Base line survey on the Civil Society Actors in raising the voices of Climate Equity in India

The Earth that sustains our lives along with other species and vegetations is under grave threat due to rising temperature and changes in climatic conditions. The threat is universal, real, severe and unprecedented in human history. It has the potential to uproot entire populations and affect the socio-political, cultural and economic fabric of our very civilization.

In its Fourth Assessment Report, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) unequivocally mentions that the threat is of human making. It has fixed the problem on the increase in emission of green house gases. However when we analyze deep into the crises, we can easily locate the crises in the economic paradigm developed over the last five centuries, especially the current in globalization model of Neo-liberal ideology.

The dominant economic model, with its emphasis on market forces, growth, high-profit and excessive consumption by the few, has completely ignored the rhythm of nature, ethical and spiritual values and even the basic survival needs of vast majority of population; and has created widening gaps between nations and within nations. As the location of the present crisis is in the kind of economy that operates today, a shift is needed in the economy from market and profit centeredness to pro-nature, people-centric, high ethical and spiritual values.

The impacts of global warming and climate change have already been visibly seen and experienced in many parts of the world in various ways. Temperature data clearly indicates that the 20th century was unusually warm and the decade of the 1990 was the hottest on record. The temperature is continuously increasing. The melting of ice in high mountains and Arctic regions, the disappearance of glaciers in mountains, the rising of sea levels are threatening signals of submerging many small islands and coastal regions. Erratic weather conditions causing difficulties for farming communities, reduction in food production, aggravating food security, frequent occurrence of forest fires and natural calamities as cyclones, hurricane, floods and droughts are hitherto the gravest challenges humankind has faced. According to IPCC, unless adequate measures are taken on war footing, we are likely to end up in a stage where we cannot remedy the situation to normal levels.

Today attempts are being made to face the challenges posed by global warming and climate change. Citizens Global Platform (CGP) believes that the existing international political process created by international organizations, developed and developing countries, are inadequate to address the problem. CGP also believes that no political process can fully succeed without a significant participation of civil society and it is widely understood that a sustainable world can be created only if all the citizens of the globe are to contribute to the decision making process both politically and in everyday living.

In the present discourse on this problem, participation of the marginalized majority, who are the victims of the consequences of climate change and who are in no way responsible for creating the problem, is completely insignificant. CGP is committed to raise the voices of the marginalized majorities in the decision making process at different levels, international, national and local. CGP also believes that the marginalized majority can contribute much by their traditional skills and wisdom to solve the problems and create a new future.

The present base line study aims at identifying the civil society organizations which are involved in empowering the marginalised for making them a driving force for effective participation in climate change related issues. The next phase of the study will help us to understand how the skill and wisdom of the marginalised majorities, who are also the victims of the climate change process, can contribute into adaptation strategies.

Y.David
Convener, CGP India

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

Climate change presents significant threat to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, related national poverty eradication and sustainable development objectives. It has the potential to drastically change the living conditions of the majority of the world's population, and hence have huge economic, social and political consequences triggered by the negative impacts of climate change.

Temperature data available since 1000 A.D. suggest that the 20th century was unusually warm and the decade of the 1990s was the hottest on record with six of the warmest years occurring in this last decade. Recent examples of erratic weather patterns such as increased floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, diseases and the loss of biodiversity experienced by humans on a regular basis across the world are the standing truths of the impact of climate change.

The rapid growth in industrialized countries, which has followed a fossil fuel based economic developmental path over the past few decades, has resulted in an exponential increase in GHG concentrations emitted into the atmosphere.

The recently released Fourth Assessment Reports of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that there are several evidences to indicate that the Earth has warmed even more since 1750 because of anthropogenic activities. The IPCC report also says that over the next century, average surface temperatures are expected to rise between 1- 6.30 C depending on various emission scenarios with impacts on health, agriculture, forests, water resources, coastal areas, species and natural areas.

India and Climate Change:

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges the humankind is facing in the 21st century and India is no exception to this crisis. In India, the Himalayan glaciers are fast disappearing, the perennial rivers are under threat of drying up permanently, forest covers are fast depleting and the coastal belts are vulnerable to flood. In the Indian context, climate change may alter the distribution and quality of India's natural resources and adversely affect the livelihood of its people. Indian economy is closely tied to its natural resources and climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water and forestry.

Marginalised Majorities and Indigenous Communities:
The impacts of climate change on the majority of marginalised communities are significant. The cultures that live traditionally in harmony with nature all over the world are often living in marginal ecosystems, such as the Artic, mountains, deserts, costal areas and small islands. These ecosystems are often the sources of key ecosystem services (e.g., role of mountain ranges, plains and coastal areas in sustaining water balance and maintaining hydrological cycle) and are critical for maintaining the overall resilience and adaptive capacity of the socio- ecological systems. The people living in these areas will experience the greatest changes, often for worse, because they mostly depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. Hence they are the most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change.
International and National Policy Processes:
The principle of equity is embedded in the United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (Article 3.1): The Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. It is a paradox that climate change points out many of the inequalities that exist in the global level and also at the national level. The historical responsibility of greenhouse gas emissions belongs to the industrial countries and to some extent to the elite in some developing countries. However, the negative effects of climate change hit hardest on the poorest of the poor, who are often highly dependent on weather conditions for their survival (food security, lack of clean water and sanitation, living conditions in vulnerable areas etc.) These very same people are the ones who are most often excluded from national, not to mention international decision-making.

Indigenous peoples - adivasis, traditional small and marginal farmers - who historically and traditionally have always correctly responded to climate pressures -and who know best how to do so - are now the most marginalized and unheard voice in the climate debate. These peoples continue to be marginalized from the decision making process culturally, politically, socially and economically.

In December 2007, Bali Action Plan was accepted in COP13. It was the beginning of the two-year process that aims at creating a long-term global climate regime. In Poznán in COP14, the discussions were taken further and with the new president in the USA, the changes of getting a global regime for post-Kyoto period (2012) are brighter than before. However, a lot of work is needed to push for an equitable and effective regime to curve the global warming. The COP-15 climate meeting in Copenhagen is of utmost importance to the future allocations of burden share (greenhouse gas emission reductions and financial shares for adaptation).

Civil Society Participation:

As far as climate change debate is concerned, the marginalised majorities are merely mentioned only as helpless victims of changes beyond their control. In particular, their traditional wisdom, knowledge, customs and life systems have not been recognized as critical to the development of measures for adapting to climate change. Their role and participation has been confined to discussions about how to link their territories to carbon markets.

While knowledge about the impact of climate change on plants, animal species and ecosystems has grown substantially, knowledge and understanding of the finer scale/community-scale level about climate change's consequences and adaptation/resilience capacity for interdependent social-ecological systems, including local food systems, livelihoods and cultures are extremely limited.

Despite broad recognition that small islands, Arctic, plains, high altitude and other vulnerable communities are on the frontlines of climate change, voices of the communities living in those areas have remained on the margins of global climate change debates. It is these voices, however, that are most in need to be heard. They provide first hand evidence, experience and expertise on climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation strategies. Therefore, climate equity can be a fruitful concept in bringing together the problems, taking into account, the marginal voices, and discussing the basis for allocating burden shares. The role of civil society in collecting the first hand information and experiences from the marginalised and indigenous communities and making them actively participate in the national and international debates is more important than ever before. The participation of civil society in creating sustainable climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies is indispensable. All efforts should be made to make the participation of civil society members at all levels from local to international more meaningful and fruitful.

CGP India and the issue of Climate Change:

The developing countries, like India, have not had climate change issues on the top of their priority lists so far. Urgent action is needed to adopt climate strategies that reduce the vulnerability of their populations and improve adaptive capacity of societies. Climate change mitigation must not be viewed in isolation from other highly important challenges such as equitable access to energy, clean water, alleviating poverty and achieving economic growth in emerging markets.

CGP India feels that the existing international political processes created to address the climate change issue and to create a new global future are often highly bureaucratic and far from the hands of common masses. Marginalised groups do not get their voices heard and especially women are set aside of the processes that deeply influence their lives.

CGP India believes that no political process can fully succeed without a significant participation of civil society and it is widely understood that sustainable world can be created only if all the citizens of the globe are able to contribute to the decision making process both politically and through their everyday life. The civil society has a strong role in United Nation's decision making in theory. Control and monitoring of the processes is expected to be done by civil society and civil society organisations. There is a need for capacity building in developing countries about participation in UN processes.

In the present research, as phase 1 of the wider research project, a base line survey was conducted to collect the information about different participation methods and roles of different stakeholders in the issue of climate change and their participation in national preparatory process for the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The whole report is attached