What Next – Climate Watch
New report: Reclaiming Power -- An energy model for people and the planet
Check out this new report speaking in favour of a system of globally funded feed-in tariffs to promote energy sovereignty and community empowerment in developing countries while simultaneously redirecting investments to fossil-free, renewable energy as a way of tackling climate change in a bold, transformative manner. The 16-page report is produced by Friends of the Earth England, North Ireland and Wales in collaboration with What Next Forum, and was released during COP17 in Durban.
"Mirrors on the Horizon" -- on Bolivia and development
Attached is a very interesting reflection on the current situation in Boliva by Elizabeth Peredo – in particular in relation to the recent conflict around the proposed road construction through TIPNIS national park. Below her own words introducing the reflection piece:
"Today the Bolivian Plurinational Assembly has approved a new Law emerged from the national march and mobilization for protecting the TIPNIS from the construction of the big road. Hopefully, at the same time of solving peacefully the conflict, this will open a national democratic debate on development, on the kind of country we want to build, on the indigenous rights and on the political power dynamic.
I include [here] an article written some weeks ago (already translated into english) that hope will contribute to understand some tensions and challenges we are living in our country and specially the need to get an autocritical attitude to face this crisis."
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A few extracts:
Soil carbon and carbon trading --Â controversy heating up!
An increasing number of organizations are however mobilizing against this, on the grounds of environmental integrity and climate justice. They argue that off-sets effectively opens up for increased emissions, as permanence (what happens with the carbon stored in the soils over time?), additionally (how can one know the carbon would't have been stored in the soils in any case due to e.g .government action or civil society and community efforts?), and inherent difficulties in measuring soil carbon makes the whole set-up extremely risky.
In addition, the economics is shaky, with farmers projected to only earn one or a few dollars a year, while private interests in the north gets cheap carbon credits to avoid and delay own actions to cut emissions.
At the spotlight is the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project, run by the Swedish NGO Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC)/Kooperation utan gränser.