FoE UK: Maria of Kiribati will fight at Cop15
Posted on 07. Sep, 2009 by annied in FoE, climate change
Guest post from our friends at Friends of the Earth, UK:
Maria from the Kiribati Islands in the Pacific came to see us at Friends of the Earth recently. She told us that her islands could be underwater within ten years. Crops and wells are already contaminated with salt water and the mangroves where she used to play as a child are disappearing.
Maria will go to Cop15 to insure Kiribati gets what it needs from the developed countries (hear her tell her story here)
Kiribati, like many Pacific states, has been suffering from severe drought as rainfall patterns become more variable. None of the Kiribati elders remember it ever being as hot or unpredictable as it is now.
Maria who is part of the group “Pacific Calling Partnership” is going to Copenhagen in December to attend the UN climate change summit, to make sure people hear what’s happening to the low lying islands like Kiribati.
Friends of the Earth is campaigning for a strong and fair global agreement in Copenhagen to prevent climate catastrophe. This means is rich countries taking the lead by cutting emissions first and fast. Countries like the UK have been pumping out emissions with impunity for hundreds of years. Rich countries have only 20 per cent of the world’s population but are responsible for three-quarters of the emissions in the atmosphere today. The poorest ten per cent of the world’s population have contributed less than one percent of the carbon emissions.
At the moment, leaders of rich countries are promoting carbon offsetting as a way of cutting emissions. Offsetting is a con – it swaps real cuts in rich countries for hypothetical cuts in developing countries – it means that cuts on the scale required won’t happen, and that climate change won’t be stopped, exacerbating impacts such as droughts and storms on vulnerable people.
Rich countries also need to commit to providing new money to ensure developing countries can grow cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change that are already putting millions of lives at risk. It’s vital that new funds are established in a way that enables fair representation and control between rich and developing countries. The UK is pushing for climate funds to be managed by the World Bank – but the World Bank is controlled only by rich countries, has a terrible track record, and is the largest multilateral lender for fossil fuel projects around the world. Developing countries are demanding a new financial mechanism governed by the UN.
Alarm bells are ringing because the proposals currently being put forward by politicians in the rich world will not deliver the change needed to ensure a safe and healthy planet for all. Just this week, the UN chief Ban Ki Moon made an impassioned plea to world leaders that they must take urgent action now. But the good news is that it’s not too late. We need to join together to part of the global momentum demanding a change in rich leaders’ positions.
You can sign our international petition to ask our leaders at Copenhagen to stop cheating us with dodgy deals and to reach strong and fair agreement on tackling climate change. Join Friends of the Earth’s campaign and Demand Climate Change.
And you can act with your feet as well as your mouse. Join The Wave in London on 5 December 2009 and march to show your support for a safe climate for all.