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Climate change is hitting poor communities hardest. It poses serious problem to poverty reduction efforts and if left unresolved could threaten to undo decades of development gains.1
 The poor must not suffer the impacts of the climate crisis. They are not responsible for large scale logging concessions that wiped out rainforests, large scale mining that defaced the earth, large fossil fuels consumption and much of the carbon emissions. And most of all, they did not benefit from the profits of these environmental destructions.
WFTO, speaking on behalf of millions of artisans and small agricultural producers, calls on leaders attending the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference to ad*Opt sustainable solutions in combating climate change.
Among many things to correct inequity, WFTO proposes SIX key solutions for leaders to ad*Opt:
Trade and climate justice
Reject the Doha proposals. The Doha proposals do not address the environmental crisis. They will continue to ignore international environmental standards and encourage exploitation of the remaining natural resources in the name of trade liberalisation. Unchecked trade liberalisation is a major contributing factor to climate change.
Accountable governments of industrialised countries should also take concrete steps to begin reparations and repayments of ecological debts to poor countries, not through false market-based climate solutions or green-washing policies but genuine sustainable trade and climate justice.
Extreme weather conditions have aggravated the food
crisis and are making poverty reduction efforts more difficult. Governments, especially the influential rich nations, should commit to just and sustainable trade policies that put social and environmental factors at the heart of every trade policy.
Trade and climate initiatives should adhere to Fair Trade Principles and Standards to ensure that all efforts benefit the lives of the poor, their environment and their communities. Fair Trade, as a trading relationship based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade, contributes to sustainable development by offering just trading conditions to marginalised producers and workers and securing that their rights are fulfilled and respected.
Progressive climate adjustment
All steps geared to climate change adjustment should be progressive and sustainable. Efforts to lessen impacts of the climate crisis to poor communities must be progressive and should target the needs of marginalised producers until they become fully impact-free so they can sustain their livelihoods till the next generation to come.
Climate adjustment requires new knowledge, tools, and long term efforts. Accountable governments should allocate appropriate climate funds to see concrete results. But history tells us that the poor has often been shortchanged in development financing. To prevent this, any climate change adjustment should have at its core Fair Trade principles and standards to ensure all effort is translated to viable results. To do so, we offer the Fair Trade model:
· payment of fair price to producers
· long term trading partnership based on mutually beneficial relationship such as sharing of information, skills development, and capacity building geared to develop producers
· access to financing
· assistance to enable greater competitiveness in world markets
· strict environmental standards that promote preservation of the environment and biodiversity.2
Pro-poor financing
Leaders in the Copenhagen Conference should come up with appropriate climate funds. These should not come from the existing 0.7% ODA commitments but should be additional funds. They should not reduce funds for poverty reduction and development programmes.
 Funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation is fundamentally different to that of aid and financing for development – it is not a matter of charity, or economic assistance for people who happen to be less well off. It is essentially compensation for the effects of developed countries’ pollution over the past two centuries, and should be seen as an ecological debt. Moreover climate change is an additional burden to developing countries already striving to achieve poverty reduction and urgently needed development.
The mechanism and access of these finances should have preferential attention for the poor and that means more should be given to small producers and poor communities.
In addition to funding green and alternative technology, funding for Fair Trade Organizations should be increased. Fair Trade, which emphasises organic agriculture, handcrafted production and sustainable materials, is the very opposite of intensive agriculture and factory production, where oil and energy use are high. Fair Trade should be encouraged as key strategy in combating climate change.
Rural development
THE majority of the world’s poor resides in rural areas. Most of them are tilling farmlands depleted because of intensive modernisation of agriculture that has failed to sustain rural economies. Climate mitigation and financing should aim to rehabilitate rural farmlands through restorative farming methods. Environmentally friendly agricultural products, organic and Fair Trade, should be given more access to markets to increase the revenues of rural farmers and encourage use of environmentally restorative agricultural methods. Public procurement on Fair Trade and organic products should set the example.
Developed countries should encourage strong domestic markets in poor countries and strong regional markets in Africa, Asian and Latin America. The Fair Trade Movement is already working on these areas to increase the effectiveness of climate solutions: investing in South-South trade and local markets, building further credits and finances, developing new products to fit new market demands, and bringing Fair Trade products to the sustainable consumption debate to promote their positive carbon footprint.
Sustainable Fair Trade livelihood
If there is an initiative to close the gap between the rich and poor countries, the consumer and the producer, it is Fair Trade. The WFTO, as a global body of Fair Trade Organizations, has converged all stakeholders of the Fair Trade Movement to achieve one common vision, a Sustainable Fair Trade Economy. This vision is being carried out by Fair Trade Organizations (FTOs) in both “consuming” rich countries and “producing” poor countries. Through mutually beneficial partnerships, FTOs in “consuming” countries work with FTOs in “producing” countries in finding more access to markets to increase the incomes of small producers.
Fair Trade brings more income to small producers and workers and contributes to poverty alleviation. Through its Principles and Standards, it helps to preserve the environment, rehabilitate depleted natural resources, and sustain the livelihoods of small producers, workers and their communities.
Fair Trade’s new Sustainable Fair Trade Management System (SFTMS) will encourage trading organizations to follow fair trading practices and sustainable agricultural practices, and eventually set a trend that will transform trading that is based on the respect of human rights and environmental sustainability:
“Fair Trade seeks to transform trading structures and practices in favour of the poor and disadvantaged, especially in the South. By building trading partnerships based on equity and transparency, Fair Trade contributes to sustainable development for marginalised producers, workers and their communities. The Fair Trade movement believes that the marginalised and disadvantaged can develop the capacity to take more control over their work and their lives if they are better organised, resourced and supported, and can secure access to mainstream markets under fair trading conditions.”3
Meaningful targets in the rich countries
The burden of combating climate change should fall on the rich countries which are most responsible for carbon emissions. The growing emissions of developing countries like China and India should not be used as an excuse for inaction. It is essential to consider emissions per head of population rather than simply the growth in emissions of particular countries which need to develop anyway. Carbon emissions generated from the production of goods for the rich “consumer” nations should be considered their responsibility as much as that of the producer nation.
Over-consumption is the primary cause of the climate crisis, and the rich “consumer” nations need to set meaningful targets to reduce their carbon emissions.
As political leaders, businesses, organisations of all sorts, and individuals, we all have a duty to play our part in combating climate change. At Copenhagen, politicians, especially from the rich nations, need to pave the way by setting fair, meaningful targets to reduce CO2 emissions.
Notes:
1 Foreword and joint statement signed by 10 international agencies (UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, ADB, AfDB, GTZ, DfID, OECD, EC and Poverty-Environment Partner) in a publication: “Poverty and Climate Change: Reducing the Vulnerability of the Poor through Adaptation.”
2 Fair Trade Movement (through FTAO) internal COP15 document
3 Sustainable Fair Trade Management System (SFTMS) Draft 2
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