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Artists depict the mission of the summit
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People in the Strategy Working Group stand when asked, “Who in this room beleives there is a connection between the economic crisis and the ecological crisis?”
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I landed in Cochabamba this morning to attend the World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, called by Bolivian President Evo Morales in the wake of the failed (and underwhelming) Copenhagen Climate talks last December.
From the cmpcc.org website:
- “On April 19-22, 2010, over 15,000 people and up to 70 governments from all over the world will gather to attend the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The event is in response to the failed COP15 in Copenhagen and aims to highlight the central role of peoples movements and social movements in the climate struggle and the critical alliance that must be forged between movements and progressive governments.”
I flew overnight from Miami with a delegation organized by the Bolivian UN Mission in NY. The flight was full of Climate Justice leaders. I had the opportunity to connect with new folks and touch base with peeps that I’d been with in Copenhagen. We joked that we were flying “Activist Air”!
I spent a groggy but gorgeous morning with friends from the Southwest Workers Union and the Indigenous Environmental Network, as I am also here to support the Grassroots Global Justice/IEN/Movement Generation delegation.
We traveled to the village of Tiquipaya where the meeting is taking place, and passed through older and newer neighborhoods. Our driver insisted that Cochabamba is “Tranquillo” (mellow/relaxed) and the most beautiful of all cities in Bolivia. I noticed graffiti resisting racism, women selling produce and prepared foods on the street, and many students hanging out (school is out for this summit!). I looked up and was awed by the beautiful mountains jutting up from the mesa.
We took some time getting our accreditations and getting oriented to what’s happening with the meetings. With over 15,000 people and 100 countries in attendance, there are hundreds of workshops and side events and a slew of high profile panels on issues such as the Structural Causes of Climate Change, Carbon Markets and Climate Debt. President Evo Morales Ayma will officially open the gathering tomorrow morning with a speech at the stadium!
There are also self organized side events I want to attend on behalf of smartMeme, such as a session on geoengineering with our friends from the ETC group, and a strategy discussion with members of Climate Justice Action on the next steps for street protest and climate justice strategy post COP 15. There are also meetings of the Climate Justice Now! Network and other formations.
The heart of the conference is really the “working groups.” I am in the Strategies for Action working group, and listening to people from across the world make proposals about how to move forward together: Mass demonstrations, media campaigns, international networks, and supporting Mexican organizations confronting COP 16 in Cancun later this year…This is one of 18 working groups that will develop a proposal to bring to the larger assembly of the conference. Other groups are focused on topics such as Forests, Water, Indigenous Peoples, a Climate Tribunal, A Global Referendum, and how to advance the Rights of Mother Earth.
There are many critical pieces to the Cochabamba conversation:
What is the role of the COP process in addressing climate change? How can advancing the idea of ‘climate debt’ serve to build more resiliencies in the face of climate crisis for the global south? What does a climate debt agenda mean for impacted Northern communities, such as Indigenous Alaskan Nations? Can a “Rights” framework for Mother Earth create a more robust legal recourse for big carbon polluters? Where are things going to land with REDDs? The fate of our worlds remaining forests and the homelands of Indigenous Peoples are hanging in the balance of carbon-offset schemes…Can we build a robust program to protect our climate commons as opposed to a privatization plan for the atmosphere? What about Kyoto, and what can be done to resist the Copenhagen Accord Agenda to kill it? What would Evo Morales’s Climate Criminal Tribunal look like? And what would happen next?
And I guess, the big question…Are we going to make it?
For all of you out there in Internet land, you can keep up with proceedings by tuning into http://www.oneclimate.net/bolivia
There are also community gatherings to participate virtually in the conference if you are in New York, Chicago, and Boston!
This is from the May First folks who are organizing this:
On April 20, 2010, at 7:00 pm Eastern time people in various cities of the United States will gather for a direct interaction via the Internet with participants in the Conferencia Mundial de los Pueblos sobre Cambio Climático y Derechos de la Madre Tierra. This multi-city event will be one of the first fully interactive convergences of its type, moving our hemispheric movement forward a step. Many events throughout the next year, including the US Social Forum in Detroit, World Education Forum in Palestine, and World Social Forum in Dakar all plan to use similar organizing strategy and technology.
People in several cities in the US will be able to speak directly with Conference participants and discuss what’s going on in Cochabamba, the issues being raised, the concerns we have, questions, and discussion. A group of people in Bolivia (including many from the US delegation to the conference) will make a short report about what’s going on. The US-based rooms and our participants in Bolivia will then begin a conversation: we will pose questions, suggestions, clarifications, opinions, etc. and discuss the ongoing conference with them Bolivia and between U.S. cities.
A New York-based delegation from the Bolivian Mission to the US is in attendance in Bolivia, which allows US-bound participants a direct link through which to raise issues or questions we might have with the rest of the Conference participants: they can bring us back those responses when they get back home. People from the US will also be joined by delegates from other countries, including Bolivia, to broaden the exchanges and discussions.
Please follow mayfirst.org for additional national locations as they are confirmed. The event will take place in all locations on:
April 20, 2010
7:00 pm
Boston:
encuentro 5 (encuentro5.org)
33 Harrison Ave, 5th floor
Boston, MA 02111
New York City:
The Brecht Forum (brechtforum.org)
451 West Street (between Bank and Bethune Streets)
April 20, 2010
Chicago:
Casa Michoacan
1638 S. Blue Island
Chicago IL 60608
