Advocating climate justice and greater policy coherence at the European Development Days

First published in Brussels, 29 October 2009 | Last update on 10 November 2009 - Caritas Europa, along with several other organisations and institutions such as APRODEV and CIDSE, organised a panel discussion entitled ‘The Copenhagen Climate Deal and the Right to Development” at the 4th European Development Days (EDD). This year’s edition of the EDD was held in Stockholm between the 22th and 24th of October and gathered over 6000 participants from all around the world under the themes Citizenship and Development, Global Economic Situation and Climate Change. The panel discussion “The Copenhagen Climate Deal and the Right to Development” was compoused of Clarisse Kehler Siebert from the Swedish Environment Institute, Sara Hlupekile Longwe a feminist grass-root mobiliser from Zambia,  Henrik Grape from the Church of Sweden, Firmin Adjahossou from the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM),  Satu Hassi MEP from Finland and Anders Wijkman former MEP from Sweden as a moderator.  Sara Hlupekile Longwe opened the discussion by drawing a parallel between gender equality and climate change: “all issues are known but nothing is happening because of a lack of political will”. She argued that the patriarchal, self-centered and short-sighted approach of world leaders is damaging the planet and future generations, and shows that there is a clear lack of leadership of governments.

Discussing climate justice and policy coherence at the European Development Days Photo: EDD

Firmin Adjahossou called on the audience and policy-makers to reflect on their behaviour and their relation with Creation: “we’re part of Creation, not above Creation, we’re not Creators”. Mr. Adjahossou stressed that political leaders are insufficiently aware of the realities of the local communities in developing countries who struggle every day with the consequences of climate change. He advocated for building bridges between the political leaders, researchers and the local community for a better awareness. 

Satu Hassi recalled Europe’s historical responsibility for climate change and the resulting obligation now to participate in funding, although EU finance ministers failed to agree on this issue at the Ministerial Meeting held on the 22^th of October. She was puzzled that in Europe the threat of climate change is not being taken as seriously as a military threat, for which money is usually easily mobilized, although the probability of occurrence is less. According to her, the biggest challenge of climate change is to create the ability to cooperate globally.  

Representing the view of the Church of Sweden, Henrik Grape said that EU leaders lack the sense of urgency. The window of opportunity is not open for so much longer: “we can still get a win-win situation; but if we don’t, it’s a lose-lose situation… for everyone!”  

Anders Wijkman asked whether we should not try to a sustainable development comprehensive agreement instead of being looking for a mere climate change deal in Copenhagen. 

The audience, who had the opportunity to be participative during the discussion, called for wider civil mobilisation to send a clear message to world leaders about the urgency and to encourage them to have the courage to act. It also stressed that there is a need to engage with private corporations as they are the primary stakeholders who can really make a big change.  

During the EDD, Caritas Europa, Aprodev and CIDSE held a joint stand to promote their work on climate change and inform about the Caritas-CIDSE campaign Grow Climate Justice.