Whose process is this?

Captions: Bobby Peek of groundWork addresses the last remaining activists on 9 December; Africa will be hardest hit; some youngsters joined the all-night vigil, under tarpaulin due to the rain.



The Conference of the Parties is winding to a close. We've seen a document which suggests that the result will be the launching of "a process in order to develop a legal framework applicable to all" (this, of course, means developed and developing countries), a framework agreement committing countries to new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, "after 2020". Yippee. This puts us on course to (at least) hit a global increase of 4 degrees, which means 8 for us in southern Africa.
As one woman said at the traditional all-night vigil which started at 7:00 pm (she's been to three COPs and attended vigils at each one), "If this isn't working" - as plainly, after 17 years, it isn't - "then what do we do?"
I doffed my journalist's hat and made an activist's plea. Let's take it away from them, I said. Let's mobilise people to put pressure on them - the governments and corporates inside the UN precinct. They live, breathe and make money off us, so we do have power over them. Civil disobedience campaigns, boycotts, persistent picketting, we've used them before with success. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead)
We just have to get the message through to people that this is not a political cause, this is about things that do and will matter to them where they live: food, water, air, health, life. Understand that, and massive mobilisation is possible. It's time to tell those who are delaying and backing and filling that we have withdrawn their permits, their rights to act against our common interests. Panzi! Vamos!
Siyaya!

You have struck the women, you have struck a rock...

Today, the Rural Women's Movement turned up en masse at Speaker's Corner opposite the UN precinct in Durban, South Africa, where COP17 is being held. They are concerned about the very real impact of climate change which is already affecting their smallholder and subsistence farms.
Dancing, singing and speeches in one spot were not enough for them, so they set off on an impromptu march. Then the men and women of the One Million Climate Jobs campaign arrived in their gorgeous red T-shirts, and off we went! (Contrary to appearances, the police were quite calm, just concerned to contain the march within certain streets and not let it spread.)
Thirsty work protesting, so the Occupy people offered returning marchers water. (It's great exercise, too: one zaftig young woman yelled to me, "After tomorrow's march, I will wear a size 36!")

Dateline Durban

The heavens welcomed delegates to the 17^th Conference of the Parties with a massive rainstorm on Sunday night which left streets awash with water (and killed eight people).

eThekwini Municipality had fielded a rather intimidating force of policemen and women, as well as a horde of young people clad in vibrant green T-shirts labelled COP17/CMP7, but none of them knew where Speaker’s Corner was. This little patch of greenery, opposite the International Convention Centre (ICC) where all the suits are engaged in meaningful mainstream activities, is the negotiated terrain where the city will allow a certain amount of protest activity. Just before midday today, it attracted a small crowd of about 50 activists, some from far afield (there were two Bolivians present, for instance) and some locals. One such was Fundile Dlamini (see right), from a local climate foundation (Plant for the Planet) aimed at creating awareness among children. “Children are the ones who’re gonna be holding on to the future, so they have know about this and they have to act to be helpful about this matter,” he told me.

More Occupy events are planned for the next several days.

This evening, Dr Michael Dorsey from Climate Justice Now! Network, the second largest ENGO coalition in the UNFCCC process, urged the parties to reach a legally binding agreement for substantial reductions in emissions.

He pointed out that carbon trading, Clean Development Mechanisms and similar strategies have failed: “Carbon prices are haemorrhaging. In the two-week lead up to the negotiations here in Durban carbon prices fell more than 30%!” He went on: “Just last week one of the top ten largest banks on the planet, the largest Swiss bank UBS, repeated what is becoming a common mantra: carbon prices are too low to even have an environmental impact.

“We urge you to a) shut down the Clean Development Mechanism and B) do not attempt to link any forms of climate finance to flexible mechanisms or market instruments.

“Devise justice based mechanisms not based in failed market efforts.”

Justice mechanisms might include legal rights for the planet, a cause espoused by Cormac Cullinan, environmental lawyer from South Africa who coined the term ‘wild law’. He is at COP17, and I’ll be talking to him during the course of this week.

(Find his ideas in his book Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice on Kalahari.com or Amazon.com.)