Climate justice movement to converge on UN climate talks

from Without Your Walls The following statement was produced at the Climate Justice Action (CJA) meeting in Copenhagen 19-21 June. CJA is calling on all peoples around the planet to mobilize and take action against the root causes of climate change and the key agents responsible, both in Copenhagen and around the world.

Change the system, not the climate! Climate justice movement to converge on UN climate talks The UN climate talks will not solve the climate crisis. We are no closer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than we were when international negotiations began fifteen years ago: emissions are rising faster than ever, while carbon trading allows climate criminals to pollute and profit. At present, the talks are essentially legitimising a new colonialism that carves up of the world’s remaining resources. Faced with the profound crisis of our civilisation, and the destructive impacts of the climate crisis on already marginalised communities, all we get is a political circus playing to the interests of corporations. In response to this madness, a global movement for climate justice has emerged to reclaim power over our future. As part of this, the international network Climate Justice Action is mobilising for mass actions across the world during the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009. No more false solutions We cannot trust the market with our future, nor put our faith in unsafe, unproven and unsustainable technologies. Contrary to those who put their faith in “green capitalism”, we know that it is impossible to have infinite growth on a finite planet. Instead of trying to fix a destructive system, we should be:

• leaving fossil fuels in the ground
• reasserting peoples’ and community control over resources and production
• relocalising food production
• massively reducing overconsumption, particularly in the North
• recognising the ecological and climate debt owed to the peoples of the South and making reparations
• respecting indigenous and forest peoples’ rights

Real solutions to the climate crisis are being built by women and men, in both the South and the North, who fight every day to defend their environment and living conditions. We need to globalise these solutions and work for a just transition towards a zero-carbon future. Agreed at the Climate Justice Action meeting Copenhagen, 21 June 2009.

See Oxfam's recent dire report on the impact of Climate Change on the world's poorest