Although rising tide activity seems to have reduced to participation in Save Happy Valley... here is their statement. This is mainly to show locate the environmental AND social justice elements of the rising tide against climate change.

Rising Tide - Coalition for Climate Justice Political Statement


The Rising Tide political statement was written by a coalition of
groups who came together to organise protests and events at the United
Nations Climate Conference of Parties (COP6) in The Hague, in November
2000. The groups who came together under the name of Rising Tide have a
unique approach to climate change• based around the issues of social
justice and a critique of business led solutions. The statement defines
the position of the Rising Tide network. At an international Rising
Tide meeting in Barcelona in February 2002, the statement was updated
and re-written in its current format.

Rising Tide is an international network of groups and individuals
committed to a grassroots approach to fighting for climate justice. We
believe that the Kyoto• protocol will fail to combat the climate change
crisis. Instead the protocol promotes the self-interest of corporations
and industrialised nations and marginalises issues of global equity and
the environment.
Equity

We believe that social and economic equity between and within countries lies at the heart of all solutions to climate change.

These must include:

· A Just Transition‚ to renewable energy sources, ie. a transition
which doesn‚t fall hardest on low income communities, communities of
colour or low income employees of industries reliant on fossil fuels.

· Repayment of the ecological debt of the north to the south.
Ecological debt is caused by the extraction, use and destruction of
southern resources such as fossil fuels, minerals, forests, marine
& genetic resources. These resources are usually exported to the
north under unequal terms of trade, typically to pay back third world
debt. Northern industrialised countries have an obligation to help
repair and reverse the damage caused to the biosphere.

· Equal access to, and responsibility for, common global resources amongst all peoples.
Diversity

We believe that successful solutions will be defined by those most
severely affected by climate change and who have been systematically
excluded from negotiations, for example developing countries, island
states, indigenous peoples, women, children and refugees of all kinds.

· We need to recognise the plight and the rights of refugees fleeing
from the effects of climate change, economic collapse or wars, which
always have inequality and exploitation at their core.

· Energy to meet basic needs is an essential element of climate
justice. Subsistence emissions of marginalised groups must not be
targeted by any plans to reduce global emissions.

· Challenging sexism and racism are at the core of Rising Tides‚ principles and actions.

· We must take responsibility to protect all living species which face destruction in the wake of climate change.
Effectiveness

The targets agreed for industrialised countries in the Kyoto
Protocol (a 5.2% average reduction of 1990 carbon emission levels by
2012), dangerously underestimate what is needed. We believe that this
protocol is another aspect of the economic globalisation which is also
promoted by international institutions like the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) and World Bank. This globalisation, with its
accelerating demand for fossil fuel consumption, is triggering
ever-faster climate change.

· We need to make a minimum of 60% reductions in carbon emissions
now, as proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC). In fact, we need to go beyond the IPCC recommendations to
achieve cuts of 90% in coming years. We acknowledge the magnitude of
these changes, but are convinced that only cuts of this kind can hope
to stabilise the climate.

· Reducing carbon emissions has to mean ending fossil fuel
exploration and shifting to renewable energies. These could play a
substantial role in achieving the cuts we need, but only when coupled
with a low-consumption lifestyle.

· We believe in grassroots action to challenge the corporate and
other elite interests responsible both for climate change, and for
blocking real efforts to find solutions to it.
Colonialism

The market in carbon emissions trading is colonialism with a modern face.

The biggest polluters have not only evaded responsibility for their
emissions, but have created carbon trading, which perpetuates and
deepens unequal access to and control of resources. A key element of
carbon trading is the carbon sink, which is a strategy designed to
appropriate indigenous lands. Other development projects, such as
nuclear energy, large dams and other large-scale, hi-tech projects have
come to be known as Joint Implementation and Clean Development
Mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol.

These are false solutions which are being dumped on marginalised
communities, thus widening the gap between rich and poor. They create
the illusion that southern countries are benefiting, while masking the
fact that it is rich countries and companies which are profiting from
access to emissions permits and control of new southern markets. People
are being cheated in the name of sustainable development.
Rising Tide advocates

· A Just Transition‚ to renewable energy sources, with a low consumption lifestyle

· Repayment of the ecological debt of the north to the south.

· Equal access to - and responsibility for - common global resources for all peoples.

· That solutions to climate chaos and the achievement of climate justice must be defined by those most severely affected.

· Current and future support for refugees of all kinds.

· A minimum of 60% reductions in carbon emissions now leading to a 90% cut.
Rising Tide is against

· New Fossil fuel exploration

· Emissions trading, Carbon sinks, Clean Development Mechanism,
Joint Implementation and other false solutions being used as a way to
escape responsibility for emissions reductions

The Rising Tide network will take action until the threats of
climate change have been resolved in an equitable and effective way.

www.risingtide.org.nz