Welcome to the blog of the Latin American Platform on Climate

In April this year, the First World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth drew over 35,000 people to the Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

The challenge it posed to the climate establishment for failing to reach an agreement in Copenhagen, as well as its substantive accomplishments, are considered a revolution in social mobilization around the mounting threat of climate change.

How this momentum might generate further action at the Cancun climate talks this month remains uncertain. The mobilization is very much underway but the movement’s agendas continue to fragment and proliferate.

There are at least three different alternative climate forums slated for the Mexican conference. Klimaforum10 will be an alternative justice-orientated space where individuals and organizations share ethnographic narratives, scientific research and artistic projects around the causes and effects of global warming.  Hosted by Mexican grassroots organizations, with some technical support from the Danish Board of Klimaforum09, its platform will be similar to the Cochabamba Conference.

“Diálogo Climático- Espacio Mexicano” was created by other Mexican organizations with governmental support^. This conference features mainly Latin American non-governmental organizations, as well as a few international groups such as Friends of the Earth and Carbon Trade Watch, and a few groups from Africa.  They will host a Forum for Climate Justice from December 5-10 at “Super Manzana 21” in downtown Cancun.

A third alternative space has been proposed by La Vía Campesina to air the concerns of rural farm workers. La Vía Campesina has also arranged a series of caravans making the trip to Cancun to highlight areas in both Central America and within Mexico adversely affected by climate and ecological destruction.

The organizers of Diálogo Climático have reported that they are attempting to coordinate their efforts with Klimaforum and Via Campesina.

The current focus on Cancun should not overshadow the milestones of the First World People’s Conference. The conference made great strides in rallying diverse strands of civil society around climate justice.  Eduardo Giesen, Friends of the Earth International, celebrated the expansive and eclectic mix of organizations that the leadership of Evo Morales helped to draw to Cochabamba, including, labor groups, youth groups and a wide range of indigenous activists.

Numerous statements in the People’s Agreement have been incorporated into the UNFCCC’s official negotiating text recently scrutinized at the latest round of UNFCCC talks in Tianjin, China. However, it is doubtful Cochabamba’s calls for radical political and economic reforms will find their way into a mainstream international framework.

Stanislaw Csaplincki, co-founder of Climate Reaction Bolivia, predicted that while Cancun may offer airspace to the technological, scientific and financial points coming out of Cochabamba, there will be little appetite for the geopolitical issues at the heart of the People’s Agreement.

There is no question that the Cochabamba Summit sparked a new era of civil society engagement in the international climate change debate. However, whether the increasing diversity of the climate justice movement, emboldened by the Bolivian experience, will be able to continue this drive or fade away remains to be seen. Cancun could provide the answer.

Comments are closed.