The United States will allow the words “loss and damage” in the Paris accords only if it is agreed that the U.S. is not liable for paying for it. “Loss and damage” refers to compensation for countries already suffering from the impacts of climate change caused by more industrialized nations. We discuss the role of the U.S., China and other major countries at COP21 on this issue and on REDD, a mechanism meant to stem deforestation in countries such as Indonesia
Yoke Ling Chee talking:
Loss and damage is very much what we just heard Kandi talk about. I mean, when we say that climate change impacts on us, and we have to adapt, but there is a point where you cannot adapt anymore. For example, when the sea level rises on the coastal areas of small islands or Bangladesh or India or China, and the agricultural lands can no longer be used for planting our food, and it’s a permanent damage, there’s no way you can adapt. That’s loss and damage. When we have glacial melting, and there’s no way you can replace the ice because we have warmed it up too much, that’s loss and damage. And this is a specific aspect of permanent loss. Some of it, it can be slow over time.
And this is something that we fought hard three years ago to get as an acknowledgement that loss and damage has to be treated as a separate form of reparation. But the United States has refused at all to even allow the words “loss and damage” to appear. And the only way there may be a general reference will be to have a permanent waiver by countries here of any liability or compensation notion.
one of the things that Mr. Kerry said last night in the closed-door negotiations is that it is regrettable, but he cannot go back to Washington with a legally binding agreement that has got legal binding cuts in emissions or legally binding finance. So, we see the struggle for us in the South for reducing emissions, the same struggle as our brothers and sisters in the North, because what Kandi is talking about is, if we don’t have legally binding, then she is weaker in her fight in the United States, as we are in the rest of the world.
Ruth Nyambura talking:
REDD refers to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. So this is under the U.N., which basically—it’s basically a mechanism that deals with—that basically deals with forest loss and the amount of—you know, just basically forest loss, deforestation, all over the world, but specifically in the Global South, countries like Indonesia and Brazil, for example, which have had immense amounts of forest loss, be it from illegal loggers or just conversion of—just change of the use of forests to agriculture and to homes.
So, REDD is labeled as a solution to the climate crisis. That’s what we’ve—that’s what the United Nations, that’s what parties here would love us to believe. But it hasn’t been a solution to the climate crisis, because what we’ve seen is that it has given polluting countries in the developed world, and corporations, the ability to say that “I will continue to pollute, as long as I pay for forest rehabilitation in the Global South,” for example, yes.
So, at the very heart of it, before you even go further, the climate crisis has been caused by greenhouse gas emissions. So, it does not stop greenhouse gas emissions, because it clearly gives them—it gives them a path to say that “I will continue polluting, as long as I can solve something elsewhere.” So what we’ve seen, for example, in the case of Kenya in the Sengwer community, we’ve seen that indigenous people, mostly, are getting evicted from their land, because you’re getting in situations like the World Bank, the United Nations, countries—for example, Norway, you know—coming into governments and saying that “We’re going to give you this amount of money, $10 million, you know, for you to conserve the forest in this particular area.” But the way—we have to question the conservation model that we now have.
they conserve it by One is moving people out. Two is—two is, actually, because, you know, the United Nations considered monocultures and tree plantations as forests, which is absolutely false. A forest is a rich ecosystem. It’s not just trees that you plant. Most of the trees also being planted are not indigenous to the area. It’s trees like pine and eucalyptus that take up so much water and completely change the ecosystem in the area.
And another thing, with conservation efforts, type such as this, it’s basically—and I’m sure Kandi would agree with this, this whole idea that indigenous people or local people or people from the Global South don’t know how—don’t value nature, don’t value their ecosystems. We’ve been protecting our ecosystems for thousands of years. So it’s basically coming in and saying that “We know what is best. You don’t know what is best.”
I live in a space where the effects of the climate crisis can be felt. But also, adding onto that, you cannot criminalize the right of people to protest. You cannot do that. So, for us, beyond saying that we must stand for climate justice, that we have the solutions, we have the alternatives, it’s basically also speaking up—speaking out against the criminalization of dissent, that we can see in this building, because it’s heavily militarized—it’s almost like entering a police station—in this space, the COP, the militarization by corporations and also by our governments back home. So it’s saying no to that.
Yoke Ling Chee talking:
There’s a lot of talk about transparency. But one of the most awful things that has happened in Paris started in Bonn in October. It’s cutting observers from the negotiation rooms. When we’re not there to watch which country is saying what—the real truth and not the media hype that’s going on—it’s very important for us to fight to be able to know what’s happening inside, so that we can all, inside and outside, really let the people know which are the real blockers among the different countries and governments and who—where the corporate power is so strong. So our work will continue to be inside and outside, but we will have to mobilize a lot of public opinion, definitely.
_____________
Yoke Ling Chee
legal adviser to the Third World Network based in Malaysia.
Ruth Nyambura
Kenyan political ecologist, part of the African Ecofeminist Collective.
— source democracynow.org