Common Sense on Climate from Friends of the Earth UK

kristyGreen Prosperity

Dear all,

Please find links below to a new report published by Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland on solutions for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and providing finance for developing countries to tackle climate change and adapt to its impacts.

‘Clearing the Air: Moving on from carbon trading to real climate solutions’ was launched last night at the UN climate talks in Cancun and shows why carbon trading is not the solution to climate change and that many real, just and effective solutions are available and that all that is needed to make them a reality is political will.

The report brings together solutions for cutting emissions which we consider to be the most rapid, effective, transformational, and compatible with climate justice. These include a global feed-in tariff, supporting small-scale sustainable agriculture, protecting the rights of forest-dwelling communities, and agreeing common standards on the use of best available technologies.

For financing climate action in developing countries, we highlight 5 key policy tools on which a great deal of work has already been done in the climate movement and the wider global justice movement. These include the much-supported new Financial Transaction Tax (FTT); cutting public subsidies to fossil fuel producers; cracking down on tax evasion by multinational companies and wealthy individuals; new, well-targeted carbon and energy taxes; and increased Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) at the IMF.

These finance solutions would not need to have any significant impacts on ordinary working people in developed (Annex I) countries and a conservative estimate indicates they could bring in at least US$420 billion per year to urgently plug the big funding gap for climate action in the developing world, whilst also providing additional government revenue for Annex I domestic spending on key priorities like health, education, and domestic climate action.

Please find below the links to the summary and full reports in English and Spanish.

If you would like any further information please don’t hesitate to get in contact.

Kind regards,

Sarah

ENGLISH

Summary: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/clearing_air_summ.pdf

References for Summary: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/evidence/clearing_the_air_summ_refs.pdf

Full: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/clearing_air.pdf

SPANISH

Spanish summary: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/despejando_el_aire_resumen.pdf

References for Summary: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/evidence/clearing_the_air_summ_refs.pdf

Spanish Full: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/despejando_el_aire.pdf