November, 29 2023, 12:33pm EDT
North American Frontline Climate Justice Groups To Take a Stand at the UN Climate Conference COP28 in the United Arab Emirates
DUBAI
Climate justice leaders from organizations representing impacted frontline communities will be sending a delegation to the 2023 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 28th session of the Conference of Parties, commonly referred to as the UNFCCC COP28.
The frontline delegation is calling upon world leaders to pass and adhere to binding agreements, including the immediate phase out of dirty energy, and to commit to meaningful climate reparations for communities that are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.
WHO:
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- Climate Justice Alliance
- Indigenous Climate Action
- Indigenous Environmental Network
WHAT: United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28)
WHEN: November 30, 2023 — December 12, 2023
WHERE: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Click here for a lookbook with spokespeople who are available for interviews are available for interviews.
The delegation leaders reject market-based schemes and techno-fixes that are designed to prolong the lifespan of the dirty fossil fuel industry, and put communities at risk.
“The climate crisis demands a rapid just transition for a binding global phase out of fossil fuels and all extraction and production at source. With the risks and uncertainties of carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removal technologies, the world does not need more climate false solutions that divert attention away from the crucial work of stopping the ongoing colonial and capitalist frameworks that are consistently adopted by the UNFCCC,” said Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “The carbon markets of Article 6, the bogus safeguard language which has no legal protections for Indigenous Peoples, geoengineering techno-fixes, and the lack of fossil fuel phase out language are all connected. The longer the UN sanctions the climate disinformation embedded in Article 6, the deeper and stronger the impacts of climate change will be.”
The delegation is clear that to truly tackle the climate crisis, its root causes have to be addressed.
“The UNFCCC continues to prioritize false solutions and so-called climate policies that only serve corporations, ongoing colonialism and predatory capitalism.” said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action. “Our solutions expose the fallacy of colonial logic that consistently seeks to reduce the climate crisis to an economic crisis. By taking up space, calling out false solutions, and demanding the reinstitution of our legal rights as Indigenous peoples we are working towards a decolonial and climate-just future for all.”
The groups are also aware of the limitations within formal United Nations spaces.
“In order to achieve the policy shifts we need, even the best inside strategies at COP28 won’t be strong enough if we don’t organize powerful, grassroots pressure on the outside as well.” said Bineshi Albert, Co-Executive Director of Climate Justice Alliance. “True climate solutions are coming not from a formal UN negotiation process, but from the growing pressure and power of our collective struggle.We are in unity with blossoming social movements across the globe, led by the people most impacted by the climate crisis. We are pressuring governments to be responsive to the needs of our communities, and for more meaningful action, while implementing our own real solutions on the ground and planning for how vulnerable communities can best survive severe impacts of climate change.”Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) formed in 2013 to create a new center of gravity in the climate movement by uniting frontline communities and organizations into a formidable force. Our translocal organizing strategy and mobilizing capacity is building a Just Transition away from extractive systems of production, consumption and political oppression, and towards resilient, regenerative and equitable economies. We believe that the process of transition must place race, gender and class at the center of the solutions equation in order to make it a truly Just Transition.
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The Chinese government on Thursday condemned the Trump administration's announcement of a proposed $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan, a move that Beijing said violates both the "One China" principle and an agreement in which the US pledged to reduce arms sales to Taipei.
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China says this directly contradicts US obligations under the so-called "Three Communiques" with Beijing—especially an August 17, 1982 agreement under which Washington pledged that it would respect PRC sovereignty and that it "intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan."
China has accused the US of violating the August 17 communique with each of its many arms sales to Taiwan.
"We urge the United States to immediately cease its policy of arming Taiwan and to stop condoning and supporting separatist forces advocating Taiwan independence," Chen said Thursday. "We urge the United States to exercise the utmost caution in handling the Taiwan issue.”
Chen added that US "warmongers" and Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party—which he accused of “stubbornly pursuing independence”—risk turning the island into a "powder keg" and the Taiwanese people into "cannon fodder."
Under pressure from the Trump administration to buy more US arms, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te last month announced a special $40 billion budget for the purchase of weapons between 2026 and 2033.
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The decision to keep a lid on the report, however, is already sparking a backlash.
The New Republic's Greg Sargent argued in a Thursday piece that the decision by the DNC to bury the report "should unleash harsh criticism and recriminations" because it "could end up protecting key actors inside the party from accountability over the blown but winnable contest."
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Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the Revolving Door Project, told Common Dreams that Martin's decision to bury the report was part of a broader pattern of a lack of accountability for US elites, an issue that he said is becoming more important" as America gets less and less equal."
"Ken Martin seems determined to become the Merrick Garland of DNC Chairs," added Hauser, "a feckless amiable sort unwilling to take on the powerful people who scream out for stringent accountability. Democrats ought to re-center their entire party around holding elites, be they from Big Tech, the Democratic Party establishment, Big Oil, or Trump's kleptocratic regime, accountable."
Rotimi Adeoye, a columnist for MS Now and former communications strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union, also accused party insiders of trying to protect elites at the expense of rebuilding public trust with voters.
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