Global Justice Now have greeted the climate change agreement fostered by world leaders in Paris last weekend as one gutted of “any sort of equity” and weakened by a lack of legally binding instruments.
Formerly known as the World Development Movement, Global Justice Now said there was “hope and opportunity” in the new deal, but that to really tackle climate change “we need to fundamentally change the way the global economy works”.
The movement’s director Nick Deardon told supporters that although world leaders agreed to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the deal contained “no means to actually achieve this”.
Deardon quotes Lidy Nacpil from Jubilee South-Asia/Pacific, who said: “For us people who are really affected by climate change, we need to change the [slogan] ‘1.5 to stay alive’ to ‘1.5 we might survive’, because already at 0.8 degrees, we’re suffering loss of lives.”
According to Deardon: “The collective reductions promised by world powers head us closer to a catastrophic 3°C. And even those reductions are not legally binding.
“Worse still, rich countries used their supposed ambition to gut the deal of any sort of equity. The US and allies worked tirelessly to undermine the whole promise of climate talks up till now – that rich industrial countries are responsible for climate change and should take the lead in fighting it.
“Anything else means climate change can only be halted at the price of never ending poverty.
“But we always knew that the same world leaders pushing industrial agriculture, supporting big fossil fuel businesses, and promoting free-trade agreements like TTIP, would be unable to halt climate change.
“We’ve made a start. There is hope and opportunity,” he added. “At Global Justice Now we believe that to really tackle climate change, we need to fundamentally change the way the global economy works.
“This change will not be made by corporations or world leaders. Rather, it will be made by us as a global movement of citizens.”
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