Climate Justice: A Fair Share of the Atmosphere

Friends of the Earth Australia

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Climate Justice: A Fair Share of the Atmosphere aims to provide the Australian public with an in depth and up–to–date introduction to the human dimension of climate change. The full version of this Climate Justice Guide, including full reference list, can be downloaded from the Friends of the Earth Climate Justice Campaign website at http://www.foe.org.au/campaigns/climate-justice

Introduction

Climate change is one of the biggest social justice issues to arise from the consumption and exploitation of the world’s resources by industrialised nations.

Friends of the Earth Australia believes that climate change is occurring because of the unequal consumption of the planet’s resources, and the moral responsibility for the problem is therefore not equal for all the world’s people.

Australians consume carbon resources at a rate approximately 18 times greater than is our fair share - one of the highest rates per capita amongst all industrialised countries. Yet our affluence comes at a cost. Many of the world’s poorest people, those least responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, are already bearing this cost.

Climate Justice means Australians must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and be accountable for our global complicity in climate change. There is a need for more just and equitable sharing of global rights to the atmosphere based on a fair share of sustainable resource use for all people.

This is achieved by: changing our polluting way of life and our nation’s greenhouse–intensive economy; assisting countries of the South to find low–carbon sustainable paths to development; funding adaptation programs in Southern nations; recognising and accepting climate refugees; and repaying our carbon debt.

Weathering the Storm

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC), the people most at risk from climate change live right on Australia’s doorstep, in the small island states of the Pacific Islands – nations such as Tuvalu, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, and Kiribati. Despite their rate of per capita greenhouse gas emissions being only one quarter of the global average, our Pacific Island neighbours are six to eight times more likely to be affected by coastal flooding than us.

In the seas, lagoons, coral reefs and open oceans of the Pacific, global warming is impacting on food supply as sea temperatures rise. Unreliable rainfall has become problematic for the small island states such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Cook Islands and the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea, who tend to rely on rainwater for their supply of water. Falling rates of rainfall, flooding high tides and rising sea level all threaten groundwater sources. Warmer temperatures lead to increased incidence of malaria, and incidences of other diseases may also increase. As the contributions of primary production and subsistence production are undermined by climate change impacts secondary and service industries will suffer. The economies of small island states will struggle with the cost of climate change adaptation and mitigation and the repair of damaged infrastructure.

Climate Justice in Australia

Climate change presents an opportunity for Australians to recognise some of the political, economic and resource inequities within our borders and participate in creating a fair and sustainable Australia. Low–income earning and marginalised communities will be most affected by climate change in Australia because limited capacity and resources in these communities will make it hard for them to cope with and adapt to climate change.

Amongst these communities are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with disproportionate economic, health and other problems. The increased spread of water-borne, food-borne and insect-borne diseases in Australia will affect many Australians, particularly Indigenous people in tropical and sub–tropical areas. With higher rates of poverty, Indigenous Australians are also more vulnerable to the climate change impacts such as bushfires, high winds, heavy rainfall, sustained heat waves, sea-level rise and storms.

In many areas of Australia, overall lower rainfall and higher temperatures will cause a reduction in food production, with flow-on effects of farm failure and decline in rural communities. With existing challenges for rural and remote communities in terms of access to services and adequate employment, the financial and social resilience of these communities could experience compounding strain.

Climate Refugees

Climate change may be a distant threat for some, but for people of the Pacific Islands and the Torres Strait, it is a harsh and immediate reality.

As traditional lands change and disappear forever, the social fabric of communities and cultures are also at risk. Pacific Island cultures are some of the most diverse and rich in the world. Islander cultures may not survive if communities are scattered via resettlement to other countries or islands less vulnerable to climate change.

At present there is no international recognition for climate refugees, nor is there recognition for them within Australia. Tuvalu is one nation that is likely to be submerged completely, possibly within the next fifty years. When in 2001 the Tuvaluan government appealed to the Australian government to accept half of its population in the event that evacuation would be essential, the Australian government refused, stating that climate change science was too uncertain to warrant a change on our migration policy.

Carbon Debt and Climate Change

The lifestyles of people in rich Northern nations have driven climate change. More than 80% of human induced warming so far has been caused by emissions from the North. It is still producing more than 60% of human created greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere, despite only having roughly 25% of the world's human population.

The same levels of wealth and development which have caused climate change now provide the resources and infrastructure which enable the North to best cope with the impacts of global warming in coming years. The carbon based energy that has powered such development is the carbon debt owed to the Southern nations by the North.

Justice for this debt must be at the core of our response to global warming. To be effective in a world with large (and growing) gaps between rich and poor, multilateral negotiation and treaties on climate change must enshrine a rights–based approach and be focused on per capita emissions targets to limit the levels of greenhouse gases that can be created.

Colonialism and its Ecological Debt

The North’s carbon debt is a part of a wider ecological debt.

Since the first waves of colonialism, the ‘New World’ has been drained of resources, materials and commodities which flowed to the people and economies of the Old World, today’s North. While we live in an era seemingly far removed from colonial times, the structures and relations created in those times persist in the situation we now find ourselves – with the South financially indebted to Northern nations, unfair trading relations and great disparity between rich and poor.

A warming planet sheds new light on this North-South relationship and its corresponding ecological debt. Unlike Northern nations, the global South lacks the safety nets of insurance, budget surpluses and emergency infrastructure that allow rapid response and return to normalcy after climate disasters. Alongside the range of losses which result from a lack of capacity to respond to emergency, impoverished nations face the prospect of borrowing more money from those who have produced most of the greenhouse gases and exploited their ecological resources in the past.

Global Equity and Fair Shares

Principles of equity and historical responsibility are essential directives for achieving climate justice.

Per capita greenhouse gas emissions is one of the fairest measures of equity and responsibility for mitigating climate change. China’s emissions are around 2.8 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per person while India’s are roughly 1.3 tonnes per person. In comparison, Australia's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are around 28.9 tonnes per person per year – nearly ten times China's and 22 times India’s!

The IPCC has estimated that keeping the temperature rise below 2°C requires the world to live within an emissions limit of around 1.5 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per person per year to stabilise emissions at 450ppm. In Australia we need to reach the 1.5 tonnes per year limit sooner, by mid century, to allow for peak and decline of emissions in developing countries over a longer time period.

This is the meaning behind the principle of 'common differentiated responsibilities' which is one of the founding elements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The international community has a common interest in avoiding dangerous climate change, but our responsibilities to act are different based on our per capita consumption, capacity to act and responsibility to account for historical emissions.

Repaying Carbon Debt

One mechanism for repaying our carbon debt is the creation of carbon debt funds which could finance adaptation programs, technology transfer and other needs, in a similar way to existing programs administered by the UNFCCC. Rich nations could also repay their historical carbon debt by passing part of their future carbon entitlements on to poorer nations for a period of time so they gain increased carbon emission allocations for the same period.

The future inter-generational implications of global warming also need to be factored into repayment of the carbon debt. A time lag of decades or centuries means our children will live with the consequences of our carbon economy for generations. They will need resources and spare capacity in the atmosphere set aside by us if they are to get by. A price on carbon emissions to create a future fund could be linked to various kinds of carbon taxes or adaptation programs of the UNFCCC.

Aid and Development

Levels of Australian aid are woefully low at 0.3%, ranking us 19^th of 22 OECD nations. This is far below the internationally agreed upon level of 0.7% of Gross National Income. In addition, Australia has yet to contribute to the UNFCCC Adaptation Funds that assist the Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States’ despite our obligation under the convention to do so.

AusAID is yet to integrate climate change concerns into all of its programs and projects and to adequately fund adaptation programs in these countries. It is also essential for our aid programs to assist these nations in finding low-carbon paths to development.

International Financial Institutions Fuelling Climate Change

In seeking climate justice, it is essential that we find a cleaner purpose for the billions of public dollars International Financial Institutions (IFIs) are funnelling into developing the oil, coal and gas industry in developing countries.

The Australian Government’s export credit agency, the Export Finance Insurance Corporation (EFIC), backed fossil fuel projects over renewable energy projects at a rate of more than 100 to 1 between 1993 and 2003. These projects have the potential to lock many low-income countries into fossil fuel dependency for decades to come. Three recent energy sector projects financed by EFIC in Thailand, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea have lifetime emissions that exceed the total national emissions for each of these countries.

Climate Litigation

Pursuing justice through the courts is an attractive option for those adversely affected by climate change. Governments or corporations that fund or engage in activities that contribute to global warming (a coal-fired power station for example) are targets.

While this kind of litigation may seem unusual, it is not unprecedented. In the future, countries like Tuvalu may decide to pursue actions against the world’s biggest carbon emitters, which on a per capita basis includes countries like Australia.

Taking Action on Climate Refugees

In facing the realities of climate change we must also face the reality that large numbers of people are likely to be displaced as climate change, sea–level rise, extreme weather events, disease, drought and floods make some areas uninhabitable. As one of the world’s leading per capita emitters of greenhouse gases, our contribution to creating these threats to their lives and cultures means Australia should:

• Recognise climate refugees, and create a new category of refugee in Australian legislation to accept people fleeing the devastation of climate change.

• Provide financial assistance for climate refugees who need to relocate within their own countries.

• Undertake an extensive educational campaign to teach the Australian people about environmental refugees, why they need to move, and what our responsibilities are to them.

• Help to develop an international coalition of countries willing to accept climate refugees.

• Be pushing for the international, legal recognition of climate refugees.

• Invest in vocational training in Pacific Island countries that are most at risk of becoming uninhabitable so that citizens can successfully adapt to climate change.

• Provide funding to Pacific Island communities to document their cultural practices, traditional technologies and histories when climate change threatens to destroy their homelands.

Policy Solutions for Australia

Australians can do a lot to reverse global warming, not only because we have one of the highest per capita rates of emissions globally, but also because we have the technical ability and economic capacity to act.

Being part of an international agreement that sets mandatory targets and timetables for the reduction of emissions is an important first step. Now is a great opportunity for Australia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and take part in designing emissions reduction targets for the second commitment period (post 2012). Real and deep cuts in our emissions of at least 80% of 1990 levels by 2050 are required to stem accelerating impacts from global warming and give Southern nations an opportunity to adapt to climate change. Australian governments must legislate to:

• Place an immediate moratorium on coal fired power stations in Australia, and say no to nuclear power.

• Raise the federal Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) to 10% by 2010 and 30% by 2020. State governments should also introduce state renewable energy targets.

• Halt public funding for fossil fuels and redirect these funds to renewable energy and energy efficiency.

• Improve public transport.

• Implement safeguards for people vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change such as indigenous communities and farmers.

• Increase aid to 0.7% of GDP to account for the changed conditions that climate change will bring and contribute to the UNFCCC Adaptation funds to assist poorer nations in adaptation.

• Only introduce emissions trading schemes if they use a stringent ‘cap and trade’ system to introduce strong price signals that will help quickly remove carbon from our economy. Any trading scheme must be about real emission reductions, not false ones based on offsets, subsidising transitional fuels, base–line and credit characteristics, or carbon sinks, which all encourage ‘business as usual’.

• Implement an energy efficency standard for appliances, buildings and transport.

Renewable Energy

Enough well developed and new renewable energy technologies exist today for us to achieve both the radical reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions we must make, and provide enough electricity for a prosperous economy. A combination of solar, wind, geothermal, micro-hydro, and environmentally sustainable and socially just bioenergy can provide clean electricity, heat and fuels, without the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels or the unacceptable risks of nuclear energy.

Dangerous Distractions: False Solutions to Climate Change

A simple test of the potential of possible climate change solutions is their ability to produce a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Just solutions to climate change must also atone for a history of inequitable access and consumption of resources by a few, and would establish fair shares of access to global resources between the North and South. Schemes that excuse continuing excessive levels of consumption in the developed world should be a concern. Solutions should also abide by the Precautionary Principle and a principle of intergenerational equity, so that social or environmental risks are not created for current or future generations.

Many of the potential solutions to climate change currently being proposed fail to meet these criteria and waste precious time, money and political goodwill. These include geosequestration, offsets for greenhouse gas emissions, terrestrial carbon sinks (like trees), poorly-designed carbon trading programs and nuclear energy.

Climate Justice - Taking Responsibility for Climate Change

1. We have a moral responsibility to recognise climate refugees as a group with a rightful claim to our protection and sanctuary. We must accept climate refugees and compensate them for their losses.

2. We must provide genuine help for the world’s poor and developing nations to adapt to the climate change impacts we have brought upon them, by aiding their development in an ecologically sustainable manner. For this to happen we must reduce our generation of greenhouse gases to a levels lower than Southern nations so they may attain a fair share of the prosperity the earth is capable of providing.

3. Future generations will have to live with our greenhouse legacy for centuries. Future options for them will come from making deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions now and setting aside resources for these generations to draw on.

The Climate Justice Campaign is a national campaign of Friends of the Earth Australia. For more information contact:

Emma Brindal, Ph: 07 3846 5793 / 0411 084 727, emma.brindal@foe.org.au

http://www.foe.org.au/campaigns/climate-justice