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rising tide political statement
Maintainer: jan bargen, Version 1, 23.01.2001
Projekt-Typ: halboffen
Status: Archiv
(1) Rising Tide is a coalition of groups and individuals committed to a grassroots approach to fighting climate change. The coalition believes that the official United Nations (UN) negotiations are failing to resolve the climate change crisis. Instead, global equity and the environment are being marginalised by the dominance of corporate interests.
(2) Equity and just transition policies, between and within countries, should be at the heart of any proposed solutions to climate change. Historically, "developed" nations have had a greater negative effect on the atmosphere which amounts to an 'ecological debt'. These historical polluters should reduce emissions proportional to this debt and assist other countries in dealing with the effects of climate change who, are not responsible historically for its causes
(3) Diversity. Those most severely affected by climate change are being silenced by the official process. "Developing" nations, island states, local communities, indigenous peoples, children and environmental and economic refugees are all marginalised in the UN negotiations. On the other hand transnational corporations are over-represented, undermining the UN negotiations and transforming the Kyoto Protocol into a totally inadequate response to the problem. Therefore the coalition believes in participatory democracy where all voices of the excluded can be heard. Anti-sexism and anti-racism is at the core of all Rising Tide’s principles and actions
(4) Effectiveness. The targets agreed by industrialised nations in the Kyoto Protocol - an average 5.2% reduction of carbon emissions by 2010-12 - dangerously underestimates what is needed. The Rising Tide coalition believes that a minimum of 60% immediate reductions with further reductions thereafter, as proposed by the UN’s own scientists (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), is necessary to stabilise the Earth’s climate. The coalition believes the effectiveness of any solution proposed by the UN will be undermined by the process of economic globalisation, as promoted through the policies of international institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Bank. This economic process is deeply unsustainable and exacerbates climate change in its accelerating demand for the consumption of fossil fuels.
(5) · An end to new fossil fuel exploration, with a shift to energy saving and ecologically sound energy sources. This should be part of a move away from over-consumption and towards a society with the environment and people at the centre. · Effective reductions in Greenhouse gas emissions at source, particularly locating responsibility with the energy industry and its unsustainable practices. · Current and future support for environmental refugees. · Equal rights for all human beings to a sustainable use of the Earth's atmosphere, with equal per capita allocation of carbon emissions for everyone.
(6) · Nuclear energy as a “solution” to the climate change crisis. · Carbon emissions trading. · Carbon emission sinks, such as forests, being used as a way to escape responsibility for reductions. The Rising Tide coalition will take action until the threats of climate change have been resolved in an equitable and effective way.