BARCELONA, November 6, 2009 – The international civil society network Climate
Justice Now! deplores the downplaying of expectations for the Copenhagen Climate
Summit in Barcelona by industrialized countries, UNFCCC officials and the host of
the Copenhagen Summit. On the eve of Copenhagen, there is still no real progress
on targets, a naïve and dangerous reliance on market mechanisms, no commitment
to human rights, and a frightening context in which some countries are beginning to
talk seriously about dangerous climate techno-fixes.

"Instead of discussing practical approaches to rapid emissions reductions — like a
massive investment in safe renewable energy and rapid technology transfer — here
in Barcelona, the developed countries are downplaying expectations, inching
toward weak targets, minimal financing and no meaningful agreements on
technology transfer,” said Meena Raman, Legal Advisor of Third World Network.

“The attempts to destroy and alter the present legal instruments of the climate
regime (Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol), with false and unjust
solutions being put forward as part of a weak aggregate target, are destroying the
trust and good faith that are needed deliver a strong agreement in Copenhagen"
said Raman.

One of the deliverables of Copenhagen was supposed to be a deal on REDD
(Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) but that is liable
to end up as a green-washing exercise if there is no legally binding climate change
agreement in Copenhagen. “We cannot allow a bad REDD deal to be a loophole
that sabotages a genuine solution to climate change. Industrialized countries have a
historical responsibility for human-induced climate change and a REDD deal will not
work without commitments from these countries to reduce their domestic
emissions by at least 40%,” said Alejandro Alemán of Centro Humboldt, Nicaragua,
speaking on behalf of the Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change.

“The full collective rights of Indigenous peoples consistent to the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and our full and effective
participation in all climate change negotiations must be recognized in any binding
climate treaty,” says Christian Dominguez, a member of the International
Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change participating in the UN climate talks.

“While global negotiations have been going on here in Barcelona at a snail’s pace,
geoengineering has alarmingly moved to the forefront of policy debates in London
and Washington,” said Diana Bronson of Canada-based ETC Group. Yesterday,
joint Congressional-Parliamentary hearings on geoengineering were kicked off in
Washington, giving yet another signal that industrialized countries are not getting
serious about meaningful reductions in greenhouse gases. “We are sending a
strong message today that putting sulphates in the stratosphere, iron in the oceans
and biochar in the land are neither solutions to climate change nor alternatives to
securing the binding targets and adequate financing that developing countries are
rightly demanding.”

With zero negotiating days left to Copenhagen, the divide between developing
countries’ demands and industrialized countries’ actions has led to a breakdown in
trust which is undermining the credibility of these negotiations. Climate Justice
Now! calls on political leaders to deliver a legally binding deal in Copenhagen –
anything less is a political cop-out.

Justicia Climática Ahora! es una red de organizaciones y movimientos de diversas
partes del globo comprometidos a luchar por la justicia social, ecológica y de
género.

INFORMATION:

Diana Bronson: ETC Group, 1 514 629 9236 diana etcgroup.org
Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies, +1 202-510-3541 daphne ips-dc.org
Kate Dooley, FERN, +44 782 469 7376 kate fern.org