Dear Friend,
On Saturday, activists staged a protest outside the COP25 summit venue in Madrid to express their frustration at what they see as the failure of world leaders in taking meaningful action on climate change.
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Reports from COP25: Last minute discussions for stronger actions
by Countercurrents Collective
On Saturday, activists staged a protest outside the COP25 summit venue in Madrid to express their
frustration at what they see as the failure of world leaders in taking meaningful action on climate change.
On Saturday, activists staged a protest outside the COP25 summit venue in Madrid to express their frustration at what they see as the failure of world leaders in taking meaningful action on climate change.
The conference has become enmeshed in deep, technical arguments about a number of issues including the role of carbon markets and the financing of loss and damage caused by rising temperatures.
According to the UN, 84 countries have promised to enhance respective national plans by the end of next year. Some 73 have said they will set a long-term target of net zero by the middle of the century.
But earlier in the meeting, negotiators from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) pointed the finger of blame at countries including Australia, the United States, Canada, Russia, India, China and Brazil.
They had failed to submit revised plans that would help the world keep the rise in global temperatures under 1.5C this century.
Reinforcing the sense of division, India, supported by China, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, has been taking a hard line on promises made by richer countries in previous agreements before the Paris pact was signed in 2015.
India now wants to see evidence that in the years up to 2020, the developed world has lived up to past promises.
For many delegates, the deadlock is intensely frustrating in light of the urgent need to tackle emissions.
On Saturday, a new draft text from the meeting was released, designed to chart a way forward for the parties to the Paris agreement, which came into being in 2015.
The pact’s intention is to keep the global average temperature rise to well below 2C. This was regarded at the time as the threshold for dangerous global warming, though scientists subsequently shifted the definition of the “safe” limit to a rise of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The European Union and small island states vulnerable to climate change are pushing for stronger commitments to cut those emissions.
Some of the biggest polluters, including the U.S., Brazil and India, say they see no need to change their current plans.
Negotiations at the UN climate talks are going into extra time as diplomats are at loggerheads over commitments to boost ambition and rules to set-up a new global carbon market.
There is possibility of political deadlock, with little progress on the most contentious issues, including creating a new carbon market, known as Article 6.
Australia, Brazil U.S., blocking progress
Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister Carlos Manuel Rodríguez called out “Australia, Brazil and the US” for blocking progress – a reflection of the tense atmosphere of the talks.
“Some of the positions are totally unacceptable because they are inconsistent with the commitment and the spirit that we were able to agree upon [in Paris in 2015],” he said.
“On the last day of the Cop we should be very concerned because that high ambition for environmental integrity is being threatened by the lack of agreement,” he warned.
Developing countries warned the deadlock was undermining a package of measures that could have delivered much-needed finance and support to vulnerable countries affected by sea-level rise, droughts, floods and extreme weather events.
Calls for additional finance to help developing countries recover from damages caused by climate impacts were not included in the latest draft text. Instead, the text on loss and damage “urges” countries to “scale-up” finance and capacity building. It also requests the creation of an expert group to explore further options to support vulnerable countries.
Another demand by developing countries to deploy a share of the proceeds from bilateral carbon trading between countries to the adaptation fund is being opposed by richer countries.
In a statement, China, Brazil, South Africa and India, called for the creation of a work program to close the gap of commitments made by rich countries before 2020.
“The ambitious implementation of developed countries’ commitments to provide support to developing countries is a precondition to any discussion on progression of current commitments,” the statement stated, adding progress on the issue “will be the benchmark of success for this COP”.
UN Chief calls for stronger commitment
With national delegations thrashing out an outcome agreement at the COP25, the UN chief has called on countries to be more ambitious, side strongly with science, and commit to stronger action.
“Today is the last day of the COP25 in Madrid”, said Secretary-General António Guterres. “And I appeal to the delegates of all Member States to convey a message of ambition to the world”.
He urged all to align “their objectives with science” to make sure that “temperatures will not rise above 1.5C at the end of the century”.
Guterres maintained that a “spirit of compromise is necessary for a successful conclusion of the regulations related to the implementation of the Paris Agreement” of 2015, which was signed by 193 countries to limit the damage caused by a warming world.
He also underscored the importance of “showing a very strong commitment and a very strong ambition in climate action”.
The UN chief congratulated the European Union for its announcement on Friday, committing to carbon neutrality by 2050 and called for this example of climate action “to be followed worldwide”. Only coal-reliant Poland out of the 28-member bloc, decided it would not commit.
All eyes “are on us”
At an on-site press conference, Andres Landerretche, COP25 Presidency Coordinator, spelled out: “The eyes of the people are on us”.
Recalling that a consensus between 193 States was needed before the conference could be concluded, he acknowledged that “negotiations have always been very difficult”.
While “our priorities are always a call to ambition, mitigation efforts and adaptation”, he flagged that the underlying issue underpinning final negotiations, was the “key element” of finance.
“Some groups ask for more financing to move forward with climate action plans”, including for technology transference and capacity building.
Everyone has a role to play
Mr. Landerretche stressed that while governments are responsible for frameworks, a cultural change must take place, with everyone asking themselves three fundamental questions: What am I doing to reduce my carbon footprint, resilience and vulnerabilities? Because, added, “everybody has to be on board”.
The coordinator told journalists that his mood was one of “general-moderate optimism” and he was “quite pleased” with comments from the floor in terms of a final text, which he hoped would “crystallize into a very good outcome”.
“Our intention is to finish the program”, he concluded.
Show flexibility, appeals Chile
Carolina Schmidt, Chile’s environment minister who is the conference’s president, has appealed to delegates to show flexibility, as they struggle to reach agreement on crucial measures needed to tackle climate change.
Carolina Schmidt said a deal was almost there but the outcome needed to be ambitious.
Ms Schmidt said early on Sunday: “I request all the flexibility, all your strength to find this agreement to have an ambitious result.”
She added: “It’s hard, it’s difficult but it’s worth it. I specially need you. But people in our countries need us.”
The goal is a commitment to new carbon emissions cuts by the end of 2020.
Unprecedented situation
The situation was unprecedented since talks began in 1991, said Alden Meyer from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Meyer commented: “The latest version of the Paris Agreement decision text put forward by the Chilean presidency is totally unacceptable. It has no call for countries to enhance the ambition of their emissions reduction commitments.
“If world leaders fail to increase ambition in the lead up to next year’s climate summit in Glasgow, they will make the task of meeting the Paris agreement’s ‘well below 2C’ temperature limitation goal – much less the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal – almost impossible.”
David Waskow, international climate director for the World Resources Institute (WRI), echoed his view. “If this text is accepted, the low ambition coalition will have won the day,” he said.
“I’ve been attending these climate negotiations since they first started in 1991. But never have I seen the almost total disconnect we’ve seen here at COP25 in Madrid between what the science requires and the people of the world demand, and what the climate negotiations are delivering in terms of meaningful action,” said Alden Meyer.
“The planet is on fire and our window of escape is getting harder and harder to reach the longer we wait to act. Ministers here in Madrid must strengthen the final decision text, to respond to the mounting impacts of climate change that are devastating both communities and ecosystems all over the world.”
Jake Schmidt, from the US-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said: “In Madrid, the key polluting countries responsible for 80% of the world’s climate-wrecking emissions stood mute, while smaller countries announced they’ll work to drive down harmful emissions in the coming year.
“The mute majority must step up, and ramp up, their commitments to tackle the growing climate crisis well ahead of the COP26 gathering.”
At a “stock-taking” session on Saturday morning, Tina Stege, a negotiator with the Marshall Islands delegation, said: “The text must address the need for new and more ambitious NDCs and long-term goals. We can’t leave with anything else.”
A regression
Chair of the African group, ambassador Mohamed Nasr of Egypt, told reporters: “We are seeing a regression not a progression, specifically because some countries don’t want to come forward on climate finance.”
“Our view is very clear: either we have through this process the funding, the technology that we think we deserve and should get or this process can continue for another year, we are fine with that.”
“No deal is better than a bad deal for our people,” he added.
Poland stands alone
After a European Council meeting that ended early on Friday morning, council president Charles Michel said the 2050 target was a “common goal” agreed by all leaders. But said Poland “can’t commit to implement this objective”.
The leaders’ statement committed Poland to return to the issue at a council meeting in June 2020.
Poland will become the bloc’s second largest source of carbon after Germany when the UK leaves the EU – an event made certain by elections results in Britain overnight.
Poland has sought support from the ongoing EU budget negotiations to meet new climate targets. It will also argue for a large share of the EU’s Just Transition Fund (estimated to eventually leverage €100 billion).
German chancellor Angela Merkel said: “I am, given the circumstances, quite satisfied. There’s no division of Europe’s different parts, but rather one member state that still needs a bit of time to reflect on how this should be implemented. I think we have a good chance for good success.”
Hungary and the Czech Republic changed their position after refusing the goal at a summit in June.
China’s position
Zhao Yingmin, China’s vice-minister of ecology and environment and head of the Chinese delegation said climate action was not in conflict with China’s economic growth. Zhao was speaking publicly on the sidelines of the negotiations.
“China’s experience has fully demonstrated that our policy measures will improve the quality of economic growth and also improve our productivity,” he said, calling on Chinese entrepreneurs to “accelerate the green transformation of traditional industries”.
BoJo and the BJP
by Supratim Barman
On the 12th, in the month of December, 2019; a General Election was held in the depth of a British winter. The following day, sections of the Revisionist, pro-Big Money British media announced that Friday the 13th was the day that the British Labour Party died; and they joyfully wished that the Party; now: — Rest In Peace.
On the 12th, in the month of December, 2019; a General Election was held in the depth of a British winter. The following day, sections of the Revisionist, pro-Big Money British media announced that Friday the 13th was the day that the British Labour Party died; and they joyfully wished that the Party; now: — Rest In Peace.
Pundit is an Anglospheric corruption of the Indo-European term Pandit, meaning Learned One. It refers to those of the Anglophilic Brahmanical Cult that have disproportionately overarching influence over the lives of the vast majority of the Indian Republic and, in turn, over her children ensconced safely in the Diasporic realms of the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
As the weeks now progress, many Pundits; experts in the Art of Political Analysis, will try to pontificate and attempt to add colour and texture to exactly what happened on the 12th which led to the unmitigated disaster that unfolded upon the Union on the 13th.
Blame will be squarely placed upon the peculiar leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and the influence that sections of an ethnically homogeneous sub-section of British Society who gravitate towards block voting en mass upon religious direction, (regardless of their understanding of the fundamental issues of what the exercise of their franchise even implies); have within the Labour Party. These Pundits will claim that the normal, average British Voter just had enough of Identity Politics and used their franchise to clear off the Labour Party, along with those who never believed in the spirit and the history of a Working Class Political Organisation but rather saw it as a means towards achieving some sort of Political Power, a stepping stone if you will towards an Salafist inspired power grab; which would be otherwise impossible, as this section lack force in numbers within the inner cities to have enough of a base for an effective political party of their own.
The Conservatives used this fissure beautifully when they claimed that this disaster has been a “Victory for the Working Class”. What the Pundits will miss and thus not be able to explain is the deeply racist underlying campaign that was played brilliantly in order to influence the sub-section votes and bring them home, to which I would like to return as we proceed. All that is however separate from the fortuitous timing of London Bridge, (just as millions of postal voting papers arrived on the doorstep 2 weeks prior to the 12th), which played out a scene with a “political radical” attending a Criminologists Conference, of all things; whilst on licence, wearing an electronic tag and able to smuggle in a knife the size of a small sword. What adds remarkable colour is the amazing fact that the berserk radical is then tackled by a convicted murderer with the other participants being members of the vast European Diaspora in London, one of whom makes a guest appearance with a Narwhal tusk.
London Bridge simplified the direction of franchise exertion of the significantly undecided postal voters.
But what should interest you is the influence of the RSS and the BJP, (via the Overseas Friends of the BJP) and a stunningly efficient quiet campaign based on maximal direction of media content via Whatsapp towards a targeted audience. This particular sub-section of the British Electorate was the Indian Diaspora within 43 specifically chosen Working Class Labour Constituencies. The media content consisted of professionally crafted video messages invoking Hindu Scriptures and out-of-context text quoted from V. D. Savarkar’s; Essentials of Hindutva. You must keep in mind that the Indian Diaspora in the United Kingdom is now 5 Generations old in some places and 3/4 Generations is the norm. To them Hinduism is more of a ritual that consists of going through the motions during certain festivals, which bear no resemblance to their lives within the context of current British Society, which still remains deeply secular and pluralistic. (Most of the Diaspora’s connection to “back home” is a 2 week visit every 2 years). This beautiful ignorance of their actual roots back in the proverbial Motherland was artfully channelled into fear and loathing of their Muslim neighbours layered and presented with a gorgeously Anglophilic Bramanic subtle tone.
The Labour Party was presented, in their minds, as being a Muslim Party and that the Conservative Party was what held their true essence in her heart and that is where their allegiance should be laid. This carefully perfected media barrage was a smoothly refined, finely tuned modification of the version from the BJP campaign during the recently concluded General Elections within the Indian Republic, where the same content and method was deployed in an almost military style operation. The data was studied and re-packaged in order to wash soothingly over an audience where English had to be the media platform rather than Hindi, but the underlying context remained the same; fear, distrust and loathing of your Muslim neighbour and a racist critique of his very existence next to you.
You would say at this point; well is this tactic not the same as used to radicalise British Muslim youth with a distorted presentation of Islam in order to get them deeply involved in regime change propaganda in Islamic nations that lay secular principles as the basis of their governance. The answer to that is; yes absolutely right, but that carnage is being directed towards societies beyond Britain’s borders, where plausible deniability is conveniently invoked if the operation fails ruinously and these same youth are then forced to return, as in the case of the London Bridge participant. This, however, is more of a directed campaign in order to influence voting intentions within the confines of the Union itself.
Well guess what? When you browse the UK Elections at a glance you will notice that the Conservatives gained 47 seats from their previous performance, (365 seats now as opposed to 318 in the last election). Guess where 43 of those seats came from.
So although Johnson will claim this as a victory for the Working Class; which seems at odds to the pronouncements of his mentor; Maggie Thatcher who proudly proclaimed that there is “no such thing as society”, the underlying theme is vastly different to the reality being projected. It is a shaky victory based on the backs of a specifically insecure element of the Working Class whose visions of the future vastly differ from the ethos of the Conservative Party but who have nonetheless been brilliantly coerced by a quiet fear campaign to willingly hand over their votes. It is the ultimate example of influencing voters within targeted constituencies. This requires State Level Planning and joint co-operation with another State that has experience in the mechanics of delivering votes; although the performance of the other party of this quaint partnership once in power remains doubtful if not a total null and void waste.
Make no mistake, the results that were confirmed on the 13th is a catastrophe; not only for the Working Class of the United Kingdom but it also lays the stage for the eventual fragmentation of the Union itself. The 13th will be marked as a deeply sad day but this Government will be faced with huge opposition from the deeper sections of Britain’s political structure who are vastly unionised and magnificently organised and who permeate through every public sector within the nation.
The millions of Indians who have willingly handed over their priceless franchise to the Conservatives due to a deep racist hatred of their Muslim neighbour may need to heed something that happened throughout Europe less than a generation ago.
When they came for my neighbour, I said nothing.
When they came for me, there was no one to say anything.
When they came for me, there was no one to say anything.
To that I would like to add that the price to be paid for being morally corrupt and choosing to live on your knees will be exploited ruthlessly by this Government, who consider all ethnics as a sub-category of society that needs to be either ignored or hounded.
But to call this as the end of my Party would be pre-mature, at best. In the middle of chaos and confusion there always lies hope. In the constituency where I live, Ilford South in London, the people have risen above this cesspool of mindless propaganda and in the true spirit of International Socialism turned their faces towards Truth and elected a true Son of the Working Class as their new Member of Parliament.
I would like to quote from Sam Tarry’s biography;
“Ilford is the place that has shaped me and my outlook on life, from my first job working as a cleaner at Redbridge College as a fifteen-year-old, to stacking shelves at Ilford Sainsburys and working in call centres to pay my way through University. I got involved in community activism, campaigning against the invasion of Iraq with Redbridge Against War. There I became active in anti-fascist campaigning with Searchlight in Redbridge and later worked for Hope Not Hate. I joined GMB here because I’ve always understood the power of working people standing together. I’m proud to be the union backed candidate in this contest.
It is time we had a fresh start in Ilford South. We don’t need an establishment politician, we need an MP from the grassroots who went into politics not for the prestige and power, but to fight for the simple belief that a better world is possible. I will be an MP who believes in and fights for Labour Party democracy. I’ll be a true representative: listening to members, and constituents and standing with clear moral, socialist principles about transforming our country, in order to rebalance power and wealth in favour of working people”.
So the message from London is clear. Pandering to the basest elements of immoral corruption which hides on their knees behind Identity Politics and Block voting on ethno-religious lines is not the way ahead. These are symptoms of the disease of opportunism.
The Working Class remain united, we remain aware of the world we live in.
I was 14 years when in 1978 “Maggie Thatcher the Baby Milk Snatcher” came to power and felt the full brunt of what it meant to be an ethnic in Conservative Britain. Until 1997, I resisted them, for my own survival if nothing else. Now at the age of 56 to have to face 10 years of BoJo and his BJP aligned Diasporic bandwagon of Indians playing backup to his Cowboy only strengthens my will to live and see this through as the final challenge of my life.
Supratim Barman, MSc – Queen Mary – University of London. Kolkata, The Republic of India. I live between the two extreme edges of what was the British Empire, in the vast and important cities of Kolkata and London; with the midpoint being where I was born and where I grew up, Bahrain: observing and experiencing events in a time of great change.
No time to hide for India’s Muslims
by Aijaz Zaka Syed
This country belongs to us as much as it does to the next Indian. We do not have to be apologetic or defensive about our existence in this country. It is time to assert our ownership over this land that has several generations of our ancestors buried in it.
Time For A Unified Protest
by Dr Aurobindo Ghose
If India and the Indian people are to be saved from the Fascism or an emerging Hindu Rashtra of the Hindutva forces like BJP, RSS, VHP, ABVP, etc, there is the greatest need today to form a strong, united front of all democratic and secular forces to challenge and fight the onrushing Fascist forces and policies.
A Totalitarian Republic?
by Dan Corjescu
As in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when writers would hold up a “mirror” for the instruction of princes; so too this essay is an admittedly speculative mirror held up to allegedly democratic republics to help them judge whether or not they are truly democratic and in what ways it could be said that they are truly republics.
Will The New President of Sri Lanka Guide The Country in The Correct Path?
by Kumarathasan Rasingam
Sri Lanka can become a country like Singapore if the newly elected President take a very firm and determined stand and lead the country towards prosperity and work towards this with genuine and sincere determination
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