Posicion PBFCC Para RIO + 20

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Position of the Bolivian Climate Change Platform on Rio+20 and the Green Economy

At the next United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, Rio+20, to be held in

Rio de Janeiro in June, the governments of 193 countries will meet to sign a new global agreement to

guide future development policies. We note the following:

Twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit, where countries committed to implement Sustainable

Development to eradicate poverty and care for the environment, the results are disheartening; wealth

continues to be concentrated in the hands of a small sector of society and the deterioration of the

environment becomes ever more alarming.

The world is facing a crisis of the dominant development model in which the global economic system

based on the accumulation of capital has broken the balance with Mother Earth. This is taking us to a

dangerous point where the damage will be irreversible, with disastrous consequences.

The current situation in the climate change negotiations is discouraging. Current commitments by

governments to reduce greenhouse gases are insufficient. Scientists have warned us that even with

these commitments the planet would suffer a 4C increase in global average temperature. This would

mean many regions would suffer unpredictable extreme events with incalculable costs. Hundreds of

millions of people would be affected - displaced and made even poorer.

In the context of the financial, energy, climate, environmental and food crises the United Nations

seeks to impose a new strategy to save the capitalist system using the Green Economy to open up

new frontiers for business by turning all natural resources, and natures functions and cycles intocommodities. This will further deepen the social, economic and environmental crises.

The proposals of the Green Economy expressed in the Zero Draft are not an answer to the current

environmental and climate crisis. Putting a price on nature is not the solution and will only benefit big

capital.

The Green Economy will violate human rights recognised in international treaties including the

rights to: life, health, water, a healthy environment, a dignified life, sustainable livelihoods, property,

housing, development, culture and traditional knowledge, as well as the rights of native indigenous

peoples to self-determination and territory.

Following a comprehensive participatory analysis of this dramatic situation theBolivian Climate

Change Platform declares:

The Rio+20 Summit and the Green Economy

1) We reject the transformation of Mother Earth and the functions of nature into commodities

through the Green Economy. We reject speculation based on new fictitious financial products

called environmental services and natural capital.

2) We reject the attempt to save the capitalist system by imposing the Green Economy.

3) We condemn the Green Economy because it continues to pursue the false idea of limitless

economic growth. Infinite growth is not possible in a world that has limits.


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4) We reject the imposition of the Green Economy and the structural adjustments needed to

implement it. Even its partial implementation will damage the natural balance.

5) We condemn the harmful effects that the Green Economy will have on the environment and

the rights of indigenous peoples by exacerbating the impacts of the extractive model of

mining, oil, gas and agro-export.

6) We condemn the false solutions to reduce greenhouse gases such as nuclear energy, artificialcarbon capture and storage, genetically modified organisms (GMO) and biofuels.

The Green Economy in Bolivia

The Green Economy in Bolivia would constitute a reversal of the gains the Bolivian people have won

through their struggles which are enshrined in the Bolivian Constitution. It would violate principles

and rights including the:

Essential right to water, Rejection of privatization

Self-determination Sovereignty

Right to the environment Plural economy The principle to Live Well (Vivir Bien) in harmony with nature.

The Green Economy promotes new forms of private appropriation of nature, neo-imperialism and

financial colonization whereby a rich minority and their lackeys are the only beneficiaries.

Therefore:

1) We demand that the Bolivian government actively defend the interests of the Bolivian people

using all means at its disposal to prevent the approval of the current United Nations

negotiating text.2) We demand that the Bolivian government is not complicit with this new strategy of capitalism

and does not sign the Rio+20 agreement. The Bolivian government must comply with Law

071 on the Rights of Mother Earth and articles 255 and 259 of the Bolivian Constitution

which demand a national referendum to decide on the signing of an international treaty of this

importance.

3) We demand that in the Rio+20 negotiations the Bolivian government defend the rights of

Mother Earth and the rights of indigenous peoples as set out in the resolutions of the Peoples

Summit on Climate Change (Tiquipaya, Cochabamba, 2010).

4) We demand that the ALBA countries, in particular the Bolivian government, implement the

proposals to Live Well (Vivir Bien) not just as a discourse but with specific policies to begin

a gradual transition to overcome capitalism in all its forms.

Alternatives to the Green Economy

The model of Living Well (Vivir Bien) and the Rights of Mother Earth are an alternative to the

predatory capitalist development model that exploits human beings and Mother Earth. The vision of

Living Well proposes to live in harmony with Mother Earth on the basis of complementarity and

solidarity between peoples according to logic distinct from that of the market. It will not be possible

to find a solution to the current crisis in an economic vision based on the ownership of nature. We do

not own nature; we are part of Mother Earth.


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1) A new global model must be created as an alternative to the Green Economy to re-establish

the balance with Mother Earth.

2) The economic model needs to be changed. There needs to be an equal redistribution of wealth

and production models must be directed to meet the needs of women and men, whilst

respecting and caring for Mother Earth rather than promoting the accumulation of wealth.

3) Proposals for other forms of development must respect and recognise the cosmovisions(world views) of indigenous peoples such as the right to collective territory, ancestral

knowledge and holistic management of their economies.

4) We demand respect for natures vital cycles. Living Well (Vivir Bien) in harmony and

spirituality with Mother Earth involves the full repair and compensation for the harm caused

by human activity and greed, and the false idea of development.

5) We demand that all projects that destroy Mother Earth be stopped. These include: the TIPNIS

road, mega projects, opencast mining, oil and gas exploitation in ecologically sensitive zones,

and harmful dams among others.

6) An alternative model for the holistic management and use of forests, water, land, and other

beings and gifts of nature must be created that goes beyond the concept of environmentalservices and natural capital as a viable alternative to the Green Economy. This would be

funded by real financial mechanisms such as a tax on financial transactions.

7) A new global agreement on development and the environment must respect the principle of

common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries must recognise their

historical, ecological and climate debt to developing countries and their consequent obligation

to transfer funds without conditionality to developing countries.

Future Actions

1) We call on civil society in Bolivia - native indigenous peoples, rural and urban organisationsand institutions, activist networks, young people, women, children and the elderly with their

wisdom - to mobilize and take action to push forward a new model of development and to

strengthen spaces for participation and debate.

2) We call on social movements and international civil society to build alliances to resist the

imposition of the Green Economy in the next few years and to build a new development

model to achieve the goal of Living Well (Vivir Bien) in harmony with Mother Earth.

Finally, we affirm our conviction of the urgent need to change the paradigm of development and to

begin a transition to a global economic model to achieve the aim of Living Well (Vivir Bien) in

harmony with Mother Earth. This includes achieving the social, political, economic and cultural

inclusion of all peoples as envisaged in the conclusions of global civil society in the Cochabamba

Peoples Agreement at the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change held in Tiquipaya,

Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2010.

!NO TO THE GREEN ECONOMY, YES TO LIVING WELL!

La Paz, 17 April 2012.


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Signatures:

Members of the Bolivian Climate Change PlatformConfederacin de Pueblos Indgenas de Bolivia (CIDOB)

Consejo Nacional de Ayllus y Markas del Qullasusyu (CONAMAQ)

Asociacin Nacional de Regantes y Sistemas Comunitarios de Agua Potable (ANARESCAPYS)

Coordinador de Integracin de Organizaciones Econmicas Campesinas, Indgenas y Originarias de

Bolivia (CIOEC)

Asociacin de Institutciones de Promocin y Educacin (AIPE)

Centro de Comunicacin y Desarrollo Andino (CENDA)

CEPAS Caritas Boliviana

Red OEPAICCentro de Investigacin y Promocin del Campesinado (CIPCA)

Agua Sustentable

Fundacin JubileoLiga de Defensa del Medio Ambiente (LIDEMA)

Centro de Ecologa y Pueblos Andinas (CEPA)

Other organisations that sign up to this position:Centro de Estudios Aplicados a los Derechos Econmicos, Sociales y Culturales (CEADESC)

Centro de Documentacin e Informacin Bolivia (CEDIB),Gaia PachaColectivo CasaASOCIACION NAYRA PACHA "ANAPA"

Centro de Estudios Superiores, Universidad Mayor de San Simon

To add the name of your organisation to this document email Teresa Hosse, Technical Secretary of

the Bolivian Climate Change Platform: [email protected]/[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

Posicion PBFCC Para RIO + 20

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