Ideas from the south to combat climate change

Following the poor and disappointing results of the last Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha is pertinent to ask how the community of States plans to address the greatest threat that affects humanity. The following lines try to summarize some of the contributions that Ecuador has put forth. In particular, this article identifies three critical areas that require ambitious political decisions to make viable an effective reduction of greenhouse gases to stabilize global temperatures: i) Emission sources, ii) substitutes that allow to avoid or reduce them, and iii) the dilemma of the resources needed to implement actions. It is argued that beyond international agreements, citizens have a great responsibility to contributing to the solution of the problem.

Climate change poses an unprecedented threat. It reflects a systemic crisis that manifests itself economically, in the system of rules that order social interactions and their relationship with nature. For many, climate change symbolizes the result of seeing nature as an object of ownership and excessive accumulation of wealth without recognizing its rights and the need for fair and equitable distribution of its fruits in a framework of biophysical limits.

In this context, the top priority of nations should focus on stabilizing temperatures. To achieve this it is clear that two types of actions must be performed: 1) limit emissions through concrete initiatives for reduction or, better yet, avoidance of emissions, and 2) to strengthen the capacity to adapt to the impacts of increased temperatures, particularly in vulnerable communities and ecosystems.

However, it has been proven that if global society uses its current reserves of fossil fuels sources for the purpose of satisfying energy demand, we will not stabilize temperatures. Therefore, one could argue that the priorities for tackling climate change include:

1.  Emission sources: approximately 80% of global emissions come from the combustion of fossil energy sources (oil, coal, etc.). Therefore, to reduce the use, one can alter the need or provide alternatives to replace it. The latter can be facilitated through the use of substitute energy sources to avoid contamination, such as clean or renewable energies (solar, wind, geothermal, etc.).

2.   Similarly, one can reduce consumption or energy demand. An area explored is one that promotes a cultural change in the global society to alter patterns of production and consumption. For example, one can start from the understanding that the accumulation of wealth does not satisfy needs, that the "good living" (buen vivir) or the ability to live life fully and in harmony with nature does not necessarily means to buy more and demand more energy through the productive processes that generate those unnecessary goods or services and associated pollution.

However, given the imminent need for urgent action, it is necessary to explore mechanisms that allow a change in the global energy matrix in the short term. Among the alternatives, emerges the possibility of implementing clear policies or programs that limit the ability to extract these fossil energy sources. The Yasuní-ITT Initiative follows this premise. This initiative proposed by Ecuador seeks to avoid the extraction and combustion of 20% of the oil reserves of the country, equivalent to 410 million tons of carbon dioxide. As financial compensation for the service provided, Ecuador can capture $ 3.6 billion and invest them in renewable energy projects as part of its policy to achieve 90% renewable sources in its energy matrix by 2016.

Another area to be explored is the use of incentive-based tools. For example, Ecuador has proposed the use of such in a global scale. The Daly-Correa proposal seeks to implement a 5% tax on every oil barrel that is extracted in a developing country and exported to a developed country. This tool can reduce consumer incentives, generate resources that promote substitutes, while facilitating the replacement of the income source that allows the access to resources for exporting developing countries of fossil fuels.

Emissions from change in land use, particularly deforestation, also contribute to the problem. Reducing deforestation can allow the full cost of efforts to stabilize the temperature to be reduced by approximately 20%. This indicates that it is urgent to implement new mechanisms to reduce or avoid emissions. The introduction of economic incentives in this type of mechanisms can help ambitious significant adoption of these activities. Therefore, and as long as these solutions incorporate clear guidelines for environmental and social safeguards, it is necessary to adopt mechanisms to reduce deforestation (known as REDD + Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and increase reforestation of degraded areas or areas with forest potential which do not compete with food security. In the case of Ecuador all these actions are under implementation in the National REDD + Strategy, the Socio Bosque Program and the recently released National Reforestation Program involving the private sector, local governments and communities.

Similarly, it is necessary to allow countries not only to subtract gains from cleaning up what is already soiled or reducing pollution. It is critical to generate value from not contaminating, from prevention. That is the logic of the proposal of Net Avoided Emissions (NAE), a mechanism that allows Yasuni-ITT to be replicated in other areas and other countries, ensuring the necessary resources for the transition that we urgently need without compromising the ability of developing countries to generating alternative wealth and its fair distribution from sustainable use of resources.

Implementing actions confronts us with the big question of the source of the financial resources, technology and capacity.

A.      Financial resources: if there are no resources, clear sources and a quick and fair delivery mechanism, despite the political will of some states, the necessary ambitious action is not feasible. So, not only it is important to have a Green Fund as a mechanism to both receive and redistribute. It is necessary to fill that empty shell in the near future and not in 2020 as proposed. The options are on the table. A tax such as Daly-Correa can quickly mobilize part of the $ 100 billion per year that is sought to start the transition. Mechanisms such as NAE ensure that these funds are used exclusively to reproduce actions of adaptation to adverse effects and increased mitigation (reducing emissions) as in the case of the Yasuní-ITT.

B.    Technology: not only new resources will increase demand for substitutes and therefore involve public and private sector interest in research and development. It is critical to identify a set of technologies that, justified in the need to safeguard human life, have flexibilities in the application of intellectual property rights and allow rapid and massive adoption for mitigation and adaptation in vulnerable societies and ecosystems.

C.     The aforementioned gives clear light of the need for strengthening human capabilities to enable the use and development of these technologies achieved with the investment of resources. Not only professional capabilities but those that make real and viable in the medium and long term the educational and cultural change mentioned.

From the explanation of these contributions of Ecuador, it is noted that to combat climate change, a transformation of the economic rationality that predominates our social and productive systems is needed, towards an ecological rationality that recognizes and respects nature and its limits. This brief account also indicates that we know the areas where the solution must focus, regarding the collective action that is demanded from the community of nations to advance.

The problem, however, continues in the absent political will in the negotiations. When the interests of some hegemonic states, and in many cases private interests, overlap the collective interest, there is a lack of action to be found. For example, it is not clear that the Kyoto Protocol (only binding instrument for reduction) will be renewed in a second period of commitments of reductions, at least not on the level of ambition required in terms of magnitude and urgency of the goals. Similarly, there is no will to adopt the REDD+ mechanism, or at least clarity about from where the resources required will come, as there is no will to have a constructive dialogue on financing sources in the context of the negotiation within the UNFCCC.

Thus, it is imperative that the informed society demands action from their governments and show a radical change in their own living. One cannot hope for the necessary conditions for top-down solutions. It may be that the real solutions come from the south and from civil organizations. At the end of the day it’s the citizens who can choose what and how much to consume, inducing changes in the productive sector and its energy demands.

Originally published in Spanish "Ideas desde el sur para combatir cambio climático"