@Laurie We need climate action to catch fire. We need it to be a genuine movement. MRFCJ and WRI are committed to a Climate Justice Dialogue, which is trying to build broad constituencies of demand for a robust climate agreement. We need to engage young people, women, indigenous communities, the private sector, academia, trade unions, everyone!
@Laurie - couldn't agree more, we need ordinary people talking about the impacts of climate change but we have to provide solutions as well as talking about the problems
@kvaughan What do you think are some good solutions to focus on to build this grassroots fire for action on climate change?
@Gregory, I agree. The essential voices are those in the frontline of climate change. We must continue to make sure those voices are heard by those that have the power to make decisions, both in climate change negotiations and the post 2015 development agenda.
Question for Amina - the UN Sec-General is very keen on solutions to climate change. Is he happy with how the post-2015 process is addressing the issue so far? Does he think there are limits to what it can achieve on climate change?
@ Laurie - we have to get resources to people on the front line, we have to tackle climate sceptics head on, we have to tackle the fossil fuel industry and support the poorest and most vulnerable to adapt and challenge the power structures that make them poor
@Laurie @Kvaughan It helps to bring out positive stories of community-based adaptation, such as the examples we saw at the CBA 7 conference in Bangladesh in April. We should also put emphasis on securing access to energy for the 3bln who are exposed to household air pollution, leading to 4mln premature deaths annually.
At my Foundation, we believe that climate change highlights and exacerbates the gulf in equality between developed and the poorest developing countries – a gulf that deprives the most vulnerable of the resources they need to lead decent lives. According to the Lancet-published Global Burden of Disease study released in late December 2012, household air pollution is the fourth greatest health risk in the world. This comes from women cooking food for their families using traditional cookstoves and open fires. These methods claim 4 million lives annually – most of the fatalities are women and children. Cooking shouldn’t kill. That is why I accepted the invitation to join the Leadership Council of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which seeks to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions
@Helen, I think the concept is a very good one for delivering a low carbon resilient - but there may be problems to implementation.
Yes, there's real appeal to the "triple win" stories of people using clean energy and as a result paying less for energy, facing fewer health problems, women having to walk less for fuel, getting access to carbon credits, etc.
@Mary - Yes, absolutely, CARE is working to provide many positive community based adaptation solutions on the ground (see www.careclimatechange.org for more info) - and also working at national and international policy levels to develop new frameworks for action, one of which is a new international mechanism for loss and damage. This needs to be established in Poland at the Warsaw COP in November.
I think real grassroots organisation is important. There was a great piece in the New Yorker in April talking about how the green movement and Earth Day began with small meetings, rather than from the top, and how it's gone wrong since is to try to organise from the top
Hi Michael. I don't believe in scaremongering, but I do think it's important to bring home what scientists are telling us. What recent reports have been telling us, such as the International Energy Agency report, and the latest World Bank report on climate impacts ion developing countries. Young people need to be aware of the dangers that may be coming, so that they can get engaged and insist on actions form those with the reponsibilty.
Aedin, powerful forces have been tackled before - in fighting apartheid, fighting slavery and targeting the tobacco agency, This is the most critical battle of all, and therefore we need a broad constuency to ensure we succeed.
@Mary Robinson - we dont believe in scaremongering, but the reality of a 4 degree world is in fact very scary. We do need to speak truth to power and provide positive solutions about how we can tackle climate change
We're halfway through the debate, and two of our panelists - Pa and Amina - seem to be having some technical difficulties joining us. Apologies for this, we are working on getting them into the conversation...
One good thing: It's getting harder to be a climate skeptic given all the extreme weather happening virtually everywhere now. When the tobacco companies kept saying, "There's no proof smoking causes any health damage," there came a point when people didn't believe them anymore. I suspect that will come with climate change as well - the only question is if it's soon enough.
The world’s richest countries need to lead the way in tackling the global climate and development crisis – but action needs to start today. Rich countries in the developed world bear most historical responsibility for causing climate change and have a moral responsibility to help eradicate global poverty. They must:
• Explicitly recognise the inherent links between climate change and development (that progress on one cannot be achieved without progress on the other)
• Explicitly recognise that the world’s poor have done the least to cause climate change but are also suffering its worst impacts
• Take urgent action to make deep cuts to global greenhouse gas emissions, including introduction of global greenhouse gas reduction targets
• Make a real commitment to deliver additional finance for adaptation, targeting the poorest and most vulnerable and particularly women and girls massively scaled-up support for climate change adaptation, helping the poorest cope with the effects of a world with a changing climate
• Find new mechanisms and sources for generating additional climate finance
• Find mechanisms to deal with the inevitable loss and damage that is already resulting from climate change impacts
• Improve support for building people’s resilience to climate change.
We all agree that tackling climate change is crucial to development, but popular consultations for the post-2015 development agenda – the My World Survey etc – suggest that action on climate change is a low priority, particularly for people in poorer countries. Why do you think this is, and is it likely to lead to weak outcomes on climate change?
@kvaughan - one way to speak truth to power is to bring out the intergenerational element that our lifestyles are putting at risk, the future possibilities for our children grandchildren and their grandchildren. This sense of intergenerational injustice is why we should act.
John, Ashwani and Aedin all make comments about growth and measures that go beyond GDP. You are right we need alternative measures than GDP for example measures that value the natural world, measure equity and human wellbeing. It is crazy that if you cut a forest down your GDP goes up even if it is providing essential ecosystem services like water filtration. At Rio +20 there was a push that was supported by the UK government for GDP plus type measures and we hope the Open Working Group on SDGs addresses this in their deliberations.
