21.12.2015
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Guests: 

Juliette Rousseau, Head "Coalition Climat 21"
Bill McKibben, Founder "350.org"
Nnimmo Bassey, Climate Activist, Nigeria
Themba Austin Chauke, "La Via Campesina"
Pablo Solón, Former Chief Climate Negotiator, Bolivia
Nicola Bullard, Writer and Activist
Alice Bows-Larkin, Climate Scientist "Tyndall Centre"
Mariama Williams, "The South Centre"
Tim Gore, Head Policy Research, "Oxfam International"
Kevin Anderson, Climate Scientist, Deputy Director "Tyndall Centre"
Tadzio Müller, Climate Activist, "Rosa Luxemburg Foundation"
Janet Redman, "Institute for Policy Studies"
Lyda Fernanda Forero, "Transnational Institute"

Despite the ban on demonstrations, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris during the UN climate summit. They protested against the weak results of the COP 21 that will warm the planet by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. "They committ a crime against humanity," says Themba Austin Chauke of the peasant organisation "La Via Campesina". The industrialized countries have to change their course and limit global warming to 1.5 centigrades,  a protester from Edenborough, Scotland demands. "We will be active in the next years. Whatever they decide on this it is not the end of the story. The people will have the last word." Juliette Rousseau, one of the organizers of the protests talks of a "policy of blocking" dissent after the Paris attacks. The French authorities had consciously slown down civil society during the COP 21 with bans on demonstrations, house arrests of activists, closing of the borders and reluctance of cooperation in any meaningful way. "This gave us the feeling that they didn't want our critical voices to 'ruin their party"

The Paris climate deal is going to "burn the planet", according to the former Bolivian chief negotiator Pablo Solón. The unbinding pledges to reduce carbon emissions would at best lead to an average global warming of three to four centigrade in this century - with catastrophic impacts on large parts of the world's population. The production of rice and corn, for example, could fall by 30 to 40 per cent, according to Alice Bows-Larkin from the British Tyndall Centre. In order to stay below two degrees plus, also the EU has to do much more and reduce its emissions by 80 per cent until 2030, instead of only 40 per cent as pledged in Paris, says the the renowned climate scientist Kevin Anderson. Concering finance, the Paris deal has not delivered fair and just solutions: The countries most affected by climate change - but least responsible for its causes - are not granted legal rights for compensation for loss and damages. The intended 100 billion dollars per year of financial aid for adaptation - which are not binding and include private investments - cover only a fraction of the real costs, according to Miriama Williams of the South Centre. They are also tiny in comparison to what governments have spent for saving banks.

In order to prevent catastrophic climate change, a profound transformation of our societies is needed, in production as well as in consumption. A progressive carbon tax, for example, could restrict excessive air traffic and be more effective than carbon trade in many other areas. A fast phase-out of lignite and cloal mining is necessary. And in trade policies, TTIP, TPP and other "free trade agreements" must be stopped, in order to avoid a further increase in destructive freight traffic, according to Tadzio Mueller from the "Rosa Luxemburg Foundation". In the traffic sector, car production must be curbed, which is particularly an issue for the "export champion" Germany. In agriculture a shift from industrial agribusiness to an organic peasant's production would contribute significantly to cool the planet.