PHM-Exch> Open Letter to the Governments Meeting on Climate Change in Cancun.

[Claudio Schuftan]

*An Open Letter to the Governments Meeting at the 16th COP of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancun.*



People and communities throughout the global South need hundreds of billions
of dollars each year to deal with the impacts of climate change, build
resiliency and adopt alternative development pathways. The cost of
compensation for past, present, and future damages due to climate change
will only grow if, in addition, the necessary measures, are not taken in the
industrialized countries to make a just transition to equitable, non-fossil

fuel based economies.



We call on the governments of the world to comply with their obligations to
ensure that new and additional public resources for climate finance are made
available now in a way that is founded on the principle of historical
responsibility, does not add to debt burdens, and is free from policy
conditionalities.



We urge you to set up a Global Climate Fund under the authority of the
UNFCCC that has an equitable governance structure, prioritizes the
participation of affected communities, operates with full transparency,
democracy, participation and accountability, and provides direct access to
funding.



The World Bank and other multilateral development banks must not be given a
role in establishing or governing the new Global Climate Fund nor in
managing climate finance. Their nature, structure, track record, and
policies, stand in contradiction to what should be the principles of fair
and effective climate finance, and the structure and operations of a new
fund.



The World Bank is a lending institution that has long been imposing policy
conditions and programs on South countries and peoples through its loans.
Giving a role to the World Bank in climate finance will result in a
significant part of climate finance flowing as loans, and will very likely
come with conditionalities.



The World Bank’s governance structures are undemocratic, with representation
dominated by governments of rich, industrialized countries The Global
Climate Fund should have a majority representation of South countries in its
governance structure since they are the world’s majority and most affected
by climate change. The needs and rights of communities impacted by climate
change, and the transition to equitable and sustainable economies based on
sovereign, democratic control and governance

of natural resources must be at the center of decision-making on climate
finance.

The World Bank has a long track record of undermining human rights and
ecological integrity. For example, in 2010 alone, the World Bank financed a
record high $6.3 billion to fossil fuel projects, a 138% increase over the
previous year. An institution that actively promotes the causes of global
warming should not be given a role in global climate finance. Rather, it
must be pressed to end such policies and practices, including the many false
solutions that the Bank is now promoting.



The World Bank actively privileges the private sector and private capital
markets over public interests. Climate finance must be used to support the
public good, not to promote private profit and the commodification of
nature. It must come in the form of public resources, not rely on
market-based programs for its generation and application. Innovative tools
for raising public resources are already in our reach including redirecting
fossil fuel subsidies and military spending, and taxing financial
speculation.



We call on you, the governments of the world, to keep the World Bank and
other multilateral development banks out of the new Global Climate Fund and
out of climate finance.



*So far signed by 79 International and Regional Organizations and Networks
in over 20 countries. PHM adhering.*
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