Caritas Internationalis

By Christine Campeau, Caritas Internationalis Climate Change Analyst

Caritas held an event at the Barcelona climate change talks to promote the sterling work being done in Scotland. It was called “How to reduce your emissions by more than 40% by 2020: Practical examples from Scotland”.

The new Scottish Climate Change Act is one of the most ambitious climate change legislation in the world, and is being viewed as a “model of international best practice” for other developed countries.

Steward Stevenson, the Climate Minister from Scotland explained his country’s plan to create a successful low-carbon economy.

Mr. Stevenson said that the greatest strategy to achieve this target is through carbon capture and storage, while the biggest challenges lie in reducing emissions in road transportation.

As well as passing legislation that commits Scotland to some of the strongest emissions reductions targets in the world (42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050), the Scottish government has also published a detailed delivery plan, explaining in detail how they will meet such ambitious targets.

Another panelist, Jane Wood, Chief Executive of the Scottish Business Community, said that the Scottish business sector recognizes the economic opportunities in renewable energies and welcomes onshore and offshore wind power. She stressed that “banks may be propped up by tax payers dollars there’s no second chance for the environment” and that it is up to the business sector to take responsibility to reduce their share of the country’s emissions.

Chris Hegarty, Advocacy Manager from SCIAF (Caritas Scotland) explained that the two principle objectives of this event were to engender greater trust between developing and developed countries at the negotiations by showing that one developed country has adopted emissions reduction targets that match what the science and developed countries have called for.

Secondly, it was to prove to developed countries that meeting emissions reduction targets of more than 40% by 2020 is possible by looking at specific examples from Scotland.

Hopefully this message echoed through the conference halls will inspire other negotiators to display similar leadership.

By Christine Campeau, Caritas Internationalis

Today marked the first day of the Barcelona Climate Change Talks. Delegates and participants to the conference were greeted to the sound of 1,000 alarm clocks. This wake up call was to remind these country representatives of the urgent need to make progress towards a fair, ambitious and binding deal. This is the last week of negotiations before the eyes of the world turn to the big UN meeting in Copenhagen where a deal needs to be signed, and so the clock is ticking.

In Barcelona, Caritas helped promote a global agreement to address climate change. During one of today’s events, titled ‘Climate Change, Food Insecurity and Hunger’, Inmaculada Cubillo, a food security expert from Caritas Spain, stressed that climate change is exacerbating the problem of food security. She highlighted that community-based development processes need to be promoted in order to enable the poorest and most vulnerable to build sustainable and climate resilient livelihoods and move out of chronic poverty and food insecurity.

In preparation for this event, a technical paper was created with key messages for the UN negotiators. Caritas India contributed to this report by calling for the need to treat all technological improvements in agricultural systems, inputs and practices as global common goods.

Communities should have easy access and control over resources such as seeds. Unfavorable policies that promote only a few particular improved seed varieties, and limits access to these seeds, threatens food security, said Sunil Simon of Caritas India. He added that the loss of traditional resilient crop varieties due to the promotion of mono-cropping has exacerbated the problems associated with climate change, such as drought. This has resulted in many small farmers giving up agricultural production as a livelihood and resorting to urban migration, which results in further climate risk.

With one week to go and our Climate Justice:Seeking a Global Ethic report on a dozen tables in the conference center, our delegation continues to stress the importance of our shared duty to respect the common good rather than using the earth’s resources as simply another trade-able commodity.

Caritas Europa (the group of Caritas members in Europe), along with two other faith-based networks, sent a letter yesterday addressing top EU decision-makers in advance of the European Council on 29-30th October where EU Heads of State will take critical decisions on the European Union’s position for the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

In the letter they insist on the importance to reach an ambitious, equitable and binding international agreement in Copenhagen, since climate change is happening and developing even faster than anticipated.

For more information please visit the Caritas Europa website.