Perspectives from the Global South
From April 19-22, 2010 close to 35 thousand people –Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, political leaders, and citizens from every continent – met in Cochabamba, Bolivia to come up with real solutions to climate change. The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, called the conference in response to the failure of the December 2009 United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen. The Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba was a democratic space in contrast to the undemocratic process that produced the weak and far fram adequate Copenhagen Accord, which was negotiated behind closed doors by only a handful of countries. (see KAIROS Policy Briefing Paper #23: Copenhagen Accord or Discord – February 2010)
Attendees at the Peoples’ Summit participated in seventeen official working groups, many self-organized discussion groups, and a number of workshops which all contributed to the final outcome of the summit. The final declaration known as the Peoples’ Agreement and the position documents from each of the working groups encompass the results from these three days of consultations. The result is a clarion call for climate justice – a call for system change, not climate change.
KAIROS believes that the Cochabamba conference was an important moment in the struggle for climate justice. Most importantly, it provided a venue for indigenous voices worldwide to speak clearly and loudly at an international forum and to offer global leadership in finding real solutions to climate change. KAIROS believes that by giving space to herald their message, Canadians will be better equipped to make the personal and political commitments that are necessary to move forward on climate change. For this reason we have created this new section on our website for highlighting the views of our partners in the Global South, indigenous, fishers, farmers, peasants and civil society organizations that support their cause. We begin by posting all the documents that came out of the Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cocabamba. Visit the site regularly for further updates.
World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth website
KAIROS Resources:
KAIROS partner Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International, in conversation with acclaimed documentary director, Velcrow Ripper. Shot on location at the World People’s Summit on Climate Change in Cochabamaba, Bolivia, on Earth Day, 2010. Click here to watch the video on YouTube.
