Redd: problems and prospects

Vietnam’s first-ever side event was held here yesterday at landmark UN climate talks in the Danish capital,  just days after the country was listed in the top ten most vulnerable countries to climate change.

The NGO GermanWatch announced at the summit its Global Climate Risk Index, which reported that from 1990 to 2008 Vietnam was one of the top ten victims of climate change. In another report by the World Bank, Vietnam was ranked in the top 5.

MONRE Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen said that salt water intrusion during exceptionally high tides is affecting five coastal provinces in Vietnam.

“We have not been a factor in causing climate change,” said Pham. “But we have been its victim.”

The side event discussed Vietnam’s progress on plans to cope with climate change and to protect forests as carbon sinks in order to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For the first time in front of an international audience, speakers also discussed the country’s national target program, which was released in August this year.

Mr. Pham said that the country in the past had not been vocal in explaining its response to climate change. The immediate impacts of the crisis, however, require Vietnam to make its voice heard at the climate talks.

“We want the international community to know in detail how Vietnam has been impacted by climate change and how we cope with it.”

Mr. Pham also said Vietnam has been taking domestic action to prepare for climate change, which does not require international financial support. He stressed, however, that the scale of the problem and its consequences require real action and feasible plans, not just more reports placed on the table of climate conferences.

The full text in Vietnamese below

Hội nghị biến đổi khí hậu toàn cầu – COP 15:

Việt Nam và vấn nạn biến đổi khí hậu toàn cầu:

Đừng dừng lại ở nghị trường!

Phạm Hoa Lài

“Khi tôi đang trên đường đến đây, ở Việt Nam, có đến 5 tỉnh đang chìm trong triều cường. Biến đổi khí hậu đã ảnh hưởng rất rõ nét và ngày càng ác liệt với Việt Nam. Chúng tôi không phải là tác nhân gây ra biến đổi khí hậu nhưng đang là nạn nhân chịu ảnh hưởng rất nghiêm trọng của “quốc tế nạn” này. Chúng tôi đến đây, ngoài tham dự các hội nghị, gặp gỡ, còn muốn chia sẻ với bạn bè thế giới mức độ ảnh hưởng nặng nề và những gì chúng tôi đang làm để khắc phục hậu quả của biến đổi khí hậu” – ông Phạm Khôi Nguyên, Bộ trưởng Bộ Tài nguyên và Môi trường, đã phát biểu như thế trong cuộc gặp với chuyên gia của Liên hợp quốc về vấn đề giảm thiểu khí thải từ ngăn chặn phá rừng và suy thoái rừng tại Copenhagen. COP 15 được xem là hội nghị mà Việt Nam có sự chuẩn bị kỹ nhất từ trước đến nay để tham gia tiếng nói của mình với tư cách là một trong những quốc gia chịu hậu quả nặng nề nhất từ biến đổi khí hậu. Nhưng, rời khỏi COP 15 và trên thực tế, chiến lược hành động ra sao trước vấn đề này là mong đợi quan trọng hơn dành cho các nhà chức trách.

Theo báo cáo toàn cầu về “Chỉ số nguy hiểm từ biến đổi khí hậu” (Global Climate Risk Index) của tổ chức Germanwatch mới được công bố tại COP 15, Myanmar, Yemen và Việt Nam là 3 quốc gia bị ảnh hưởng thiên tai nặng nhất trong năm 2008 (năm gần nhất của các số liệu thống kê). Còn trong giai đoạn 1990 – 2008, Việt Nam cũng nằm ở vị trí thứ 4 trong 10 quốc gia bị thiên tai làm tổn thương lớn nhất. Theo báo cáo trên, trung bình hằng năm, Việt Nam mất 1,31% thu nhập GDP bởi vấn nạn này. Còn trong “bảng xếp hạng” của World Bank, Việt Nam thuộc “top 5″ nạn nhân của biến đổi khí hậu. Với những diễn biến phức tạp của thiên nhiên và hậu quả ngày càng nghiêm trọng bởi tình trạng trái đất ấm lên trong thời gian tới, câu chuyện về tác động, thích nghi và ứng phó với biến đổi khí hậu sẽ càng dài hơn. Như vậy, vấn nạn này đã thực sự là chuyện an nguy đến đời sống, môi trường kinh tế – xã hội thường ngày của 86 triệu dân cả nước.

Ứng phó của Chính phủ Việt Nam ra sao? Tại Copenhagen, Bộ Tài nguyên và Môi trường đã trình bày các báo cáo về một số hoạt động liên quan đến vấn đề này, như chương trình giảm thiểu khí thải từ ngăn chặn phá rừng và suy thoái rừng (REDD), thích nghi, giảm thiểu hậu quả thiên tai, đặc biệt là “Chương trình Mục tiêu quốc gia ứng phó với biến đổi khí hậu của Việt Nam”, đã được ban hành trong nước từ tháng 8/2009, lần đầu tiên được chia sẻ với cộng đồng quốc tế. Phân tích chung của chương trình trên một lần nữa xác nhận mọi lĩnh vực đời sống, kinh tế, xã hội ở Việt Nam đều ở tình trạng nhạy cảm, dễ bị tổn thương với chỉ số cao…

Trong các cuộc họp và tiếp xúc với các bên liên quan tại COP 15, ông Phạm Khôi Nguyên thể hiện rất rõ quyết tâm của Chính phủ trong việc xây dựng nguồn lực và các kế hoạch hành động nhằm giảm thiểu mức độ ảnh hưởng và tổn thương trước biến đổi khí hậu. Ngoài nỗ lực vận động sự quan tâm, hỗ trợ từ các tổ chức quốc tế, ông cho biết Chính phủ Việt Nam hướng tới tự xây dựng các nguồn lực từ bên trong, như với REDD, Việt Nam sẽ tự xây dựng 50% nguồn lực tài chính cho các chương trình hành động trong thời gian tới. Ông Phạm Khôi Nguyên cho biết đã có những tín hiệu hưởng ứng tích cực từ các nhà tài trợ trong nước.

Lâu nay, dù là một trong những quốc gia “dễ bị tổn thương”, tiếng nói của Việt Nam tại các hội nghị về biến đổi khí hậu hoặc các vấn đề môi trường thường rất yếu ớt. Một thực tế rõ ràng nữa là nhận thức của cộng đồng về vấn đề này còn rất thấp, kiến thức và kinh nghiệm của các đơn vị chức năng cũng chưa cao. Hơn nữa, cộng đồng quốc tế nói chung và các nhà tài trợ nói riêng còn có nỗi quan ngại chung rất lớn về hiệu quả sử dụng tài chính, hiệu quả thực tiễn của các hoạt động, dự án ứng phó, thích nghi với biến đổi khí hậu tại các nước đang phát triển. Việt Nam không nằm ngoài quan ngại này.

Do vậy, sau các báo cáo, hoạch định, sinh kế của nhân dân, tương lai của môi trường sống tại Việt Nam đã đến lúc rất cần những tính toán, kế hoạch hành động thiết thực, hiệu quả với tốc độ nhanh hơn và mức độ rộng hơn, rõ hơn trước diễn biến phức tạp của thiên nhiên. Đây không chỉ là sứ mệnh quốc gia, mà còn là sứ mệnh với cộng đồng quốc tế bởi Việt Nam đóng vai trò rất quan trọng với vấn đề an ninh lương thực toàn cầu.

“We do not have to leave Copenhagen with a document that does not reflect the wishes of the people. If we cannot agree, we have to agree that we cannot agree and move it to next time”, she said. “If leaders feel the deal is not worth signing, they should not sign it. They can always sign it another day.”

Heads of State have been arriving in Copenhagen for the closing of the 2009 climate change talks amidst high hopes that an ambitious, comprehensive and legally binding agreement will still crown the meeting.

The Danish government has been desperately working behind the scenes to ensure that the meeting is successful. Earlier the G77+China group reacted with fury to a draft text which they claimed shortcircuited the UN negotiation system and undermined their demands.

A major contentious and sticky issue has been money. Developing countries have asked for hundreds of billions of dollars, not only to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to mitigate its causes but also in reparation for what they claim is the industrialized countries’ historic responsibility for polluting the atmosphere.

Wangari Maathai echoed that view. “I think that in some countries like in Africa and small island states, people are already suffering, and I think that the rich countries have a responsibility to do what is morally right, just and fair.

“It is a matter of  social justice to support these countries because rich countries are largely responsible for what is happening. Let us hope they are not going to slap us in the face.”

Even though the executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Convention, Yvo de Boer, has consistently downplayed any rift between the various negotiating blocs, some unease still lingers. But while Wangari Maathai thinks groups in such big meetings may not always agree, what is important in her opinion is that all  work in collaboration and do not “point fingers – you caused it and you are responsible for it”.

She also acknowledged that developing countries ought to understand that the money they are seeking is taxpayers’ money, which means that leaders of industrialized countries must persuade their citizens of the moral rightness of assisting poor countries.

World Will Not Come to End without a Deal

Stakes at the Copenhagen summit have been high since the Bali conference in 2007, and for over two years the international community expected the world to deliver an accord that would be legally binding and ambitious enough to solve the climate change dilemma.

But with only a few months to Copenhagen it became clear that the summit might not meet its objectives. For Wangari Maathai, the world will not end if a deal is not reached.

“It is important that we do what is right when we go back home. In the final analysis, it is we who must dig those holes and plant those trees and refuse international timber companies coming from the same countries that are now refusing to commit money”, she said.

Professor Maathai however remains guardedly optimistic that some results may be achieved. “More than a hundred Heads of State are coming to Copenhagen and I don’t think that they can come here and agree on something that can tomorrow be thrown into a waste paper basket,” she said.

“These are responsible leaders who know the science; they know what is happening all over the world. They cannot say they don’t know. So I think that they are not coming here for a dance.”

Philip Gwage, Uganda’s chief negotiator, on Monday said: “Europe desperately wants to walk away from the Kyoto protocol. They (European countries) are giving excuses that they do not want to move without the US. It is a great shame.”

“How do you walk away from a bold decision you have signed up to? If Europe takes a decision, (to commit to reducing greenhouse gases) it should try by all means to respect it and not break away.”

South Africa’s minister for water and environment, Buyelwa Sonjica, also disclosed that Africa will not support any deal that ignores targets by rich countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, Yvo de Boer, the Secretary General of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told a press conference on Monday morning that keeping Kyoto targets “is not just an African concern.”

Under the 1977 Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries committed themselves to reducing their emissions by 20 per cent in the first phase of implementation (2008 – 2012).  However, the United States did not assent to the  Kyoto accord, and this has caused anxiety to other industrialized countries.

African negotiators fear they will lose the gains they have made under the Kyoto protocol.

Africa’s move has been supported by representatives from some non-governmental organizations that are following the negotiations.

The World Wide Federation (WWF) said in a statement: “We believe a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol is a necessary part of the two-protocol outcome of Copenhagen, and we support Africa’s demands for this.”

In 2007, all 192 member countries of the United Nations, including the United States launched an alternative process called the Long term Cooperative Action (LCA) with the objective of getting all countries to participate in reducing emissions.

Major industrialized countries that signed up to the Kyoto protocol are also expected to set new higher targets for the second phase of Kyoto’s implementation in order to match the targets scientists say are needed to avoid a catastrophy arising from global warming.

De Boer says he does not think the US is opposed to a legally binding agreement under the LCA. US’s major concerns, De Boer said, are that developing countries such as China and India should commit to reducing their own emissions.

On Monday morning, African negotiators led a walk-out protest over what they termed an attempt by European countries to sideline discussions on the future of the Kyoto protocol.

Negotiations resumed in the afternoon only after assurances from Connie Hedegaard, President of COP 15 that discussions on the Kyoto protocol would continue.

The social movement groups from Asia, Africa and Latin America joined are demanding the rights of millions of people being displaced by climate change.

At the launching of the campaign, Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE, a Bangladesh-based NGO, said, “Global civil society groups should come forward to build a wider constituency to claim the justice and rights of the climate-induced refugees.”

Mr Ahmed also demanded that “a legal safeguard protocol should be in place to ensure the political, social, cultural and economic rights of the climate refugees by the international community.”

Goldman Prize Winner and the Executive Director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) Rizwana Hasan was also present at the launch. She also stressed the need for a legal institutional framework for the victims of climate change.

Dr Ahasan Uddin, one of the authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from Bangladesh demanded a review of the Geneva Convention on Refugees of 1951 in light of climate change.

Demanding the recognition of climate debt, Lidy Nacpil from Jublee South-Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) said “We are not asking assistance or aid butreparations from the industrialized countries for the over extraction and consumption of natural resources.”

Demba Moussa Dembele, the Chair of the LDC Watch from Senegal, and a member of the international committee of the campaign said, “We don’t want climate change but system change.” He said the need of the hour is a new type of relationship between the North and the South to combat  climate change and ensure rights and justice for climate refugees.

The International Campaign on Climate Refugees’ Rights (ICCR) is a global independent association aiming at asserting and realizing the rights and ensuring justice to climate-induced displaced victims—climate refugees. Civil society groups from Asia, Africa, Latin and Central America consisting of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Senegal, Uganda, EL Salvador etc, are the members of this campaign while currently the secretariat is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The water of the Buriganga River is pitch black and no aquatic life survives. Despite this it is still called the lifeline of Dhaka. Life is very busy by the Buriganga. Loaded with cabbages, a country boat has just reached the Chan Mia ghat (boat station) at the Sadarghat, the biggest river port of the capital of Bangladesh. 

“The boat has arrived. I need to work,” Jalil Mia says and walks towards it. Two other workers give him a hand to unload the cabbages. Jalil, 41, moved to Dhaka a year ago, following the devastating cyclone Sidr which hit the country in November 2007 and left him penniless. He came to Dhaka from Bhola island, situated at the estuary of the Meghna River, around 400km south of the capital. 

“Luckily we survived that night as we went to take shelter at a cyclone centre. But my house and all the furniture and even the utensils – everything was washed away,” he says. 

Once a farmer, now a slum-dweller
Bhola is surrounded by the Meghna on three sides, with the Bay of Bengal to the south. Over the last two decades the island has gradually narrowed because of the Meghna’s erosion. Erosion is nothing unusual in Bangladesh. But the threat of climate change has made the country much more vulnerable.

Now Jalil, once a farmer, lives in a slum in the capital with his family. His two daughters, Yesmin and Rabeya, are going to school again. But his son Palash, a 13-year-old, has had to take a job at a glass factory in the old part of the city.

Bangladesh’s Institute of Water Modelling has shown that Bhola, home to over two million people, had a landmass of 1550 sq km in 1973, but only 1400 sq km today. The same thing is happening to other islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Many people from Kutubdia island have moved to Cox’s Bazar on the mainland, where they call their neighbourhood “Kutubdia Para” (village). “We did not want to forget our island. So we named our village after it,” said one old man, Mohammed Nasu Mia.

Catastrophe as sea levels rise
A report by the Refugee Studies Centre says that Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to rising sea-levels and in the top ten in terms of the percentage of its population living in low-lying coastal zones. Over 140 million people live there today, 40 million of them in the coastal area.

Dr. Ainun Nishat, the country representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), says Bangladesh is on average just 10 metres above sea level, but the coastal region is even lower. “Roughly 20 per cent of our country’s landmass will be under water if sea levels rise by 89 centimetres. Such a catastrophe would displace roughly 18 million people,” he told a recent climate seminar. Loss on that scale, in such a densely populated country, would be a disaster he said.

Environmental migrants swell Dhaka’s population
Every year thousands of homeless people like Jalil and his family move to Dhaka because of natural calamities. Today around 12 million people live in the city, around 3.4 million of them slum-dwellers. Dhaka is growing at 3 per cent annually, one of the fastest rates in the world. 

The government has begun working to increase the adaptive capacity of communities suffering from the impacts of climate change. But it has no immediate plans for displaced people – like Jalil and Nasu Mia. 
In a visit to two south-western districts, Khulna and Satkhira, I saw how clearly the local community is aware of the effects of climate change. But many are unsure of the science, and some believe increasing natural calamities are signs of God’s punishment for wrongdoing.

Ingenious solutions are not enough
With the help of NGOs local people have been collecting rainwater and storing it in huge clay pots to use in winter when the natural salinity of their water supply increases – one impact of climate change.  In seasonally flooded areas, they have developed ingenious floating rafts with a bamboo base, upon which water hyacinth is piled and then covered by other aquatic plants or coconut husks to form a seed bed ready for planting. These floating gardens, called baira, are increasingly popular.

In another scheme called the Char livelihood project, supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), local people have learnt to build houses on raised plinths so they are not submerged when the chars (small river islands) flood. But even efforts like these will not be enough to stop people migrating to escape the effects of a changing climate. 

Call for climate refugee rights
Bangladesh’s finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhit, has even said international migration is one of the country’s major adaptation strategies.In December 2008 member states of the UN Climate Change Convention held their 14th summit – COP-14 – in the Polish city of Poznan. Bangladesh, speaking for the least developed countries, demanded that the opportunity of international migration for climate change victims should be included in the new global climate deal under discussion.

Raja Devasish Roy, the chief of the Bangladesh delegation, said world leaders should come up with a solution for those who will be forced from their homes. Other vulnerable countries supported Bangladesh’s proposals.
 
At present there is no international law to protect the rights of people like Jalil. UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, does not recognise climate or environment refugees, as they are not listed under the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention. Now some experts suggest the Convention should be amended to allow for environmental displacement.

Future Floods of Refugees, a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council, advocates a new and separate international convention to protect the rights of climate refugees. It has also recommended a new international environment migration fund with contributions from industrialised nations under what it calls “the polluter pays” principle.

Already, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there are around 25 m climate refugees, while there could be as many as 150 m by 2050. Jalil, Nasu Mia and their families are in a very long queue.