COP 16: Extinction Rebellion and allies call for fair policies to protect the people and environment in the Global South from corporate greed
September 16, 2024 by Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion is calling on citizens, leading scientists and environmental and social campaigners to make their voices heard this year at COP 16 by signing its letter urging the UK delegation to put its weight behind four key environmental demands.
The call comes as representatives from countries around the world prepare to gather in Cali, Colombia for the UN’s latest Biodiversity Conference – COP 16: Peace with Nature – which takes place between 21 October and 1 November 2024.
The goal of COP 16 is to transform the commitments of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) into actionable plans. Implementing the GBF demands global cooperation, recognising biodiversity’s critical role in the economy, food security, climate stability, and planetary health. The decisions made at COP 16 are crucial to the planet’s future. However, Extinction Rebellion and many campaigning groups are concerned that policies are currently not taking into consideration the risks and impacts on the people and environment in the Global South.
Extinction Rebellion’s letter outlines four key demands:
1. Write off Global South debt
2. Enforce proper environmental standards for mining companies
3. Negotiate fair investor state dispute settlement mechanisms so as not to cripple Global South economies.
4. Support Early Day Motion 136 to ensure greater environmental protection and sustainable development in the Global South.
The letter calls on the UK COP 16 delegation to demand action to end the Global South’s huge debt obligations to the World Bank.
It states: “These debt burdens effectively ensure that governments cannot protect their natural environments, provide decent living standards for their peoples or prevent damage caused to people and nature from the exploitation of their resources by Global North corporations. The Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) is caused in large part by the subjugation of countries with essential global resources such as rainforests and minerals to these purposefully-imposed debt schemes.
“Financiers such as Blackrock, Barclays, HSBC, Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase are funding extractivist companies with trillions of dollars to exploit resources in Global South countries, which their governments are forced to accept if they are not to be saddled with even heavier debt restructuring by the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank.”
The letter also raises concerns about the operations of mining companies, including the British registered multinational Glencore PLC, in the Global South and these corporations’ disregard for environmental standards in the countries where they operate.
It says: “The low standards of environmental protection in which companies like Glencore operate are contaminating the water, air and land, causing irreversible loss of biodiversity and death of indigenous peoples.
“Glencore and other companies are using bilateral trade agreements between the UK and Global South states to force countries like Colombia to pay millions of dollars in compensation for putting the fundamental rights of their indigenous peoples first.”
The letter urges the UK and Colombia to renegotiate their Bilateral Investment Treaty by mutual agreement to prevent multinational mining companies like Glencore from being able to demand this exploitative compensation.
It concludes: “The UK’s leadership in these areas would not only demonstrate a strong commitment to biodiversity and Indigenous communities, but also inspire other nations to follow suit.”
Signatories can now add their names to the letter.
For further information contact: press@extinctionrebellion.uk