Indigenous Peoples from around the World Outraged at the Rapid
Escalation of Climate Change and Denounced False Solutions
Anchorage, Alaska--At the first global gathering of Indigenous Peoples
on climate change, participants were outraged at the intensifying rate
of destruction the climate crisis is having on the Earth and all
peoples. Participants reaffirmed that Indigenous Peoples are most
impacted by climate change and called for support and funding for
Indigenous Peoples to create adaptation and mitigation plans for
themselves, based on their own Traditional Knowledge and practices.
Indigenous Peoples also took a strong position on emission reduction
targets of industrialized countries and against false solutions.
The majority of those attending looked towards addressing the root
problem - the burning of fossil fuels - and demanded an immediate
moratorium on new fossil fuel development and called for a swift and
just transition away from fossil fuels.
"While the arctic is melting, Africa is suffering from drought
and many Pacific Islands are in danger of disappearing.
Indigenous Peoples are locked out of national and international
negotiations," stated Jihan Gearon, Native energy and climate
campaigner of the
Indigenous
Environmental Network. "We're sending a strong message to the
next UN Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in
Copenhagen, Denmark that business as usual must end, because business
as usual is killing us. Participants at the summit stood united
on sending a message to the world leaders in Copenhagen calling for a
binding emission reduction target for developed countries of at
least 45% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 95% by
2050."
"In Alaska, my people are on the front lines of climate change
and are devastated by the fossil fuel industry," related Faith
Gemmill, Executive Director of Resisting Environmental Destruction on
Indigenous Lands (
REDOIL).
"Alaska natives network and we are fighting back. We
recently won a major battle last week as the District Court of
Columbia threw out a plan to access 83 million acres of the Outer
Continental Shelf that was driven by Shell Oil. Shell has a long
history of human rights violations, for which many have suffered and
died, like Ken Saro-Wiwa of the Ogoni People in the Niger Delta of
Africa."
Tom Goldtooth,
Indigenous
Environmental Network's Executive Director, commented, "We
want real solutions to climate chaos and not the false solutions like
forest carbon offsets and other market based mechanisms that will
benefit only those who are making money on those outrageous schemes "
He added, "For example one the solutions to mitigate
climate change is an initiative by the World Bank to
protect forests in developing countries through a carbon
market regime called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation or REDD." He concluded, "Don't be
fooled, REDD does nothing to address the underlying drivers of
deforestation."
At a World Bank presentation at the global summit, Egberto Tabo,
General Secretary of
COICA, the
Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations in the Amazon Basin
denounced "the genocide caused by the World Bank in the Amazon."
Mr. Tabo also categorically rejected the inclusion of forests in the
carbon market and the Bank's funding of REDD. The World Bank's
representative, Navin Rai admitted that "the Bank has made
mistakes in the past..We know that there were problems with projects
like the trans-amazon highway." But REDD, he argued would not be
more of the same. However, indigenous leaders at the global summit
were unconvinced by his assurances and the Work Bank presentation
ended with a Western Shoshone women's passionate appeal to the Bank to
stop funding projects that endanger the survival of indigenous
peoples.
2012 Carbon Trade Watch