We demand developed countries to take responsible actions for the climate crisis!

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On the day of Global Climate Strike, September 23, 2022, we, a network of faith-based and civil society organizations in the Global South, demand developed countries in the Global North to recognize their historical role in the devastating climate disasters felt around the globe and take responsible actions. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted the following: “The time when the global average temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius will come 10 years earlier than we have predicted.” Soon after, this came true with the average rise of the global temperature reaching 1.3 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial level. The Earth's Maginot line of 1.5 degrees Celsius, which the international community came to agree with at the Paris Climate Agreement, is now only 0.2 degrees short. At the current rate, the Earth's climate system will reach an irreversible state within only a few decades, putting humans as well as all other lives on the Earth on the verge of extinction. Messages of warnings are clear around the world. The Arctic and Antarctic glaciers are already melting rapidly. The Arctic glaciers, at their current melting rate, will disappear from our sight by 2100, which will then further accelerate the rate of global warming. The continental glaciers, or the ice caps, in the Himalayas, Alps and Andes are also rapidly melting, causing floods, landslides, water shortages and casualties. Droughts, heat waves at 50 degrees Celsius, and wildfires are becoming commonplace in many parts of the world.

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No one will be exempted from the consequences of climate change. The recent flood damage at an unprecedented scale in Pakistan that killed more than 1,100 people and displaced 33 million confirmed yet again that the first and most severely hit by climate change are those in the Global South. In fact, it is the poorest 50% of the world's population that emit only 7% of the global greenhouse gas emissions that are at the forefront of climate change. The exploitation of natural resources and human lives in the Global South, however, continues to this day by multinational corporations from the Global North. A handful of wealthy countries in the Global North are extracting $10 trillion worth of value annually in the form of raw materials, energy, land and labor from developing countries in the Global South. The Global North’s carbon footprints as part of their colonial legacy continue to reverberate through today’s climate disasters in the Global South. 

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As a network of faith-based and civil society organizations in the Global South, we demand developed countries to take conscious actions. Developed countries should phase out fossil fuels by 2030 and support the developing countries’ transition to renewable energies. They should provide financial, technological, and capacity-building support for developing countries to adapt to the effects of climate change. The Global North’s commitment to create climate finance in support of the Global South should be separate from the pre-existing development aid. At the COP15 held in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries agreed to raise $100 billion per year by 2020 to support developing countries. However, this agreement failed. At the COP26 in Glasgow last year, they again pledged to raise climate finance by 2025. Apart from climate finance, we demand the developed countries to create an additional fund for loss and damage for developing countries including the Small Island Developing States. Between 2017 and 2019, the annual subsidies that the fossil fuel companies around the world received from governments were $554 billion. The annual global military expenditure in 2020 was 2 trillion dollars. This is clear proof that the industrialized countries can easily raise 100 billion dollars annually if they repurposed only some of these public subsidies to create climate support funds. Developed countries in the Global North should come to a consensus on the scale of climate financial support by using a fair share method, in which it takes into account the emissions since the Industrial Revolution. This means that the United States should more than double the size of its climate funds that it has pledged. Last but not least, the developed countries in the Global North, taking into account the ecological debts they owe to the Global South, should make every effort to cancel the debts of the developing countries. 

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We, the faith-based organizations and civil society organizations in the Global South, expect that the wealthiest countries in the Global North will not condone the suffering of the people in the Global South from the human-induced climate disasters. We, calling for a commitment of the developed countries to fulfill their historical responsibilities for all living beings on the Earth, urge the following: 

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1. Stop subsidizing fossil fuel companies.

2. Calculate the cumulative amount of greenhouse gas emission for determining climate fund support for each country. 

3. Cancel financial debt of the developing countries considering the ecological debt the Global North owes to the Global
    South.  

4. Create climate funds in separation from the existing development aid. 

5. Provide grants, not loans, for loss and damage compensation of developing countries including the Small Island
    Developing States.

6. Increase the scale of climate adaptation to that of climate mitigation.

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Organizations and institutions in support of the statement: 

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By Country

 

1. Agrisud International Cambodia

2. Asian Dignity Initiative (S. Korea)

3. Association For Promotion Sustainable Development (India)

4. Atisha Dipankar Peace Trust Bangladesh

5. Autism support Association of Bangladesh

6. Awaj Foundation (Bangladesh)

7. BADHON MANOB UNNAYAN SANGSTHA (Bangladesh)

8. Bhutan Soul Farmers

9. BNSK- Bangladesh Nari Sramik Kendra(Bangladesh Women Workers Association)

10. BRAC Bangladesh

11. Buddhist Ecological Contents Institute (S. Korea)

12. Buddhist Environmental Solidarity (S. Korea)

13. Catholic Extinction Rebellion Korea

14. Ceylon Institute of Builders (Sri Lanka)

15. Center for the Study of Cultures and Social Change, Muhammadiyah University at Surakarta (Indonesia)

16. Centre for Environment Education (India)

17. Centre for Human Rights and Development (Mongolia)

18. Climate Christian Solidarity (S. Korea)

19. Climate-Crisis-Strike of Namyangju (S. Korea)

20. Eastern University of Sri Lanka

21. Eco-dharma group from Melbourne Zen Group (Australia)

22. Economic Empowerment of Rural Single Mothers (Fiji)

23. ECO PEACE ASIA (S. Korea)

24. Ecosophialab (S. Korea)

25. EMPOWER INDIA

26. Feminist League (Kazakhstan)

27. FIAN Sri Lanka

28. FOUNDATION OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY (India)

29. Green Asia Network (S. Korea)

30. Global Catholic Climate Movement in Korea

31. IMA Research Foundation (Bangladesh)

32. Incorporated Organization Shilcheon Bulgyo (S. Korea)

33. Independent Individual freelancer named Hitesh BHATT & MS JALPA PATEL-INDIA

34. Institute for Women Empowerment (IWE, Indonesia)

35. Kalyana Mitta Development Foundation (Myanmar)

36. Konfederasi Serikat Buruh Seluruh Indonesia (KSBSI Indonesia)

37. Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (S. Korea)

38. Legal Rights Forum (Pakistan)

39. Migration to Asia Peace (S. Korea)

40. Minority Rights Organization (Cambodia)

41. National Campaign for Sustainable Development Nepal

42. New Bodhisattva Network (S. Korea)

43. Order of Friars Minor Hong Kong JPIC Group

44. OFM JPIC (S. Korea)

45. Pagoda Meditation Centre (Sri Lanka)

46. Paropakar Primary Health Care Centre (Nepal)

47. Pyeonghwayeolcha Tago Pyeong-yang-gaja Jaedan (S. Korea)

48. Right Livelihood College Bangkok (Thailand)

49. Rotary Peace Center Makerere University (Uganda)

50. SocialFokus (Hungary)

51. Sripalie Contractors (pvt)Ltd (Sri Lanka)

52. Sukaar Welfare Organization (Pakistan)

53. Towards Organic Asia (Thailand)

54. UDYAMA (India)

55. University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka

56. WonEco Network (S. Korea)

57. Yeongdeungpo Urban Industrial Mission (S. Korea)

 

Regional

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1. Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable Development (APSD)

2. Change Initiative

3. Greenpeace Southeast Asia

4. Inter-religious Climate and Ecology Network

5. Network for Ecovillage Emergence & Development in the Sahel (REDES)

6. OFM EAC JPIC

 

Global

1. International Network of Engaged Buddhists