3 December 2010 | Interviews | Climate Justice and Energy | COP 16
On Time
Interview with Ricardo Navarro about the priorities and urgent demands at the COP16
Download: MP3 (1.2 Mb)
In an interview with Real World Radio, the member of CESTA-Friends of the Earth El Salvador, said that the political and economic powers must understand the seriousness of the issue of climate change, and pointed out that greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced in a drastic way.
“We should have half of the emissions we have now by 2020”, said Navarro, and he added that by 2050 there shouldn’t be any more emissions, to prevent global temperature from rising 2° C, which would bring extremely negative consequences.
Meanwhile he said that people must understand that the issue of climate change was brought “by the rich people of the world, because they are the ones who consume oil, coal, natural gas and the most vulnerable, poor sectors have suffered the most”. And he added: “This is extremely unjust, so we expect that this injustice is also recognized, this damage caused by the rich against the poor, this environmental and climate debt the rich owe the poor”.
According to Navarro, this would imply compensation by the rich countries to the South, so that the South can improve their lifestyles without resorting to carbon.
He also made reference to the peoples´ agreement of Cochabamba and stated that the Bolivian is one of the governments that better understands the issue of climate change. Also, he said that part of the solutions to this problem can be found in the way the traditional indigenous peoples lived and their relationship with Mother Earth. He also said that there should be a declaration to ensure the rights of it.
“This political and economic system sees Earth as a means to profit and we are not realizing that we are part of it, so the relationship should be another: Mother Earth is not just the house where we live, we are still part of it and we can´t live without it.
Meanwhile, in terms of Japan´s position (that announced that they will not accept a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol), he said that this was a sign of the fact that the industrialized world does not want to reduce emissions.
He highlighted as well that with issues such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, the future of humankind is at stake.
“We are not talking about an economic problem”, said Navarro, and he added: “Even the UN when they speak of mitigation and adaptation…How can they ask a country with 100 thousand dead people after a hurricane to adapt? Adapt to what? We are talking about surviving, this needs to be understood. We need extremely radical changes for human beings to survive. I hope we realize this, and I hope we do it on time”, he concluded.
