Ecological debt, climate change and human and nature rights

REDEFINING CLIMATE CHANGE AND CLIMATE JUSTICE
Ivonne Yanez, OILWATCH

But also climate change is becoming a new ideology, with this own economic, political and juridical system,

Climate change is becoming a new and dangerous ideology, as danger as itself. It could represent death for millions but also it is the new XXIst century ideology with mass adoctrination, through media, propaganda and other mechanisms; and could cause enormous problems because diverts the attention out of what is behind it.

• Climate change ideology push us to a new collective memory that, using its own technoscience, economy, laws, or philosophy,  represents a false reality, that avoids key questions. I am talking about fossil fuels of course, but more over, avoids a change in the system.
• Climate change ideology pretends to be conserved, and for that we need to adapt as the darwinist ideology, pretends that only the more capable can survive.
• Climate change new ideology obligate us to have a false conscience that clean development mechanisms, REDD, GMO or so on, are true solutions.  It tries to make us think that market can to solve the problem created by itself.
• Climate change ideology, through a shock doctrine, as Naomi Klein says, coerce us to have new debts, for mitigación, or for adaptation.
• Climate change within this ideology will be the justification for the new forms of control, for example environmental services markets that, for me, are even worst than oil activities.
• And, among other things, Climate change is used by this ideology, as a lubricant for new debts, a  traditional mechanism of domination against Southern peoples.

Regarding debt, this relation is not new. Debt is an intrinsic part of climate change for many reasons:

• Climate change is caused by extraction and consumption of hydrocarbons. Many of these activities are financed by credits that we are obligated to pay; these are illegitimate debts because they cause social and environmental problems.
• To pay those credits we need to extract more oil, gas or coal
• And we have to take loans for reparations of the damages provoked by climate disasters
• And, because of climate disasters, now we will ask loans to mitigate and to adapt

But also, another sort of debt takes the scenario. The historical, social and ecological debt, because of the past emissions since 150 years ago, the impacts of climate disasters or even because the Kioto flexible mechanisms implementation impacts.

In front of this we have many options. Choose by different people, and depending of to whom we are looking we have:

Opportunism: Lets make money until the carbon trade bubble blow up.

Fashionism: lets talk about low carbon economies, green jobs, an even they are taqlking about climate justice, emptied of the real meaning of it.

Modest conformism: Asking for an agreed commitment or well regulated mechanisms.

Pragmatism. Things could be worst, and we can only try to save the protocol, and call for more participation of indigenous peoples and other local communities.

Indigenism: Put an indigenous people photo besides anything. An eolic project, a tree plantation, a CDM project, a REDD poster, or an agrofuel plantation.

Confortable altruism: Rich should pay poor countries to achieve a low carbon economy.

Anticapitalism: lets finish with capitalism, but do not considere that the problem is not only finish with social class struggle and consumerism.

Enthusiasm: Asking for climate justice, but meaning northern countries should give money to the southern countries to adapt and to pay because of the impacts, but deniyng that we can be reproducing the model, and mantaining the system. 

Radicalism: Seattling Copenhague, and I think that it not too bad.

Others that I could not find a name right now, but we can do it together.

But one think is may be certain, in front of reality, climate disasters or climate ideology, we need to be strong.

As Oilwatch, we are making a new ecological call, to build a new post oil civilization, that should lead us to the idea of emancipation. Emancipation meaning liberation. Freedom  from oppression.

- Debt Oppression and  
- Emancipation from fossil fuels.
- Create peoples and territories free form oil, coal or gas.
- Declare a coalition of countries or nations of ANEXE 0, countries with not carbon at all.

And to start this path, we need to strenght the principle that the Mother Earth, the Nature is
a subject of rights.
Stop criminalize, blame and punish to her.
And to deviel that with all the false solutions to climate change, including endebtness for  mitigation and adaptation is a sort of re-victimization of nature as a victim.
We have to discharge her of any fault.

And we need to redefine Climate Justice, because is being corrupted. Climate justice is not a matter of “polluter pays” only, or “fair carbon market” with fair prices of carbon tonnes, neither equity and technology transfer full of IPR. Climate justice is so see efective
rulling for the climate crimes, jail por the guilty, and of course reparations for the victims, people and nature, with the promise that the crime will not be repeated.

The challenge is to find the way to achieve this. Justice in our own hands, denoting that we are going to take the solutions. Leaving fossil fuels underground, protecting effectively ou forests, struggling in defence of our traditional agriculture. And claiming for the erection of instances that can obligate industrialised countries to low their emission radically and to restitute the ecological debt. For example a sort of Southern International Monetary Fund that could say: “we, southern countries, we are not to send you more resources, until apply a Estructural Adjustment Plan that force you to climb down the consumption, and to restitute the historical, social and ecological debt to us.

Ivonne Yanez
OILWATCH SUDAMERICA