Climate justice as the key issue

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1 KEPA S POLICY ALIGNMENT ON CLIMATE JUSTICE Approved by Kepa s board on These guidelines set out Kepa s stance on key issues related to climate policies and climate justice. They will be used to steer and set priorities for Kepa s lobbying work on climate policy, and they also contain recommendations regarding Finland s official climate policy positions. Climate justice as the key issue Climate change may represent the greatest challenge ever faced by humanity. It is not merely an environmental issue, but first and foremost an issue of justice. Climate change has primarily been caused by the greenhouse gas emissions of the industrialised countries, but the poorest developing countries will suffer most from its consequences. The international community must democratically and fairly allocate responsibility for the measures needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The rich countries have exploited more than their fair share of our planet s atmosphere. This means that climate policies supporting developing countries are not a form of charity, but a way of compensating them for this climate debt. The developing countries insist that in addition to considering the costs of adaptation it is also vital to evaluate the loss and damage that cannot be repaired through adaptation measures. The rich countries must be obliged to compensate the developing countries for the loss and damage they suffer due to climate change. People in developing countries have the right to live dignified lives. Developing countries cannot be forced to make the same kinds of emission reductions as the industrialised countries, since they do not have the same historical responsibilities, and their opportunities to realise such actions are more limited. Every country must nevertheless create its own climate strategy to curb rising emissions, and the wealthier developing countries such as China, India, South Africa and Brazil must also set ambitious targets for emission reductions. The developing countries today account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions although a large proportion of these emissions is generated by industries producing goods for consumers in the rich countries. The international community must make this shared but differentiated responsibility into the basic principle behind a legally binding international climate treaty. The emission reductions needed in each country can be defined fairly with the help of the latest climatic data and a system such as the Greenhouse Development Rights effort-sharing model, which is backed by many development organisations. The two key factors in this model relate to each country s responsibility for the present state of the atmosphere (in terms of emissions per capita since 1990) and their respective capacity to contribute to the costs of corrective measures (national income).

2 As a development organisation, Kepa s climate work emphasises the need for climate justice for the developing countries and the importance of defending those most vulnerable to climate change. Kepa s advocacy work particularly focuses on climate finance, Finland s own climate responsibility, the fairness of climate actions realised in developing countries, international climate agreements and climate democracy. make climate justice and the rights of impoverished countries and people to dignified development into the starting point of its climate policy. practice international climate policies that reduce global poverty and inequality support the creation of an international mechanism that assesses the loss and damage incurred by developing countries due to climate change, and provides fair compensation. Climate financing quantity and quality At the Copenhagen climate summit the rich countries agreed to increase international climate finance levels to 100 billion dollars a year by International estimates of the amount of funding needed vary greatly, however. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) indicates that the need for climate finance could be almost 300 billion dollars a year by It is clear that as the need for climate finance grows internationally Finland s obligations will also increase. So far Finland has allocated its share of climate funding from within the national development cooperation budget. But climate change is a global challenge that must not be financed at the expense of measures to reduce poverty. Finland must not count its climate funding as part of its commitment to contribute 0.7% of national income to development cooperation. The goal of development funding is to reduce poverty, and when the 0.7% obligation was set more than 40 years ago no account was taken of the challenge of climate change. New resources are needed to meet a new challenge. Climate finance must be truly new, additional and distinct from development cooperation budgets, to enable both types of funding to be increased steadily. Climate finance should be sufficient, sustainable and predictable. Public funds should form the basis of climate finance. The most favourable public funding sources are those that recognise shared but differentiated responsibility and also follow the polluter pays principle. Public funding is essential, since funding from private sources is almost exclusively channeled into mitigation measures, and does not easily reach the least developed countries and the poorest people. The need for funding for adaptation measures remains acute, since poor communities in developing countries are already suffering from the impacts of climate change. Traditional sources of funds will not alone be sufficient to meet the need for climate finance. It is important to agree quickly on how to use innovative new sources of funding.

3 At the same time it remains important to ensure that the resulting funds are truly used to finance climate related actions, through ear-marking procedures for instance. Possible new sources of funds include the removal of subsidies for the use of fossil fuels, new taxes on carbon dioxide emissions, fees paid for air and shipping traffic, and income from emissions trading auctions. Since it is hard to estimate the costs of climate change, funding sources must be devised so that they can be expanded in future if needed. No single source of funds will be adequate, so many sources will be needed. Resources channeled into climate finance have so far seldom reached the neediest and most vulnerable. It is essential to ensure that resources are well managed, monitored and reported, as well as sufficient in scope. Their administration and the related decisionmaking should be reliable, credible and open to all stakeholders. It is also vital to make sure that the rights of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in partner countries to participate in the planning of climate actions are realised, and that a significant share of support reaches the local level. Care must also be taken to ensure that climate funding schemes do not put developing countries deeper into debt. ensure that climate finance is new, additional, and not counted towards earlier commitments to raise development cooperation funding levels to 0.7% of GNP. draft a climate finance strategy defining the sources and means through which Finland will meet its increasing climate finance obligations fairly, sustainably and predictably. particularly promote the adoption of climate funding means that also support sustainable development. ensure that income from innovative funding means such as emission auctions is effectively steered into international climate finance, for instance by nationally ear-marking funds or channeling resources through the UN Green Climate Fund. make sure that climate funds are targeted to benefit the poorest most, and give them genuine opportunities to shape projects receiving funding. ensure that funding is equitably allocated to balance mitigation and adaptation actions. strive to ensure that key principles related to transparency, developing countries ownership, funding predictability, effective coordination, reducing the fragmentation of support, and civil society participation are all duly applied in the governance, targeting and reporting of climate finance. promote the adoption of globally comparable and coherent indicators and reporting rules for climate finance. ratify ILO Convention 169 on indigenous peoples and promote its implementation as part of climate finance. Finland s climate responsibility The global climate crisis can only be solved through extensive international collaboration, which should be based on the fair sharing of responsibility. Finland and the

4 other rich countries must change their consumption and production patterns and radically reduce their own emissions. Finland must not outsource the responsibility to reduce its own emissions. A Climate Act is needed to set a schedule for Finland s emission reductions, specifying compulsory annual reduction targets. This ambitious climate legislation should support emission reductions in all sectors of society and help businesses by improving the predictability of national climate policies. set ambitious targets for reductions in its own greenhouse gas emissions and promote such reductions across the EU as required to meet climate responsibilities and with regard to climate science. Finland should reduce its own high emission levels by at least 40% by 2020, and then 95% by 2050, through measures realised within Finland. draft a nationally binding Climate Act setting out conditions for sufficient annual reductions in gas emissions. Justice in international climate actions The international community must ensure that climate change mitigation and adaptation measures do not create or worsen poverty or inequality either locally or globally. Human rights must be considered in all climate work. Various emission compensation mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which enable rich countries to meet their own obligations to reduce emissions by funding climate schemes in developing countries, have proven problematic. They shift the burden of reducing emissions to the poorer countries, and enable industrialised countries and their large companies to pass on their own responsibilities. The REDD Programme (on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) aims to provide economic incentives for developing countries to conserve their forests. But applying REDD in practice is a great challenge. The mechanism s impacts on food security, poverty and biodiversity are debatable. It could lead to greater concentrations of land ownership, more frequent land conflicts, the spread of tree plantations, and the marginalisation of poor farmers, minorities and indigenous communities. bear its own responsibility for reducing emissions, and not outsource responsibility to developing countries through often questionable emission offsetting schemes. ensure that any REDD projects receiving Finnish support promote the rights of local communities and vulnerable population groups rather than endangering

5 them. An international climate agreement and climate democracy Finland must also actively promote favourable climate policies internationally. It is vital that a new, fair and legally binding multilateral climate agreement is signed by 2015 at the latest. It is also important to be aware that climate justice also means climate democracy. Poor countries must have sufficient representation and influence in international climate negotiations. Their voices must particularly be heard, since to mitigate climate change every country must shift to low-emission models for development. Developing countries must be able to set the agenda for international climate negotiations according to their own needs. The representation and participation of civil societies and vulnerable groups is important in international climate work, as well as in the shaping of national climate programmes and plans for coping with natural disasters. Small-scale farmers and other local people have a better understanding of the local impacts of climate change and ways to adapt and find sustainable solutions. It is particularly important to get women involved, due to their experiences ensuring their families food security and water supply, as well as young people and children whose future will be shaped by today s negotiations. Climate work must incorporate channels for genuine and significant dialogues between different organisations, population groups and civil society movements. as a member of the European Union urgently promote the creation of a global climate agreement by committing to ambitious climate policies nationally, within the EU, and internationally. work to ensure that a new, fair and legally binding multilateral climate agreement is established by the end of 2015 and enforced as soon as possible, at the latest by insist that the forthcoming international climate agreement is based on the principle of shared but differentiated responsibility, giving fair treatment to countries with different levels of resources and responsibility for climate change. defend the rights of poor countries to have sufficient representation and voting influence in international climate negotiations and bodies. support the robust representation and participation of civil societies and vulnerable population groups in national and international climate work. use its climate policies to support efforts to strengthen the capacity of civil societies in developing countries by enabling citizens to hold officials and politicians to account.