The Human Face of Climate Change

By Nadia Khastagir

Corpwatch
November 4, 2002

The effects of climate change are felt hardest in a country like India -- especially India. Indias large rural population is dependent on the cycles of the seasons. Fishworkers who earn their living the rivers and seas, farmers who rely on seasonal monsoons, and a large and varied indigenous population that lives in harsh climatic regions including mountains, deserts and river deltas, all make India especially susceptible to a changing climate. This year alone, India simultaneously experienced massive floods killing thousands in the east, and heat and drought in the west. Recently, 10 children died from starvation in Rajasthan due to drought.

Delhi hosted this year's Conference of the Parties-8 (CoP8) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which ended November 1st. While international bureaucrats and corporate moguls gathered at the Vigyan Bhavan conference center in a sterile air-conditioned building, an altogether different group of people were meeting at the Climate Justice Summit. The Summit was organized by the Indian Climate Justice Forum -- a coalition of Indian and international groups, including CorpWatch -- to provide a platform for people and communities most affected by climate change who have been left out of the UN negotiations. Under a pandal tent on the lawn of the Constitution Club, a global mix of activists engaged in workshops and discussions to articulate the issues and define solutions to climate change from a human rights, social justice and labour perspective.

Participants traveled from throughout India to engage in the Summit. Members of the National Fishworkers' Forum came from Kerala and West Bengal. Farmers came from the Andhra Pradesh Vyavasay Vruthidarula Union (Agricultural Workers and Marginal Farmers Union). A delegation of adivasis (indigenous peoples) from Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement) came from the Narmada Valley. Indigenous peoples of the North-East Territories of India and from mining-impacted areas of Orissa brought their music and dance and folk art with them. International participants came from over 20 countries around the world. This was the human face of the rising movement for Climate Justice.

In rooms named after rivers like Narmada, Ganga, Amazon and Volga, participants met in workshops to share their knowledge on issues ranging from labour rights, and corporate accountability, to deforestation, dams and water. Plenary sessions dealt with building a global movement for Climate Justice, among other issues.

Members of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) are among those hardest hit by climate change. The potential rise in sea levels due to global warming would wipe out existing shorelines and contaminate fresh water sources. Climate change also causes ocean temperatures to change, affecting the fish populations, which are the mainstay of the fishworkers livelihood.

The largest contingent, made up of rickshaw pullers, street children, and slum dwellers, among others, participated in Urban Poor and Sustainable Transportation workshops. Issues of equity were at the forefront of the discussion, as speakers reeled off examples of how the poor are exposed to adverse conditions caused by pollution and climate change brought about by cars and other luxuries of the affluent.

At the UN, the debate focused on inequity between the North and South. At the Climate Justice Summit participants engaged in conversation about inequities within India between rich and poor. Many migrant workers in Delhi have been displaced by coal mining, flood and drought and have come to the city to find work as rickshaw pullers and construction workers. Delhi is undergoing a "beautification project" which pushes the poor into slums in the farthest reaches of the city. Cuts public transportation has made city residents more dependant upon cars. The Summit began to tie in these issues -- migration, mining, infrastructure development, urban planning -- into the climate justice struggle.

In the main hall, the Butterflies, street childrens union, paraded their paper mache puppets of the US eating the world. Homeless kids are the first to feel the effects of extreme heat, or extreme rain. "We live on the railway platform...the police beat us and say we have stolen people's things that are missing on the train," says Shareeb, 12. The Butterfly union provides education and its own credit union where the children, under certain restrictions, can take out loans to start their own small business.

The atmosphere was festive as plays, folk music and dance livened up mealtimes. A bicycle-generated water pump shooting whose spout reached as high as 30 meters, and a hand cranked food processor were on demonstration outside. Organizations decorated the pandal (tent) with banners, pictures, photos, books and handicrafts from their region. Participants were encouraged to make their own signs in support of Climate Justice.

While negotiators at the official climate negotiations made trade deals, climate justice activists traded stories and strategies. While corporate representatives focused on preserving their bottom line, fisherworkers fought to protect their livelihood. While official delegates at COP8 say they represent their people, nowhere was the word "justice" mentioned inside the UN. Whereas the word Justice was on everyone's lips at the Climate Justice Summit.

COP8 - A Global Gambling Hall

It's clear that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has become a casino for trade deals. Side events sponsored by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development feature corporations such as Shell and BP. Many negotiations are around market based solutions such as Clean Development Mechanisms and emissions trading -- yet more ways for corporations who are the biggest contributors to climate change, to make money off of climate change.

However many UN delegates were frustrated. An early the draft of the Delhi Declaration put out by the Indian ministerial made no mention of the Kyoto Protocol. EU delegates and others were horrified. Various news accounts suggest that Indian negotiators succumbed to pressure from the US. Meanwhile, countries from the South protested that they would bear a disproportionate burden in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, despite the fact that the industrialized North is responsible for the lions share of emissions.

"People directly affected by climate change are basically being told they have to wait another year. That may be one year too late," says Yin Shao Loong of Third World Network.

The final declaration underscores how negotiations have turned to issues around adapting to climate change as opposed to genuinely reducing and halting climate change. And delegates appear even further from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol than before this round of negotiations began.

Rally for Climate Justice

On Monday October 28, the largest Climate Justice protest in history marched through the streets of Delhi. More than 5,000 people met at Gandhi Samadhi (Mahatma Gandhi's memorial) to protest climate injustice.

Police barricaded the demonstrators saying that they couldn't march because without a permit. Tensions ran high as Nirmala Sharma, the leader of Jagriti Mahila Samiti (Women's Awareness Organization), and her constituency of Delhi slum dwellers started rocking and slamming the barricades on the pavement, all the time shouting, "Delhi Police! Shame, Shame, Shame!" After aback and forth between police and organizers, and some intimidation by the crowd rattling the barricades, the police eventually acquiesced and allowed the march.

Under the police escort, the demonstrators proceeded in "orderly fashion" towards Jantar Mantar- at the heart of the city. Starting at Gandhi's memorial set the tone for nonviolent demonstration -- although not a quiet one. Drummers and dancers from Orissa and Kerala kept set the beat for the march. Nirmala Sharma of the Women's Awareness Organization, Rajendra Ravi of Lokayan, Geetanjali of Save Narmada Movement and veteran activist Medha Patkar led the march, under the banner of India Climate Justice Forum, shouting slogans such as: "Multinationals go home!" and "Jal, jameen, jungle, Hamara Hai ..." (Water, Land, Forests, Are Ours).

The Rickshaw Unions came out in force bringing about 100 pullers, known as wallah, and their rickshaws -- age-old method of the bicycle-pulled transportation. Foreign activists who marched in solidarity amused the crowd as they hopped on the drivers seats offering to give rides. Cycle rickshaws are banned from the city center, a district of big hotels, shopping areas, and the buildings of Parliament and the Presidential Palace. As the march approached this area, the police stopped the rickshaws. Immediately protestors sat down on the road in support of the rickshaw pullers, giving police no alternative but to allow the march to continue with the league of rickshaws bringing up the end.

Said one rickshaw wallah: "The rich people drive around this district of Delhi one person to a car -- they are contributing to the pollution. We do not make any pollution yet we are banned from being allowed to work in this district."

Many rickshaw pullers, are members of the displaced urban poor who migrated to the city because floods and drought had adversely affected their homes. They live in shantytowns by the polluted river's edge. They pedal through intensely crowded and contaminated streets carrying up to 6 school children, or boxes piled high, or even furniture.

As the marchers reached Jantar Mantar at the citys center, they were again greeted by police -- this time in riot gear behind barricades that were 3 deep. The crowd promptly sat down in the street where leaders such as Medha Patkar and Sanjay MG of National Alliance of People's Movements, leaders of the Rickshaw Union, and Swami Agnivesh -- a well known religious leader staunchly opposed to the communal violence which has unfolded in Gujarat -- addressed the crowd.

Rally at the United Nations

Prominent grassroots leaders delivered their message of the people directly to the United Nations. They proclaimed that multinational corporations and industrialized nations had hijacked the Kyoto negotiations. They noted that the worlds poor -- who contribute the least to climate change -- are the ones who are the most affected.

At the rally, activists released the Delhi Declaration which states, "We affirm that climate change is a human rights issue -- it affects our livelihoods, our health, our children and out natural resources. We will build alliances across states and borders to oppose climate change inducing patterns and advocate for and practice sustainable development. We reject the market based principles that guide the current negotiations to solve the climate crisis: Our World is Not for Sale!"