By Kalinga Seneviratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SINGAPORE (IDN) \u2014 At COP 27 in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, the Global South led by Asia and the South Pacific (as well as Africa) are demanding that nature rights and climatic justice be recognized as a human right and COP (Conference of Parties) process go beyond pledges for climatic change mitigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this by agreeing to look into a binding agreement for financial reparations from the rich for the damage done by climatic change, as evidenced in 2021 by floods, cyclones and heat waves hitting the most economically vulnerable countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world cannot afford destabilisation on three fronts (political, economic and environmental)\u201d argues Aisha Khan, head of the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change from Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writing in Pakistan\u2019s Dawn <\/em>newspaper, she noted that c<\/em>oming on the heels of an uneven recovery from the continuing pandemic, the rising cost of food and energy, the acceleration in the loss of biodiversity and the deepening debt crisis for many countries, \u201cvoices of anger and disappointment will define the mood and shape the contours of the two-week talks\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khan argues that the results must go beyond the demands for funding the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with an appropriate resource for the achievement of climate and development goals. There needs to be an agreement \u201con new ways of collaboration at the UNFCCC to enhance the delivery of emissions reduction, scale up climate finance, support adaptation and address loss and damage\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the latter, the question of reparations that could make or break COP 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat angers me the most is the betrayal of leaders (of the developed world) that have failed to take responsibility for benefiting from the destruction of the planet, \u201d 25-year-old Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a young environmental activist from the Philippines, told Japan\u2019s Nikkei Asia. Growing up on the outskirts of Manila, she has experienced regular damage to the community from typhoons and flooding and the destruction of the community infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is voices like Tan\u2019s that should be heard at COP 27. It is not enough for the richer countries to pledge that they will cut greenhouse gas emissions. There should be an agreement\u2014or at least a process towards it\u2014that the rich offer reparations to poorer countries for the historical damage they have caused; this is what the Global South is demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The composition of the Hong Kong delegation to COP 27 reflects the changing human rights agenda of the Global South. Hong Kong is sending its biggest delegation to Sharm El-Sheikh, led by young environmentalist campaigners. According to South China Morning Post<\/em> (SCMP), veteran environmental advocate Chong Chan-yau, 65, who has led Hongkongers to the UN\u2019s annual meetings since 2007, has stepped aside for the youth to take the battle to COP 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The delegation is led by 23-year-old environmental activist Blair Ho Tsz-ching, a program officer at NGO CarbonCare InnoLab. Founded in 2014, it is known not only for its focus on climate change but also for actively engaging youth and nurturing young environmental activists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Chong told SCMP that he is \u201cso thrilled and feels a great satisfaction\u201d to see young Hongkongers stepping forward to foster global citizenship and environmental awareness. \u201cI didn\u2019t impose the baton on the young people, but they took the initiative.\u201d The young activists say that young people are coming forward to fight for the environment because they are the ones that are going to be affected in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Vanuatu\u2019s special envoy on climate change, Bakoa Kaltongga, has told Nikkei Asia<\/em> that devastating cyclones, rising seas and the acidification of the ocean and other extreme climate events should be viewed as \u201chuman rights issues\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have not even reached 1.5 degrees (Celsius in temperature rises), and yet there have been severe climate change challenges,\u201d Kaltongga said in a video interview, referencing to the amount of warming from preindustrial levels that scientists warn is crucial to avoid. \u201cWe should measure this sort of thing in terms of the human lives that are affected,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2020, Cyclone Harold hit the nation of about 80 small islands situated in the South Pacific Ocean, caused the destruction of schools and other buildings, ruined crops and caused over $600 million in damage\u2014which is 60 per cent of the small nation\u2019s GDP (gross domestic product). Vanuatu contributes only 0.0016% of the world\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions, which are the cause of these environmental terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vanuatu is leading an international campaign on this issue, taking it to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)\u2014to issue a so-called advisory opinion on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change. Though it will be nonbinding, an opinion from the ICJ, which is one of the principal organs of the United Nations, would have moral authority and legal weight that could shape international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGiven the lack of ambition and the lack of responsiveness\u201d on climate change, there is a need to take the matter \u201cto the highest court,\u201d Kaltongga told Nikkei Asia \u201cOurs is a litany of sufferance \u2026 we have a right to live in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen your homeland is surrounded by the ocean, you have a keen interest in protecting its ability to support life. It is well documented that climate change poses an existential threat to island nations not only from rising sea levels but also from ocean heat and acidity, which threaten vital fisheries,\u201d argues Luky Adrianto, professor in fisheries resources management at IPB University in Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of these nations may be small fry, but the fact is fish and other seafood products provide vital nutrients for more than three billion people and supply an income for 10 to 12 per cent of the world\u2019s population,\u201d added Prof Adrianto, in a commentary published by Jakarta Post.<\/em> He is also a policy analyst in fisheries and ocean management and a lead expert on the Blue Economy Development Index hosted by UN Development Programme (UNDP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the world\u2019s largest archipelago, with 17,500 islands, Indonesia\u2019s waters support around 4,000 species of fish. It produces 7 million tonnes of seafood each year, with exports earning the country around $ 5 billion. Thus, Prof Adrianto argues the challenge at COP27 is to ensure small fisheries have a place in solutions to ensure fishing sustainability for generations to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, on November 6, The<\/em> Hindu<\/em> newspaper of India reported that Anti-Coca-Cola protestors staged a protest in front of the company\u2019s defunct plant at Plachimada in Kerala state, demanding that the United Nations Secretary-General withdraw Coca-Cola\u2019s sponsorship of the COP 27 event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coca-Cola stopped its operations at Plachimada following a series of agitations but refused to pay any compensation as recommended by a high-level committee headed by former Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar. During investigation, the panel had found that the company caused extensive damage to people and their land at Plachimada. It also recommended a compensation of Rs. 216.26 crores ($54 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compensation for past environmental damage is at the very core of the Global South\u2019s campaign for \u2018nature rights\u2019. \u201cCoca-Cola has cheated the people of Plachimada by denying compensation to them,\u201d Plachimada Anti-Coca-Cola Struggle Committee chairman Vilayodi Venugopal told The Hindu, reflecting global environmental campaigners\u2019 misgivings about getting the rich to pay reparations for environmental damage from climatic change. [IDN-InDepthNews \u2014 07 November 2022]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo: Idyllic Pacific Islands threatened by rising sea levels. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE (IDN) \u2014 At COP 27 in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, the Global South led by Asia and the South Pacific (as well as Africa) are demanding that nature rights and climatic justice be recognized as a human right and COP (Conference of Parties) process go beyond pledges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,40,53,16,32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-development-aid","8":"category-global-regions","9":"category-goal13","10":"category-news","11":"category-regions","12":"category-sdgs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7418,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416\/revisions\/7418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}