Position of the Bolivian Climate Change Platform on Rio+20 and the Green Economy

At the next United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, Rio+20, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June, the governments of 193 countries will meet to sign a new global agreement to guide future development policies. We note the following: Twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit, where countries committed to implement Sustainable Development to eradicate poverty and care for the environment, the results are disheartening; wealth continues to be concentrated in the hands of a small sector of society and the deterioration of the environment becomes ever more alarming. The world is facing a crisis of the dominant development model in which the global economic system based on the accumulation of capital has broken the balance with Mother Earth. This is taking us to a dangerous point where the damage will be irreversible, with disastrous consequences. The current situation in the climate change negotiations is discouraging. Current commitments by governments to reduce greenhouse gases are insufficient. Scientists have warned us that even with these commitments the planet would suffer a 4C increase in global average temperature. This would mean many regions would suffer unpredictable extreme events with incalculable costs. Hundreds of millions of people would be affected - displaced and made even poorer. In the context of the financial, energy, climate, environmental and food crises the United Nations seeks to impose a new strategy to save the capitalist system using the Green Economy to open up new frontiers for business by turning all natural resources, and natures functions and cycles into commodities. This will further deepen the social, economic and environmental crises. The proposals of the Green Economy expressed in the Zero Draft are not an answer to the current environmental and climate crisis. Putting a price on nature is not the solution and will only benefit big capital. The Green Economy will violate human rights recognised in international treaties including the rights to: life, health, water, a healthy environment, a dignified life, sustainable livelihoods, property, housing, development, culture and traditional knowledge, as well as the rights of native indigenous peoples to self-determination and territory. Following a comprehensive participatory analysis of this dramatic situation the Bolivian Climate Change Platform declares: The Rio+20 Summit and the Green Economy 1) We reject the transformation of Mother Earth and the functions of nature into commodities through the Green Economy. We reject speculation based on new fictitious financial products called environmental services and natural capital. 2) We reject the attempt to save the capitalist system by imposing the Green Economy. 3) We condemn the Green Economy because it continues to pursue the false idea of limitless economic growth. Infinite growth is not possible in a world that has limits.

4) We reject the imposition of the Green Economy and the structural adjustments needed to implement it. Even its partial implementation will damage the natural balance. 5) We condemn the harmful effects that the Green Economy will have on the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples by exacerbating the impacts of the extractive model of mining, oil, gas and agro-export. 6) We condemn the false solutions to reduce greenhouse gases such as nuclear energy, artificial carbon capture and storage, genetically modified organisms (GMO) and biofuels. The Green Economy in Bolivia The Green Economy in Bolivia would constitute a reversal of the gains the Bolivian people have won through their struggles which are enshrined in the Bolivian Constitution. It would violate principles and rights including the: Essential right to water, Rejection of privatization Self-determination Sovereignty Right to the environment Plural economy The principle to Live Well (Vivir Bien) in harmony with nature. The Green Economy promotes new forms of private appropriation of nature, neo-imperialism and financial colonization whereby a rich minority and their lackeys are the only beneficiaries. Therefore: 1) We demand that the Bolivian government actively defend the interests of the Bolivian people using all means at its disposal to prevent the approval of the current United Nations negotiating text. 2) We demand that the Bolivian government is not complicit with this new strategy of capitalism and does not sign the Rio+20 agreement. The Bolivian government must comply with Law 071 on the Rights of Mother Earth and articles 255 and 259 of the Bolivian Constitution which demand a national referendum to decide on the signing of an international treaty of this importance. 3) We demand that in the Rio+20 negotiations the Bolivian government defend the rights of Mother Earth and the rights of indigenous peoples as set out in the resolutions of the Peoples Summit on Climate Change (Tiquipaya, Cochabamba, 2010). 4) We demand that the ALBA countries, in particular the Bolivian government, implement the proposals to Live Well (Vivir Bien) not just as a discourse but with specific policies to begin a gradual transition to overcome capitalism in all its forms. Alternatives to the Green Economy The model of Living Well (Vivir Bien) and the Rights of Mother Earth are an alternative to the predatory capitalist development model that exploits human beings and Mother Earth. The vision of Living Well proposes to live in harmony with Mother Earth on the basis of complementarity and solidarity between peoples according to logic distinct from that of the market. It will not be possible to find a solution to the current crisis in an economic vision based on the ownership of nature. We do not own nature; we are part of Mother Earth.

1) A new global model must be created as an alternative to the Green Economy to re-establish the balance with Mother Earth. 2) The economic model needs to be changed. There needs to be an equal redistribution of wealth and production models must be directed to meet the needs of women and men, whilst respecting and caring for Mother Earth rather than promoting the accumulation of wealth. 3) Proposals for other forms of development must respect and recognise the cosmovisions (world views) of indigenous peoples such as the right to collective territory, ancestral knowledge and holistic management of their economies. 4) We demand respect for natures vital cycles. Living Well (Vivir Bien) in harmony and spirituality with Mother Earth involves the full repair and compensation for the harm caused by human activity and greed, and the false idea of development. 5) We demand that all projects that destroy Mother Earth be stopped. These include: the TIPNIS road, mega projects, opencast mining, oil and gas exploitation in ecologically sensitive zones, and harmful dams among others. 6) An alternative model for the holistic management and use of forests, water, land, and other beings and gifts of nature must be created that goes beyond the concept of environmental services and natural capital as a viable alternative to the Green Economy. This would be funded by real financial mechanisms such as a tax on financial transactions. 7) A new global agreement on development and the environment must respect the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries must recognise their historical, ecological and climate debt to developing countries and their consequent obligation to transfer funds without conditionality to developing countries. Future Actions 1) We call on civil society in Bolivia - native indigenous peoples, rural and urban organisations and institutions, activist networks, young people, women, children and the elderly with their wisdom - to mobilize and take action to push forward a new model of development and to strengthen spaces for participation and debate. 2) We call on social movements and international civil society to build alliances to resist the imposition of the Green Economy in the next few years and to build a new development model to achieve the goal of Living Well (Vivir Bien) in harmony with Mother Earth. Finally, we affirm our conviction of the urgent need to change the paradigm of development and to begin a transition to a global economic model to achieve the aim of Living Well (Vivir Bien) in harmony with Mother Earth. This includes achieving the social, political, economic and cultural inclusion of all peoples as envisaged in the conclusions of global civil society in the Cochabamba Peoples Agreement at the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change held in Tiquipaya, Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2010. !NO TO THE GREEN ECONOMY, YES TO LIVING WELL! La Paz, 17 April 2012.

Signatures: Members of the Bolivian Climate Change Platform

Confederacin de Pueblos Indgenas de Bolivia (CIDOB) Consejo Nacional de Ayllus y Markas del Qullasusyu (CONAMAQ) Asociacin Nacional de Regantes y Sistemas Comunitarios de Agua Potable (ANARESCAPYS) Coordinador de Integracin de Organizaciones Econmicas Campesinas, Indgenas y Originarias de Bolivia (CIOEC) Asociacin de Institutciones de Promocin y Educacin (AIPE) Centro de Comunicacin y Desarrollo Andino (CENDA) CEPAS Caritas Boliviana Red OEPAIC Centro de Investigacin y Promocin del Campesinado (CIPCA) Agua Sustentable Fundacin Jubileo Liga de Defensa del Medio Ambiente (LIDEMA) Centro de Ecologa y Pueblos Andinas (CEPA)

Other organisations that sign up to this position:

Centro de Estudios Aplicados a los Derechos Econmicos, Sociales y Culturales (CEADESC) Centro de Documentacin e Informacin Bolivia (CEDIB), Gaia Pacha Colectivo Casa ASOCIACION NAYRA PACHA "ANAPA" Centro de Estudios Superiores, Universidad Mayor de San Simon

To add the name of your organisation to this document email Teresa Hosse, Technical Secretary of the Bolivian Climate Change Platform: mths43@gmail.com / mths43@yahoo.com