Climate Change and its Impacts on the Poor

Climate Change and its Impacts on the Poor Presbyterians for Restoring Creation Mo Ranch - October 2007 Andrew Kang Bartlett, Presbyterian Hunger Program The Plan       The Climate Divide Curbing emissions Adaptation Who benefits? Who pays? Agrofuels What to do. But how?! World’s Richest Countries  Caused the bulk of global warming  Rich countries benefited most from fossil fuel binge  Own the resources to mitigate much of the damage Poorest nations/poorest people to bear brunt as world warms  Severe droughts in Ethiopia  Livestock dead from dehydration and/or malnutrition Meanwhile, richest countries spending billions to limit risks The “Climate Divide”  Wealthy nations far from equator experience fewer effects and better able to withstand  Nations closer to the equator more vulnerable and overwhelmingly poor Poverty  Half the planet‟s population lives in deep poverty; more than a billion in extreme poverty  Great vulnerability to weather, illness and climate change Discrimination + Disempowered  Women and children 14 times more likely to die during a disaster  Women are majority of poor - largely responsible for securing food, water and energy for cooking and heating  Must be fully part of the solution Environmental Destruction  Impoverished communities directly and immediately affected  Unlike richer neighbors, ecological destruction causes suffering and death  Few resources to protect or remediate environmental damage (debt, trade, populations strains, conflicts, corruption…) Mishpat ~ Psalm 99:4 God as “lover of justice”  Biblical tradition marked by political issues: - justice/injustice; domination/resistance, oppression and liberation  Exodus: God as champion of justice; takes the side of the oppressed  Mishpat - oppression and exploitation are not part of God‟s plan  Loving our neighbor as ourselves is struggling for the freedom of all “Lover of justice” “The spirit of the Lord is upon me,/because he has anointed me/to bring good news to the poor./He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives/and recovery of sight to the blind,/to let the oppressed go free,/to proclaim the year of the Lord‟s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). Reduce vulnerability vs. curbing emissions?  Not an either-or situation; both!  But what will be the motivation to help those most in need?  Curbing emissions comes easier… Funding adaptation?  Kyoto Protocol climate pact - soon $ hundreds of millions via treaty into climate adaptation fund  Current $40 million a year "borders on the derisory”  Global Environmental Facility - $1 billion for poorer countries, but few direct local benefits and not poorest countries Adaptation Divide  U.S. corn farmer - 30 million GE corn seeds on 1,000 acres in five days  Subsidies, plus crop insurance  Increasing climate disruption  Possible shifts in farming, but to what? Who benefits? Who pays? Dams Benefits  Construction companies  Recreational users  Electric users  Flood control  Tax generation (sometimes)  Bureaucrats Pays  Taxpayers - for subsidies to build  Downstream residents and fishers  Species hurt by environmental impacts  People killed during construction  Displaced peoples  Archeologists  Limited lifespan due to sedimentation Who benefits? Who pays? Electricity (from coal) Benefits  Users  Miners (those not killed or diseased)  Corporations and stockholders  Construction, transport companies  Lawyers and bureaucrats Pays  Land loss  Animals, ecosystems and people impacted by valley fill, sludge flooding, and water & air pollution  Farmers and others competing for water Who benefits? Who pays? Nuclear Benefits  Electricity users  Construction +  Bureaucrats & government  Uranium sellers  Native American Reservations  Banking, insurance Pays  Impacts on ecosystems/fauna (water warming/pollution)  Disposal problem!  Accident-affected communities and ecosystems  Fear and threat from radioactive material  Future generations  Loss of local control with centralized power production Who benefits? Who pays? Oil Benefits  Corporations  Users  Autoshops  Chemical industries  Government through taxation  Hegemonic controllers, politicians through campaign contributions Pays  Everyone  Due to air and water pollution  Lifestyle: lulls us into an “always there” mentality  Health (respiratory, cancer, sedentary lifestyle, etc)  Community disintegration (mobile car culture, ff)  Dislocation of people in oil rich areas  Damage to ecosystems and people for exploration and extraction  Oil-oriented foreign policy and taxes allocated accordingly  Non-biodegradable petroleum products  Misallocation of space  Land use with contaminations  Urban heat sinks; land use; contamination… Who benefits? Who pays? Agrofuels Agrofuels rather than Biofuels  Biofuels invokes image of life and renewable abundance  Intensive, industrial production, generally monoculture on thousands of hectares  Image obscures economic gains by some; price paid by people in the Global South  Plant products grown through agriculture Yes, how about ethanol? King Corn Water, Soil, Biodiversity  Pressure to convert existing farmland and new land  Increased irrigation  Increased erosion  Agro-toxics  Monoculture -> loss of biodiversity Eutrophication Dead Zones Emissions and H20 Agro-Diesel Soya Deforestation  Land clearing for palm oil plantations in Indonesia  Malaysia, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador biodiversity losses Deforestation  Land clearing for soya and sugarcane in Brazil increasing*  Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia * Minor compared to cattle ranches Emissions Food Prices Up  $47 per person for higher food prices since July „06 surge (U.S.)  $14 billion in higher food prices total  John Gibbs: Seniors get triple whammy  Poorest people spend 50-80% on food Who benefits? Who pays? Agrofuels Benefits Pays Agrofuels Recommendations: Production side  Sustainable production of cellulosic feedstocks Ban on GMO crops Ban on protected land conversion  Sustainable production of ethanol Refinery: water use, pollution  Apply standards to imports of agrofuels and feedstocks Production side  Protection of Small Farmers and Local Economies  Oil subsidies phase-out Demand side 1. Create a comprehensive transportation program to drastically reduce fuel demand and limit the environmental impacts of transportation 2. Invest in public transportation Demand side 3. Include external costs in the prices of fuel 4. Promote the development of efficient car designs 5. Increase fuel effeciency 6. Create vehicle emissions limits for new vehicles Demand side 7. Develop a sound methodology for measuring life-cycle emissions and pollution for the different transportation fuels 8. Traffic restrictions 9. Promote efficient urban planning Demand side 10. Plan and implement consumer education campaigns to promote efficient driving 11. Promote the articulation between metropolitan planning organizations and local governments. Criteria for Biofuels in Mexico But…Ethanol’s Iron Triangle Buying Influence Unstoppable? Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth  Creation continues to groan, in bondage, waiting for its liberation (Rom 8.22)  System of domination, defended by empire  God calls us to stand with victims of injustice  We commit ourselves  We join in praise to God