On November 28 and 29, hundreds of thousands of people around the world will take to the streets in more than 2,000 events in 150 countries to turn up the heat on leaders heading to the Paris Climate Summit.
Frontline community representatives, unionists, faith leaders, and families will call on politicians to forge an ambitious new global climate agreement this December that speeds up the just transition from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy and protects vulnerable people from worsening climate impacts. The people’s call for leadership will be harder and harder to ignore.
With the major march in Paris cancelled due to security concerns following the horrific terrorist attacks which occurred there on November 13, French activists are calling for people around the world to march in their name, in solidarity with them.
Ultimately, citizens’ voices will be heard throughout the Paris Climate Summit which runs from November 30 to December 11, 2015 – including in the streets of the French capital as activists explore creative ways forward. The Summit is set to deliver a comprehensive climate agreement which should scale up the transition to 100% renewable energy.
The Global Climate Marches happening around the world will be a symbol of the unshakeable resolve of the movement working for a safer, fairer and cleaner world.
Highlights include:
Schoolchildren will be joined by Thom Yorke from the band Radiohead, singer songwriter and activist Charlotte Church, fashion designer and campaigner Vivienne Westwood, actor and political activist Vanessa Redgrave, poet, spoken word artist and playwright Kate Tempest, singer-songwriter, musician and activist Peter Gabriel, and the band Massive Attack in the London march
In India, Global Climate Walks are planned in seven cities featuring yoga, biking, and marching. The main activity will be in New Delhi, where on Sunday morning, people from across society will join together for the climate.
In Kampala, Uganda, 500,000 people are expected progress through the city led by popular local leaders and celebrities and topped off with a concert, all while Pope Francis is in town.
Across The Philippines, over 20 events, marches, and rallies are planned. In Manila, 20,000 people are expected to converge in Quezon City as part of a broad march with six contingents: climate-impacted communities, faith organization, youth, labor, anti-coal and renewable energy.
More than 60 events are planned across China with students coming together for a series of events including round table discussions, bike rides, screenings and more. While in Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul hundreds are taking to the streets to demand a just transition to 100% renewable energy. And in Vietnam, a big climate music festival is planned, bringing together more than 1500 youth.
In Japan, major actions will happen in both Kyoto and Tokyo. Each march will feature several live performances, as well as a mass photo action where people will come together as individuals to form one collective image.
Across the United States, marches will take place across the country — from Los Angeles to Austin, to Washington, DC up to New York City, thousands will gather in creative, art-filled actions in the name of climate justice.
Events are planned in Egypt’s two largest cities (Cairo and Alexandria) where thousands will be running to raise awareness on climate impacts and call for urgent climate action.
In Ottawa more than 10,000 will be marching for climate solutions and justice, while in Vancouver indigenous leaders will be heading a march joining the global call for climate action.
Sâo Paulo, Brazil will see a huge gathering on Paulista Avenue where the representatives of different movements will bring forward their climate solutions. The congregation will start marching towards one of the city´s iconic parks where speeches and music will cap off the day.
In Germany, the streets of Berlin will throng with people calling for a 100% clean, renewable future and a quick phase-out of coal.
In Australia, climate marches are being organised around the country. While in New Zealand there will be a marches in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
In Lagos, Nigeria, the Climate Aid Initiative will lead the People’sClimateMarchLagos procession that takes off from the Ikeja Local Government Secretariat through Awolowo Road to the office of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who will be presented a climate petition. It will however hold on Monday, November 30.
Shell companies in Nigeria have emerged the best in Corporate Social Responsibility Innovation, and also the best in Sustainable Stakeholder Engagement at the 2015 edition of the Social Enterprise Report and Awards (SERAs) held in Lagos on Friday. In addition, Dr. Uwem Ite, of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), was named Nigeria’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Practitioner of the year. The awards aim to recognise corporate bodies who invest in society through CSR programmes.
L-R: Vice President Human Resources of Shell in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Olukayode Ogunleye; Development Manager, Offshore Assets, Mrs. Beatrice Spaine; Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Mr. Bayo Ojulari; and General Manager External Relations, Mr. Igo Weli, at the Social Enterprise Report and Awards ceremony in Lagos… on Saturday.
Reacting to the awards, Managing Director of SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said, “While the SERAs and other awards encourage us and our Partners on our CSR programmes, the real encouragement for us are the lives that have been transformed through these initiatives, which is why we will continue to implement the programmes as part of our business in Nigeria.”
Shell companies in Nigeria were among 62 corporate bodies assessed by a panel of experts drawn from the United Kingdom, the United States and Nigeria. The panel based their assessment on the outcome of field visits and verification of data. For the CSR Innovation award, Shell (along with its Joint Venture partners, NNPC, Total and Agip) was lauded for the support of students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Benin and University of Lagos to build energy-efficient cars for the Shell Eco-marathon competition in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The support also enabled the University of Benin students to race at a similar competition in South Africa in 2014 where their car, TukeTuke, won the best designed car award.
Shell won the Sustainable Stakeholder Engagement award mainly for the introduction of the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) model in 2006. Agreements for 40 GMoU clusters covering 387 communities in the Niger Delta had been signed as at the end of 2014. In naming Dr. Ite as CSR Practitioner of the year, the panelists recognised his pioneering contributions to corporate social responsibility. Shell was nominated in a total of nine categories – Poverty Reduction, Community Involvement, Health Intervention, Partnership for Development, Labour Practices, and Sustainability Reporting.
Bayo Ojulari, Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, who received the awards, said: “The recognition through the SERAs represents a vote of confidence in our efforts to help improve lives in the Niger Delta and Nigeria. Shell has been operating in Nigeria for more 50 years and began their CSR intervention in Nigeria with a scholarship programme well before Nigeria attained independence in 1960. The awards are a challenge for more innovation which Shell and its partners will continue to strive to meet.”
Shell has won the SERAs in many categories since they were instituted in 2006. Every year, Shell Companies in Nigeria undertake various social investment projects, focusing on community and enterprise development, education and health. Much of this is done in partnership with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). In 2014 alone, Shell-operated ventures contributed $202 million to the NDDC as required by law. Some $112 million was directly invested by the SPDC JV and SNEPCo in social investment projects. Collectively, this makes Nigeria the largest concentration of social investment spending in the Shell Group.
‘State of the World’s Toilets’ report reveals lowest rates of access to sanitation
Dr. Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria’s Country Representative
On the occasion of the 2015 World Toilet Day, WaterAid Nigeria is calling on government to commit to delivering universal access to sanitation, following the release of new analysis showing which countries in the world have the worst rates of access to safe, private toilets.
WaterAid’s first “It’s No Joke – State of the World’s Toilets” report (www.wateraid.org/worldstoilets) reveals the hardest place in the world to find a toilet, where you’ll find the most people waiting, and which developed nations are also facing their own challenges on sanitation.
The report summarises the global sanitation situation and highlights amongst other things, the worst 10 places in the world for a toilet, the least and most improved, with country snapshots for maternal mortality rate, child mortality rate, life expectancy, stunting and average per capita gross national income (GNI).
The world’s youngest country, South Sudan, has the worst household access to sanitation in the world, followed closely by Niger, Togo and Madagascar.
The report features Nigeria significantly as one of the most failing on access to sanitation. Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy, is in the unfortunate position of being the third most regressive country in the world on sanitation. On this list, Nigeria, which is now classed as a lower middle-income country, is runner up to Georgia, the former war torn Soviet republic and Djibouti, a tiny fragile country that was also racked by civil war.
According to WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) figures, Nigeria now has 71% of its people without access to safe, private toilets (that is over 130 million people) and 25% practicing open defecation. More worrying, WaterAid’s new report shows that the number of households in Nigeria with access to sanitation has declined by 9.1 percentage points since 1990. This is the second-greatest decrease of 38 countries with measurable data in Sub-Saharan Africa. This takes a heavy toll on Nigeria’s people. An estimated 11 children in every 1,000 die of diarrhoeal illnesses each year in Nigeria, and 58 out of 100,000 births result in the mother dying of sepsis. To change this situation will take political commitment and financing from the very top. Nigeria needs to measure up to its status as a middle-income country and finance its infrastructure accordingly. This means mobilising domestic resources, including through taxes and tariffs, and making effective use of traditional aid to target poor people.
Promoting the health benefit of sanitation is also key to improving sanitation practices in Nigeria. Access to safe sanitation, and ensuring that everyone in a community uses a toilet, is vital for ensuring better health and an important measure in addressing under-nutrition linked to chronic diarrhoeal illnesses.
The report highlights the plight of more than 2.3 billion people in the world who do not have access to a safe, private toilet. Of these, nearly 1 billion have no choice but to defecate in the open – in fields, at roadsides or in bushes.
The result is a polluted environment in which diseases spread fast. An estimated 314,000 children under five die each year of diarrhoeal illness which could be prevented with safe water, good sanitation and good hygiene. Many more have their physical and cognitive development stunted through repeated bouts of diarrhoea, blighting their life chances.
Among the report’s other more interesting findings:
India, the world’s second-most populous country, holds the record as the place with the longest queues for toilets and the most people per square kilometre practising open defecation.
Nigeria is third on the list of countries in the world with the longest queues for toilets and sixth in the world with the most people practising open defecation.
The tiny South Pacific island of Tokelau has made the most progress on delivering sanitation since 1990; impressively, Nepal, despite the immense challenges posed by its mountainous landscape, comes in the top 4 in this category.
Not everyone in the developed world has toilets. Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden are among nations with measurable numbers still without safe, private household toilets; Russia has the lowest percentage of household toilets of all developed nations.
WaterAid Nigeria Country Representative, Dr. Michael Ojo, said: “Just two months ago, member-states of the United Nations promised to deliver access to safe, private toilets to everyone everywhere by 2030. Our analysis shows just how many nations in the world are failing to give sanitation the political prioritisation and financing required – with Nigeria featuring strongly at the top of that list. We also know that swift progress is possible, from the impressive advances in sanitation achieved in nations like Nepal, Vietnam and even Rwanda which is on the African continent. No matter where you are in the world, everyone has a right to a safe, private place to relieve themselves, and to live healthy and productive lives without the threat of illness from poor sanitation and hygiene. On this World Toilet Day, it’s time for our leaders and the world to make good on their promises and understand that the state of the world’s sanitation is no joke.
“The implications of a lack of access to basic sanitation reach beyond health. It affects gender equality, education and economic development. Goal 6 of the newly-agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to deliver access to water, sanitation and hygiene for everyone everywhere. Without achieving this goal, the world cannot achieve many of the other goals – it can’t end hunger and malnutrition, or ensure gender equality, education and healthy lives for all. Ultimately, it can’t deliver on the overarching aim – a world free from extreme poverty by 2030.
“It’s a huge and ambitious task but it can happen, because it has happened before. In the UK, in Europe, in South Korea, in Singapore, and in many other countries, strong leadership, political will and sufficient funding for sanitation have dramatically changed public health and modernised societies. Yes, even in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Angola for instance has seen the most improvement in sanitation since 1990, followed closely by Rwanda and Ethiopia. It will need determination and commitment but we can and must get there. We need to hold our leaders to account and make them deliver on their promises to reach everyone – including the poorest, most vulnerable and most marginalised people in our society.”
WaterAid’s analysis of the state of the world’s toilets has exposed some revealing facts: in many cases, nations that need to make great strides on sanitation are falling behind, with devastating consequences for health, education and women’s safety. We need leaders worldwide to state publicly that sanitation is crucial and to prioritise and fund it accordingly. And it’s not enough to just deliver toilets. Transforming hygiene behaviours and making sure that everyone within a community is able to use a toilet – regardless of age, gender or ability – so that they are used by everyone is key to realising the full health benefits.
This World Toilet Day, WaterAid is calling for:
Nigeria and world leaders in general to fund, implement and account for progress towards the new UN Global Goals on sustainable development. Goal 6 – water, sanitation and hygiene for all – is fundamental to ending hunger and ensuring healthy lives, education and gender equality.
An improvement in access to basic sanitation with political prioritisation and long-term increases in financing for water, sanitation and hygiene, by Government at all levels.
The Nigerian Government to ensure that schools, healthcare facilities and birthing centres have safe toilets, clean running water and functional handwashing facilities, to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths and strengthen children’s ability to attend school.
WASH to be positioned as a crucial contributor to health and for policy makers and health sector stakeholders to become aware of the link and crucial role that sanitation plays in improving child survival rates and health outcomes.
The inclusion of water, sanitation and hygiene into health plans, policies and programming and especially in plans to address under-nutrition and acute malnutrition.
Aid to be directed to where it’s most needed and the mobilising of domestic revenue to make water, sanitation and hygiene a priority.
Attitudinal and behavioural change on water, sanitation and hygiene issues such as handwashing and open defecation
The crisis has gone further than just climate change, we are confronted with an unrelenting environmental change, says activist and architect Nnimmo Bassey at the premiere of the documentary film ‘Nowhere to Run – Nigeria’s Climate and Environmental Crisis’ in Abuja
Nnimmo Bassey
Nowhere to Run – Nigeria’s Climate and Environmental Crisis is a 52-minute documentary that shows in very clear terms that climate change is not a story but a reality. It is a crisis. For us in Nigeria, the crisis has gone further than just climate change, we are confronted with an unrelenting environmental change. This documentary provides another proof that our pioneer environmental campaigners, like the late Ken Saro-Wiwa were right on track. It is also fitting that the narrator on this documentary is Ken Saro-Wiwa Jnr and that his widow sits among us.
The causes of climate change, including global warming are varied and complex. They are interconnected. Nowhere to Run takes the holistic approach from a variety of perspectives. Global warming is a particularly acute crisis for us in Africa because the expected temperature rise here is at least 50% above the global average. The documentary covers the length and breadth of Nigeria and may well be the definitive and most accessible video documentary of this subject in our nation.
It shows the interconnected nature of the impacts of climate and environmental change. From the desertification in Northern Nigeria, ravaging 11 states; the shrinkage of Lake Chad and the intense floods that we experience. It covers the question of sea level rise along our 853km coastline, gas flaring and the heavy oil pollution of the Niger Delta. These are all accompanied by a severe loss of biodiversity.
The fact that our environment is our life comes through in stark colours.
With rising population and direct dependence on the environment for food, for energy and for other needs, we can say without doubt that the Nigeria environment requires urgent attention.
Nowhere to Run is not just a poetic title for a documentary. It reminds us that we are all in this together. Nigeria is our home. The climate and environmental crisis are the threads that bind us together – inescapably. We must confront all these together, build resilience and play our part in finding solutions: from tree planting to actions to avoid deforestation.
Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation has pulled off a great feat by tackling this great issue of our time in this way. Nowhere to Run is a crisp, powerful and insightful presentation of complex issues. The filmmaker McCain and Jacqueline Farris, the executive director of the film did an excellent job here. Participants in the project gave voice and faces to the pains and challenges of the climate and environmental change in Nigeria and bring these home powerfully.
Nowhere to Run may sound apocalyptic, but it is a documentary that challenges us and yet leaves us with hope that a great, safe and sane future is possible for our nation and for mankind.
Let’s watch. Let’s think. Let’s share. Let us all do something.
The Bread of Life Development Foundation (BLF), a Lagos-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), has urged the Federal Government to immediately convene a National Conference on Access to Safe Toilets, in order to discuss and find solutions to the sanitation crisis in Nigeria.
Indians rally in Hyderabad for decent sanitation on the occasion of World Toilet Day. Photo credit: Getty
Quoting the WHO/UNICEF/Joint Monitoring Report 2015, that states 45 million Nigerians are still defecating in the open and another 130 million use unimproved and shared toilet facilities, BLF called for “the convocation of a National Conference to discuss modalities of realising the right of every Nigerian to a safe toilet, in line with the United Nations resolution of human right to water and sanitation adopted in July 10, 2010; which was endorsed by the Nigerian government in July 2011.”
“It is highly imperative to convene a National Conference on Toilet bringing together all stakeholders including state and non-state actors to find a sustainable solution to poor access to safe toilet facilities in households and public places, says BLF in a statement, signed by its Information and Communications Officer, Ms Enejor Veronica, to mark this year’s World Toilet Day, November 19.
The specific objectives of the National Summit, according to BLF, will be to:
Discuss appropriate technological options for accelerating safe sanitation coverage in Nigeria.
Discuss strategies of overcoming religious, cultural, legal and economic barriers to safe toilet usage and practices by Nigerians.
Develop financing mechanisms for provision of safe toilets particularly in Institutions, Schools, and public places.
Explore the potentials of the private sector to accelerate sanitation coverage through investments in the construction and management of sanitation facilities in public places like motor parks, markets and public buildings.
Adopt appropriate behavioral change sanitation messages as technological options alone will not provide lasting solutions to the sanitation crisis.
Lamenting that “it is a shame and disgrace that Nigeria has the World’s fifth largest population of people defecating in the open,” BLF urges the Buhari administration as part of its change mantra to initiate policies and programmes that will overcome this national opprobrium.
“As Nigerians join the world to mark the World Toilet day, we must go beyond making declarations and chanting slogans. It is regrettable that Nigeria failed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target for sanitation; Now that the world has decided on a new sustainable development goals; and its sanitation target aims to achieve universal sanitation coverage by 2030, the time to act is now,” says BLF.
It adds: “Fifteen years from now is enough to make open defecation history in Nigeria. We cannot wait until 2030 before we have access to safe toilets in our offices, business premises, motor parks, bus stops and in public buildings. We cannot wait for another 15 years for every house to have safe toilet facilities. Now is the time to ensure every house, every building, school, business space, office, church, mosque, market, expressway have a safe toilet facility.
“Every landlord must know that he has the responsibility to provide safe toilets for occupants of his house. Every company must know it has the responsibility of providing safe toilets for its workers. The management of every public building must know it has the responsibility of providing toilets for its occupants. Every pastor and Imam must ensure that faith worshippers have access to safe toilets.
“The appropriate state agencies should ensure school pupils stop defecating in the bush where they are exposed to snake bites, and the girl child could be raped. It is also important that these toilets facilities are gender sensitive, and take care of the peculiar needs of women, and people with disabilities.
“These are critical issues we need to strategically planned, well prioritised, and adequately finance. When safe toilets are also provided, we should also develop sustainable operation and management to ensure they remain functional. These are issues that call for both national action through a National Conference on Access to Safe Toilets.”
The Paris Prefecture of Police has announced that, due to the tragic events that took place on November 13, the Global Climate March planned for November 29, and the December 12 mobilisations planned will not be allowed to proceed in Paris.
Juliette Rousseau, coordinator of the Coalition Climat 21. Photo credit: www.humanite.fr
The Coalition Climat 21 has expressed regret that no alternative has been found to allow its mobilisation plans to go ahead. It states however that “we are more determined than ever to make our voices heard on climate justice and throughout both weeks.”
“We realise the gravity of the situation, but now more than ever, we need to find creative ideas to call on people to unite around climate action,” Juliette Rousseau, coordinator of the Coalition Climat 21, the network of NGOS coordinating the mobilisations.
“There will be no COP21 without civil society and our voices will be heard inside that conference centre and in capitals around the world,” said Wael Hmaidan, director of Climate Action Network International.
On the weekend of November 28 and 29, on the eve of COP21, millions of people throughout the world are expected to march for climate justice. Over 2,173 events are going ahead in more than 150 countries, including 57 major marches across all continents and dozens of marches across France.
“We call on people across the world to join in and march for us in solidarity, to express our demands and echo our voices,” said Alix Mazounie, international policy coordinator for RAC France.
Regarding both November 29 and December 12 in Paris, the French Coalition is already at work to find creative ways to take action and ensure that the future climate agreement will not be the work only of government negotiators but of the people around the world.
The Citizens Climate Summit to be held on December 5 and 6 in Montreuil (Seine Saint-Denis) and the Action Zone Climate (ZAC), to be held from December 7 to 11 at Paris-CENTQUATRE should go forward as planned, declared Coalition Climat 21, adding that these mobilisations will be two great opportunities to demonstrate that civil society is fighting and implementing the solutions to climate change, and determined to fight against the climate crisis.
The Paris Climate Summit is not an end in itself, it add. “As citizens of the world, we will continue to build a movement that will be strengthened after this summit and beyond to call for a just energy transformation to tackle the common threat of climate change.”
Nicolas Haeringer, France Campaigner for 350.org, said, “The government can prohibit these demonstrations, but our voices will not be silenced. While this makes it difficult to go forward with our original plans, we will still find a way for people in Paris to make the call for climate justice heard, and we encourage everyone around the world to join a Global Climate March and raise their voices louder than ever. There’s never been a greater need.
“While our plans for Paris must change, the movement for climate justice will not slow down. Around the world, marches, demonstrations, and civil disobedience are all planned for the weeks and months ahead. Together, we will continue to stand against violence and hatred with our peace and resolve.
“For people around the world, join the Global Climate March in your community to show your support for climate justice. For those who were planning to travel to Paris, still come and join us, and together we’ll find a way to take action together.”
The Global Canopy Programme’s ‘Forest 500’, the world’s first rainforest ratings agency that analyses the most influential companies, investors and governments in the race towards a deforestation-free global economy, on Wednesday launched its annual results. It revealed that while the corporate sector improved marginally overall, many laggards are yet to make public sustainability commitments. Commercial agriculture drives at least two thirds of tropical deforestation yet only 8% of all the 250 powerbroker companies assessed have zero or zero net commitments in place that apply across forest risk commodities (palm oil, soya, beef, leather, paper, and timber). The investment community has made even more limited progress, with the exception of BNP Paribas (France) who has become the first Forest 500 investor to make a commitment to zero net deforestation in their agricultural lendings.
Andrew Mitchell, Founder and Executive Director of the Global Canopy Programme. Photo credit: c1.staticflickr.com
The 2015 Forest 500, assessed and ranked 250 companies, with total annual revenues in excess of $4.5 trillion; 150 investors and lenders; 50 countries and regions; and 50 other influential actors in this space. These 500 powerbrokers play a major role in supply chains for commodities fuelling deforestation, which accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions, a key contributor to climate change.
Andrew Mitchell, Founder and Executive Director of the Global Canopy Programme, said, “GCP’s Forest 500 holds the most influential global players to account for their role in the deforestation economy. Together, these 500 powerbrokers control the complex supply chains of key ‘forest risk commodities’ that are found in over 50% of packaged products in supermarkets. Through these commodities, we are all part of a hidden deforestation economy – from our toothpaste, to our pensions. At this crucial time leading up to the international climate change negotiations, GCP is calling on these companies and investors to take the first critical step in addressing tropical deforestation by adopting, strengthening and implementing deforestation policies in their value chains.”
The 2015 Forest 500 found:
Despite 2020 being a key deadline set by the New York Declaration on Forests, one year on since its publication, few powerbrokers have made new or strengthened procurement and production commitments.
Whilst the corporate sector has improved marginally overall, many laggards are yet to make public sustainability commitments. Only 8% of all the 250 powerbroker companies now have zero or zero net commitments in place that apply across all forest risk commodities.
The corporate leader board remains unchanged, with Groupe Danone (France),Kao Corp. (Japan), Nestlé S.A. (Switzerland), Procter & Gamble (US), Reckitt Benckiser Group (UK), and Unilever (UK) the only companies to score 5 points.
New York Declaration signatories lead the way towards achieving zero deforestation in agricultural supply chains scoring on average three times higher than non-signatories.
The investment community has made even more limited progress with less than 1% of investors adopting zero or zero net commitments that apply to all of their investments or lendings in agricultural supply chains.
BNP Paribas (France) has become the first Forest 500 investor to make a commitment to zero net deforestation in their agricultural lendings and joins HSBC (UK) in the top score band. Of the jurisdictions assessed, none has significantly strengthened their national or state-level deforestation policies to improve their Forest 500 score.
Séverin Fischer, BNP Paribas, Head of Environment and Extra Financial Accountability, said, “BNP Paribas has taken the strategic decision to make a zero net deforestation commitment that will be implemented by 2020. This applies to all our lendings in agricultural commodities as it makes both commercial and environmental sense, we are managing risk over the long term. The Forest 500 is an important benchmarking tool that helps us recognise risk in our portfolios and we are delighted that our leadership position has been recognised, we hope others will follow.”
Tom Bregman, Project Manager of the Forest 500, said, “The Forest 500 platform now includes significant enhancements which enable users to compare progress across sectors and target their engagement with powerbrokers to incentivise change. In the coming months, the Forest 500 is going to be working with others, together we hope to create a race to the top.”
A new report packed with best practice climate policies from across the world reveals a wealth of existing opportunities to immediately scale up reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while powering up ambition to keep the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.
Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary
“Climate Action Now – A Summary for Policymakers 2015” http://climateaction2020.unfccc.int/spm/introduction/ underlines how nations can deploy a wide range of proven policies and utilize existing initiatives to meet the common challenge of climate change and sustainable development. The report also sits on a new microsite http://climateaction2020.unfccc.int/ highlighting the potential for greater climate action and ambition before 2020, when the new Paris Agreement comes into effect.
It also highlights both national and international cooperative actions while underling the vital role of non-State actors such as companies, cities, regions and provinces in realising bigger reductions in current and future emissions.
The report, released by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the request of governments, provides a straightforward, inspiring go-to-reference to assist ministers, advisors and policymakers pursuing climate actions now and over the years and decades to come.
The findings spotlight how effective policies across six key thematic areas not only reduce emissions rapidly but also advance goals in 15 other critical economic, social and environmental areas.
The report underlines that the intended national climate action plans which almost 170 countries have already submitted towards the new climate change agreement in Paris, in December, have an inordinate potential to go further and faster, assisting nations to over-achieve on their pledges.
“Under the UNFCCC, governments have over the past few years led a significant effort during a series of technical expert meetings to identify and scope out the policies that lead to effective climate action – this report is the fruit of that effort,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.
“It underlines the myriad of remarkable transitions that are already occurring nationally and internationally in areas ranging from renewable energy to transportation and land use. In doing so it provides governments and their partners with the blueprints and tool-kits to cost-effectively catalyse action now and take the Paris agreement to the next level of long term ambition,” she added.
“The remarkable reality revealed in this report is that the very policies that deal most effectively with climate change also offer a ready-made portfolio of actions that can equally assist the Sustainable Development Goals and achieve everyone’s ultimate aim of a prosperous, stable and environmentally healthy world for all,” said Ms. Figueres.
Barriers to Greater Ambition
The report pinpoints broadly four areas that are holding back taking climate action to scale.
Carbon Pricing – putting an adequate price on carbon will encourage investment in and use of low-carbon technologies and fuels
An estimated 40 national and more than 20 subnational jurisdictions have or are planning to introduce a price on carbon. The report urges more to follow suit.
Inefficient Subsidies – close to $550 billion was spent on direct fossil fuel subsidies in 2013 which in turn works against investments in low carbon fuels and clean energy
The report notes that the G20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum have all pledged to reduce such subsides with several developing countries like Angola, Egypt, Indonesia and Morocco ‘taking advantage of low oil prices to cut fossil fuel subsidies’.
Finance and Capacity-Building – Developing countries need enhanced support to access technologies and finance up-front costs.
The report notes that additional investment averaging $1 trillion a year will be needed in the energy sector until 2050 ‘in order to stay below the 2 degrees C threshold’.
Institutional, Regulatory and Legal Frameworks – the institutions charged with implementing or overseeing climate action need to be equipped with appropriate resources and mandates says the report
It calls for governments to ramp up the strategies, regulations and laws including the engagement of civil society and private sector actors in order to catalyse further national and non-State actor action.
The potential for non-state actors to play a significant collaborative role with governments is being showcased via the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) portal
The UNFCCC secretariat has just recorded the biggest wave yet of new climate actions by cities, states, regions and businesses. A total 2,245 fresh commitments were recently entered into the NAZCA portal http://climateaction.unfccc.int/ , which has collected well over 6,600 separate pledges worldwide … and counting.
Larger cooperative initiatives between governments, the UN, agencies, non-State actors and civil society will also be brought forward at the UN climate conference in Paris under the Lima-Paris Action Agenda http://climateaction.unfccc.int/
Climate Policies at Work World-Wide
The report is full of good practice climate policies across six thematic areas: renewable energy, energy efficiency, transport, land use, carbon capture, use and storage and controlling non-CO2 greenhouse gases. Immediate action by all nations has the potential to reduce emissions by 2020 by between 10 Gigatons and 19 Gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Renewable Energy
Excluding hydropower, renewables accounted for just over nine per cent of global electricity generation in 2014, up from 1.8 per cent in 2004. This momentum has led to approximately 58 per cent of net additions to global power capacity in 2014 coming from renewables, which is more than from coal and gas combined.
The Republic of Korea smart grid initiative – “Smart grids” that use digital technology to manage flows of power more efficiently are vital for integrating a large volume of distributed, intermittent, low-carbon generation while improving energy efficiency
African Group Renewable Energy Partnership – to establish a global partnership to accelerate energy transformation in Africa to wider use of renewables via the deployment of, for example, feed-in tariffs and other incentives. By 2020 the partnership could enable the installation of at least 10 GW of renewable energy capacity in Africa
Energy Efficiency
Scaling up investment in energy efficiency could generate a net increase in global economic output of $18 trillion by 2035, says the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Denmark – The National Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme offers cost-neutrality for participants by allowing them to pass costs on to end users and flexibility to trade credits received
UN–World Bank Sustainable Energy for All – its Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform could double the rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030 by driving action and commitments by national and subnational leaders at all levels, using integrated policy and investment road maps to guide project implementation
Transport
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates reductions of emissions from land transport, aviation and shipping of 1.7–2.5 Gt CO2 equivalent – from one quarter to more than one third of current emissions from the sector – are possible by 2020.
Mexico – Mexico City has consistently expanded its bus rapid transport system since 2005. One tenth of its users have shifted from private cars
The SLoCaT Partnership on Sustainable Transport – brings together over 90 organisations working on freight and passenger land transport to mobilise global support to promote sustainable low-carbon transport in developing countries and maximise the role of transport in poverty eradication and sustainable development
Carbon Capture, Use and Storage
Globally, there are 12 operational carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) projects, with a further 10 under construction. The IEA estimates that if sufficient support is provided and financing is secured, CCS projects could capture 50 Mt CO2/year by 2020.
Within the power sector, it is estimated the emission reduction potential for CCS is 0.2–0.4 Gt CO2 equivalent in 2020.
Norway – A carbon tax, established in 1991, has increased over time, creating an incentive to store CO2 and resulting in sequestration of 0.9 Mt of CO2 each year
Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum – a ministerial-level initiative to facilitate development and deployment of cost-effective CCS technologies. Membership is open to national government entities that are significant producers or users of fossil fuels and committed to investing in CCS research, development and demonstration
Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases
The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates 2.7 Gt CO2 equivalent of global non-CO2 GHG emissions could be mitigated by 2020 at a cost below $50/t CO2 equivalent.
Almost one-quarter of these reductions could be made at or below a breakeven cost with a substantial portion generating an immediate financial return.
European Union – The EU Emissions Trading System helped reduce N2O emissions from nitric acid plants. N2O emissions in 2013 were 85 per cent lower than in 1990
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – an international treaty to phase out the production of numerous substances responsible for ozone depletion. Over 98 per cent of consumption of all ozone-depleting substances has now been phased out since its entry into force in 1989
Meeting in Dubai in early November this year, nations agreed on a pathway to control the growth of hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) – chemicals that are harmless to the ozone layer but which have significant climate impacts.
Land Use
The UN estimates that at marginal costs of less than $50–100 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, the direct emission reduction potential of agriculture lies in the range of 1.1–4.3 Gt CO2 equivalent and of forestry in the range of 1.3–4.2 Gt CO2 equivalent in 2020, or as much as two thirds of current emissions from these sectors.
China – In order to increase net forest area by 40 million hectares by the end of 2020 compared with 2005, China is combining afforestation, forest protection and sustainable forest management policies and practices and is also integrating forest carbon into its national carbon emissions trading system pilot programme
The Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 – a public-private partnership to create zero deforestation supply chain models in South-East Asia, Central and West Africa and regions of South America.
It engages with governments, civil society groups active in both producer and consumer nations, smallholder farmers and indigenous representatives and multinational corporations
Policies Also Boost Resilience
The report also underlines the critical connection between reducing emissions fast enough in order to avoid the worst climate change impacts and therefore reduce the scale of future adaptation required but also to enable many immediate adaptation co-benefits.
Energy efficiency, for example, can improve the ability of communities to adapt to climate change by reducing the peak demand they put on power systems during high temperatures or unexpected weather while improving the comfort level of buildings in uncertain weather.
“This report underlines that many of the specific and cooperative actions needed to reduce emissions also have multiple co-benefits including in the area of adaptation and building more resilient countries and communities,” said Ms Figueres.
“These include improved agricultural practices, efficient land-use management, forest management food security, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic development, she added.
An internationally-renowned environmental human rights defender, Nasako Besingi, is being pursued in the courts in Cameroon for defending his own community’s land rights. However, the company he is peacefully protesting against is seeking favourable treatment from the state for its own lawsuits, according to new evidence obtained by Greenpeace Africa and the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP).
Besingi had his pending case for unlawful assembly adjourned until December 3 last week. The charges pertain to peaceful meetings he organised to protest the plans of US agribusiness company Herakles Farms to establish a huge palm oil plantation on forested land near his home village of Mundemba, South West Region.
“Nasako has committed no crime other than exercising his democratic right to protest at what he believes to be a project detrimental to his community, his environment and local livelihoods,” said Irène Wabiwa Betoko, forest campaign manager with Greenpeace Africa.
The Herakles Farms project, originally aimed at clearing some 70,000 hectares of mainly dense forest, has run into financial problems in recent years and scores of former employees have now taken legal action seeking unpaid wages and claiming racial discrimination among other grievances.
However, according to evidence seen by Greenpeace Africa and FPP, the company has requested that the presidency of Cameroon help them enforce an arbitration clause in their employment contracts that means such grievances can only be heard in New York. Yet the Herakles Cameroon subsidiary, SGSOC, has no office in the United States.
“The fact that Herakles Farms is using the Cameroon legal system to both punish its critics and trying to involve the highest authorities in its own legal problems is an alarming discovery.” Wabiwa says. “That an employee can only take up a grievance in a foreign country places an unfair insurmountable burden on employees and the independence of the judiciary has to be upheld at all times.”
It has also emerged that Herakles Farms appears to have withdrawn from day to day operations on its plantation. Jonathan Watts has been named as the new chief executive and also runs the Volta Red palm oil in Ghana, a plantation that was also acquired from Herakles Farms. This change in structure comes despite the fact the company reportedly received a bill for unpaid taxes in May this year for nearly $40,000.
The company’s palm oil project has faced fierce local and international opposition since it was announced. Originally operating without a valid land lease it would destroy an area of natural forest, surrounded by protected areas that supports the livelihoods of thousands of people and is home to rare and endangered wildlife including the chimpanzee and drill.
According to Greenpeace Africa, Besingi has been “repeatedly threatened and physically assaulted because of his peaceful opposition to the project.” Last week, he was found guilty of several charges including defamation and was threatened with a three-year jail term if he did not pay a fine and legal costs.
In recent years, the Congo Basin, the world’s second-largest rainforested area, has been targeted by palm oil investors from around the world who view it as “a new frontier” for production. Many projects are opaque in nature and are pushed through without adequate Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of local communities, creating social conflict and harmful deforestation.
Washington Bolivar, an indigenous activist in Peru, has received another sinister death threat in the immediate wake of his efforts to challenge the destruction of Amazon rainforest for timber extraction and conversion to oil palm.
Washington Bolivar
In the course of the last month, human rights defender, Mr Bolivar, received the following handwritten and explicit notes in quick succession:
“WASHINGTON…WE ARE GOING TO KILL YOU IF YOU KEEP ON SCREWING US. THOSE LANDS ARE NOT YOURS… YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL NOT LIVE. LET US WORK IF YOU DO NOT WANT ALL OF YOU TO DIE…”
The precise source of the threat is unknown at this time, but local activists and community leaders suspect that it refers to Mr Bolivar’s well publicised support of the struggle of the Shipibo community of Santa Clara de Uchunya in the Ucayali region of Peru. Over the last year the community has been actively opposing the destruction of over 5000 ha of their traditional forests for conversion to a palm oil plantation by a Peruvian palm oil company, Plantaciones de Pucallpa.
Plantaciones de Pucallpa is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and is linked to a group of companies controlled by businessman Dennis Melka and known in Peru to be part of the so called ‘Melka group’.
As highlighted by a recent FPP press release marking the visit of a community representative to the UK, the community’s struggle has been partly successful. On the 2nd September 2015, Peru’s central government concluded that the deforestation was illegal and suspended the operations (report in Spanish only).
As a result of the denunciation, FPP now understands that the RSPO will initiate independent investigations into the case.
Mr Bolivar has informed the relevant authorities about the latest threat including the Human rights ombudsman and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, while he lodged similar complaints in September 2015 after receiving other death threats at that time, he feels that the Government has failed to take any effective measures to protect him, his family and the community.
Understandably, Mr Bolivar remains extremely concerned given the climate of fear and violence in Peru in which almost 60 human rights and environmental defenders have been killed between 2002 and 2014. These include the assassinations of Edwin Chota and three other Asháninka leaders from the village of Saweto in Ucayali in 2014.
“I am concerned but won’t remain silent, the world should know what Melka’s companies are doing to our lands. They destroy our forest and our biodiversity. The Government fails to stop this tragedy and then leaves our human rights defenders exposed to death threats and homicides. The company benefits from this environment while our people and the forests suffer.”
Meanwhile, Tom Griffiths from FPP’s Responsible Finance Programme highlighted that “the Forest Peoples Programme is glad RSPO is going to investigate these violations of its standards. We also trust that the RSPO will use all its influence with the concerned companies to ensure that no harm comes to community activists like Mr Bolivar. Mr Bolivar is now very well known internationally. All eyes are closely watching both the behavior of the Government and the Company in Ucayali.”
Robert Guimaraes, President of FECONAU, the indigenous organisation that represents the village of Santa Clara de Uchunya, has reiterated that behind the violence lies the failure of Peru’s government to address its obligation to provide secure legal recognition for indigenous peoples’ lands and rights and to follow through on its international pledges to protect forests.
“Community lands were issued to the company by the regional government of Ucayali in complete disregard for their legal rights to their traditional lands and with no process of consultation or consent. I am calling on human rights agencies and the international donors supporting Peru’s forest protection plans to insist that the State meet its obligations to protect indigenous peoples’ lands and rights”.
Peru has made ambitious commitments to stop deforestation as part of its climate change mitigation strategy, pledging to reduce net deforestation to zero by 2021. However, as exposed by this case and a 2014 report these promises are undermined by gaping loopholes in Peru’s legal framework and endemic corruption.
On repeated occasions since 2010, Peru’s government has recognised the centrality of securing indigenous peoples’ land rights as part of its climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy. As a result it has secured high profile financial support from international donors including the World Bank and the governments of Norway and Germany. Despite this, these promises have failed to materialize and approximately 20 million ha of indigenous lands remain untitled and continue to be issued to mining, oil, gas and agribusiness interests.
In December at the UN’s Climate conference in Paris, Peru will announce its own voluntary commitment to climate change mitigation referred to as INDC’s. The measures include actions to protect forests yet other than a cursory reference to promoting participation of indigenous peoples, there are no clear commitments to safeguard indigenous lands and protect those defending the forests.
Plantaciones de Pucallpa is one of many companies registered in Peru with links to a complex corporate network effectively controlled by Dennis Melka. Mr Melka is a businessman who founded the Malaysian agribusiness company Asian Plantations whose operations have been similarly controversial in Sarawak, Malaysia.
Frontline community representatives, unionists, faith leaders, and families will call on politicians to forge an ambitious new global climate agreement this December that speeds up the just transition from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy and protects vulnerable people from worsening climate impacts. The people’s call for leadership will be harder and harder to ignore.
