The environmentalists are committed to support and join LVC´s mobilizations in preparation and during the climate conference.

A few days ago, La Via Campesina, a network of farmers organizations from the five continents, had demanded the nations of the world to implement “thousands of real solutions” to climate change at the UN conference, which will take place from November 29th to December 10th. The peasants also urged international social movements and organizations to promote “real solutions”.

Friends of the Earth, a federation present in almost 80 countries, highlights La Via Campesina´s calls for activities in Cancun and the rest of the world, in preparation and during the UN negotiations.

LVC´s draft program of activities include international caravans which will leave several Mexican cities on the 25th towards the capital city of the country, Mexico City, to demand “life, environmental and social justice”. Then, they will all arrive to Cancun on December 3rd. Also, from December 4-10, LVC will hold an Alternative Global Forum with several organizations, networks and social movements, and actions parallel to the UN Summit. December 7th will be the most important day in Cancun and other parts of the world in terms of actions and mobilizations, under the slogan “The people create thousands of solutions to confront climate change! Thousands of Cancuns for climate justice!”.

“La Via Campesina and FoEI share that it is necessary to change the exclusionary, unfair and predatory production and consumption system, and that it is necessary to move towards new models of life based on social and climate justice”, reads the letter sent by the environmentalists to the peasants.

“We also share that the Peoples´ Agreement, which came out of the Conference of the Peoples in Cochabamba (April, 2010), is a political tool for mobilization and education towards climate justice”, they add.

According to the letter, the two networks have been working together for years and have a strategic alliance and they promote “real solutions” based on the rights and sovereignty of the peoples and the rights of nature.

Meanwhile, the statement issued a few days ago by La Via Campesina reads that “If industrial agriculture is to blame for the climate crisis, sustainable small-scale farming and local markets can contribute in the long term to stabilize the temperature in the world”. Both industrial farming and deforestation are considered the main pollutant activities in terms of green house gases emissions that cause climate change.

The organized peasants also demanded the implementation of the solutions contained in the Peoples Agreement, which is supported by over 35.000 people from 140 countries. This document, which was submitted by Bolivia to the official negotiating tables, demands developed countries to commit to binding emission reduction targets for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, from 2013 to 2017. It also highlights that reductions should be of at least 50 per cent with reference to 1990 levels.

The Peoples Agreement also points out that developed countries should recognize and pay their climate debt. That is why the document demands those countries to take responsibility for the costs and the needs of technology transfer to developing countries, that they be in charge of climate change adaptation and mitigation funds in the Global South, and take responsibility for the hundreds of millions of people which are forced to migrate for the climate crisis.

Photo: Radio Mundo Real.