“I’m being censored for telling the truth about the climate fraud being concocted by the United Nations,” Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

PHOTO Credit: Indigenous Environmental Network.

Some of the best reporting on the UN climate change negotiations in Cancun comes from Democracy Now!. On 9 December 2010, Democracy Now! broadcast a series of interviews focussing on REDD and carbon markets.

Here are some of the highlights from yesterday’s Democracy Now! programme, featuring interviews with several members of the Durban Group for Climate Justice: Anne Petermann of the Global Justice Ecology Project, Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Patrick Bond of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Michael Dorsey of the Climate Justice Research Project at Dartmouth College.

Is REDD the New Green? Indigenous Groups Resist Carbon Market-Based Forestry Scheme to Offset Emissions

In addition to an interview with Anne Petermann, this includes clips of World Bank president Robert Zoellick (talking about REDD+), billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros (talking about REDD in Indonesia) and conservationist Jane Goodall (talking about protecting forests).

ANNE PETERMANN: Well, the issue with REDD-plus, the issue with the REDD scheme in general, is that it’s not addressing the underlying drivers of deforestation, and therefore it’s not going to solve the problem. The other organization that I work with, the Global Forest Coalition, just did a multi-year study of what are the actual drivers of deforestation around the world, and REDD is not addressing those.

Prominent Indigenous Environmental Leader Tom Goldtooth Blocked from U.N. Climate Talks

An interview with Tom Goldtooth about being blocked from entering the conference centre the day after he publicly criticised the U.N. process. A statement from Goldtooth is below, in English and available in Spanish here.

TOM GOLDTOOTH: Being kicked out of the United Nations climate meeting for telling the truth about the treachery of carbon trading and REDD—and that’s what we’ve been doing is talking about the insanity of the mitigation and solution to climate change based around a market-based system. You know, I’m being censored for telling the truth about the climate fraud being concocted by the United Nations. And how ironic it is that indigenous peoples, who can teach humanity on how to survive climate catastrophe, are being kicked out.

Offsetting Emissions or Pollution Profiteering? Debating the Surge of Cap-and-Trade Carbon Market

Features interviews with Patrick Bond and Michael Dorsey opposing carbon trading and Henry Derwent, president and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association, which is holding its own convention on the sidelines of the UN climate talks.

PATRICK BOND: And that’s why the REDD debate has become so intense, whether the reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation can be turned also into a privatization of the air. And that’s what, of course, these guys here want to have happen is to have forests become part of the global carbon market.

Commodifying Wildlife? World Bank Launches Market Scheme for Endangered Species

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, introduces the Bank’s latest idea for commodifying nature and creating new commodities to be traded: the Wildlife Premium Market Initiative. As far as I am aware this is not a Yes Men stunt.

ROBERT ZOELLICK:Under future REDD-plus regimes, countries where these species live could earn carbon credits for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation below a recognized baseline. By introducing wildlife premium into the mix, countries, provinces and local communities could earn additional payments if the range of species in question expands to include former habitat above some established baseline. We cannot just rely on an offset market. Investment funding will be necessary from the very start.

P.S. Here are some more photographs from the Via Campesina demonstration on 7 December 2010, taken by Larry Lohmann of The Corner House and also a member of the Durban Group. The photographs provide further evidence that Environmental Defense Fund’s Chris Meyer’s claim that the majority protesting did not have an anti-REDD message is a dirty lie:

Statement By Tom Goldtooth, Leader of the Indigenous Environmental Network Delegation to UNFCCC COP-16 Negotiations

“The Voices of those Who Speak for Mother Earth Must Not Be Silenced”

Dec 9, 2010

I have come to the UNFCCC COP-16 climate talks in Cancun, Mexico as a member of Grassroots Solutions for Climate Justice — North America a delegation of Indigenous Peoples and representatives from fossil fuel impacted communities who are on the frontlines of addressing the climate crisis. On Tuesday Dec 7th I spoke at a Vía Campesina press conference of social movement and civil society leaders inside the Moon Palace, hosted by our allies at the Global Justice Ecology Project. Together with my brothers and sisters from Vía Campesina, Friends of the Earth, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and allies from around the world we expressed our solidarity with the many diverse communities and movements participating in the “Thousand Cancuns Day of Action for Climate Justice”. I also stated my deep concerns that the COP negotiations are failing to address the core issue of reducing emissions and have instead become a trade show for promoting false solutions and generating capital. We were honored to be joined by Pablo Solon, the UN ambassador from Bolivia and together we left the talks to join the thousands of people rallying outside in the streets in a People’s Assembly addressing the real, community led solutions to the climate crisis.

On the Wed December 8th when I returned to the Moon Palace to continue my role in the negotiations I was denied entry, informed that my accreditation had been suspended and then removed from the grounds. I also learned that over a dozen of my brothers and sisters from other accredited civil society organizations were also denied entry. I am please to report that due to the support of both government and civil society allies who advocated on my behalf, that as of this morning, my accreditation has now been re-instated. To everyone who assisted the Indigenous Environmental Network and myself we issue our deepest thanks and gratitude.

However, even though I have been fortunate enough to regain my personal access to the negotiations, the treatment I received is indicative of a larger and disturbing pattern in which the voices of civil society are being silenced within the United Nations process. The UNFCCC has drastically limited the number of civil society representatives allowed inside the talks and increasingly our freedom of speech and right to peaceful protest is being withdrawn. We must stand united against this type of censorship that is designed to silence the massive opposition to the co-optation of the UN process by an unholy alliance of short-term thinking, denial and greed. I have included below a statement from the members of our delegation who were ejected on the 7th of December and continue to be denied access to the talks.

Both inside and outside the UN process the voices of Indigenous peoples, social movements and the communities most directly affected by our fossil fuel dependency must continue to be heard as we reject false solutions like the carbon market mechanisms of REDD. We demand that the Cochabama People’s Agreement be acknowledged as a path forward towards addressing the real solutions to the climate crisis based in traditional Indigenous knowledge, community-based practices, Indigenous and human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.

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Tom Goldtooth the Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) a network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous Nations and communities towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions. IEN has brought 17 Indigenous leaders to Cancun as part of the Grassroots Solutions for Climate Justice — North America Delegation uniting representatives from fossil fuel impacted communities who are on the frontlines of solving the climate crisis.

http://redroadcancun.org http://grassrootsclimatesolutions.org

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Statement from members of Global Grassroots Justice Alliance and Youth for Climate Justice Who were expelled from COP-16

http://grassrootsclimatesolutions.org

We are representatives of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and Youth 4 Climate Justice who were a part of an organized and peaceful demonstration inside the Moon Palace on Dec. 7, to draw attention to the serious dangers of false solutions such as REDD and the carbon market. In response the UNFCCC, silenced our voices and ejected us from the Convention. All three of us are representatives of communities who are already being disproportionately impacted by climate change and the unjust social and economic conditions that have created this crisis. By penalizing and ejecting us as individuals the UN is also silencing the collective voices of our communities. We stand firmly rooted in our principles to lift the voices of women, young people, and Indigenous peoples throughout the world and to advance the real solutions to cooling the planet found in our grassroots movements. We stand in solidarity with the thousands of people who took action on Dec. 7, as part of the Global Day of Action.

Quotes from the 3 Banned Climate Justice Organizers:

“Our delegation came to the UNFCCC to bring forward our communities’ solutions to the climate crisis, to give testimony about the shifts happening to create local, place-based economies and reconnect to our mother earth. What we found were negotiations that excluded our participation so we took action to ensure our voices were heard.” — Joaquin Sanchez Jr. Youth for Climate Justice, Oakland, CA, USA

“How am I supposed to register the concerns of hundreds of Asian families poisoned by the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, CA when the UN has selectively denied me access to the convention? The UN is systematically silencing the voices of impacted communities. We are experts in our own right, we know these issues all too well. Those who are on the front line of the problem also need be on the front line of the solutions.” — Mari Rose Taruc, Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Richmond, CA USA

“I came to COP16 representing the public health concerns of low-income communities of color living in Los Angeles being impacted by toxic emissions. Throughout the past two weeks I have seen how the UNFCCC meeting has systematically limited and suppressed voices of dissent to programs being promoted through the UN such as REDD which will only increase the poising of the communities I represent back home.” — Sunyoung Yang, Bus Riders Union and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Los Angeles, CA USA