GCAP Policy Guidelines on Climate Change

The United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Bali, Indonesia from December 3-14. The Conference, hosted by the Government of Indonesia, will bring together representatives of over 180 countries with observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations as well as the media. The two-week period includes the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC, its subsidiary bodies, as well as the Meeting of the Parties (MOP) of the Kyoto Protocol. A Ministerial segment in the second week will conclude the Conference.

These meetings provide an important opportunity to combine GCAP’s mobilisation with some targeted political messaging.  The aim is to highlight the concerns and demands of GCAP constituencies calling for focused, concrete actions and policy reforms guaranteeing improvements in climate and natural environment.

This occasion has also been identified by many civil society organisations as a key moment for lobbying and campaigning on climate change and presenting clear demands for policies and actions dealing with the current climate chaos. Many GCAP partners including GCAP Indonesia are involved in activities - mainly through the specially established CSO Forum in Indonesia.  Greater detail on these events is available at the official website of these events www.unfccc.int and GCAP actions on www.whiteband.org.

December 8^th has been nominated Global Day of Action Against Climate Change. The day coincides with the COP/MOP meetings taking place in Bali, Indonesia from 3-14 December. We urge GCAP national platforms to write to or visit  senior ministers or Heads of State demanding urgent action on climate change.

This document provides policy guidelines to GCAP Member coalitions, partners and supporters to include in the policy asks, petitions or any other actions that they are planning to take on the global day of action.
These could be included by national coalitions in the form of letters to their Finance/ Development Ministers ahead of Bali Meetings, in media communiqués, in petitions to be presented to heads of state or other senior political figures by national delegations, in campaigning material and in publicity toolkits produced for the Day of Global Action on December 8th. National coalitions are encouraged to add their own more specific national asks.

We believe:

• That the climate is changing at a dangerous rate and we support the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that human activities are causing these changes.
• That poverty and climate change are inextricably linked and that one cannot be tackled without addressing the other.
• That the impact of climate change is already contributing to greater poverty and inequality in some of the world’s poorest countries and communities.
• That industrialization and carbon-intensive lifestyles in rich countries have led to increased poverty and inequality in poor countries. Therefore, tackling climate change is an issue of justice.
• That women living in poor countries are disproportionately affected by changes in the climate, as they are most vulnerable to the shocks that affect food, water and fuel resources.
• That the lives and livelihoods of millions of people are being steadily destroyed by denying them rights to land, water, forest and natural resources and energy. Further that climate change is exacerbating this and that floods, droughts, famine and conflict resulting from climate change are threatening the development goals for billions of the world’s poorest people.
  

GCAP is calling for:

1. Strengthen the United Nations’ overall system of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) to protect forests, fisheries, biodiversity, fragile ecosystems, and endangered species. 
2. Adopt a UN Covenant on the Right to Water, which will be in ever shorter supply due to accelerating climate change and entrenched patterns of unsustainable development, to clarify the role of governments to provide clean, affordable water to all citizens. The UN Covenant must recognize water as an ecological trust and oblige governments to take bold actions to ensure water conservation and water quality, as well as water equity.
3. The UN to urgently agree ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions and to find the funding necessary to meet these targets.
4. Action by the international community and national governments  to address climate change and its impacts in particular on people living in poverty.
5. A minimum target of an 80% reduction in global carbon emissions by 2050
6. Immediate agreements on increased funding for poor nations to adapt to climatic changes. Further that these commitments must be over and above any existing international aid commitments.
7. the long-industrialised countries, that have emitted most greenhouse gases up to now, take most of the responsibility for the adaptive measures that have to be taken, especially by low-emitting countries with limited economic resources.National governments, in choosing development paths for the next decade, must avoid being locked in to a high-carbon infrastructure and should instead strive for a low-carbon economy. Further that such decisions are open for scrutiny and involve citizens and civil society organizations.
8. Rich countries dramatically cut their greenhouse emissions and provide additional finance (beyond their 0.7 per cent aid commitments) to support developing countries in adapting to the effects of climate change.
9. All northern government should phase out their investments in oil production and devote resources to investments in genuinely renewable energy resource development.
   
10. An agreement on a post-Kyoto framework that reflected the historical responsibilities for carbon emissions and the capability of nations to adapt measures suggested in the framework. 
11. Acknowledge that climate change restricts poor countries’ ability to meet the targets set in the Millennium Development Goals.

Annexure – A: Fact Sheet on Climate Change

What is Climate Change?

The current climate crisis has reached an alarming scale. The magnitude of its catastrophic effects on people, natural life, land, water and forest resources are enormous and in many cases irreversible. The current drastic changes and radicalization of climate patterns have proved the point that not all these changes are minimal or manageable any more. Enough scientific data, empirical evidence and clear indicators are available now to support this argument. It is now past the point of debate that climatic changes caused by humans have overtaken natural fluctuations in the climate and that this is having serious consequences for people and the planet. This current state of affairs clearly demands urgent, collective and focused interventions from all sides.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the worlds leading independent body on climate change, believes that human activities are already affecting some natural systems. Their reports state that unmitigated climate change would, in the long term, be likely to exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human systems to adapt.  The climate is constantly changing but scientists are concerned that global warming caused by humans has overtaken natural fluctuations in climate and that this is having serious consequences for people and the planet.

The link between poverty and climate change
Poverty and climate change are intrinsically linked and one cannot be tackled without addressing the other. It is clear that the poor are increasingly most directly affected by the catastrophic impacts of climate change.

People living in the poorest countries of the world such as Bangladesh and Niger will be, and already are, most affected by flooding, cyclones, deforestation, land losses and desertification causing destruction to human, animal and plant lives, famines, displacements, reduction in food production, losses of human and animal habitats and multiple other serious threats to the life and livelihood of millions on this planet.

It is also clear that if a third of the planet’s population continues to live in poverty and cannot afford clean energy sources and sustainable livelihood resources, this will increase the pressure on land, water, forests and other natural resources, exacerbating climate change.

Climate change will affect the income-generating capacity of vulnerable populations potentially increasing the number of people experiencing hunger. 
 
What can be done?

Donor countries can play a key role by paying their fair share of climate adaptation costs to Africa other developing regions.

Enabling poor countries to adapt is therefore actually a means of mitigating climate change itself.

Adopting responsible and environmental friendly measures, industrial practices and other trade and environmental friendly plans and actions especially by the northern countries.

Addressing climate change is an issue of justice, not charity.
 

The facts:

• Greenhouse gas emissions have caused global temperatures to rise by .74 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the 20th century. If these gasses are not reduced it is likely the increase in global temperature this century will exceed 2 degrees. It is estimated that 60% of current human migration is caused by climate change and natural disasters.
• The melting of glaciers increases the risk of flooding.  The rise in sea levels could oblige the forced displacement of over 200 million people.
• Harvests will continue to decrease particularly in Africa. By 2100 Chad, Niger and Zambia risk losing their entire agricultural sector.
• The health impact of climate change on the poor is extreme.  The health impact of decreased access to clean water alone will be catastrophic. Diarrhea caused by lack of access to clean water is already responsible for the deaths of 5 million people (90% of whom are children).
• At current rates, by 2015 around 2.170 million people around the world will still lack basic health services and 650 million will not have access to drinking water. Climatic changes risk exacerbating these problems, as resources are devoted elsewhere and drinking water supplies are affected.
• The lives and livelihoods of millions of people are being steadily destroyed by denying them rights over land, water, forest, natural resources and energy. Climate Change is exacerbating this. Floods, droughts, famine and conflicts resulting from climate change also threaten the development goals for billions of the world's poorest people.