Members of indigenous groups, fisherfolk, peasants, women, unions and non governmental organizations of the region are participating in the “South-South Summit on Climate Justice and Climate Finance”, as part of the activities parallel to the UN Conference (COP16) on Climate Change in Cancun.

The Summit was organized by international network Jubilee South and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, with the support of environmentalist network Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean. Real World Radio interviewed Jubilee South Coordinator, Beverly Keene. “First of all, we have to recognize that the climate crisis is part of the economic and financial crises, and of the prevailing development model in the world. And this climate crisis is a sign of the fact that this model is obsolete”, the activist said.

Questioning the capitalist production and consumption system is at the core of the demands of the social movements and organizations that fight for climate justice. “This model is not sustainable and it must be changed. We have to build new production and consumption models, new ways of living with nature both in the South and the North”, said Keene.

The activist regretted that “water, air and lands can be turned into commodities to be sold, bought, offset, and traded in the Chicago Exchange. This is crazy, and that craziness is killing us”.

Real World Radio also asked Jubilee South´s international coordinator about the role of the World Bank in the management of international funds for the fight against climate change. Keene said that the World Bank has a 40-year-old record of “pillaging our regions”, of imposing neoliberal policies and structural adjustments, of imposing an extractivist development model, looting natural resources and being export-oriented. This type of institutions “cannot be in charge of solving the climate crisis”, she said.

The activist said that we need to “understand that the issue of climate will not be solved by throwing money here and there”. The solution is “to change the production and consumption models and how our political system works”, she added.

Keene also made reference to the fact that the main challenges of the social movements in Cancun and the COP 16 on Climate Change are to strengthen mobilizations in the city and to demand a “system change not climate change” at international level. She highlighted the work that needs to be done with reference to raising awareness, capacity building and mobilization.

Finally, she talked about the necessary steps towards climate justice. She explained that “we need to strengthen the resistance against the consolidation of this devastating model and recognize that we have to articulate our struggles in a better way”. “We need to find a much more integrative and sustainable relationship between human beings and nature, to give a new direction to our economies so that they are less dependant on energy”, she said, and she appealed to the small communities around the world, especially indigenous peoples: “they have so much wisdom and the cities need to see and listen to them”.

Photo: Radio Mundo Real