagen in an attempt to reach an international agreement to tackle climate change.

The World Development Movement, along with social movements and governments from the global south, has been calling for the UK and the rest of the rich world to repay its ‘climate debt’ at Copenhagen – the money the rich world owes to the world’s poorest people for causing climate change.

The World Development Movement will be in Copenhagen for the duration of the summit keeping an eye on the negotiations and taking part in events outside the conference centre. We’ll be blogging on this website to keep you updated.

On the 5th December we’ll also be at The Wave in London and Glasgow where tens of thousands of people will demonstrate their support for a safe climate future for all.

Repaying our climate debt at Copenhagen

The UK has grown rich on the back of burning fossil fuels, which has driven us to the point of climate catastrophe. The global south should not have to pay the price of a crisis it didn’t create.

However, rather than...

WDM has also run one-off campaigns on individual transnational companies (TNCs) in support of communities or workers in poor countries. Companies included Disney, Nestlé, Rio-Tinto, Shell and P&O.

Mining - Rio Tinto (formerly RTZ) 1996 - 1999

Background

The Grasberg opencast mine lies in the forested hills of West Papua and exploits gold and copper deposits that are amongst the largest in the world.  The mine is operated by an Indonesian subsidiary of the US company Freeport McMoran, in which Rio Tinto has a significant share.  The company has transformed the rainforest into a vast complex of mines, roads, towns and the world's longest tramway.  But local people have not benefited.  Instead, they have seen their hunting ground taken over, their rivers polluted and their sacred mountain ravaged.  They were neither consulted nor given adequate compensation.  Hundreds of people were displaced by the first mine site and have been resettled in a crowded and unhealthy township. 

Campaign

Since March 1996, WDM, together with Partizans, TAPOL and Survival, has...

A High Court judge today blocked a request for permission to hold a Judicial Review over what campaigners say is the Treasury’s lack of adequate environmental and human rights consideration of Royal Bank of Scotland’s investments.

Campaigners from the World Development Movement, PLATFORM and People & Planet, who brought the case against the Treasury expressed ‘disappointment’ at the ruling and have decided to appeal this decision.

Deborah Doane, the director of the World Development Movement said,

“We're incredibly disappointed with the court's decision not to allow to a full hearing on this important case and will be appealing the judgement. Essentially, the judgement means that RBS' profits come before the climate and human rights of people.This is particularly hard to swallow after Gordon Brown's soaring rhetoric on climate change yesterday. We're incredibly angry to see that just one day later the Treasury outrageously argued that for a director of business to take environmental concerns into account would be a 'burden' and 'handicapping'. Yet, this is precisely the kind of positive action that the government should be promotoing, if we are to believe one word of Gordon Brown's speech yesterday.

The lawyers acting on behalf of the groups...

Today, an unprecedented legal battle will take place in the High Court over the Treasury's failure to stop the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) investing in what campaigners describe as 'some of the most environmentally damaging and socially irresponsible projects and companies around.'

The case is being brought by three small climate and social justice campaigning groups: PLATFORM, People & Planet and the World Development Movement, which has led some commentators to bill it as a 'ground breaking, David and Goliath case'.

Today's oral hearing will determine whether their claim can proceed to a full substantive hearing, likely to take place early next year. The Treasury has hired one of its top barristers, James Eadie QC, to handle the case but the campaigners are optimistic that they will be successfu Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

"This is a classic David and Goliath battle. But we believe we have a strong case. The Treasury's decision to allow RBS to continue to invest in companies that exacerbate climate change and are linked to human rights abuses is unlawful, immoral and undemocratic. Hopefully, this case will be a pivotal point in ending RBS' destructive lending habits that go against the interests of UK...

World Development Movement Scotland greeted with delight the news that Danish energy giant Dong Energy has dropped plans to develop a new coal fired power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire, citing financial difficulties and a strategic change of direction towards lower carbon investments.

The remaining investor Peel Holdings appear to want to continue with the project but need a partner who knows something about coal and energy ... and most of those are backing off coal at a rate of knots!

WDM has been campaigning against coal for the last two years. Only last week we welcomed the news that energy giant EON had shelved plans to build a new coal plant at Kingsnorth. Coal is the most polluting way to generate electricity. Globally, it’s a huge contributor to climate change, the effects of which are being felt most acutely by the world’s poorest people.

It’s clearer now more than ever that dirty coal is a risky investment. Energy companies are finding it impossible to justify such climate-trashing developments. Banks that continue to invest heavily in coal – such as Scotland’s RBS – should also beware the writing on the wall, and switch...

Late last night, EON confirmed that they had shelved plans for the controversial Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent. The news of the victory for the 'Stop Kingsnorth' campaigners was received by text at a coal event in Rochester hosted jointly by the World Development Movement and the local campaigning group, Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway, who have been working closely for nearly two years.

Kirsty Wright, climate campaigner at the World Development Movement said:"This is an huge victory for campaigners in Kent, across the UK and most of all for the world’s poorest people, whose lives would have been devastated by the proposed power station’s contribution to climate change. The new power station would have emitted more CO2than Tanzania, and could have caused 20,000 climate refugees and meant that 100, 000 more people losing their dry water season supply.

"It's not yet clear what the government's official reaction to this news will be, but UK's already massive climate debt to the developing world means that the UK must radically reduce its carbon emissions now. The UK government must rule out new coal in the UK straight away, ahead of crucial international talks at Copenhagen. We can’t rely on energy companies to do it because of concern about profits in the...

Following the government bail-out of the banks, public money amounting to billions of pounds has been used to support companies and projects linked to climate change and human rights abuses. The World Development Movement (WDM), People and Planet and PLATFORM have launched a legal action (judicial review) against the Treasury for allowing public money to be used in this way.

My heart is fully behind what the World Development Movement are working towards. Please continue to be uncompromising in the fight for equality.

WDM supporter from Lancashire.

Support our appeal to clean up the banks

Donate to WDM now via Justgiving

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is currently 70% owned by the British public. As taxpayers we have the right to demand that our money isn’t used by RBS to invest in projects linked to human rights abuses and dirty energy projects around the world.

Just six months after their bail out, RBS has supported a staggering £10 billion in loans to coal, oil and gas companies which are linked to human rights abuse and climate change. We believe the government has acted unlawfully by going against its own guidelines on the use of public funds.

On October 20th 2009, the World Development Movement, People and Planet and Platform took the issue to court by launching a judicial review against the Treasury. But our case was denied and the Treasury has refused to intervene in RBS’ unethical investment practices.

We are appealing the decision to refuse the case permission, and will also be pressing for political action to clean...

Campaigners from RSPB, the World Development Movement, Christian Aid, Oxfam, WWF and Greenpeace will hold a 'coal kills' vigil today outside the Department for Energy and Climate Change on Whitehall.

At 16.30, the organisations' CEOs and campaigners will hold up images of glaciers, polar bears, birds, food and water supplies of the millions of people in the developing world who will lose their lives and livelihoods and a stark message of 'coal kills'. These will represent what the campaigners believe that Climate Minister, Ed Miliband will save if he makes the right decision - to rule out new coal.

The charities are coming together to remind Ed Miliband that he must go further on his policy proposals on coal and provide a cast-iron guarantee that no new dirty coal-fired power stations will be built in the UK unless all of the carbon emissions are captured from the start.

The CEOs will invite Ed Miliband to meet with the groups to hand him personally a statement detailing the thousands of powerful pledges and statements that each organisation has collected from supporters. These include letters from young RSPB members asking Miliband to do more, photos from Christian Aid supporters asking him to reconsider, and promises of thousands of Greenpeace and World...

Once again, this week, trade ministers from around the world are meeting, this time in Delhi, with the stated aim of kick-starting stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. And yet again, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors concealing countries’ true negotiating positions.

Part of the gathering of 50,000 Indian farmers who rallied in Delhi against the WTO

Why is India hosting this meeting? Does it really want to finalise a Doha deal, or is it hurt by accusations that it scuppered the July 2008 talks and so it just wants to be seen to be ‘talking the talk’? What position will the Obama administration take? Rhetorically, it talks about the need to sign a deal and for countries to avoid protectionism, but it is under huge pressure at home as unemployment grows and the recession continues.

Meanwhile, Pascal Lamy (the WTO’s director-general) continues to tighten the negotiating screws, stating that only 20 per cent of issues remain to be resolved. Proposals have been circulated to speed-up the process, to ‘bank’ what has already been agreed, and to move on to look at timetabling issues with the hope that this will unblock the remaining issues...

This year’s Camp for Climate Action pitched up their tents on Blackheath in London yesterday. There are around 1,000 people there already, with more expected as the weekend gets closer. Along with the workshops and demonstrations of sustainable living, there will also be non-violent direct action during the week, and some climate campers have kicked this off already with an action-cum-street theatre outside the Climate Exchange on Bishopsgate.

One of the key reasons for bringing the Climate Camp to London this year is to challenge the role of the City in creating the climate crisis. The fact that our society is geared towards endless economic growth has resulted in a headlong rush towards global warming. WDM has long argued that redistribution to tackle inequality is the key to ending poverty, rather than unsustainable growth which threatens the planet and fails to ‘lift up the poor’.

Moreover, the obsession with the free market, which has dominated official global politics for the last 30 years, means that politicians are looking to a ‘market mechanism’, carbon...

The World Development Movement is part of the Climate Justice Now! network, which is a southern-led coalition of around 150 organisations and movements campaigning for a globally just and effective solution to the climate crisis.

Climate Justice Now! principles

Communities in the global south as well as low-income communities in the industrialised north have borne the toxic burden of this fossil fuel extraction, transportation and production. Now these communities are facing the worst impacts of climate change - from food shortages to the inundation of whole island nations.

Inside the global climate negotiations, rich industrialised countries have put unjustifiable pressure on southern governments to commit to emissions reductions. At the same time, they have refused to live up to their own legal and moral obligations to radically cut emissions and support developing countries' efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

Climate Justice Now! will work to expose the false solutions to the climate crisis promoted by these...

This weekend a group of brave supporters are taking part in the London Triathlon to help raise money for the World Development Movement.

We've put together a guide to the people taking part - and a link to their sponsorship pages.

Kate Etheridge*

I'm attempting my first triathlon on 4 July. Now I can front crawl for more than half a length, and have a bike (and worked out how to pump up the tyres), I'm feeling slightly more confident. So please have faith and sponsor me.

Sponsor Kate at http://www.justgiving.com/katesfirsttriathlon/

*actually Kate did a Triathlon in July but we're including her here too!

Emilia Hanna

In August I am going to be doing an Olympic Triathlon (hopefully! If I survive!) which is a 1.5km swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run.... eeeek! I am doing it for the World Development Movement which is totally rad and works on campaigns including climate change, trade and water.

Sponsor Emilia at: http://www....

Global Trade Alert a website part-funded by the UK government, was launched last month, has hit the headlines as a weapon in rich countries' armoury in the war of words designed to defeat protectionism and help free trade to conquer all.

The database monitors and highlights 'protectionist' policies that countries are implementing due to the economic down turn. This could go a long way to explaining the myriad of articles that declare that protectionism is killing global trade]

In The Times, the co-founder of the site, Professor Evenett, criticises developing countries for raising tariffs. But this is a very one-sided view point as European governments are currently implementing protectionist measures with gusto: they are bailing out the banking and car industries; increasing export subsidies for the dairy industry; and supporting a global intellectual property rights regime which through patents and monopolies means that European businesses can keep their technology to themselves. For developing countries, this means missing out on access to medicines and renewable energy technologies to combat climate change.

At the same time as being blamed for...

The World Development Movement welcomes progress made on renewable targets but fears that the reliance on carbon trading to reduce emissions is a 'dangerous get-out-of-jail-free card'.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:
"The commitment to generate 30 per cent of electricity from renewable sources and to reduce emissions in the UK power sector is welcome. But the politics is still lagging behind the science as this target doesn't come close enough to what is needed to prevent dangerous climate change.

"Worryingly the government has said it can use carbon offsetting to meet targets if we fail to cut emissions. This is a dangerous get-out-of-jail-free card which could be disastrous for the climate and for the world's poorest people. The government has to be completely committed to reducing our emissions here in the UK, not pass the buck onto developing countries.

"Ed Miliband's own department has previously acknowledged that we don't need new coal power stations to keep the lights on. So it's contradictory to see his continued claims that we need to build new coal power stations."

ENDS

For more information, please all Kate Blagojevic on 020 7820 4900 / 07711 875 345

Notes to editors
The...

Today, the World Development Movement condemns the G8 as an illegitimate institution that is making decisions on measures to tackle the climate and financial crises that will have disastrous effects on the world’s poor.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

"The G8 has no legitimacy, but it is making decisions on climate change and trade that will have disastrous effects on the world’s poorest people. This injustice is palpable and the G8 should be left for dead.”

Commenting on the announcement that the WTO deal will be completed next year, Deborah Doane said:

"The global economic crisis will not be fixed by more free trade sealed in a rushed deal at the WTO. The G8’s aim to avoid protectionism through a new WTO round is little more than a smokescreen to protect big business in G8 countries, at the expense of poor people. If our analysis of the financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that over-reliance on free market ideals harms labour, development and environmental standards around the world. Unfair free trade deals aren’t the answer: they are part of the problem.

Commenting on the measures to tackle climate change, Deborah Doane said:

"G8 countries emit 40% of...

With 2008 seeing the collapse of global markets, catapulting the world into financial turmoil, the global south suffered the greatest impact. Our groups, activists and supporters rallied in force to address the situation, working harder than ever to push the issues of trade, climate change and water to the top of political agendas.

Following on from years of successful campaigning on trade issues, 2008 brought in a new trade campaign focusing on the unjust European Union trade deals in negotiation with 34 emerging economies. Alongside this, the climate campaign continued to strengthen and achieve great successes. WDM campaigners kept the pressure on the UK government to address water rights, and stood in solidarity with the Phulbari community in Bangladesh facing destruction at the hands of a UK mine company.

The AGM brought about agreement on WDM’s ten year vision, and this is now the blueprint for our exciting and ambitious new direction.

I’d like to thank everyone for all your support this past year. Our greatest strength is our supporters and members. It is only through working together that we will achieve our shared belief that another world is possible.

Benedict Southworth...

Europe’s trade policies put big business before the interests of people and the environment.

They will particularly harm the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world: destroying jobs, small-scale industries and the livelihoods of small farmers, as well as increasing environmental exploitation and human rights abuses.

Inside Europe, these policies are undermining job security, privatising our public services and promoting the exploitation of migrant workers.

And all this is being done to help big business secure big profits.

Now there is a new Trade Commissioner and with the rest of the EU Commission due to be replaced in 2009, we have a chance for a new approach. We must start campaigning now to make them scrap the current policies and seize this opportunity to turn European trade around.

Join the growing resistance around the world and take action to change the way Europe trades.

Even before the banking collapse, the world’s poor were suffering from a global economic system that produced rising hunger, inequality and the threat of climate chaos. Led by rich countries and powerful institutions such as World Bank and IMF, the world has followed an unjust and unsustainable financial model fuelled by ever-increasing financial debt and a global environmental overdraft.

Now that the bubble has burst, people around the world are losing their jobs, homes and livelihoods. Predictably though, it is the people living in some of the world’s poorest countries who have been hit the hardest – despite being the least to blame for causing the crisis.

The world’s poor are feeling the impact of the financial crisis in four main ways:

• First, as banks stop lending, investment flows into emerging economies have evaporated, leaving governments short of funds and local enterprises lacking vital capital. Many banks in developing countries have been exposed to the same toxic debts as our own banks too.
• Second, as the rich countries plunge into recession, demand for goods from the South has plummeted, leading to surging unemployment in countries that have geared their economies around exporting to Europe and North America. The IMF has warned that...

Every year the UK alone creates enough electrical waste to fill Wembley stadium six times. Help reduce the amount of waste being dumped into landfills, by recycling your old phone today.

Greensource Solutions has teamed up with WDM so for every mobile phone, printer cartridge, PDA or item of IT equipment you recycle; they will make a donation to WDM.

It’s free, easy and allows you to do your bit for the environment whilst supporting WDM in the fight for global justice!

Call us on 020 7820 4900 or email supporterservices@wdm.org.uk to receive your free recycling envelopes.