Frustrated

I wrote the statement below with my friends from Third World Network. It reflects my frustrations with UN processes right now

Chair’s Text Rings Death Knell for the CSD

The Chair’s draft negotiating document miserably fails to provide substance and direction to the current thematic cluster. Without any substantive overhaul—if not a complete re-writing—CSD-15 will be remembered in history as the session that has put the final nail in the CSD coffin.

The first sentence of the Draft Text sets the tone for the entire document: fossil fuel is here to stay, so let us just make it cleaner without any strong commitment to genuinely changing the unsustainable production and consumption patterns and shifting to environmentally sustainable alternatives that are already available. The Chair completely ignored the resounding voices of developing countries that dependence on expensive fossil fuel is making them poorer and preventing them from meeting the MDGs.

Rather than addressing this pressing problem by highlighting the calls for strong commitments to shift to renewables, the smorgasbord of options and possible actions on energy sifted by the Chair from the (un)interactive discussions selectively focuses on pushing for an energy mix that prominently features “cleaner fossil fuels”, with only weak references to renewable energy. If there is any urgent call for action in the text, it is towards moving for upscaling and deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies— but nothing about the need for sustainability criteria for biofuels that could provide sensible direction to all the excitement on the creation of an international market on biofuels.

The section on Industrial Development barely addresses the fundamental barriers raised by developing countries, such as tariff walls and subsidies in developed countries, monopolistic intellectual property rights that impede technology sharing and transfer, and the failure of developed countries to meet their commitment in increasing ODA levels.

LPG is the most prominent alternative to health-damaging traditional cooking and heating methods mentioned in the text, with not a single reference to other affordable, locally-available, and culturally-appropriate technologies raised by a host of developing countries. The LPG industry has been very successful in their lobbying at the IPM.

Despite of the desperate calls from the SIDS for decisive and immediate action to address climate change, the Chair’s Draft Text only offers market-based solutions anchored by public-private partnerships. It reeks of market fundamentalism that even queerly considers strengthening the carbon market as a long-term strategy to address Climate Change.

Effectively overhauling the Chair’s draft text could give CSD a new lease on life. An overwhelming majority of the developing world —those who do not depend on petro-dollars - have said that dependence on fossil fuel must stop in order for sustainable development to proceed. Sustainability criteria must be adopted to guide the current craze over bio-fuels. Genuine efforts that promote sustainable consumption and production must be exerted by the world community, not as a showcase but as a lifestyle. As a lone voice from the oil-producing world, Venezuela said it beautifully: what the world needs is not market fundamentalism, but collective action and solidarity.

The CSD owes it to the world and the next generation. Pump some life into the CSD. Dump the Chair’s draft text.
neth/hira/juan
2March07