Doha Deal will Result in "Unprecedented Ecological and Social Collapse"

MEGAN VAN BUSKIRK via John Foran, [email], @m_cvb
Buskirk is with the Canadian Youth Delegation. She said today: "The fossil fuel industry has a plan to burn over five times the amount of carbon our atmosphere has room for, and with projects like the tar sands, the Bakken oil shale and other extreme extraction technologies, they want to go beyond that. Simply put, the failure in Doha underlies a simple point: we can either have a healthy planet, or a profitable fossil fuel empire -- not both."

MICHAEL K. DORSEY [in Doha, Qatar (GMT+3) until late Dec. 8], [email], @GreenHejira
Dorsey is a visiting fellow and professor of environmental policy at Wesleyan University's College of the Environment, concentrating on issues of international equity, politics of biodiversity and environmental justice with a focus on Amazonia. He said today: "After two weeks of negotiations, the final texts emerging from the climate talks here in Doha, Qatar will put the planet on a doomsday course. ... The proposed cuts of 20 percent by 2020 are meaningless when the European Union has already reduced emissions by 18 percent. African countries demanding cuts of 40 to 50 percent to have a chance of limiting climate change to 2 degrees -- will see unprecedented ecological and social collapse because of the Doha Deal. ...

"Rich countries have failed to make any collective financial commitments to enable developing countries to adapt to climate change and make the transition to a low emissions future. The Doha Deal continues to prop up collapsing carbon markets and promotes welfare for fossil fuel polluters. We desperately need a plan to shutter these toxic markets. The people of the planet need more urgent action on cutting climate pollution. We must have a plan on the books, at the multilateral level, to defund the fossil fuel sector."

SIMONE LOVERA, [email], ANNE PETERMANN [email]
Based in Paraguay, Lovera is the executive director of the Global Forest Coalition. Petermann is executive director of the Global Justice Ecology Project. They put out a news release yesterday Forest Groups Denounce False Solutions to Forest Loss at UN Climate Summit," which states: "As negotiations failed to finalize an agreement on a controversial forest policy called REDD+ during the ongoing UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks in Doha, forest groups published a letter challenging claims that the drivers of forest change are being addressed by countries within the REDD+ negotiations. Negotiations on REDD+ turned sour in Doha as developing countries realized they can expect very little funding for this highly controversial forest scheme over the coming years."

TOM GOLDTOOTH, [email], via John Foran, [email]
Goldtooth is the executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. He said today: "Hurricane Sandy; Typhoon Bopha; the continued melting of the ice in the Arctic directly impacting the livelihood of its Arctic Indigenous peoples; to drought conditions throughout the world. Mother Earth is speaking. Nature is speaking, but the government parties here at COP 18 are not listening." Goldtooth appeared on Democracy Now! this morning. Foran is professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.