AS many people anticipated, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21)—deemed the last chance for an urgent agreement to address climate change—has again failed the people and future generations. Instead of providing solutions, COP21 has negotiated a future that is still on the path to heating the Earth from 3 to 7 degrees Celsius (°C) within this century.
Top polluters led by the United States, the European Union, Japan, Russia and China dominated the climate negotiations and have imposed their will on the rest of the world.
In 2015, the Earth has already heated up to 1°C above pre-Industrial Revolution era levels. In order to meet the 1.5°C target and avert a catastrophic, runaway climate shift, the scientific consensus states that we should maintain a 350 parts per million (ppm) greenhouse gas concentrations in our atmosphere. On November 2015, we are in the very alarming 400.16 ppm.
COP21 has just missed that 1.5°C target, as negotiators failed to ensure legally binding, obligatory, and drastic GHG emission cuts from the top polluter countries and corporations, such as the industries of fossil fuel and mineral extraction, power generation, transportation, and agri-industrial plantations.
While the agreement encourages the development of alternative and clean energy for climate mitigation and adaptation, industrialized countries will continue to dictate its governing framework and regulations. Technology transfer to poor and developing countries is still contingent on the prerogative and conditions of the advanced capitalist countries.
Expect the rampant promotion of “clean coal,” nuclear power, mega dam, and carbon capture and storage technologies as part of the climate mitigation efforts. These dirty, dangerous and false technological solutions are part and parcel of the corporate greenwash that will allow for a “more business than usual” approach.
It is time to stop looking at COP21 with rose-colored glasses. Governments, for 21 times, have apparently ignored sound science and calls for justice and relegated billions of the world’s people to a very grave future.
In the Philippines, indigenous people, peasants, and environmental groups have successfully stopped large-scale mining projects. Local government units have issued laws to stop the entry of mining corporations. Maoist guerrillas and indigenous groups that have declared pangayaw (tribal war) against development projects and their military and private troops are preventing the entry and expansion of mining corporations, agricultural plantations, and commercial logging operations.
The whole range of people’s struggles contribute to keeping the remaining fossil fuels under the ground, protecting our forest from deforestation, and preventing the pollution of our rivers and seas. There is a growing call among peoples and nations to continually fight for climate justice and be recognized as Annex 0—exemplary countries and communities leading the struggle for a climate-safe future.
The Annex 0 initiative will demonstrate what the people will do to protect Mother Earth from destruction, plunder, and climate disruptions. It will unite more and more people to collectively take action until justice is served. Imperialism, again, has reared its ugly head in COP21. Yet, another world will be made possible by people's resistance to falsehoods in the climate negotiations.--Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE)