The following documents were also adopted by the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth on April 22, 2010, in Bolivia. The Bolivian government will submit them to the United Nations for consideration. The main document, the People's Agreement, is available HERE.

For more coverage of the historic conference, click HERE.

They are: 1. The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth; 2. Shared Visions document; 3. Structural causes; 4. Referendum on climate change; 5. Document of the Working Group on Agriculture and Food Sovereignty; 6. Document of the Working Group on Climate Debt; 7. Document of the Working Group on Climate Finance; 8. Indigenous Peoples' Declaration; 9. International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice working group; 10. Dangers of the carbon market; 11. Working Group No. 10 on the Kyoto Protocol and greenhouse gas emissions reduction; 12. Working Group 13: Intercultural dialogue knowledge sharing, knowledge and technology; 13. Final conclusions of Working Group 2: Harmony with Nature to Live Well; 14. Working Group 6: Climate Change and Migration; 15. Working Group 14: Forests; 16. Working Group 11: Adaptation – Confronting Climate Change; 17. Strategies of Action; NEW: 18. Declaration of the "unofficial" "Working Group 18. [More will be posted as they become available.]

1. Proposed Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

Preamble

We, the peoples and nations of Earth:

considering that we are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny;

gratefully acknowledging that Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well;

recognizing that the capitalist system and all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change;

convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth;

affirming that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so;

conscious of the urgency of taking decisive, collective action to transform structures and systems that cause climate change and other threats to Mother Earth;

proclaim this Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, and call on the General Assembly of the United Nation to adopt it, as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations of the world, and to the end that every individual and institution takes responsibility for promoting through teaching, education, and consciousness raising, respect for the rights recognized in this Declaration and ensure through prompt and progressive measures and mechanisms, national and international, their universal and effective recognition and observance among all peoples and States in the world.

Article 1. Mother Earth

(1) Mother Earth is a living being.

(2) Mother Earth is a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.

(3) Each being is defined by its relationships as an integral part of Mother Earth.

(4) The inherent rights of Mother Earth are inalienable in that they arise from the same source as existence.

(5) Mother Earth and all beings are entitled to all the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic and inorganic beings, species, origin, use to human beings, or any other status.

(6) Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.

(7) The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and health of Mother Earth.

Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth

(1) Mother Earth and all beings of which she is composed have the following inherent rights:

(a) the right to life and to exist;

(b) the right to be respected;

(c) the right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue its vital cycles and processes free from human disruptions;

(d) the right to maintain its identity and integrity as a distinct, self-regulating and interrelated being;

(e) the right to water as a source of life;

(f) the right to clean air;

(g) the right to integral health;

(h) the right to be free from contamination, pollution and toxic or radioactive waste;

(i) the right to not have its genetic structure modified or disrupted in a manner that threatens it integrity or vital and healthy functioning;

(j) the right to full and prompt restoration the violation of the rights recognized in this Declaration caused by human activities;

(2) Each being has the right to a place and to play its role in Mother Earth for her harmonious functioning.

(3) Every being has the right to wellbeing and to live free from torture or cruel treatment by human beings.

Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

(1) Every human being is responsible for respecting and living in harmony with Mother Earth.

(2) Human beings, all States, and all public and private institutions must:

(a) act in accordance with the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

(b) recognize and promote the full implementation and enforcement of the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

(c) promote and participate in learning, analysis, interpretation and communication about how to live in harmony with Mother Earth in accordance with this Declaration;

(d) ensure that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Mother Earth, now and in the future;

(e) establish and apply effective norms and laws for the defence, protection and conservation of the rights of Mother Earth;

(f) respect, protect, conserve and where necessary, restore the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Mother Earth;

(g) guarantee that the damages caused by human violations of the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration are rectified and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and health of Mother Earth;

(h) empower human beings and institutions to defend the rights of Mother Earth and of all beings;

(i) establish precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent human activities from causing species extinction, the destruction of ecosystems or the disruption of ecological cycles;

(j) guarantee peace and eliminate nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;

(k) promote and support practices of respect for Mother Earth and all beings, in accordance with their own cultures, traditions and customs;

(l) promote economic systems that are in harmony with Mother Earth and in accordance with the rights recognized in this Declaration.

Article 4. Definitions

(1) The term “being” includes ecosystems, natural communities, species and all other natural entities which exist as part of Mother Earth.

(2) Nothing in this Declaration restricts the recognition of other inherent rights of all beings or specified beings.

2. Shared vision

Conclusions of Working Group 9 on Shared Vision. text from PWCCC.

* * *

1. This shared vision is premised in our collective knowledge. Our collective knowledge includes the knowhow of our ancestors, traditional knowledge, practices of our Indigenous peoples and the science that is not responsible to vested interests and is directed at improving the safety, stability, health and wellbeing of the Earth.

2. The shared vision is to confront climate change as the urgent priority for all humanity. Our world is going through a climate and environmental emergency. This must be recognised by all, including states. Human induced climate change is a real and present threat to the life of Mother Earth and all living beings. The shared vision is integral, it seeks to define all the elements of a successful solution to climate change, and their relationship to each other. It addresses the historical and structural causes of climate change – including the climate debts that the developed countries owe to the world’s poor and vulnerable communities  – while offering a vision in which all people are part of the solution and do not repeat the mistakes of "developed countries".

3. The evidence provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, particularly in its fourth Assessment Report, leaves no question that the climate crisis is a product of the of development and production patterns, which are provoking a massive disruption of natural ecosystems. There are recent scientific reports that provide more alarming data on the impacts of climate change that will be caused if we do not change our lifestyles. This scientific data must be noted in international agreements and public policies aimed at addressing climate change. Similarly, drawing on our collective knowledge, we have the means to overcome the climate crisis. The traditional knowledge of Indigenous cultures, the experiences of farmers and local communities will be central to finding solutions.

4. The shared vision is to stabilise greenhouse gases concentrations to give effect to Article 2 of the United Nations Framework on Convention Climate Change which states that the “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system…”. Our vision is based on the principle of common but differentiated historical responsibilities, to demand that developed countries commit to quantified targets for reducing emissions that allow concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to return to 300 ppm and thus limiting the increase in global mean temperature to a maximum level of 1º Celsius. Stressing the need for urgent action to achieve this vision, and with the support of the peoples, movements and countries, developed countries must commit to ambitious targets for reducing emissions to achieve short-term objectives, while sustaining our vision for balance in the Earth’s climate system, according to the ultimate objective of the Convention.

5. It is not acceptable for global temperatures to increase by more than 2ºC as was proposed in the undemocratic “Copenhagen Accord”, or for concentrations of greenhouse gases to approach 450 ppm, as was proposed by the G8. The “Copenhagen Accord” in fact threatens upwards of 3.9ºC of global warming, it ignores historical responsibility and includes inadequate developed country commitments on mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance, and undermines the agreement of a science-based aggregate target for developed countries, binding individual targets and effective compliance. These proposals threaten the stability of the Earth’s climate system and thus risk massive and systemic disaster for Mother Earth and humans across the world. It will see food production reduced by 40% globally. Between 20% and 30% of all species will be in danger of disappearing. Large tracts of forest will be affected, droughts and floods will affect ecosystems across regions of the planet, deserts will spread and the melting of polar icecaps, and glaciers in the Andes and the Himalayas will worsen.

An increase of global temperatures to 2ºC accepts the disappearance of several small island countries. In Africa the increase of temperature will be even greater than the world average, and many of their countries will reduce their crops by up to 50%. Between 70 and 250 million additional people will have more difficulty accessing to drinking water services by 2020, and the costs of adaptation to sea level rise will reach between 5% and 10% of gross domestic product in those countries. The impacts of climate change will see millions of people forced to leave their homes and migrate to new towns, cities and countries.

With an increase of 2ºC rise in temperature there is a 50% possibility that the damage caused to the Earth system will be completely irreversible. Those who promote this goal must be held responsible for the consequences.

6. The shared vision is a world in which all people “live well” in harmony with Mother Earth and other human beings. This vision rejects the capitalist model of life and development that is premised on the supremacy of human beings over nature and the compulsive accumulation of material possessions by human beings. It is this system, the underlying structural root cause of climate change, that has seen developed countries pollute the atmosphere and cause climate change, giving rise to their historical responsibility and climate debts. Thus the shared vision is of a world where all countries and people meet their differentiated responsibilities and in which we enhance the well being of all peoples and maintain the stability, integrity and health of our home – Mother Earth.

7. The shared vision of “living well” is of societies that respect the principles of interdependency and responsibility and therefore practice reciprocity, complementarity, solidarity, equity and live in harmony with Mother Earth and each other. It is a global society of peoples and social movements, who stand in solidarity to change the system that is putting the planet in peril. This change will come from revaluing traditional knowledge that respects nature in all parts of the planet. The survival and the right to live in harmony and balance with Mother Earth is the primary objective of all nations and peoples, as it ensures equity for present and future generations.

8. The colonisation of atmospheric space by developed countries, causing climate change and its impacts, are affecting and paralysing people’s right to “live well” and in harmony with nature. The perpetrators of this crime must assume their moral and legal responsibilities and must urgently reduce greenhouse gases emissions within their countries without using carbon markets. These reductions will allow the peoples of developed countries to ‘live well’, and to improve their lives in harmony with nature.

9. The shared vision is of a massive and global-scale mobilisation of peoples, movements and knowledge to address climate change. To be effective, this vision is of specific and measurable goals to be achieved, including the following:

a) The equitable and fair distribution of the Earth’s atmosphere, reversing the historical concentration of the right to the atmosphere in the hands of a few. This colonisation of the sky has privileged their economies and development while the majority of the world’s population remains in poverty. Hence there will be the decolonization of the atmospheric space by developed countries and their elites, in order to recognize and honour their climate debts.

b) The deepest possible reduction of GHG emissions from domestic sources by developed countries.

c) There will be quantified changes to the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. This will involve capacity building for developed countries to enable them to reduce their high per-person greenhouse gas emissions, to live in harmony with nature and to reduce their climate and ecological debts to developing countries and Mother Earth.

d) The promotion and sharing of knowledge and knowhow held by our ancestors respecting Mother Earth, and not to be the object of intellectual property laws.

e) The international legal recognition of the rights of Mother Earth.

f) Provision of financial resources by developed countries to developing countries amounting to at least 6% of the value of GNP of developed countries, for adaptation, technology transfer, capacity building and mitigation

g) Provisions by developed countries of means of implementation to developing countries to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change, to meet the costs of its adverse effects and to repay adaptation debts including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 3% of their GNP;

h) The transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries and enhancement of their endogenous capacities and technologies including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 1% of their GNP;

i) Capacity building to enable the upgrading of developing countries institutional capacities to address climate change and its adverse effects including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 1% of their GNP;

j) Measures by developing countries to mitigate climate change, including nationally appropriate mitigation actions supported and enabled by developed countries including through the provision of financial resources by developed countries equivalent to at least 1% of their GNP

k) The identification and removal of all barriers to access the solidarity transfer of technologies without cost, including the exclusion of patents on climate related technologies to all countries.

10. The shared vision rejects false solutions such as nuclear power, genetic engineering, geo-engineering, biofuels and mega-dams that further threaten Mother Earth and our vision to live in harmony with nature and other people. Like these dangerous technologies, the carbon market is not a solution. Carbon market mechanisms only concentrate more wealth and power in the hands of transnational corporations, those most responsible for climate change.

11. The shared vision of a common future is based on the goals and principles set out here, in the context of an effort that addresses the structural causes of climate change. One in which the benefits of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate system are shared fairly. One in which the means to “live well” – including ecologically and socially sound technologies, financial resources and capacities based in our collective knowledge – are shared among all peoples. A vision in which we build and share a new model of life and development that is premised on recognizing and defending the rights of Mother Earth and the rights of every living being.

3. Final conclusions Working Group 1: Structural Causes

Text from PWCCC.

We are faced with a profound structural crisis as a consequence of having reached the planet’s limits. We are confronted with the terminal crisis of a patriarchal development model based in the slavery and destruction of human beings and nature. The climate crisis we live in isn’t only a problem of rising atmospheric temperatures, but also the global destruction of conditions that make life possible on the planet and the harmonic relationship of humans with Mother Earth. 

The looting/expropriation of the communal goods of all the peoples of the world was accelerated with the genocidal colonial expansion of capitalism more than 500 years ago. With the industrial revolution, a new jump in history occurred initiating a new production system of growth and overflowing global accumulation concentrated primarily in the most industrialised countries that have generated 75% of the cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions even though they represent only 20% of the world population.

This production pattern has led to the current climate crisis which translates into major effects primarily for countries in the global South[1], with extreme climate events such as prolonged droughts, floods, etc.

The capitalist system has imposed on us an ideology of "progress" and unlimited growth. This regime of production and consumption is guided by the search for maximum gain, forgetting completely the implications of an infinite growth pattern on a finite planet. This pattern of development has separated human beings from nature, establishing a rationale of domination over nature and leading to the destruction of nature.

This capitalist development model has created societies and ways of life that are incompatible with nature.  Mother Earth is assumed to be a source of raw materials and human beings become a means for production and consumption. For this system, the logic of life is competition and the hunger for unlimited gain. The capitalist system turns everything into a commodity: water, earth, the human genome, ancestral cultures, biodiversity, justice, ethics, death and life itself. Everything must be extracted, transformed and consumed, thus negating the sacred character of nature.  With this system, the spiritual relationship of the people with Mother Earth is broken.

The overexploitation and unequal appropriation of the planet’s communal goods have benefited some sectors of the population to the detriment of others. For example, hundreds of millions of people lack access to clean water and other conditions for a dignified life, while others squander the abundance of communal goods and then profit from the shortage. This system has massacred and expelled the indigenous peoples and farmers from their territories by taking control over their land, communal goods, germoplasm and ancestral knowledge.

Capitalism pretends to satisfy all the deficiencies and dissatisfactions of human beings through the consumption of things. The “first developed world” should be called instead the “hyper-consuming first world”. For instance, the United States of America, because of its unlimited level of consumption, increased its GHG emissions by 16.8% during the period from 1990 to 2007. On average, this emits about 20 to 23 tons of CO2 a year per person and represents more than 9 times the emissions of an inhabitant of the Third World, almost eight times the emissions of a Latin American and Caribbean per capita and more than 20 times the emissions of a person from sub-Saharan Africa.

This capitalist logic places financial gain over people. Through commerce, the unlimited consumer identity is created and new patterns of consumption are established so that people are valued more by what they have than by who they are. For this system, profit and profitability are placed above everything else and the rights to access and the efficiency of basic services for the people are converted into commerce. Gain requires more gain.

Corporations and the governments of the most dominant developed countries, in complicity with a part of the scientific community, have shaped the climate change discussion as a problem of temperature increase, posing to us technical and commercial solutions that don’t question the justification behind this type of production and development.

Today, “climate change” has become a business for the capitalist system. Governments and ¨developed¨ countries are promising so-called ¨green¨ reforms of the system. These mechanisms of technological innovation are directed by the creation of new sources of investment and business under the pretext that this technology will resolve the climate crisis. What these solutions really do is exacerbate the problems we face. These false solutions, called clean development mechanisms (CDM), leave the responsibility of caring for the planet to the global South without taking on any real responsibility themselves.

The corporate pattern of production, distribution, wastefulness and consumption of food and all the mechanisms of agribusiness (factory farming of animals, monoculture, genetically modified foods, nanotechnologies, pesticides, biofuels, etc.) aren’t just destroying the sustainable production of food, farm production and food sovereignty. They are also one of the fundamental causes of the destruction process of nature (CO2 emissions, methane, nitrous oxide, deforestation, contamination of soil and overuse and contamination of the waters, etc.).

The political, economic, military and communications power structure, along with the current legal-institutional administration, legitimise, promote and deepen destructive ideologies. Current international financial and commercial institutions (WB, IMF, IDB, WTO and others) with their rules, regulations and secured funding systematically impose predatory growth. Mainstream media and the culture industry promote individualism and irrational and unsustainable consumerism, and help cement them as the only possible way to exist. These tendencies have been accentuated during the last decades of neoliberal globalisation, free trade and the increased use of monoculture and extractivism. We are in the presence of an imperialistic system of re-colonialisation of the planet.

Capitalism responds through militarisation, repression and war to the resistance of the people. It requires a potent military industry, the militarisation of societies and war as conditions necessary for its process of accumulation as well as for its control over territories, mineral and energy resources, and to suppress the struggles of the people. Wars, through their direct impact on the environment (massive consumption of combustible fossil fuels, oil spills, GHG emissions, impoverished uranium contamination, white phosphorus etc.) have become one of the primary destroyers of Mother Earth. 

The battle against global warming is not only about the urgent transformation of production and consumption, it is also a strong fight against paradigms and hegemonic models of colonial and Eurocentric knowledge.  These hegemonic forms of knowledge and subjectivity are firmly instilled in education systems all over the world. Cultural patterns, personal opinions and the aspirations of the planet's populations have been greatly penetrated by the values of the individualistic capitalist consumer identity. Changes in production have to be accompanied by a profound cultural revolution that alters current hegemonic behavioural patterns, strengthening other world visions of life like "Living Well" or "el buen vivir", which are in harmony with Pachamama [Mother Earth].

What has failed is the model of trying to live as "a better consumer every time”, of development without brakes, of unlimited industrialisation, of modernity that scorns history, of cultures and the knowledge of others, of life based on the increasing accumulation of material things at the cost of others and of nature. 

Capitalism as a patriarchal system of endless growth is incompatible with life on this finite planet. For the planet, every alternative for life must necessarily be anticapitalist. But not only this, it must be more than anticapitalist. The Soviet experience has shown us that a predatory production system with devastating conditions that make life similar to that of capitalism was possible with other ownership relationships. The alternatives must lead to a profound transformation of civilisation. Without this profound transformation, it will not be possible to continue life on planet Earth.

Humanity is faced with a huge dilemma: continue down the road of capitalism, patriarchy, progress and death, or embark on the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.

Cochabamba, Tiquipaya, April 2010

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[1] Global South: A geopolitical and cultural concept, not a geographic one, that describes human groups as having historically been confined to greater economic and environmental vulnerability than other human groups.

4. Final conclusions Working Group 4: Referendum on Climate Change

Text from PWCCC.

Need for a Global Referendum, plebiscite or popular consultation

Negotiations on climate change developed in Copenhagen showed that the representatives of developed countries seek to attribute the decision-making and the imposition of the same to all peoples, governments and countries on the planet without consultation of decisions that affect Mother Earth and the future of humanity, forgetting that the planet and its destination are not the exclusive property of a group of governments or international institutions.

On the assumption that the human being is the brother who has the power to watch over other beings that are part of Mother Earth, its ability to affect compliance with the relationship we have with Mother Earth and its possibility to generate opportunities for discussion that enable the implementation of activities and actions to preserve that relationship, it must have the possibility to demonstrate by direct feedback, by making decisions and establishing lines of action for each government to generate rights to restore harmony with our Mother Earth.

It has been determined the existence of a consensus to pursue a world referendum, plebiscite or referendum, taking into account the realities of each country or region in favor of Mother Earth

Questions designed for the World Referendum, plebiscite or popular consultation

In order to carry out the World Referendum, plebiscite or popular consultation, which will restore the relationship between Mother Earth and its inhabitants, the WPCCC suggests the following questions, knowing that the same should be put into consideration of the inhabitants of the planet through National Committees:

1. Do you agree to change the capitalist model of overproduction and overconsumption and to restore harmony with nature, recognising and respecting the rights of Mother Earth?

2. Do you agree that the countries and transnational corporations reabsorb and reduce its production of greenhouse gases in proportion to their historical responsibilities for emissions and to slow down global warming?

3. Do you agree to transfer all that is spent in wars and allocate it a higher budget in defence of Mother Earth?

4. Do you agree that our countries become territories of peace free of occupation of troops and foreign military bases?

5. Do you agree with the establishment of a Climate and Environmenta Justice Tribunal to judge those who destroy Mother Earth?

When to develop the global referendum, plebiscite or popularc onsultation

The referendum, plebiscite or referendum:

• To be announced on April 22, 2010, the day of Mother Earth, the possibility of global vote after the International Committee and National Committees ensures success in this development must be left open.

Mechanisms to develop the referendum, plebiscite or referendum

It supports the creation of an International Committee, respecting the establishment and empowerment of the National Committees, to address the referendum.

The method of voting can be developed through:

The creation on an International Committee is supported in order to carry out the Referendum, whilst respecting the conformation and autonomy of the National Committees.

The way of voting can be developed as following:

• The referendum will be officially developed in countries where it has the support of national governments and in countries where this is not possible it will be conducted by social organizations, student unions, social networks and other civil society organisms, in the form of a plebiscite or referendum.

• The voting forms will be defined by the National Committees according to the uses and customs.

Commitments

• Those present are committed to promote the creation of national committees with greater involvement of organisations of each country to potentiate the actions of the referendum, plebiscite or popularc onsultation through pedagogical processes for policy discussions and actions defined by this popular conference.

5. Document of the Working Group on Agriculture and Food Sovereignty

At the plenary session of the World People's Conference of Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, held on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, at the coliseum in the municipality of Tiquipaya, working group No. 17, on Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, presented and approved the following conclusions. Group president Luis Andragó, Ecuadorian leader of the FENOCIN Association, along with vice-president Leonilda Zurita, leader of the Bolivian Association of Peasant Women "Bartolina Sisa", submitted the following conclusions to the general plenary.

Social movements and popular organisations gathered at the CMPCC [World People's Conference of Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth] confirm that despite our constant protests and numerous allegations, capitalist governments, international agencies and financial institutions continue on a path towards exacerbating the destruction of the planet. Climate change is one of the most serious threats to food sovereignty for all peoples of the world. Once again we observe that:

1. Agribusiness through its social, economic and cultural development of globalised capitalist production and its logic of food production for the market and not to fulfill the right to food is a major cause of climate change. Land use change (deforestation and expansion of the agricultural frontier), monocultures, production, marketing and use of pesticides and agrochemical inputs, industrial food processing and all of the logistics involved in transporting [food] thousands of miles to reach the consumer, and the production of greenhouse gases in the huge garbage and manure dumps from intensive industrial livestock facilities, are major contributors to the climate crisis and the growing number of hungry people in the world.

2. That plundering and destruction of aquifers, springs and water bodies, and ecosystems and ecological cycles that give life are inextricably linked to processes of privatisation that are driven by capitalist governments and international agencies. At the same time, we see how climate change will destroy glaciers and other water sources. We find that the basic human right of access to water for consumption, to living organisms and to food production is restricted on a daily basis due to the expansion of industrial agriculture, mining, oil extraction, industrial food processing, forest plantations, planting and production of biofuels, industrial aquaculture, and hydroelectric megaprojects.

3. That the territorial deployment of mega infrastructure projects in the service of capital alters natural, social and cultural processes making forms of harmonious coexistence with Mother Earth impossible, destroying livelihoods, driving rural, Indigenous/native and fishing communities from their territories and facilitating the expansion of an extractive and agro-export model.

4. Climate change causes forced migration in rural areas and is a threat to Indigenous/native peoples, peasant communities and fisher[people] who are most harmed through the destruction of their livelihoods, their ancestral and local agricultural wisdom, and hence their identity.

5. That biofuels are not an alternative because they prioritise agricultural production for transport over production of food for humans. Biofuels expand the agricultural frontier, destroying forests and biodiversity, generate monocultures, promote the concentration of land, the degradation of soils, and the depletion of water sources, contribute to rising food prices, and consume more energy than they generate.

6. That genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not a solution to climate change and are only a tool of corporations to control seeds and food globally. They signify a serious attack on local knowledge, human health, the environment, local autonomy and impede the effective implementation of the right to food.

7. They continue to develop technologies to serve the interests of big business while trying to pass them off as solutions to different crises now facing Mother Earth and humanity. We know that they are all false solutions used as tools for accumulation and business for large multinationals, which only exacerbate the dependency, the concentration and destruction. Among others we can highlight geoengineering, nanotechnology, terminator and similar technologies, synthetic biology and biochar.

8. That the advance of free trade through economic partnership agreements, treaties on free trade and investment protection, among others, are a direct attack on the sovereignty of countries and peoples, autonomy of states and the ability of multilateral action by international agencies. As implementation progresses, there is an increase in the destructive impacts on local economies, food sovereignty, environmental, social and cultural rights of peoples and the rights of Mother Earth.

9. That the current worsening of hoarding of land and oceans by economic groups, corporations and both state and private speculative capital are some of the most serious and imminent attacks faced by people and their food, social and political sovereignty. The extreme concentration and foreignisation of land, compounded by the current free trade rules are an attack on plant and animal biodiversity, on land reform, and on the reconstitution process of Indigenous and peasant lands for which social movements have struggled indefatigably.

10. That various forms of intellectual property rights are an instrument of privatisation that destroys local, traditional and scientific knowledge systems restricting the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity and outlawing cultural practices and local, community and ancestral agriculture. Faced with this reality that people around the world endure, we the social movements and popular organisations gathered for this CMPCC pledge to continue fighting for a set of solutions and to mobilise in order to ensure that governments fulfill their duty to carry them out. We will centre our efforts on the building of food sovereignty, defending and supporting peasant and Indigenous agriculture as sources of food, as a wellspring of dignity and identity, and as a real and concrete alternative for cooling the planet, and believe in ensuring gender equality at the heart of our action.

The solutions that we see as priorities are:

11. Enhance and restore agri-cultures and local, rural and Indigenous/native livelihoods, and ancestral knowledge systems of production and harvesting of food, local and traditional health systems that have been degraded and undervalued by the agribusiness logic oriented towards overproduction, export and profit generation, noting that food sovereignty is the way to respond and solve climate change.

12. Promote and secure funding policies as well as socially participative and public control mechanisms for agricultural production systems to avoid damage to Mother Earth. These should include research, extension and public investment to eliminate the use of petrochemically based agricultural inputs, to improve soil organic content, reduce post-harvest losses, strengthen local markets, promote urban agriculture, protect sources and bodies of water, and support Indigenous/native peasant family farming and food sovereignty.

13. Defend, revalorise and disseminate the sustainable model of peasant and Indigenous/native agricultural production, and other ecological models and ancestral practices that contribute to solving the problem of climate change and ensure food sovereignty. This is understood as the right of peoples to control their own seeds, land, water and food production, thus ensuring – through production in harmony with Mother Earth, and which is locally and culturally appropriate – the peoples’ access to sufficient, varied and nutritious foods which complement Mother Earth and deepen autonomous production (participatory, community oriented and shared)of each nation and people. At the same time we reject global food standardisation and its nutritional, environmental, social, cultural and health impacts.

14. Recognise the right of all peoples, living beings and Mother Earth to have access to and enjoy water. Likewise, recognise the right of peoples and countries to control, regulate and plan the supportive and respectful use and management of water and its cycles in the framework of agreements and international conventions and customary law, banning any form of privatisation and commodification of water, creating popular participation bodies to regulate its multiple uses, protect its quality and plan future use for consumption by living organisms and food production. In this context, we support the proposal from the government of Bolivia to recognise water as a fundamental human right as expressed in the "Declaration on the Human Right to Water" and we see it as an important step in the right direction.

15. Ban technologies and technological processes that endanger the welfare and survival of Mother Earth and living things, and that are only driven by their potential to produce profits for a small number of companies, while at the same time cause and accelerate climate change, such as: agrofuels, genetically modified organisms, nanotechnology, geoengineering and all those that – under the assumption that they help the climate – in fact undermine food sovereignty and are an assault on Mother Earth. Impose a permanent worldwide ban on terminator technology, pharma crops and similar technologies.

16. Prohibit fisher trawling which is predatory and destructive of biodiversity and the livelihoods of artisanal fisher[people].

17. Prohibit large-scale mining pollution that destroys ecosystems, expels local populations, pollutes waterways and threatens the food sovereignty of peoples.

18. Reject, condemn and prohibit any political-military and trade strategy that undermines the food sovereignty of peoples and makes them more vulnerable to climate change.

19. Uphold the primacy of human, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the rights of Mother Earth and biodiversity over the TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights treaty) and any other trade agreement under international law. Countries must also ensure respect for the collective knowledge of Indigenous/native and peasant communities, and therefore the collective right of decision making about access to and use of this knowledge. National measures to implement this would not be subject to proceedings under the rules of trade agreements that strengthen or protect intellectual property rights. Any formal investigation developed with public support must be for the public good, not subject to intellectual property rules that restrict information sharing.

20. Prohibit any form of patenting and intellectual property of any form of life and ancestral and traditional knowledge canceling existing patents.

21. Prohibit dumping (selling products below production cost) and unfair trade practices of industrialised countries that distort food prices and affect food sovereignty thus making non-industrialised countries the most vulnerable to climate change.

22. Implement policies and regulations to protect small domestic food production, including the type of subsidies they consider necessary for their agricultural sector, as well as ensuring their right to set tariff barriers equivalent to any subsidy incorporated in exported products and allowing the free movement of local production.

23. Affirm that the central part of the solution to climate change is through the strengthening and expansion of peasant and native agri-food systems, urban agriculture and artisanal fishing. This means that not only is it necessary to change the logic of industrial food production oriented towards global markets and profit, but to change the concept that assumes that the Earth is a resource open for exploitation, without rights, and oriented towards merely satisfying the greed of human beings. We the people gather together to declare that the planet is a living entity with rights and a spirit.

24. Promote broad-based, deep and genuine agrarian reform processes and the reconstitution of Indigenous, Afro and peasant territories building participatory rural villages with a focus on gender, so that peasant, Indigenous/native peoples, their cultures and lifestyles regain their central and vital role in world agriculture in order to achieve food sovereignty and restore harmony for the achievement of global climate balance. Agrarian reform of this kind must include respect for local and ancestral knowledge and ensure the necessary arrangements to ensure production at all stages of the chain (cultivation, processing and marketing). We demand the recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and that their territories be recognised and respected.

25. Promote and strengthen holistic education (spiritual, physical and social) for food sovereignty as a foundation for the changes needed to integrate their proposals at all levels of formal and non-formal education, developing content born out of local realities and based on a multicultural vision and the full participation of communities responding to the needs of each region and community. At the same time, we maintain that the extensive information and communication on these issues is one of the biggest challenges we face.

26. To declare native and wild seeds as the heritage of peoples in the service of humanity, as the foundation of food sovereignty, and their free movement through the hands of Indigenous/native and peasant peoples; cared for and multiplied by the custodians of seeds according to the cultures of each people.

27. Require that the impacts of global warming on food sovereignty are inserted within the framework of discussions on climate change and are inserted into national legislation.

These conclusions will be put up for debate at the next UN climate summit to be held this December in Cancun, Mexico.

6. ‘We demand the enforcement of the payment of climate debt'

Final document debated and approved by the Working Group on Climate Debt, during the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.

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1. Climate debt concept

climate debt is an obligation of compensation that is generated because of the damage done to Mother Earth by the irrational emissions of greenhouse gases. Those primarily responsible for these irrational emissions are the so-called “developed countries“, inhabited by only 20% of the world population, and which have emitted 75% of historical emissions of greenhouse gases.

These states, which stimulated the capitalist development model, are responsible for climate debt, but we shouldn’t forget that within these states, there live poor and Indigenous peoples which are also affected by this debt.

The most affected are the poorest developing countries, future generations and our Mother Earth.The colonisation of atmospheric space has produced climate change, which poses a serious threat to the islands, coastal areas, glaciers in the Himalayas, the Andes and the mountains of the world, the poles of the Earth, hot regions like Africa, water sources, growing natural disaster-affected populations, plants and animals, and ecosystems in general, generating climate debt.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change recognises that obligation by affirming that developed countries are historically responsible for those emissions, and in sustaining that they should take the initiative to combat climate change. This fact is expressed in the existence of the Kyoto Protocol, under which countries obligated to reduce greenhouse gases are the developed countries listed in Annex 1 of the convention.

2. Climate debt components

The responsibility for the climate debt of each developed country is established in relation to the level of emissions, taking into account the historically emitted amount of tons of carbon per capita.

a) Emissions debt – We understand as the emissions debt the over-use of space atmospheric by greenhouse gas pollution by developed countries, taking into account the equal rights of all countries in the world to have access to the use and enjoyment of atmospheric space.

Developed countries must compensate as follows:

• They are required to reduce high concentrations of greenhouse gases they caused.

• They also have to reduce their emissions and absorb greenhouse gases.

• They must ensure a space for development for poor countries.

We express our rejection of the fact that developed countries decide to choose freely how deep cuts they intend to do, as proposed in the Copenhagen Accord.

b) Development debt – Developing countries are entitled to the same opportunities for development, to provide basic services to the entire population, and a degree of industrialisation which allows the country’s economic independence. But this development must not harm the environment and atmosphere. To achieve this development within a highly restricted access to the atmospheric space, they need access to all technologies – according to their worldview – for the development and funding required for its implementation.

Among the technologies we require are: recycling of waste materials, improvement of traditional techniques with new technologies, access to clean energy sources – solar, wind and biogas digesters, forms of protection against natural disasters, research into vaccines and medicines diseases enhanced by climate change, among others.

c) Adaptation debt – The impacts of climate change make the rain lose its seasonality, loss of fresh water sources, increased hail, frost, droughts, floods. They decrease crop and livestock production. The population is suffering from an increase in various diseases. These impacts have many implications at the economic and developmental level, therefor those who caused the climate crisis have the responsibility to compensate all damage, through: investing (with funding and technology) in the prevention of major impacts, full compensation for the negative impacts that actually happen and compensating opportunity costs, which involve the deviation of development funds, among others.

d) Migration debt – Due to climate impacts, millions of people find their own land uninhabitable, converting them into climate migrants. The compensation of the migration debt implies that the so called "developed" countries must drop its restrictive migration policies, receiving them in their countries with dignity, and recognition of their human rights and cultural rights.

e) Debt to Mother Earth – The debt to Mother Earth is impossible to compensate completely, because the atrocities committed by humanity have been too terrible. However, the minimum compensation of this debt consists of:

• Recognition of the damage done.

• Restoration of harmony with Mother Earth.

• Adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Mother Earth’s Rights [above], to ensure that the same abuses will never be repeated in future. This is to ensure that capitalism and the drive for profit does not contravene the ultimate interests of Mother Earth and the peoples of the world.

3. How can debt be compensated?

Compensation for climate debt is to be done through multiple ways, which complement each other. Indispensible minimal elements are:

• The re-absorption and cleaning the atmosphere by developed countries.

• Payment in technology (eliminating patents) and in knowledge according to our worldview for both clean development and for adaptation to developing countries.

• Financing.

• Changes in immigration laws that allow us to offer a new home for all climate migrants.

• The adoption of the Declaration on the Mother Earth’s Rights.

In addition we need to work on the structural causes that caused the climate debt, providing education for children, political awareness and respect for Mother Earth.

Climate debt is part of a larger ecological debt, which in addition to gas emissions includes all environmental damages that were made in developing countries for the benefit of developed countries.

4. Strategies to ensure climate debt compensation

To ensure full compliance with the climate debt the following are needed:

• The establishment of an international body that determines the responsibilities of polluter countries.

• The creation of an impartial International Tribunal for Climate Justice, which has jurisdiction in cases of default of repayment of the debt.

• Encourage a research study the responsibilities of climate change, determining the climate debt.

• Promote international awareness that the fulfilment of the climate debt is an obligation on the part of developed countries, and is not aid granted us.

5. Conclusions

We hold that the capitalist system and the developed capitalist countries as the main cause of climate change generated climate debt.

From this conference we demanded the enforcement of the payment of climate debt.

We, who live in harmony with Mother Earth, are her main defenders; from here we call on all humanity to join the struggle for the preservation of life.

7. Document debated and approved by the Working Group on Climate Finance

A. Financing commitments under the UNFCCC

1. Developed country parties included in Annex 1 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have committed to financing the costs incurred by developing country parties to cover the costs of mitigation, technology transfer and capacity building, including all adaptation costs. This financing constitutes an obligation in response to developed country parties historical emissions of greenhouse gases; and constitutes a part of reparations for their climate debt.

2. Developed country parties have failed to meet their climate finance commitments, in part because the current financing model – which includes both carbon markets and existing financial institutions outside the authority of the UNFCCC – is ineffective at meeting the needs of developing country parties to address climate change.

3. Under the UNFCCC climate finance must be new and additional to existing commitments to Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; however the vast majority of current climate finance by developed country parties is counted as both ODA and climate finance. This constitutes a double counting of financial assistance to developing country parties. In addition, this financing is channeled through financial institutions, the World Bank, and Regional Development Banks in the form of or attached to loans – even for adaptation, which increases the debt of developing country parties.

4. Financing for adaptation in developing countries must not be conditioned on mitigation actions.

5. All policy and program priorities, and eligibility criteria for funding must come from the parties to the UNFCCC.

6. Funding shall be available to all developing country parties without discrimination or conditionality, under the principles of common but differentiate responsibility and climate debt.

7. Financing must not undermine the sovereignty and self-determination of developing country parties. Financing must respond to country driven processes that involve communities in decision making.

8. Funding priority must be given to those communities and countries most affected, that preserve nature, and that have contributed least to the emissions of greenhouse gases; and respond to the principles and provisions of the UNFCCC.

9. The outcome of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action at COP15 must be the basis for negotiations in Cancun [in December 2010] (which continues the mandate established in the Bali Action Plan), and not the Copenhagen Accord, which is not a formal decision of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC.

B. Scale and sources of financing for climate change

10. The scale of existing financial resources currently allocated to developing countries parties for addressing climate change plus the Copenhagen Accord proposal to mobilise (US$10 billion per year between
2010 and 2012, and up to US$100 billion by 2020 annually – which represents only 0.8% to 8% of developed countries’ national defence budgets, respectively) is grossly inadequate.

11. Developed country parties must commit at least 6% of their annual GDP for climate finance in developing countries. The viability of mobilising this amount of finance is evident – developed countries spend an equivalent amount each year on national defence. In addition, developed countries have mobilised trillions of dollars (equivalent to five times the 6% GDP proposed) to bail out failed banks and speculators. This is a question of political will, and the priority given to effectively combating climate change and protecting Mother Earth.

12. The finance required must be provided from public sources, and must be new and additional to ODA, to bilateral assistance, and to funds flowing outside the UNFCCC. Any funding provided outside the UNFCCC will not be regarded as meeting the commitments of developed country parties under the convention.

13. The carbon market shall be eliminated as source of financing, because its capitalist logic promotes the paradox that those actors who will benefit most are the same actors who have most harmed the environment. In addition, market mechanisms allow developed countries to evade their commitments to reduce emissions, while at the same time benefitting economically from the climate crisis. Moreover, this model impedes the equitable distribution of resources, cannot guarantee a predictability flow of resources at scale, nor the timely availability or direct access to financing for those most affected.

14. Financing for climate change must be delivered as grants, understood as a part of the reparations for climate debt between parties. Loans cannot be considered as fulfillment of financial commitments. In the same way climate financing does not signify a donor/recipient relationship between developed and developing countries.

15. All Annex 1 funding allocated to military purposes and subsidies for fossil fuel producers shall be redirected to climate change.

C. Functions and structure of the financing mechanisms

16. A new financial mechanism shall be established under the authority of the UNFCCC, replacing the Global Environment Facility and its intermediaries such as the World Bank and the regional development banks.

17. This financial mechanism must be under the authority of, and accountable to, the COP of the UNFCCC. There must be equitable representation of developing countries in all decision-making and technical bodies, with specific representation of most affected countries. Affected communities, sectors, classes, women, social movements and civil society groups must also be formally represented; not financial institutions.

18. The management and administration of the financial mechanism must be transparent, inclusive, participatory and democratic.

19. The financial mechanism must respect the sovereign control of each country to determine the definition, design, implementation of policy and programmatic approaches to climate change. In addition, the mechanism must uphold human rights, including economic, social, cultural and collective rights, and other rights enshrined in international covenants and agreements.

20. The financial mechanism must be an operational entity that ensures the flow of resources to developing countries to address climate change in a timely and efficient manner.

21. A system to monitor, report and verify the fulfillment of developed country financial commitments must be established. Information must be publicly disclosed, and allow for independent evaluation and systems for redress for civil society through the climate justice tribunal.

22. The financial mechanism shall be defined and approved at COP16, and be made operational at COP17. Until that time, climate financing for developing countries must be ensured and increased through greater fulfillment of existing commitments.

8. Indigenous Peoples’ Declaration

The Indigenous Peoples’ Declaration adopted at the World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Translation by Ben Powless (via Capitalism and Climate), co-chair of the Indigenous People’s Working Group.

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We, the Indigenous Peoples, nations and organizations from all over the world, gathered at the World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, from April 19th to 22nd, 2010 in Tiquipaya, Cochabamba, Bolivia, after extensive discussions, express the following:

We Indigenous Peoples are sons and daughters of Mother Earth, or “Pachamama” in Quechua. Mother Earth is a living being in the universe that concentrates energy and life, while giving shelter and life to all without asking anything in return, she is the past, present and future; this is our relationship with Mother Earth. We have lived in coexistence with her for thousands of years, with our wisdom and cosmic spirituality linked to nature. However, the economic models promoted and forced by industrialized countries that promote exploitation and wealth accumulation have radically transformed our relationship with Mother Earth. We must assert that climate change is one of the consequences of this irrational logic of life that we must change.

The aggression towards Mother Earth and the repeated assaults and violations against our soils, air, forests, rivers, lakes, biodiversity, and the cosmos are assaults against us. Before, we used to ask for permission for everything. Now, coming from developed countries, it is presumed that Mother Earth must ask us for permission. Our territories are not respected, particularly those of peoples in voluntary isolation or initial contact, and we suffer the most terrible aggression since colonization only to facilitate the entry of markets and extractive industries.

We recognize that Indigenous Peoples and the rest of the world live in a general age of crises: environmental, energy, food, financial, ethical, among others, as a consequence of policies and attitudes from racist and exclusionary states. We want to convey that at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, the peoples of the world demanded fair treatment, but were repressed. Meanwhile the states responsible for the climate crisis were able to weaken even more any possible outcome of negotiations and evade signing onto any binding agreement. They limited themselves to simply supporting the Copenhagen Accord, an accord that proposes unacceptable and insufficient goals as far as climate change action and financing to the most affected countries and peoples.

We affirm that international negotiation spaces have systematically excluded the participation of Indigenous Peoples. As a result, we as Indigenous Peoples are making ourselves visible in these spaces, because as Mother Earth has been hurt and plundered, with negative activities taking place on our lands, territories and natural resources, we have also been hurt. This is why as Indigenous Peoples we will not keep silent, but instead we propose to mobilize all our peoples to arrive at COP16 in Mexico and other spaces well prepared and united to defend our proposals, particularly the “living well” and plurinational state proposals.

We, Indigenous Peoples, do not want to live “better”, but instead we believe that everyone must live well. This is a proposal to achieve balance and start to construct a new society. The search for common objectives, as history shows us, will only be completed with the union of Indigenous Peoples of the World. The ancestral and indigenous roots shared by the whole world must be one of the bonds that unite us to achieve one unique objective.

Therefore we propose, require and demand:

1. The recovery, revalidation and strengthening of our civilizations, identities, cultures and cosmovisions based on ancient and ancestral Indigenous knowledge and wisdom for the construction of alternative ways of life to the current “development model”, as a way to confront climate change.

2. To rescue and strengthen the Indigenous proposal of “living well,” while also recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with whom we have an indivisible and interdependent relationship, based on principles and mechanisms that assure the respect, harmony, and balance between people and nature, and supporting a society based on social and environmental justice, which sees life as its purpose. All this must be done to confront the plundering capitalist model and guarantee the protection of life as a whole, through the search for inclusive global agreements.

3. We demand States to recognize, respect and guarantee the application of international standards of human rights and Indigenous Peoples’ rights (i.e., The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ILO Convention 169) in the framework of negotiations, policies, and measures to confront climate change.

4. We demand States to legally recognize the preexistence of our right to the lands, territories, and natural resources that we have traditionally held as Indigenous Peoples and Nations, as well as restitution and restoration of natural goods, water, forests and jungles, lakes, oceans, sacred places, lands, and territories that have been dispossessed and seized. This is needed to strengthen and make possible our traditional way of living while contributing effectively to climate change solutions.

Inasmuch, we call for the consolidation of indigenous territories in exercise of our self-determination and autonomy, in conformity with systems of rules and regulations. At the same time we demand that states respect the territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation or in initial contact, as an effective way to preserve their integrity and combat the adverse effects of climate change towards those peoples.

5. We call on States not to promote commercial monoculture practices, nor to introduce or promote genetically-modified and exotic crops, because according to our people’s wisdom, these species aggravate the degradation of jungles, forests and soils, contributing to the increase in global warming. Likewise, megaprojects under the search for alternative energy sources that affect Indigenous Peoples’ lands, territories, and natural habitats should not be implemented, including nuclear, bio-engineering, hydroelectric, wind-power and others.

6. We demand changes to forestry and environmental laws, as well as the application of pertinent international instruments to effectively protect forests and jungles, as well as their biological and cultural diversity, guaranteeing Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including their participation and their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

7. We propose that, in the framework of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, states establish a policy that Protected Natural Areas must be managed, administered and controlled directly by Indigenous Peoples, taking into account the demonstrated traditional experience and knowledge towards the sustainable management of the biodiversity in our forests and jungles.

8. We demand a review, or if the case warrants, a moratorium, to every polluting activity that affects Mother Earth, and the withdrawal of multinational corporations and megaprojects from Indigenous territories.

9. We urge that states recognize water as a fundamental human right, avoiding its privatization and commodification.

10. We demand the application of consultations, participation, and the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples and affected populations in the design and implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures and any other intervening actions on Indigenous territories.

11. States must promote mechanisms to guarantee that funding for climate change action arrives directly and effectively to Indigenous Peoples, as part of the compensation for the historical and ecological debt owed. This funding must support and strengthen our own visions and cosmovisions towards “living well”.

12. We call for the recovery, revalidation and strengthening of Indigenous Peoples’ technologies and knowledge, and for their incorporation into the research, design and implementation of climate change policies. This should compliment Western knowledge and technology, ensuring that technology transfer processes do not weaken indigenous knowledge and technologies.

13. We propose the recovery, development and diffusion of indigenous knowledge and technology through the implementation of educational policies and programs, including the modification and incorporation of such knowledge and ancestral wisdom in curricula and teaching methods.

14. We urge States and international bodies that are making decisions about climate change, especially the UNFCCC, to establish formal structures and mechanisms that include the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples. They must also include local communities and vulnerable groups, including women, without discrimination, as a key element to obtain a fair and equitable result from climate change negotiations.

15. We join in the demand to create a Climate Justice Tribunal that would be able to pass judgement and establish penalties for non-compliance of agreements, and other environmental crimes by developed countries, which are primarily responsible for climate change. This institution must consider the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples, and their principles of justice.

16. We propose the organization and coordination of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, through our local, national, regional, and international governments, organizations, and other mechanisms of legitimate representation, in order to participate in all climate change related processes. With that in mind, we call for an organizational space to be created that will contribute to the global search for effective solutions to climate change, with the special participation of Elders.

17. We propose to fight in all spaces available to defend life and Mother Earth, particularly in COP16, and so we propose a 2nd Peoples’ Conference to strengthen the process of reflection and action.

18. The ratification of the global campaign to organize the World March in defense of Mother Earth and her peoples, against the commodification of life, pollution, and the criminalization of Indigenous and social movements.

Created in unity in Tiquipaya, Cochabamba, Bolivia, the 21st day of April, 2010.

9. International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice

Final conclusions of Working Group 5 on the Climate Justice Tribunal. Text from PWCCC.

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The peoples of the world have gathered at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, from 19 to 22 April, 2010.  We, the Working Group of the Tribunal for Climate Justice, have made the following conclusions:

1. Considering the lack of political will by developed countries to fulfill their commitments and obligations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and faced with the absence of an international legal framework to prevent and punish the climate and environmental crimes that violate the rights of Mother Earth and humanity, we demand the creation of an International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice that has the legally binding capacity to prevent, judge and punish those states, companies and individuals who pollute and cause climate change by their actions or omissions.
2. The International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice should have the authority to judge, civilly and criminally, states, multilateral organisations, transnational corporations, and any legal persons responsible for aggravating the causes and impacts of climate change and environmental destruction against Mother Earth. Claims may be made by all peoples, nations, nationalities, states, individuals or corporations who have been affected, without having exhausted national remedies.
3. The International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice should consist of representatives of the peoples, nations, nationalities and states committed to respect and uphold the principles of this court, with international jurisdiction and competence.

The Working Group on Climate Justice Tribunal makes the following recommendations:

1. We call upon the peoples of the world to use existing legal mechanisms and laws in their countries to prosecute and punish those who harm Mother Earth and humanity and whose actions or omissions aggravate the causes and impacts of climate change, demanding the immediate cessation of activities.
2. We call upon the peoples of the world to join the struggle and mobilisation for the consolidation of the International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice, and to put pressure on governments that do not meet their commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.
3. We call upon the peoples of the world to educate and raise awareness about the dangers caused by an economic system based on economic growth, the accumulation of profit and consumerism.
4. We urge the peoples of the world to propose and promote a thorough reform of the United Nations, in order that all member states comply with the decisions of the International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice.
5. We urge the peoples of the world to further discussions on the independence, involvement and formation of the International Tribunal of Climate and Environmental Justice in relation to existing multilateral mechanisms.
6. We call upon the peoples of the world to join the struggle and the mobilisation that is behind the ethical International People’s Tribunal on Ecological Debt and Climate Justice.
7. We encourage states to submit claims before the International Court of Justice against developed countries that are failing to fulfill their commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, including the commitment to reduce greenhouse gases emissions.

10. Dangers of the carbon market

Final conclusions of working group 15. Text from PWCCC.

11. Working Group No. 10 on the Kyoto Protocol and greenhouse gas emissions reduction

Text from PWCCC.

Listening to the international call in defence of Mother Earth, the peoples and nations of the world have gathered at this conference to generate different proposals such as this one presented by Working Group No. 10 on the Kyoto Protocol and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction commitments by developed countries:

Taking note that this conference was noticeably infused with values such as harmony with nature, “living well” and the rights of Mother Earth; essential values not considered in the Kyoto Protocol,

Being conscious of the fact that climate change is a problem for all and can only be resolved by all, it is not possible to ignore us and our thinking and worldview, as a part of humanity that demands the balance of nature. The equilibrium has been grossly altered primarily by the uncontrolled anthropogenic GHG emissions due to a capitalist development model based on the extraction of fossil fuels,

We reaffirm the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and it is in this context that we demand that developed countries take the lead in combating climate change and its adverse effects,

We note the Kyoto Protocol has established the market mechanisms as one of the ways for developed countries to avoid their domestic GHG emissions reduction obligations, and this demands its profound revision. We cannot and must not forget that developed countries adopted this legally binding instrument, nevertheless we alert the world to the fact that these countries’ emissions grew by 11.2% between 1990 and 2007, despite their commitments assumed in the Kyoto Protocol. It is evident that their commitments will be violated,

We deplore the attempts by a group of countries to terminate the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding instrument for the specific GHG emission reductions by developed countries,

We reject the intent to compel us to adopt the mis-named “Copenhagen Accord” which allows developed countries to offer insufficient GHG emissions reductions based on individual and voluntary commitments, which manifestly and evidently violate the environmental integrity of Mother Earth and transgresses the international legally binding rules set by the Kyoto Protocol,

Aware that the outcome of this conference will instruct the next UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico,

We, the peoples and nations assembled in the city of Cochabamba as defenders of Mother Earth, raise our voice to:

Declare developed countries primarily responsible for the slow death of Planet Earth.

Call on the peoples and civil society of the developed world to demand that their governments respect and comply with their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Denounce the mockery by developed countries in proposing a system under the Copenhagen Accord that, in the way that things occur in nature, would result in an insufficient reduction of GHG emissions, at a maximum of 12-19% by 2020 in reference to 1990 levels. This would be even less if we take into account carbon markets and other legal loopholes, in this way selling our Mother Earth.

It is necessary that at the next UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico, the amendment to the Kyoto Protocol be adopted for its second commitment period from 2013 to 2017 in which developed countries must commit to significant domestic GHG emission reductions of at least 50% in reference to 1990 levels. The emission reductions of developed countries must be achieved domestically, without the use of carbon markets or any other offsetting mechanisms that allows them to avoid the adoption of real measures to reduce emissions.

Any just and effective solution to determine the future GHG emission reductions by developed countries must consider their historic responsibility and climate debt, based on per capita emissions. It must also consider the liberation of atmospheric space needed by developing countries for their growth, the loss of benefits to developing countries reflecting the unavailability of their fair share of atmospheric space, and the damage caused to Mother Earth.

Developed countries’ GHG emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol must be an adequate contribution towards achieving a limit on global emissions sufficient to return GHG concentrations to well below 300 ppm CO2eq and limit average temperature rise to well below 1°C with a view to returning concentrations and temperatures as close as possible to pre-industrial levels in the longer term. The current pledges under the Copenhagen Accord would lead to a global temperature rise of around 4°C.

The GHG emissions reduction commitments must permit the return to the natural equilibrium leading to the environmental integrity necessary for Planet Earth. This requires establishing a target for the group of developed countries and later each country’s individual assignment permitting the comparison of efforts between each one of them, and maintaining the system of the Kyoto Protocol for emission reductions.

The establishment of timely and effective sanctions against developed countries for not meeting their GHG emission reduction commitments could generate funds to compensate for the damage caused to developing countries. This will generate financial resources that do not originate from the carbon market, or the financial obligations currently established by the UNFCCC.

We propose the creation of a Global Council in Defence of Mother Earth as a control mechanism, to verify the effective and real compliance of developed countries to their GHG emission reduction commitments, to be led by the least-polluting countries, Indigenous peoples, rural communities and social organisations.

The United States of America being the only developed country on the planet that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and with the sufficient capacity to cause climate change on its own, has a significant responsibility to all nations of the world, including its own people. It must therefore work with the international community by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, committing itself to respect and fulfil economy wide GHG emission reduction targets.

We demand that the Kyoto Protocol respects the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and permits their effective participation in voice and vote.

Education policies must create effective mechanisms to combat climate change. This is the reason why we call on world governments to generate massive education actions so that each citizen knows about climate change, and knows which measures to take to combat it.

12. Working Group 13: Intercultural dialogue knowledge sharing, knowledge and technology

Text from PWCCC.

The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth – Working Group 13: Intercultural Dialogue Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge and Technology, gathered in the city of Cochabamba 19 to April 22, 2010, reached the following agreements:

Sharing knowledge of appropriate technologies is essential if we fight the climate crisis. To reduce emissions over the next decade, and to respond to the growing damage caused by climate change, we must implement socially and environmentally healthy technologies in each country, each sector and in every place to help us for “living well” and live in harmony with all and each of us and Mother Earth.

Share appropriate technologies is a necessary condition to solve climate change, but not sufficient, because the consumption patterns and lifestyles of excessive consumption must change fundamentally. The model of life and development within the capitalist system should be fundamentally changed. Therefore, the development of knowledge and technology should be viewed as an integral part of a broader effort to address the underlying, structural and roots causes of climate change.

Thus, we recognise and revalue the appropriate local technologies, which should be developed to overcome the climate crisis.

We reject the proposed technology transfer in vertical position, from the rich and producing more pollution, to countries in the process of social transformation. Instead we designed a free exchange of information, knowledge and technologies, coordinated between the governments and peoples under the principles of solidarity, reciprocity, respect, complementarity, harmony, transparency, balance and equality of conditions, promoting the dialogue of knowledge and interscientific dialogue as a guarantee of development and innovation of clean technologies for the cessation in the production of greenhouse gases and all kinds of environmental damage that threatens the Mother Earth.

ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND CREATION OF CAPACITIES

The knowledge is universal, and for any reason may be the subject of private ownership and private use, nor its applications in the form of technology. It is the duty of the peoples to give back knowledge and technology to the people, and defend and promote their development and application for LIFE.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

1) Democratise and strengthen appropriate educational policies that enhance sustainable and ecological development as an integral part in the curriculum in the education systems being these formal or not formal at national and international levels going through all areas and subjects of the global and universal education, in a more systematic and sustained way, to change skills, behaviours and habits to climate change.

2) Raise awareness, enhance, empower and develop permanently, committing the population to generate a culture on the importance of the environment in life as a change agent or through research and development of technologies that respond to the diverse needs of each populace.

The technological education should be based on the following areas:

a) Environmental education and research. The general goal is to get governments around the world foster global awareness on climate change.

Likewise, a curriculum reform that positions and integrate education, science and culture as a tool to generate real solutions to climate change and global warming, on the basis of knowledge dialogue and the interscientific dialogue between science and Western technology and technology and the ancestral knowledge of the peoples.

The specific objectives of this education are:

• Achieve a digital education for creation of capacities.

• Create a platform of solidarity for exchanging information, knowledge and technologies among nations.

The basis of this environmental education is to build and strengthen appropriate educational policies that enhance environmental sustainability, incorporating into the curriculum in education systems at national and international systemic advantage and sustainable manner to all areas and subjects of education achieving global and universal changes in attitudes, behaviours and habits to face climate change.

The objectives and policies of “national education systems”, amongst other are the following:

• Improve education, turning it relevant to the needs of the community in regard to climate change and greenhouse effect expanding their coverage and retention of students in the educational system to be considered a right and obligation the respect for Mother Earth.

• Structure and develop an educational concept based on the knowledge that “Mother Earth does not belong to us, we belong to it”, basing this claim on research, creativity of ancestral wisdom, the uses and customs, transmitting this knowledge into based learning experiences.

2. COMMUNITARY EDUCATION

2.1 General objective

The communal education of respect for nature and Mother Earth – Pachamama, recovering the ancestral cultural knowledge and technologies to improve production and sustained productivity, respect the cultures of indigenous peoples.

2.2 Specific objectives

1. Traditional education on practical application in our communities, through the ancestral knowledge.

2. Recovery and transmission of the worldviews of peoples of respect for nature.

3. The use and management of soil in a sustainable manner.

4. The environmental education inside the classroom, agriculture and communities.

5. Intracultural and intercultural: regarding what is multilingual.

6. The transmission of communal agro-ecological education and its incorporation into traditional formal education, ancient and Western.

7. The incorporation of environmental and popular communication.

2.3 Actions

1. Recovery, dynamic and systematic application of appropriate knowledge and ancestral knowledge.
2. The introduction of Indigenous languages in the plans for formal education at primary and secondary education levels as well at university.
3. Use of clean and appropriate technology for rural development in harmony between the traditional knowledge and natives of Western origin knowledge
4. Maintain and enhance uses and customs of traditional herbal medicine.

2. OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER – INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

It is essential to require compliance with the commitments made by developed countries at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change regarding the development and transfer of technology and reject the “technological showcase” proposed by developed countries given that they only commercialise the technology and promote and enhance the development of local technologies.

All that clean technology, necessary and useful to tackle climate change should be made public for the common good and not covered by intellectual property rights.

Create in each country and worldwide a bank of knowledge, with technologies aimed at reversing climate change and environmental crisis to ensure truly sustainable development that is available to all peoples of the world, being consistent that knowledge belongs to everyone not those who’ve been wanting to privatise it.

Formation of a platform for exchange of information, knowledge and technology of free assignment, administered and maintained collectively by the people, that is, open knowledge technology in respect of the sovereignty of peoples.

The Climate Justice Tribunal will be responsible for ensuring forced compliance with these commitments on the basis of the UNFCCC and with the purpose that developed countries solve the development of clean technologies at the level of developing countries to finance progress, recognising the intellectual effort of individuals or entities that have developed these technologies free from intellectual property rights due to environmental and heath global issues, eliminating in this sense barriers such as overprices and patents.

For these purposes it is necessary to prevent the transfer of inappropriate technology, obsolete and which involve an environmental risk.

It is proposed to assert the interests of developing countries that build their endogenous intellectual property, assign greater responsibility on developed countries, outweigh the equity between the various countries, conducting a nationwide monitoring of each country on technology transfer, and be national policies that define how to run the system.

The main objectives pursued are to destroy the barriers that limit and restrict the transfer of technology through:

• Own development of technologies based on knowledge and studies conducted in each country, with the states that promote science and technology, but also with existing international plans of their momentum, with state policies and subsidies with economic amounts specifically bound to the development of research.

• Request and require the use of clean technologies to various private and public companies to ensure their accountability and ensure their mandatory use.

• The development of internal capabilities.

• Environmental technologies accessible to the public without being subject to personal gain and privilege.

• Training of experts in each developing country, so that they can specialise abroad and return to their countries and teach at an internal level.

• The signing of international agreements that integrate all developing countries with the aim of making the technology transfer process more simple and clear.

• The support of the governments to foster the technological empowerment of the peoples.

3. MONITORING OF THE EXCHANGE OF CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES

It is essential to establish guidelines for creating a multilateral, multidisciplinary and participatory control, management and continuous evaluation of the exchange of technologies, which should be very helpful, clean and socially appropriate.

This mechanism would consist of social and scientists experts in all areas, chosen by competition of knowledge, proposed by states, regional organisms and would have as main functions:

1) The assessment of new technologies.

2) Identifying the needs of countries TO PROMOTE sustainable endogenous development through:

• Identifying opportunities for environmental development.

• The pursuit of technologies for harnessing renewable sources of energy.

• The search for potential water sources.

• The revaluation of traditional medicines

• Active participation and social control over and in technology transfer.

• The creation of collective-owned enterprises.

3) The identification of the problems that these go through:

• Lack of sufficient policy and regulatory frameworks.

• Lack of monitoring to mitigation and compensation measures.

Create and manage a Fund for Development and Technology Transfer that is responsible for the channelling of funding and the identification of funders between Annex 1 countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, i.e. the most polluting developed countries are obliged to donate, finance and transfer technology. 

Also, this fund will provide for a Global Inventory of Existing Environmental Technologies, open source, free of charge and not restricted by intellectual property rights. Similarly it will count with regional groups of experts in investment and development by geographical areas of the world that analyse, observe and examine whether these technologies are suitable for countries and in case they are not feasible, find a feasible solution.

4) Use the fund for the creation and strengthening of capacities and the establishment of centres of research and technological innovation to achieve that underpin technological sovereignty of peoples, and promote the strengthening of activists through universities, colleges, NGOs, foundations, corporations and private and public outreach projects. Part of its funding will come from taxes on private and public enterprises.

5) Report the breach in the commitments of countries debtors responsible of climate change, commitments to development and exchange of technology, Climate Justice Tribunal and procedural monitoring.

6) The evaluation and selection of appropriate technologies to the demands of society and of Mother Earth.

4. TECHNOLOGIES AND ANCESTRAL KNOWLEDGE

The world needs to recover, learn and relearn the principles and approaches of the ancient legacy of Indigenous peoples to stop the destruction of the planet, as well as the traditional knowledge and practices and recover spirituality in the rehabilitation of the well living with Mother Earth.

Humanity must understand and respect the knowledge and ancestral wisdom of the people to stop the destruction of the planet, to have harmony with all beings and in balance with Mother Earth for her to leads us to live in the fullness of well living.

The recognition, appreciation and recreation of ancestral knowledge and technologies as the basis for endogenous development of peoples, while highlighting the complementary nature of knowledge and recognising that the ancient technologies do not work alone, but go hand in hand with spirituality.

It is necessary to work on the recovery of the use of natural indicators as a method and tool to generate information that helps to make better decisions in a more lively and dynamic way to face climate change.

It is necessary to make a wake-up call to humanity to both the participants in making political decisions as to the general public to rethink the vision of “urban development” without the contempt for rural areas, and conservation of the environment in a new rural-urban sustainable relationship.

It is imperative to promote intercultural dialogue and international scientific exchange between nations for the exchange of technology and knowledge, with the goal of achieving food security sovereignty, respecting the dignity and rights of Mother Earth.

13. Final conclusions of Working Group 2: Harmony with Nature to Live Well

Text from PWCCC.

The need for a new system

1. The model of capitalist development is a threat to life because it prioritises consumerism and the generation of profits over common well-being and the satisfaction of basic needs, denying the interconnection that exists between human life and nature. This anthropocentric model based on the private accumulation of wealth and maximisation of economic growth generates inequality, poverty, exclusion and environmental destruction. It is a model that destroyes communities as well as nature.

Principles of a new system

2. Given that capitalism is a threat to life itself, it is necessary to forge a new system that reestablishes harmony with nature and among human beings based on the principles of: equilibrium among all and with all things, complementarity, solidarity, equity, justice, collective consciousness and respect for diversity and spirituality.

3. A new system should recognise that human beings are part of nature, that nature does not belong to us, and that we are interdependent with nature. In this sense, we must view respect for human rights and the rights of Mother Earth as articulated, complementary and reciprocal processes.

4. To achieve harmony with nature requires the recuperation and revalorisation of the various forms of knowledge, ancestral technologies and local systems of production, distribution and consumption that promote the maintenance of the regenerative capacity of nature, as well as the fundamental principle of equality and peace between diverse peoples and living things based on the notion of Mother Earth as an integral entity.

5. Harmony with nature is not possible if equality does not exist between human beings, between communities, nations and the environment. This means leaving aside capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, interventionism and the predatory practices that have brought us to a situation in which one percent of the possibility controls 50% of wealth, and 20% of the population consumes 80% of the total resources.

Unlimited development versus harmony with nature

6. The division of the globe into “developed” and “developing” or even “under-developed” countries reflects paradigms that have now been relegated to history. Today, in the face of climate change and the persistent degradation of the environment, our principal need is to strengthen communities and recognise human beings for what they are, not what they have. This should occur in the context of the recuperation and revalorisation of the history of humanity and our Indigenous roots.

7. To achieve harmony with nature, peoples and their governments must demonstrate sufficient capacity, conscience and political will to govern with a non-anthropocentric mindset that emphasises life, thus eliminating predatory practices and replacing them with a vision of life in communion with nature. To achieve this, it is necessary to promote unity among the peoples of the planet so that all might watch over Mother Earth and life in harmony with nature.

8. Governments must generate investment and support for new and existing sustainable technologies and the recovery of ancestral technologies, which transform the processes leading to the satisfaction of real human needs, adapting them to a framework of harmony with nature at a global level, and especially at the local level, in which environmental problems and the impacts of climate change primarily affect the most vulnerable populations. To achieve this, it is important to recognise the plurality of forms of knowledge and ancestral practices, and transform scientific paradigms based on control over nature toward paradigms oriented toward equilibrium with nature.

9. Because the Mother Earth is a living entity and subject to rights, Living Well requires the protection and restoration of the integrity of the ecosystems in order to Live Well, as well of the recognition of the existence of universal natural patrimonies such as the atmosphere, water, biodiversity, soil, subsoil and the land, which should be respected and used appropriately, rather than seen as objects of merchandise. Living Well depends also on the satisfaction of basic, fundamental needs through equitable access to basic services such as water, sanitation, housing and knowledge, which should be under the control of society and never be privatized, with constant attention to equilibrium and respect for nature.

10. A new system requires action; a change of mindset and the consumerist practices of human beings, as well as the construction of a collective, critical consciousness based on a continual questioning of daily actions so that there may be adequate, balanced and respectful use of the spaces and the universal natural patrimonies that belong to us all. For this to occur, we must sensitise, educate and teach everyone using new educational systems and new media that are based on the principle of harmony with nature to Live Well and the need to care for the spaces in which we live, including communities, countries and the planet.

11. The construction of new paradigms such as Living Well and new forms of harmony with nature requires the examination of different forms of wisdom and experiences, and a collective evaluation of current realities using new indicators that allow us to measure the impact of human activity on the planet. These indicators should permit not just knowledge of the present situation, but also serve as a basis for the application of new laws that permit the application of environmental and climate justice. These indicators may include the ecological footprint and the Human Development Index (HDI), as well as others based on ethical principles and Living Well.

12. Faced with the reality that the Earth’s regenerative capacity has now been exceeded by more than 30% and that the current rate of overexploitation, if continued, would require the resources of two planets by the year 2030, it is essential to generate a new model that is not one of unlimited and destructive development. Recognising that countries require a certain level of development to satisfy the fundamental necessities of their populations, and that this should involve the use of Earth-friendly technologies, alternatives based on ancestral practices, and endogenous development, a new model of harmony with nature can in no way be achieved if countries sustain the predatory capitalist paradigm that has caused the richest nations to have an ecological footprint five times larger than what the planet is capable of supporting. This situation jeopardises the existence of Mother Earth and the survival and well-being of all peoples.

Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 21, 2010

14. Final conclusions Working Group 6: Climate Change and Migration

Text from PWCCC.

Causes and consequences of climatic migration

Climatic migrations happen in the context of the developmental pattern associated with the capitalist system. On one hand, this pattern enables states and transtantional entities to overexploit natural resources and to degrade the environment, forcing persons and families to emigrate. A good example of this situation are massive projects that utilise basic resources like soil, fauna and local flora (like mining and dams), and that happen with the permission of governments.

Several different places of the planet are turning into ejecting zones as a consequence of climate change, this situation forces the displacement of people because of the shortages in the regular supply of food and water, as well as the increase in the frequency and severity of floods, or storms, or on the contrary of droughts.

In the other hand, the developmental pattern of capitalism is benefited by the overexploitation of immigrant labour. Even though this overexploitation situation is shared by the economically impulsed immigrants, those who we would consider climate immigrants are a by-product of the degradation of the planet, the situation that forces them to look for new places to live. Among the main environmental causes that determine migration we find: climate change (desertification, deforestation, soil degradation, water contamination, hurricanes or floods) and human-generated disasters (industrial accidents, radioactivity and many others)

Both situations imply violations of human rights of migrant people, and the worsening of inequity; mainly in the countries of the global South; their population is forced to move with dramatic impacts on the environment in the places that receive them too, closing a rights violation cycle.

First of all, people’s right not to migrate and to stay in their own territory is being violated, hence the fact that degradation of their own territories is generating the abandonment of rural communities, where occasionally only elders are left. Second, in the cities, the ones that migrate rely on low wages and exploitation conditions, with their right to a dignifying job violated, making the poverty levels even worse and therefore denying access to basic rights like housing, health and education. This reality is most times boosted by people-trafficking networks, which can turn people into merchandise. Third, through the militarisation of borders, and the criminalisation of migrants, abuses against them are institutionalised and high levels of discrimination are generated, this as a matter of fact, eventually turns into another obstacle for the access to all of their rights. Fourth and last, the developmental pattern of capitalism is imposing migration on people from their own land, this violates the basic right to move freely.

At a global scale, migration that is imposed by climate causes increases the pressure over basic services, damaging economic growth and increasing the risk of conflicts. Furthermore, climate migration contributes to the unmeasured growth of cities where millions of people live; and where migrants will live in poor and not privileged zones, with scarce and deficient drinking water services and limited access to economic, social and cultural rights.

Some other consequences of forced migration induced by climate are the chaos in production systems (this affects farmers, Indigenous peoples, fisherfolk among many others) and the weakening of the internal market. Aside the loss of “human capital”, in the form of work force and education investment, migration contributes to an even worse limited economic opportunities scenario, which will generate future migration as well.

Many people lose bonds with their ancestral knowledge and customs, given that these are related to their territory, and while being forced to lose these bonds they will have to adopt a completely different way of life. The great-scale displacement of people may rearrange the ethnic maps of many different countries, shortening the distance between groups that once lived separated, and forcing them to compete for the same resources.

We must take notice that this situation is even worse for specific groups of the migrating population; this is the case of Indigenous women, children and youth.

In summary, as environmental degradation and climate change reach a critical level, internal and international migration is one of the main consequences. According to some projections in 1995 there were 25 million climate migrants, today it is estimated that there are 50 million, and projections for 2050 go anywhere from 200 million to 1000 million people to be displaced because of situations derived from climate change. This will provoke supplies to be scarcer, e.g. water and food, as well as the increase of the frequency and severity of floods and storms, this entire scenario will worsen the cycle in which climate migrants will find themselves with no shelter unless we start acting now.

Facing these considerations, the definitions that try to reflect these realities are as follows:

• Climate refugees: Those people forced to evacuate their territory because of climate change. If there is no international right, particularly in the Geneve statutes, it is necessary to insert this category so that the countries assume their responsibilities when it comes to this situation. This consideration is in the same line as the one stated by Jean Ziegler, special rapporteur in the right to food on his 2007 report, where he states that there is little to no difference between a person who is facing death because of famine and a person that is threatened by arbitrary execution to their political convictions. He proposed the creation of a legal instrument to protect these people, acknowledging them as famine refugees, and providing them with the right to temporary protection and no forced return, with the intention for them not to be returned to a country where hunger and famine threaten their lives.
• Forced migrants: Those people who are forced to migrate not only because of climate change-related reasons, but also because of economic factors. The term climate migrant narrows the problem leaving out workers who have been forced to leave their countries because of working reasons and may distract of the underlying structural reasons as a global phenomenon. The term “forced migrant” will oppose the one from a migrant that moves freely.
• Climate-displaced people: Those who are forcibly displaceed because of climate reasons, both inside and outside their own countries. There is a need to create a legal status to protect those who find themselves in this situation, due to the lack of international recognition of the people in displacement, aside from the ones that migrate or ask for refuge.

PROPOSAL

1. We demand all international covenants, both the ones that are subscribed in the framework of the UN through complimentary protocols or alternate amendments, and those subscribed in other instances, e.g. ALBA, UNASUR, Comunidad de los estados de Latinoamérica y Caribe, to contemplate the definition of climate migrants [1], both for people as for communities, in a fashion that all the states of the world glimpse the rights of these people in their definitions and considerations.
2. There must be a design for global and local policies to face climate change, that incorporates and respects democratic participation of all of the countries, and a wide participation of peoples and territories involved in the defence of their communities and the rights of Mother Earth.
3. We demand political, economic, social and cultural patterns, in which the right to move and displace freely is respected, also a pattern that respects the right not to migrate and not to be displaced by force, recovering the ancestral technologies and cosmovision when to build a pattern of development framed in peoples’ vision of living well, that implies respect and harmony with Mother Earth, patterns that should oppose to “developmental” and extractivistic practices of the capitalistic world system, that determine poverty, inequity, misery, deterioration of Mother Earth and migration.
4. The promotion of a human rights treaty for climate migrants, recognised and applicable at a global scale, one of binding character and therefore claimable. So that climate migrants have the same rights and obligations as the citizens of the country of destination.
5. The creation of an international institution of the peoples that promotes permanent research on current political, social, cultural and economic situation of climate migrants.
6. To demand the creation of an economic fund, funded mainly by the countries on the centre of capitalism and huge transnational corporations, that are held main responsible for climate change, destined to meet the needs of both internal and international climatic migrants. This fund will be administrated by the climate justice court, or by another body constituted by the peoples and communities affected by climate change; there must be a respect for the principles of differentiated responsibilities of the countries, according to the size or seriousness of the damage caused.
7. As an international policy, technology transfer must be generated from the capitalist countries as part of the recognition and honour to their historical climate debt, this technology must be compatible with the rights of Mother Earth and must encourage food and energy sovereignty, as well as other economic alternatives that have communities and their harmonious relationship with Mother Earth as their axis.
8. Creation of a people's commission for the monitoring and follow-up of the agreements on climate migration adopted by this World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth.
9. Support for the constitution of an international court to denounce, make visible, document, judge and punish violationsof  the rights of migrants, refugees and displaced people, in their own countries, while in transit, or in destination.
10. Respect for the right to prior consultation and free consent of the communities, which as a consequence of natural disasters are forced to migrate or to displace from their original territory. The right of communities and peoples not to migrate or displace unfairly and forcibly from their territories by eviction or plundering means exerted by states, transnational corporations and other armed actors.

Note

[1] The term climate migrant, is also a figure in which the terms climate displaced, climate refugees or forced migrants are included.

15. Final conclusions Working Group 14: Forests

16. Final conclusions of  Working Group 11 – Adaptation: Confronting Climate Change

Text from PWCCC.

1. As Peoples gathered at the “World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth”, collaborating with the Work Group No. 11, Adaptation: Confronting Climate Change, we propose the following conclusions so that they are considered in the process towards the COP16 of Mexico and fundamentally to protect Mother Earth.

Vulnerability and climate change impacts

2. Mother Earth and all forms of life that exist are every day more vulnerable to climate change due to the effect of an historical industrial wild development generated by the developed countries and that put in high risk the survival of the species.

3. The Peoples are vulnerable because of their geographical place, their development condition, their level of exposition to events caused by climate change and their capacity to confront the impacts.

4. The fresh water is every day scarcer, the glaciers of the whole world are disappearing, in particular in mountain range zones, which implies the lack of healthy water for life, for ecosystems, for food production and for all forms of life. Likewise, droughts are putting in risk the food sovereignty of the Peoples.

5. The level and temperature increase of the sea are causing: the death of reefs, species and seashores’ extinction, with big economic losses for the Peoples that live near those areas.

6. Floods are more frequent and severe and affect human safety, infrastructure loss, and complete displacement of Peoples and species. The cyclical events deepen these impacts.

7. Agriculture, in particular the one for rural and indigenous communities’ subsistence, is in real danger because of climate change, and the changes in seasons, also due to a greater presence of plagues and illness, which will deeply affect the mother-child nourishment levels and will also affect the increase of climate migrants. The damages caused to forests and ecosystems, and the loss of biodiversity are impacts with an increasing frequency, which particularly affect the rural and indigenous communities that have these ecosystems as part of their livelihood. Likewise, the communities themselves are seeing how their bioindicators are affected and the erosion of their ancestral knowledge.

8. The appearance and re-emergence of transmissible illness are every time greater, malaria, dengue, diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, are increasing the morbidity and mortality rates, especially  infant mortality, and  extreme events are causing a greater number of human injuries and loss, including impacts at psychological level. At the same time, social and gender vulnerability are present.

9. Urban and peri-urban communities, which are the result of rural exodus, are alsoobject of the impacts of climate change due to conditions of high poverty and lack of services. Also, new forms of consumption are determinant factors that influence the impacts.

10. In general, the economic, social, cultural and human development of developing[1] countries are seriously impacted by climate change, compromising the well-being of future generations, placing living beings in a risk point of serious consequences. Also, the economic – social inequity itself is a generator of vulnerability towards climate change.

Facing the impacts of climate change

11. The Peoples reject the notion of adaptation to climate change understood as the resignation to the impacts of climate change not provoked by our countries. This change is caused by the capitalism model and consumption since the industrial revolution. It is the developed countries[2] who must adapt their lifestyles and consumption to confront this planetary emergency. As real responsibles for this problem, they must mitigate the impact to Mother Earth changing their economic models of development, production and consumption with fewer emissions of greenhouse effect gases. The responsibility of providing with the necessary resources so that the Peoples can confront these impacts and defend life and  Mother Earth relies on the developed countries, who now force us to face inevitable changes.

12.  Considering these impacts, caused by this model of consumption, the Peoples, including those in the developed countries, are forced to confront climate change, without resigning themselves to accepting the impacts, but instead considering adaptation as a process and not an imposition, and also as a tool that should be used to resist these impacts and especially to protect and to defend Mother Earth and all forms of life, demonstrating that it is possible to live in harmony with life under a different life model. The adaptation cannot be considered to be the solution in itself. Mother Earth and the Peoples cannot live eternally adapting themselves to an irresponsible life style by a minority of the Planet.

13. It is urgent that our developing countries establish policies and strategic lines to confront climate change so that these allow the possibility to be defined also at global, regional, local and community levels and through the integral management of: climate risks, natural resources, water, basins including glaciers, soils, agricultural biodiversity, energy, waste management, territory planning, environmental and strategic education, capacity building strengthening at all levels, free access to information and revaluation of ancestral knowledge, in search of a fundamental change of paradigm that allows us to protect and to take care of Mother Earth and all its forms of life.

14. To work in contingency and prevention plans, recognizing amongst others; the vital role of women, in order to confront climate risks, forced migrations of living beings, the loss of crops and illnesses, as well as to work towards nature´s balance, must be of international priority. To promote measures to transfer climate-risk from developing countries to developed countries through the States.

15. It is established that the recovery and revaluation of the ancestral knowledge, engineering and techniques, the ceremonial centers, and rituality allow to confront the impacts of climate change in complementarity with scientific knowledge.

16. Our countries, as an example of sensibility towards Mother Earth, ratify the commitment to implement actions to face climate change, to work on the development of our own technologies and to promote autonomous processes of capacity building and investigation. 

The costs and financing responsibility

17. The industrialized countries have the moral and legal obligation to pay the totality of the historical and future adaptation debt with the urgent and immediate provision of financial resources and technology transfer and application, without conditions, to developing countries to confront the impacts of climate change and to provide economic resources, technology for prevention and strengthening of  response capacities, to cover the cost of lost and diminished opportunities, and to strengthen the role of women, the rural, indigenous communities and of the children towards climate change. They must compensate the damages for the impacts that already took place and the ones that will occur in the future and for the loss of development opportunities, cultural and services loss; compensation for extreme, climate and  gradual events, considering the additional costs that might arise if our planet exceeds the ecological thresholds for the projected warming that threatens the biocapacity of Mother Earth, as well as those impacts that are hindering the development right to “living well” in harmony with the nature that Peoples have.

18. Also, the payment of the Adaptation Debt (which is part of the Climate Debt) by the developed countries is not a permission so that they can keep unsustainable systems of consumption that continue affecting life negatively.

19. The Adaptation Fund must be maintained with the minimal contribution per year of 2 % of the yearly GDP of the total 6% defined in the financing section[3] of the developed countries to exclusively confront the impacts of climate change. These funds will have a character of compensation and additional to the Official Development Assistance and applicable until the developed countries reduce their emissions and climate stabilizes.

20. It is necessary to strengthen the Adaptation Fund  as an exclusive fund for confronting climate change impacts and that is part of a financial mechanism managed and led in a sovereign and equitable way by our States, without Development Banks and Multilateral Financial Organisms . It should also handle a mechanism for the compensation for damages to Mother Earth as it is described in paragraph 17 to guarantee that all countries have the same protection right against the impacts and to proactively confront climate change.

21. This Fund should assess: the impacts and their costs in the developing countries and the needs that these impacts derive, register and monitor the support of developed countries, including the transfer and development of suitable technologies and the fulfillment of the funds provision as part of a just compensation.

Equitable opportunities to confront climate change

22. It is recognized that all countries have the same right to protection against impacts and to proactively confront climate change. It is inequitable that enormous quantities of resources for protection are spent in developed countries, whereas to our Peoples the sums that want to be assigned are minimal, knowing that we are more vulnerable.

23. We admit also that the economic model of development based on the consumption is originating in the developed countries poor communities with high levels of vulnerability to climate change, which should be attended by their own States.

24. It is urgent to strengthen research capacities and the transfer of environmentally suitable and socially healthy technologies, as well as the development itself of technologies in and for the developing countries, to monitor, predict and to assess the impacts of climate change at all levels. The provision of resources must be undertaken by the developed countries to cover the totality of these processes and in particular the development, transfer and adequacy of technologies for the monitoring of the impacts and of concrete adaptation actions and measures. Also, these resources must strengthen participatory mechanisms and processes of prevention and risks reduction of climate disasters through early warning systems and adaptation at all the levels, especially towards the most vulnerable sectors. Local stakeholders and the Peoples must be privileged  with analysis of the impacts and adaptation, for which their knowledge and endogenous capacities must be considered.

25. We recognize the efforts and proper measurements that our Peoples do for protecting Mother Earth and all forms of life.

A criticism to an irresponsible Accord

26. The “Copenhagen Accord”, imposed over the developing countries by some States, beyond offering insufficient resources, pretends by itself divide and confront the Countries for economic resources and to force them to the actions of adaptation without fully guaranteeing the necessary resources. Also, they try to grant 10,000 million dollars per year over next years, although more than 300,000 million dollars per year are required for adaptation. In the same way, we alert that the “Accord” claims that funds serve more for mitigation than to confront the impacts of climate change.

27. This irresponsible “Accord” tries to extort developing countries conditioning access to adaptation resources in exchange for mitigation measures. In the same way the “Accord” tries to force developing countries to adaptation, forgetting that the responsibility of the costs and expenses are exclusively from the developed countries.

28. Additionally, it is established as unacceptable that in the processes of international negotiations it is attempted to categorize the developing countries by their vulnerability to climate change, generating disputes, inequalities and segregation between them.

Climate Justice

29. Unfulfillment by the developed countries to compensate the costs of impacts and those from the climate change adaptation debt must be subjected to the climate justice tribunal.

---

[1]This criticized term will be used, for being the category of language used in the international negotiation. It is also understood that this development must be a development that means harmony with nature and with regards to Mother Earth and all the living beings.

[2] This term will be used although it is highly criticized. They are categories used in the International Negotiation. It is understood that this development has been achieved following a model of consumption and production that have been determinant factors in the current crisis of our planet.

[3]This amount is based on several studies and of different sectors and also considering studies from different organizations. The financing section and climate debt has more details respectively.

17. Working Group 16: Strategies of Action

18. Declaration of the "unofficial" "Working Group 18"*: Collective rights and rights of the Mother Earth

National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu

[Text from http://climatejustice.posterous.com/. *The 18th workshop (mesa 18) was organised by some Bolivian social movements concerned about the impacts of mining and resource extraction on their environment and critical of the Bolivian government. Conference organisers decided to not include the group in the list of official working groups.]

This working group established itself as a necessary space of reflection and criticism within the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth. Its objective is to give a deeper examination of the local effects of global industrial capitalism. We take on the responsibility of questioning the so-called popular Latin American governments and their destructive and consumerist logic, and the deadly logic of neo-extractive development.

The distinct interventions within this working group have contributed in setting out the contradictions within the process as well as bringing forward proposals in advancing the road to "good living".

The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth is a demonstration of the magnetism that has woken up this process. In order to guarantee that this process deepens and extends as an example of hope to the whole continent and the peoples and communities of the world, it is necessary to show the existing contradictions, reflected in social environmental conflicts.

These contradictions are the result of not applying the aforementioned principles. This working group proposes to contribute to active mechanisms of coordinated struggle, through the support of this process.
The social and popular organisations and the original farming ("campesinas") Indigenous communities of Latin America and of the rest of the world met in Tiquipaya, April 20-21, 2010. The process of developing the 18th table brought proposals to define foundations for implementing a New Model of Managing Natural Resources to counter the capitalist production model still prevalent in Latin America, which is situated in industrial development and the consolidation of transnationals, funded in private property, individual gain and consumerism, aspects which have been put to judgement by the nations and the people of Latin America. The development plans of these governments, including the Bolivian government, only reproduce the development model of the past.

To challenge climate change humanity needs to remember its cultural collective communatarian roots -– this means building a society based on collective property and in the communal and rational management of natural resources, where the peoples decide in a direct way the destiny of natural wealth in accordance with their organising structures, their self-determination, their norms and procedures and their vision of how to manage their territories.

History teaches us that there is only one effective way to transform society and to construct a social alternative to capitalism, that is the permanent mobilisation and articulation of our struggles.
We resolve the following:

1. We renounce imperialism, transnationals and the so-called progressive Latin American governments that implement mega energy and infrastructure projects under the IIRSA in any of Latin American territories -– particularly in Indigenous territories and protected areas -– which are designed by banks, businessmen and private builders with a neoliberal and exploitative vision.

2. We demand to change the pseudo development model which privileges the exportation of raw materials. We propose to take forward the construction of alternatives which are in the interest of the peoples, privileging equity, solidarity and complementary.

3. We ask to establish a rational management model of natural resources in accordance with the philosophy, culture, customs and uses of the people, and which bases itself on a social and communitarian model, respectful of the Rights of the Mother Earth.

4. Because of the lack of the will from governments of the world, we demand the power, as social organisations and farmers/peasants, to define a new management model and direct control of natural patrimony. With direct control by the workers from the farm and the city to establish policies of managing biodiversity in relation to necessity and not the dependence of our countries.

5. We ask the states to respect and realise Indigenous rights already accepted by the UN thanks to the fight of the first Indigenous farmers/peasant organisations. We demand the derogation of the legal norms which criminalise our social struggles in defence of our communal territories and that sanction criminal governments.

6. Make public the necessity to eliminate large landowners, the pirating of biodiversity and agrobusiness, and to recuperate ancestral knowledge of the nations and first Indigenous peasants/farmers peoples in the world, the promotion of ecological production, the reproduction of the communitarian model, the training in reproducing forests and biodiversity in an attempt to confront climate change.

7. We demand the retraction and expulsion of all transnationals, of those NGOs which support projects of the aforementioned corporations, and the media that propagandise and violate collective rights. We demand the recuperation of the natural goods that have been devastated and exhausted. We propose the suspension of all extractive activity, work or projects that are responsible and a cause of climate change, the displacement of peoples from their territories, and the environmental social effects in territories of nations and peoples in the world.

8. We demand the fulfillment of collective rights violated in social environmental conflicts in the following cases: Corocoro – Jacha Suyu Pakajaqi, Lliquimuni - Indigenous people of Mosetén - San Cristobal – FRUTCAS Southeast of Potosí - Mutún – Chiquitanía Pantanal, TIPNIS – CONISUR, Cuenca Huanuni, Lago Poopo, Río Desaguadero, Cañadón Antequera, Consejo de Capitanes Guaranis Tarija, Charagua Norte – Asamblea del Pueblo Guaraní de Charagua Norte - represa del Río Madera en Brasil y Bolivia – struggle for common property and land, MST Bolivia and farmer/peasant movement of Córdova, Argentina – Justice for the original Indigenous farmer/peasant community massacred in Porvenir, Pando, the 11 de septiembre of 2008 – mining contamination in Potosí – deforestation and mining in Guarayos – mining in the North of Chichas – cases Andalgalá en Catamarca y San Juan in Argentina – conflicts over forests in Mapuche territories and other national and international cases (see annex - n/a at moment) with which we declare our solidarity in their struggles.

9. All these points make up the mandate of the peoples united at the 18th table – started by the Council of the Ayullus and Markas of Qullasuyu and other social organisations in the world – all of which should be fulfilled by all the states that benefit from the goods of the Mother Earth.