ATTAC / Climate Justice - Copenhagen newsletter#2

7 weeks to mobilise !

Here's the second mail to help Attac groups in the preparation of Copenhagen.

This mail has been written after two key meetings :
* in Bangkok, the last UN preparatory meeting and a seminar organised by CJN!, Climate Justice Now the 4^th and the 5^th of October;
* an international activist meeting in Copenhagen the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th of October.

Sharing information regarding ATTAC's mobilisation / practical matters

First we need some practical information about the ATTAC presence in Copenhagen.

1/ Do you have people from your ATTAC country who will stay in Copenhagen for all the process or at least an important period (1 week, for example)? If the answer is yes:

-          Attac France proposes to include representatives from the other Attac chapters under its accreditation. It will get in touch with each national chapter during the coming days. 

-    Do you need an activist accommodation in Copenhagen (ATTAC Denmark can help some – few – people)? In this case contact Morten morten@attac.dk

2/ Can you share information regarding the mobilisations developed in your country ? Will your ATTAC chapter get mobilised or not for Copenhagen? Is there a national coalition ? What kind of activities are foreseen ? Etc. 

We already know that ATTAC Denmark is very involved in the Klimaforum preparation and is offering some help for the accommodation and offices in Copenhagen. ATTAC Norway is organising several public meetings and conferences. ATTAC Italy is organising at least one conference in Rome. ATTAC Germany registered 2 activities for the Klimaforum...

ATTAC-France is part of a coalition named "UCJS" (Urgence Climatique et Justice Sociale) quite similar to CJN!, with FOE, the French Via Campesina, some Unions and Human rights organizations, and the support of several political parties (Green, NPA, Parti de Gauche, Alternatifs). For the time being, there are more than 80 publics meetings organized in French Cities, with the involvement of the local ATTAC branches. For Copenhagen, there is already a train booked from Paris, in coordination with "Ultimatum Climatique", the French branch of tck tck tck, and we'll set up some buses from the other cities.
Last, Attac France has developed several mobilisation materials : one booklet, poster, postcard, we also foresee to make Tshirts...

3/ We need a specific discussion on the ATTAC presence and apparition in Copenhagen:
- during the 12th of December big demonstration; as you'll read below, the proposal is to have a big block with CJN!, Klimaforum, etc. under the banner "System change, not Climate change", but in this block, movements and networks will have their own blocks and we have to prepare an international ATTAC presence in the demo.
- during the Klimaforum we'll have the possibility to have tables, leaflets, books to express Attac's views and positions. Among other materials that will be developed within our network, we agreed to develop a common leaflet to be spread there.
- Copenhagen will be a big "communication machine". It could be good to have an efficient coordination among the different ATTAC chapters and groups, to share op-ed, articles, videos etc.

Bangkok, the UN conference and Climate Justice Now! strategy seminar

In Bangkok, the UNFCCC was unable to do a positive step towards the COP15 in Copenhagen.

The main debate was about the Kyoto protocol with the agreement from the European Union to merge the two negotiations tracks, the Kyoto protocol and the Long term convention (coming from Rio in 92, with all the countries, including those, such as the US, which didn't sign the Kyoto protocol). The group of the 77 + China, representing all the developing countries, protested against a proposal which would have as consequence to abolish the difference of responsibilities between the developed countries (the Annex 1 of the Kyoto protocol) and developing countries, and to remove any kind of constraint for developed countries.

The most likely result in Copenhagen is that there won't be any agreement on a treaty, but a political statement giving a new negotiation mandate to the UNFCCC with tree main points:

-          a clear and ambitious target for the annex 1 countries,

-          a commitment from the main economies among the developing countries to stop the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions,

-          an "acceptable" mechanism to redistribute and transfer funds to the poorest countries for mitigation and adaptation.

Inside the UNFCCC, different actors representing the "civil society" are recognized as part of the discussion, even if the final signature belongs to the states: CAN (the main environmental NGO), the Indigenous Caucus, the ITUC (main Unions), the women caucus, the BNGO (the corporations…), the local authorities and CJN! (Climate Justice Now, with Friends of the Earth, Via Campesina, Jubilee South, Focus on the Global South, ATTAC, etc.).

Those groups have different concerns and try to lobby and work with states or groups of states in order to push their issue in the discussion. As ATTAC we should have a strategy on the main issues we want to defend in this process, in particular with our allied of CJN!.

ATTAC France proposed to focus on tree issues, knowing that some very important issues such as the emission reduction target will be hightlighted by a huge group of actors, the Indigenous CAUCUS, CAN, etc:

-     the acknowledgement of the specific responsibility of developed countries, which implies recognition of the ecological debt, the technology transfers (as "common good" instead of under the regime of intellectual property rights), and fundings for reduction and mitigation,

-          the rejection of offset, CDM and all the greenhouse gazes markets… CJN is the only group to have a clear position regarding this matter,

-          to keep the World Bank and the IMF out of all the funding repartition mechanisms.

Outside of the UNFCCC, in Bangkok, Climate Justice Now! had a strategy meeting with more than 90 participants coming from 30 countries (Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Ecuador, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Salvador, Thailand, Togo, United Kingdom, United States). The most important delegations were coming from India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and United States and, regarding the networks, a strong presence of FOE, Via Campesina, Jubilee South and Focus on the Global South. ATTAC was represented by people from France, Japan and Togo.

This seminar was really interesting because most of the participants came from Social movements or "global justice" movements, and they were really committed to bridge climate and environment issues with social and justice issues. It was a little bit like at the end of the 1990 when social movements were entering in the field of the critic of Globalisation in which one NGOs were until this date the main actors (Jubilee 2000, etc.). 

You'll find on the Annex 1 the report from this meeting. The main decisions for Copenhagen were:

-         to propose to Social movements, Klimaforum, CJA (Climat Justice Action), etc. to form a common block for the big December 12^th demonstration under the banner "System change, not climate change",

-          to organise December 13^th an important debate inside Klimaforum on "what is Climate Justice Now, and what next",

-          to be part of the different non-violent actions organised during the COP15 and to co-organise with CJA the "Reclaim the Power" action the 16^th,

-          to support the people tribunal on climate debt.

Copenhagen, preparation of the mobilisationThe 16^th, 17^th & 18^th of October, several international meetings were organised in Copenhagen.
The first one was the CJA meeting, CJA is the network which organised several international meetings for the COP15 http://www.climate-justice-action.org/ and which plans several actions including the "Reclaim Power" 16^th of December. In the 1^st ATTAC letter for Copenhagen we included a report for the June CJA meeting which gave several information about this network.

At the mid-October meeting several international networks attended (FOE, Via Campesina, Jubilee South, Focus), representing different European groups (from Germany, Netherland, UK, France & Italy). From Denmark, several groups were there, including Klimax and Climate Collective http://www.climatecollective.org/en/start/. ATTAC France attended the meeting.

A lot of organisational issues were discussed, and one political issue was deeply debated: what to do during "Reclaim Power" the 16^th of December. The idea is to have a non-violent block marching until the fence of the Conference Area and to have there a gathering with people and activists coming from inside the Conference to set up a "People Assembly" the day where the Chiefs of States are expected to arrive.

The 18^th, several meetings were organised with Klimaforum http://www.klimaforum09.org and the organisers of the big 12^th December demonstration http://www.12dec09.dk/.

During the morning a delegation from CJN met the Klimaforum board to discuss the guidelines (Klimaforum's missions and political orientations) and the declaration process, cf. attached files in annex).

During the afternoon an open meeting was organised to present to the international groups and networks the preparation process:

-          on food, "climate collective" is preparing thousands of cheap meals (around 3€) accessible in different locations in the city,

-    on accommodation, there are different solutions, some of them for the people staying for several days (hotels - expensive, people hosting representatives of civil society…) and for the people coming only for the 12^th and the 13^th (schools and sport facilities),

-         Klimaforum venue, an important sport centre very closed to the central station

-          Klimaforum program:
 a/ several meetings from the 7^th to the 10^th to finalise the declaration,
b/ a forum with activities under the responsibility of different organisations,
c/ a important open meeting organised by CJN the 13^th afternoon,
d/ two daily briefings, one at 11am to prepare actions and activities during the day, the other one from 7pm to 8pm to have a common evaluation on the inside process (UN conference centre) and outside activities,
e/ several cultural activities, concert the 12^th evening, theatre, cinema, etc.

-       12^th of December demonstration, the demo will start at the Danish parliament and will finish closed to the Bella centre (where the UN conference will be held), 3 people are supposed to speak at the beginning and 6 at the end of the demo.