Oilwatch SouthEast Asia - The alternative G8 summit Statement

The climate crises finds its root causes in the energy crises,
over-consumption of natural reources by the global North and elites
worlwide, wasteful and harmful production patterns and a fundamentally
undemocratic and anti-social way of managing natural resources, which
systematically prevented local communities from their sovereignity on
their own resources and development choices.

The story of the extractive industry has been the story of crude
exploitation that defies boundaries of decency. Pristine environments,
nature reserves, indigenous territories and biodiversity hotspots have
not been respected by oil and mining corporations which have benefited
of massive profits without giving reparation and enjoying immunity.

The resistance of local communities against large-scale mining and
fossil fuel development is part of their historical struggle against the
neo-liberal economic framework which continues to bring sufferings and
injustice to the people. In many instances, the aggressive entry of
large-scale mining and energy have violated the human rights and other
rights of local communities, particularly the indigenous peoples and
nature's rights. These human rights violations are reflected in the
forced physical and cultural displacements of communities, the
misinterpretation or misuse of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC),
the division of social relationships, and the loss of livelihoods and
access to natural resources.

No global climate deal fixing general emission reduction targets in the
long-term will be enough to tackle the climate emergency and
responsibilities of those who generated it. Current climate talks do not
refer to the need to implement different energy, transport, housing,
agriculture policies and new approaches in other sectors of society. Nor
do they foster the need to consume less, in particular in Northern
countries. The global climate narrative is taking us away from the main
goal that any action should have: to extract and consume less and less
fossil fuels.

The Northern countries must adopt drastic changes in their consumption
patterns and lifestyles, that will reduce the demands for energy and
minerals. In turn this will eliminate the pressures from Southern
countries to allocate lands for large-scale mining and fossil fuel
development, thus reducing current harsh conflicts over land use.
At the same time a radical transition out of the oil economy would stop
plans for new large scale infrastructure, such as pipelines, refineries
and transport facilities, connnected to the fossil fuel industry.

The G8 approach to the climate crises remains limited and confined in
the territory of market based mechanisms and the primacy of the private
sector. This approach has already proved to be a failure and to favour
only corporations to accumulate more profits, does not pay for
reparation for damages to the environment and communities generated so
far and avoid transforming their business.

In a responsible and mature manner international social movements are
proposing instead a comprehensive bottom-up strategy to tackle climate
change, centred on individual, communities and public institutions'
responsibilities and aimed at limiting corporations' capacity to avoid
their legal and ethical responsibilities.

There are thousands of alternative practices at community and local
administration's level and already several policy proposals at local,
national and international level have been tabled as part of this
bottom-up strategy. Without public policies in the public interest
transforming any sector of society no climate strategy will be effective
and no just transition towards a sustainable and fair society will happen.

PHASING OUT THE OIL ECONOMY

Oil driven economics have led the world into unprecedented levels of
diverse crises, wars and other conflicts, corrruption as well as other
catastrophes that have been displaced from sources to their victims, who
are found mostly in the South. Oil has been presented as a cheap energy
source, but the truth is that the real cost of oil has been externalised
and the burden has been placed on impoverished local communities as well
as on the environment. Without realising it, the world has become
addicted to crude oil and its derivatives in a way that virtually stuffs
petroleum into our bodies. This addiction must be broken.

Carbon emissions should be drastically reduced and a transition to a
different model of production and consumption is urgently needed in
order to break the dependency of our economy on fossil fuels extraction.
Oil extraction hardly ever brings benefits to the local communities and
to the poor. To the contrary, it is a threat to food security and human
rights of indigenous and local people.

The current market value of the oil is far less than the massive climate
and ecological debt the product has accumulated. We declare that the oil
economy is a bankrupt system that needs to be urgently jettisoned. Oil
should be kept in the soil as the safest, most democratic and cheaper
“carbon capture and storage”. Ecuadorian proposal not to extract oil in
the Yasuni park and the Nigeria proposal to stop new oil exploration
should be supported.

Keeping oil in the ground is a necessary condition to stop deforestation
and protect natural forests, where most of new oil reserves are located.

STOPPING THE NEW OIL FRONTIER

Gluttony of energy makes the companies move onto new sources, such as
tar sands and bitumen. These new frontiers of oil extraction are
economically, environmentally and socially unsustainable and
irresponsible. By using huge water, energy and land they cause
irreversible damage to the environment and the climate, which is
unprecedented in history. This new extraction causes more impacts than
oil and it is set to raise new levels of conflicts and nature
devastation. Even with the addition of these dirtier sources of oil, the
unsatiable energy appetite will still not be satisfied.

In order to achieve the needed shift in our economy there should not be
new oil exploration, both in the South and in the North. Governments
should stop putting the private interest of oil companies before the
public interest and the fundamental rights of communities in the South
and in the North.

Today as access to new fields become more difficult, oil corporations
are moving further into deep waters. Moving to deep waters may limit
direct conflict with local communities but they pose great dangers of
further polluting our global marine heritage. Exploitation in deep
waters is also known to release higher levels of greenhouse gases thus
further jeopardising the world climate. We demand that further oil
explorations should be halted forthwith for the sake of the climate and
for the sake of our collective patrimony.

STOP UNDER-MINING LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

It is necessary to clearly distinguish between traditional, indigenous,
artisanal small-scale mining and large-scale mining. We have observed
and documented that destructive large-scale mining is incompatible to
many of the cultural systems of indigenous peoples and local communities.

In almost all large-scale mining operations and projects, there is lack
of proper and genuine consultations with the communities who are going
to be affected. In cases where public consultations are allegedly
conducted, these are often superficial, not culturally-sensitive, biased
and are in some cases, misleading or coercive. There have been too many
documented cases of mining companies resorting to bribery of communities
and employing “divide-and-rule” tactics.

There is a need for a serious assessment of what are the needs of
society that justify the extraction of large volumes and quantities of
minerals. In the case of gold, less than 5% is actually used for
industrial purposes, about 65% is used for jewelry and ornaments, and
about 30% are retained as gold reserves by national banks. An
alternative framework on large-scale mining should be based on the
rational need of the country for these minerals, the direct link of
using these minerals for national industrialization, and ensuring the
least impact of these mining operations on the rights of the communities
and people and to the environment. Food security and sovereignty should
always be prioritized as well as ecological balance, equity and social
justice. There shall be no compromise on human rights, dignities and
collectivities. In the context, the option of keeping the minerals in
the ground becomes a possibility.

There is a need to expose the myth of “Responsible Mining”. This concept
was a back-up framework of the International Council on Mines and
Minerals (ICMM), after their original concept of “Sustainable Mining”
was successfully debunked by many civil society organizations and
movements. Responsible mining is a weak concept because it relies on
voluntary compliance of mining companies, it highly depends on the
ability of governments to enforce legal policies, it fails to address
issues of corporate and state corruption, and merely gives token
recognition to safeguards such as EIAs, FPICs, etc.).

Upholding the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and
prioritizing community-based and community-initiated development and
management of resources should be the priority of social movements.
While we continue to work in solidarity with countries in the North,
community organizing and strengthening should always be given due
importance. Capacities of indigenous peoples and local communities
should be developed and strengthened to make them more capable of
resisting development aggression. The same capacities will also enable
them to identify, develop and implement appropriate and sustainable
alternatives.

RECLAIMING PUBLIC POLICIES FOR THE COMMON GOOD

Time is running out and it is no more time for inactions or for
embarking on the same journeys that led the world into the current
crises. The climate debate must be reframed. Real actions such as moving
away from over consumption is one path to take. It needs to be
recognised that market frameworks have failed miserably on the financial
and economic front and cannot help in tackling climate change. Carbon
trading is not the solution, but risks to exhacerbate the problem.

Governments should stop once and for all to promote corporate interests
and promote public policies aimed at supporting a different economic
model centred on a sustainable use of natural recources, to reduce
consumption, to consume mainly local productions, to protect the
environment and human rights, including the rights of directly affected
communities to choose how to manage the resources of their own territories.

Resources needed for financing such a change should be generated through
fair, transparent and progressive taxation. At international level
resources should not be allocated to international financial
institutions which are still heavily supporting irresponsible mining
activities and fossil fuel development worldwide.

The lifestyle change must also lead us to use sustainable local
materials in tune with climate and weather realities in any productive
sector of society, including building houses. This requires the simple
acts of waste reduction, reusing and recycling. Technologies and new
practices are not missing at all, the issue is democracy in the access
to them and the need for social and just policies which guarantee access
to all in the appropriate manner and in a democratic and controlled way,
putting at the centre the communities and their right to decide which
development to follow in the respect of nature and human rights.

An urgent transition to a post carbon economy is needed. Leaving new oil
in the soil, coal in the hole and tar sand in the land is the right path
to take now. It is time for the payment of ecological debt that the
North owe to the South, that the rich owe to the poor!

The world needs to move to renewable, clean, and decentralized energy
sources and meeting energy needs should not subvert food sovereignty.
The world must move away from the fossil fuel intensive forms of
industrial agriculture and rather support small holder farmers and
agro-ecological approaches which have been shown to be more suitable and
more productive than genetically engineered crops and others that depend
on artificial chemical inputs.

The thinking that agrofuels are renewable energy sources and can replace
fossil fuels is faulty and has already contributed to the food crisis,
significant human rights violations and has triggerred massive land
grabs estimated at 30 million hectares of land in the global South in
attempts to meet energy and food needs of rich regions. This is a new
form of colonialism that the world cannot afford. Therefore the struggle
for food sovereignity should go hand in hand with the one of communities
for their energy sovereignity.

We have to resist corporate globalization.

Building movements toward this end is very crucial as we pursue a common
agenda for sustainable futures based on social justice, economic justice
and ecological justice. There is a need to build or strengthen alliances
among communities and support groups that are working on the issue of
large-scale mining and fossil fuel extraction.

Coordination of actions at the global level is needed, as large-scale
mining companies and oil and energy majors are some of the biggest and
most sophisticated corporate structures, and have close links with
international and multilateral financing institutions.

These venues and mechanisms of generating international solidarity are
important links for local communities to elevate their struggles for a
better and more just world which will respect nature and its rights.

Finally, we state that the G8 cannot decide for the world. The people must!