Statement of Non Governmental Organizations
To The Informal Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change
Bogor- Indonesia, 24 October 2007
Honorable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We, representatives of some Indonesian NGOs, including a coalition of NGOs
in Bali concerned about climate change issues would like to share our concerns
about climate justice. Indeed Indonesia is an example of a country is already
and will be a victim of climate change. We have been accused of damaging our
forests that are important for the global community, yet Indonesia is being
eyed as a long-term source of raw materials for the aggressive growth of the
global industrial complex with no due regard to the recurrent catastrophes and
threat to sustainability of our communities.
Many developing countries face the same situation. Who is going to
ameliorate the sufferings of these affected countries and people? Clearly,
there is a need for a fund for reconstruction, which goes beyond that for
adaptation. This is an issue of development and human rights, and that of
humanitarian assistance, which goes beyond the charity notions of aid. The
answer to this question is that those countries with the greatest
responsibility for historical and continuing greenhouse gas emissions who have
sufficient wealth that defines their capacity to act.
Hence, for a post 2012 regime, there has to be agreement on the
burden-sharing principles between the North and South in avoiding climate
catastrophe.
Action between now and then must also be governed by the principles of
historical responsibility and the capacity to act.
An important issue is whether and how we can find a sustainable
development pathway for developing countries that includes not only a climate
protection pathway, but also a pathway to improve the living standards of our
people and to alleviate poverty within an ecological framework, and enables
new policies for agriculture, industry, trade and finance.
For this, mitigation efforts must be integrally linked to the design of
the development pathway. Hence, the following issues are critical
The need for coherence in policies at both the international and
national levels. In relation to the international level, policy coherence
is critical in the WTO, IMF and the World Bank with the fulfillment
human civil, politics, economics, social, and cultural rights as well as
with the climate change regime and sustainable development. Coherence
should be around sustainable development and climate change and not
around trade. This also requires coherence in developed country policies
as well.
Instead of advancing such coherence, mercantilist policies are being
pursued through the international financial institutions with aid
conditionality, and in the WTO and Free Trade Agreements to open up the
economies of the developing countries that undermine sustainable development.
How can developing countries put priority in integrating climate change
into national policies when international policies and measures exacerbate
poverty and inequity, including through the displacement of small farms and
firms and loss of access over natural resources to powerful foreign
corporations? Such so-called free trade policies enhance climate
vulnerability as the poor lack the resources to adapt or be resilient to
climatic changes.
There is a need to solve the problem of odious debts of developing
countries. The payments of these debts have long been done by damaging
natural resources and social support systems of communities leaving them
vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Moreover, for developing countries to undertake a mitigation pathway
that enables the rapid domestic deployment of climate friendly
technologies, requires changes to the way in which technology transfer is
managed and governed. Many of us in the South believe that there cannot
be a strict requirement to comply with intellectual property rights that
profits monopolies if we are to succeed. We must find a way to breakdown
the barriers to rapid deployment of clean technologies that the poor can
afford.
It is also fundamental to undertake lifestyle changes especially in
the North and among the elites of the South at the expenses of natural
resources and majority of poor populations. We cannot afford to maintain
the position that the lifestyles of the rich are not up for negotiation.
We have to live simply so that others can simply live!
In relation to the technology options for mitigation, we have very
serious concerns over nuclear energy, genetically modified trees, carbon
capture and storage and biofuels for environmental and safety reasons. We
consider that these are not ways out to combat global warming, but
endangering environment and poor populations.
.We therefore appeals to governments of the North to seriously address
these matters. We also appeal to the Southern leaders to begin to take
the necessary steps for a post Kyoto framework, recognizing that
this requires fundamental changes in the South and in the North.
Finally, some final last words. Bali is just a few weeks away. We have
reasonable expectation that all of the delegates present at this informal
ministerial meeting are going to return to Bali with the least NIMBY/egoistic
position of the individual states.
Nevertheless, we should remind ourselves that with our all-out efforts up
to COP13 in Bali, we are still using an extremely narrow language of policy
and action, way beyond the grasp and imagination of the ordinary people.
Beyond the procedural and global action scheduling grids of the UNFCCC since
COP13, we must confront the new social and ecological externalities that the
fuel-switching and other technological fix formulas we currently are pushing
will impose unevenly across the globe, of which we in the South are going to
absorp most of the brunt.
The post-2012 is contingently depending on your stance: whether you want
to maintain the BAU economic expansion model, or whether you really care to
our people back home. The most critical front for Bali and beyond remains
whether we care to realize a thorough and meaningful political, economic and
fiscal reform in our own country.
Thank you.
Read by:
Farah Sofa
Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI)
http://csoforum.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=1
On Behalf of :
WALHI/Friends of the Earth Indonesia
The Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Yayasan KEHATI)
Indonesian Peoples Forum (IPF).
Masyarakat Penanggulangan Bencana Indonesia (MPBI).
Sawit Watch
Satu Dunia
Sekretariat Bersama Indonesia Berseru (SBIB)
Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN)
Bali Climate Change (collaboration of Bali Organic Association, PPLH,
Walhi Bali Chapter, Yayasan Wisnu)
CUSO Indonesia
Federasi Serikat Petani Indonesia
Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI)
GEF SGP Indonesia
Greenpeace South East Asia
Indonesian Centre for Environmental Law (ICEL)
Institut Hukum Sumber Daya Alam (IHSA)
Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR)
Jaringan Advokasi Tambang (JATAM)
Lembaga Alam Tropika Nasional (LATIN)
NASTARI
RACA Institute
Solidaritas Perempuan
TELAPAK
The Foundation of Indonesian Institute of Energy Economics (IIEE)
TIFA Foundation
World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF)
Yayasan Burung Indonesia
Yayasan Kelompok Masyarakat Pengelola Sumberdaya Alam (KEMALA)
Yayasan Pelangi Indonesia (PELANGI)
Yayasan Pembangunan Berkelanjutan (YPB)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM (CSF) FOR
CLIMATE JUSTICE
The Initiation of CSF for Climate Justice
Civil Society Forum (CSF) for Climate Justice s a consensus built at a
meeting of several Indonesian civil society organizations (CSOs) regarding the
COP 13/CMP 3 on May 21, 2007. The meeting was elaborating the importance of
consolidation among Indonesia CSOs towards the COP 13/CMP 3 of UNFCCC in Bali
on 3-14 December 2007.
At the beginning there were 19 organizations attended and agreed on a
decision to form the CSF that will organize programs and activities prior to,
during and post to the COP 13 both inside and outside the UN system. More
organizations were later committed to join CSF two months after the initial
meeting. There are 30 organizations were committed to this forum. Since CSF on
Climate Justice is an open forum, the opportunity for any parties, both NGOs
or individual, to commit and engage the forum is remain open.
Seven CSOs are agreed to collectively take responsibility to organize
CSF activities, referred to as the Forum Dynamics Team (FTD). The CSFs FTD
comprises Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesian (WALHI), Masyarakat
Penanggulangan Bencana Indonesian (MPBI), Yayasan Kelompok Masyarakat
Pengelola Sumberdaya Alam (KEMALA), Yayasan Keanekaragaman Hayati Indonesia
(KEHATI), Sawit Watch, SatuDunia and Sekretariat Bersama Indonesia Berseru
(SBIB).
Objectives of CSF for Climate Justice
Climate change is a fact and inevitable. Ordinary people are bearing
witness to highly intensive anomaly of climate and weather throughout
Indonesia and directly receive impacts of such phenomenon. More importantly
is, climate change is an in equivocal proof failure of the global development
model to secure safety of global citizens, to protect productivity of people
in the developing world to meet their quality of life, and to enhance people
capacity in maintaining the ecological services.
The global orchestrated efforts for the past twelve years for reducing
impact of the global warming must depart from conscious recognition towards
ongoing failures of the growth oriented development model. Therefore, critical
evaluation towards the global political-economy supported by various
multilateral political instruments is becoming an urgent need to cope with
recurrent North-South inequality and intergeneration injustice and massive
scale of corruption particularly in the developing world as by product of such
political-economy. To better understand the aforementioned context and to
convey some key counter arguments of solution are objectives of CSF for
Climate Justice towards UNFCCC.
CSF for Climate Justice Initiatives are strategic stepping stones toward
real action for permanent settlement of the ongoing recurrent suffers
burdening vast population of Indonesia. The forum will accommodate interests
of CSOs and People Organizations (POs), particularly those are voicing the
vulnerable communities towards political processes at the UNFCCC meeting.
Strong movement has to be initiated to push the Government of Indonesia to be
more relevant to the reality of the vulnerable and highly impacted
communities.
More specifically, key immediate objectives of the CSF are:
Raise and build public awareness on impacts of climate change in
Indonesia;
Strengthen solidarity amongst CSOs to respond climate change politics
at the national, regional, and international level;
Facilitate voices of the vulnerable communities in COP 13/CMP 3 of
UNFCCC event in Bali; and,
Provide key counter arguments for putting the vulnerable communitys
interest first to the government regarding its political position in
UNFCCC
CSF Activities
The CSF for Climate Justice will organize series of activity prior to,
during, and post of COP 13/CMP 3 of UNFCCC. The activities cover four major
concerns:
Human security
Productivity and Consumption
Debt, including ecological debt
Land Use
For further information on CSF for Climate Justice, please contact:
Puji Sumedi : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Rini Nasution (international) : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Secretariat of Civil Society Forum
Jl. Mampang Prapatan VI No. 67 Jakarta Selatan Indonesia
T. 62-21-7919 8410
F. 62-21-7919 0139
E. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
M. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
W. www.csoforum.net
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