Press Room

4 June 2009, Oslo & Madrid - Some of the world’s leading environmental policy and business experts have gathered in Sarpsborg, a tiny town outside Oslo, to talk about what needs to be done to make the world a bit more fair — at least when it comes to climate change matters. And fairness is the driving subject of the Green Technology and Finance —Striking a Fair Climate Deal conference being hosted here today and tomorrow by the Club of Madrid, Bellona (Norway’s leading environmental organization), and Hafslund (one of the world’s biggest energy companies).—through death, disease, destitution and financial loss— yet are least responsible for creating the problem of climate change."—presented in the Global Humanitarian Forum’s "Closing the Gaps" report, as basic ethical benchmarks for action:

"Climate change is happening now, I have family members living in small villages who find themselves struggling day to day with the effects of climate change on the poverty they already live in," said Ibrahim Wani, Chief, Development and Economic and Social Issues Branch, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. "Climate change is a human crisis which threatens to overwhelm the humanitarian system and turn back the clock on development."

These sobering words were echoed by a fellow speaker at a parallel working session on climate justice, Martin Frick, Deputy Director, Global Humanitarian Forum. "It is a gross injustice that poor people in developing countries bare over 90 percent of the burden

Club of Madrid Member, Jennifer Shipley, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, called participants' attention with this question: "How can a new agreement address the issue of climate justice in a development perspective and ensure that action taken in the context of adaptation, mitigation and technology diffusion are in compliance with human rights frameworks on equity and gender?"

The answer, stressed Martin Frick, lies in the Copenhagen negotiations on climate change considering the following eight Guidelines for Climate Justice

1. Take responsibility for the pollution you cause (you break the window, you pay for it!). Polluting must have a price that reflects full cost of its impact on human society.
2. Act according to capability and capacity. This is another way of saying "common but differentiated responsibilities." Nobody has a right to pollute, but responsibility can only be attributed in accordance with an ability to reasonably assume that responsibility. The poor can't be expected to share the same burden as the rich, because a greater proportion of capacity is necessary for survival.
3. Share benefits and burdens. Those that have benefited from emissions (in the form of industrial development) must share resulting wealth
4. Respect and strengthen human rights. this provides governments with strong moral standpoint in climate negotiations.
5. Reduce risk to the minimum. The poor, women, are more at risk. So risk analysis has to take that into account.
6. Integrate solutions. Adaptation refers to actions that help humans and the ecosystem adjust to climate change. Mitigation means actions that reduce net carbon emission and limit long-term climate change while continuing development. Emissions must be reduced in order to stem the root cause of climate change. Adaptation is imperative for dealing with unavoidable impacts
7. Act in an accountable, transparent and reliable manner.
8. Act NOW! Delayed action increases the level of danger, leads to more damage and harm to all.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., roused the crowd with his passionate keynote address pleading with world leaders and industrial leaders to join in what he called "the coalition of the willing" -- those who are willing to do what it takes to reverse the ill effects of global warming.

"If you build an oil line you have to go to Saudi Arabia, start the occasional periodic war to protect those pipelines, poison our beaches and our children, expensive stuff!" he said to loud clapping. "But if you build a solar thermal plant it will cost us roughly what it would cost to buy oil overseas for one year, and then we have free energy without wars!" Kennedy concluded his remarks reminding industry representatives that free energy, like solar energy, "is the biggest tax rate you can give industry because it creates a huge boom so you can invest in other parts of society."