IHM: Bali Climate Conference

Ecological Integrity

IHM reflects on Bali climate change conference

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Dec. 3-14, 2007, brought together representatives from over 180 countries with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations and the media.

The two-week period included the sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change (UNFCCC), its subsidiary bodies as well as the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. A ministerial segment in the second week concluded the conference.

The conference culminated in the adoption of the Bali roadmap, which charts the course for a new negotiating process to be concluded by 2009 that will ultimately lead to a post- 2012 international agreement on climate change. Groundbreaking decisions form the core elements of the roadmap.

They include the launch of the Adaptation Fund as well as decisions on technology transfer and on reducing emissions from deforestation. (http://unfccc.int)

IHM Sister Pat Nagle attended the conference as a delegate with the World Council of Churches in the UNFCCC. Excerpts of her reflection follow.

Pat Nagle, IHM Climate change and its effects on Earth's ecosystems and the most vulnerable inhabitants of Earth is the moral issue of our time. In the November 2007 issue of SHAMBALA SUN magazine, Joanna Macy, spiritual activist, says, "Gratitude is where healing Earth begins."

This was brought home by the Indonesian people. The Balinese people live in an area influenced by a range of volcanic peaks and frequent earthquakes. They seek daily to live in harmony with the natural world and declare their soil, water, air, trees, sacred. They believe their very survival depends on nurturing this connection with Earth.

A representative from The People's Republic of Bangladesh explained the effects of climate change in his country. Bangladesh is unusually vulnerable to climate change. About 70 per cent of the country consists of flood plains and most land is less than six meters above sea level. Since Bangladesh is a huge delta with rivers flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the people, about 150 million, suffer with widespread floods. With climate change the wet season is becoming permanent. Community leaders are responding with awareness training and student organizing. In coastal areas a youth brigade has been formed to assist with this training. They have organized 4,800 households to plant coconut and guava saplings. It is slow work. The question in Bali: what is the responsibility of the world to assist the Bangladesh people to adapt to climate change?

Those of us from The World Council of Churches delegation said it was a moral issue, calling for the wisdom from our faith traditions. We are all invited to "love our neighbor." Would the convention decide on setting up an adequate fund to assist developing countries to adapt to climate change?

Forest protection

The Nature Conservancy, working throughout the world to "protect nature, and preserve life," has been a leader in helping to catalyze a global effort to preserve forests. According to the Conservancy, nearly one billion people living in extreme poverty depend on forests for their livelihoods, and forests provide life-sustaining services like fuel, food and shelter. Yet these forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, and destruction of the forests contributes nearly 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The people of Papua New Guinea formed an Eco-Forestry Forum to promote rural community development and sustainable forestry practices. The work of the local people, however, must be supported by strong logging standards set by the government. The Forum advocates for these policies to stop the rapid raping of their land with logging from foreign interests. They, with other developing countries, worked in Bali to bring forest protection within the framework for future climate negotiations. This gives other developing countries a way of participating in climate change solutions.

Gender and climate change

Several organizations, WEDO (Women's Environment and Development Organization), Gendercc (women for climate justice), some UN organizations and IUCN (The World Conservation Union) worked diligently on the issue of gender and climate change. Women in developing countries bear the brunt of climate change in many ways. They walk longer distances for water or wood and carry it back to the household. They work longer hours in the soil hardened due to severe drought. Most importantly, they have very little decision-making power.

The groups mentioned above sponsored a number of workshops on gender and climate change maintaining that "priority should be put on community-based programs, including gender-sensitive approaches that will empower women to make what changes they can to offset their newly more difficult situation." Furthermore, advocates stressed the need for a fundamental change in the process for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, saying we, "need to question the dominant perspective focusing mainly on technologies and markets, and put caring and justice at the center of all." (Ulrike Roehr from the Gender and Climate Change Network)

An intentional attitude of heart

Like the Balinese people, we must make every effort to connect on a visceral level, daily, with the divine, present in all life. With this attitude and heart-set, we will look in a more loving way at every creature, every tree, every bit of green, recognizing the unique expression of the divine that each is. Then, in the manner of the Christ, we work lovingly to provide the environment for the other to flourish. We know we are not separate from any aspect of life. We all share divine life.

This intentional attitude of the heart is then the foundation from which our actions on behalf of all creation flow. From this place within each of us we can then move into cooperative actions:

Coming together as a global community around issues that we hold in common: the effects of climate change in our world, and the care of those most in need.

Cooperating with diverse peoples and cultures.

Calling upon all of our creative efforts to restore balance in our Earth community and unleash our moral imaginations to create our response to climate change.

Culmination

In the end, the negotiations in Bali did not go far enough to address the overwhelming and dangerous consequences of climate change. They did, however, open the door and let some light into future negotiations to craft a more meaningful, comprehensive agreement by 2009. The convention did approve the establishment of a fund to help the most vulnerable, poor countries adapt to climate change and established new mechanisms for the transfer of technologies to developing countries to promote access to affordable, environmentally sound technologies.

Related story from Catholic Sentinel, Portland, Ore.