Friends of the Earth Considers Legal Action to Curb Global
Warming
By Brian Hansen
WASHINGTON, DC, September 15, 2000 (ENS) - Parallel to the
landmark lawsuits that have forced change upon the tobacco
industry, one of the world's largest environmental groups today
announced it may take legal action against industrialized
countries and private industries that attempt to block the
implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Today's announcement came as Friends of the Earth International
(FoEI), unveiled a new report that details the tangible human
costs of severe weather events that the group links to global
warming.
"Some environmentalists - Friends of the Earth included - are
looking at the possible legal liabilities that may accrue to
those responsible for climate change," Tony Juniper, policy and
campaigns director at Friends of the Earth UK, told reporters in
Washington, DC.
"People are suffering real consequences as a result of industrial
activity. Many environmentalists are looking at the means we
might have to bring legal actions against fossil fuel companies
and industrialized nations that are blocking action on the
treaty, which could solve the problem," he said.
The Kyoto Protocol is an addition to the United Nations climate
change treaty which would compel the United States and 38 other
industrialized countries to reduce their emissions of six
greenhouse gases. While target limits vary by country, the
overall reduction averages five percent during the period 2008 to
2012.
The protocol has been criticized by the petroleum, coal, and
automobile and manufacturing industries which emit a high
percentage of the heat trapping greenhouse gases as they burn
coal, oil and gasoline.
While some elected officials in industrialized countries,
particularly in Europe, strongly support the Kyoto Protocol,
others have also spoken out strongly against the treaty, warning
that its strict emissions regulations would wreck modern
economies.
The United States has signed the protocol, but the Republican
controlled Senate, which must ratify all international treaties,
has declined to consider the Kyoto Protocol. None of the
countries governed by the protocol have ratified it as yet.
Juniper said that when he broached the subject of a global
warming damage lawsuit at a recent conference hosted by the
British Petroleum (BP) corporation, BP attorneys responded in a
manner reminiscent of the tobacco industry executives who
testified to the U.S. Congress that they believed that tobacco
was not addictive.
The BP attorneys "said that climate change hasn't been proven,"
Juniper told reporters. "That for me was a very strong signal
that we're on the right track."
FoEI will undertake a two year scoping study to determine if it
will proceed with a lawsuit designed to recoup financial damages
caused by global warming, Juniper said.
FoEI officials from El Salvador and Nigeria were on hand in
Washington on today to add their personal observations to the
report, which is titled," Gathering Storm: The Human Cost of
Climate Change."
"For us, global climate change is not only a scientific
phenomenon," said FoEI chairman Ricardo Navarro, a native of El
Salvador. "For people in the south, climate change means a lot of
suffering, a lot of cost to human lives."
Navarro recalled Hurricane Mitch, which hit the Caribbean in
November 1998. The storm killed some 10,000 people in floods and
mud slides, and injured tens of thousands more. He spoke about
the floods in Venezuela last year which killed some 25,000
people.
Navarro blames the disasters on global warming, caused by human
activity. "Some people enjoy the benefits of fuel consumption,
and some people suffer the consequences," he said. "All the
damage is on the people who are vulnerable - the people who are
poor. This is a very high level of injustice."
Godwin Ojo, a FoEI member from Nigeria said, "We want to
emphasize that climate change is real, and lives with us." He
recounted unprecedented flooding in the African country of
Mozambique this past February. More than 100,000 people fled
their homes, drinking water supplies failed and, the risk of
malaria and cholera epidemics threatened a major public health
crisis.
Ojo said that global warming profiteers should held legally
accountable. "We believe that industrialized nations need to cut
down on their emissions drastically," Ojo said. The issues
involve life, livelihood and liability, he said. "If the
industrialized nations continue with their current trend ...
there will be people and countries that will be held accountable
for the loss of life and the loss of livelihood that is taking
place in poorer nations."
Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth U.S., said
the United States is the country most responsible for delaying
effective international action to tackle the global warming
crisis.
"The U.S. Congress needs to wake up to the fact that climate
change is real and that action needs to be taken now,"
Blackwelder said. "If we fail to dramatically lower fossil fuel
emissions, we are sure to see more horrific weather events like
those reported in "Gathering Storm.""
Blackwelder noted that according to a 1998 Commerce Department
report, weather related catastrophes cost U.S. taxpayers billions
of dollars every year.
"This is an unbelievable and absolutely staggering figure,"
Blackwelder said. "Yet these very members of the Senate and House
who are blocking the (Kyoto) agreement talk about 'family
values.' But they fail to live up to their moral responsibility,
because the preponderance of evidence suggests that our wasteful
profligate energy use is actually devastating families and
communities throughout the world."
Reaching agreement in November during the Sixth Conference of
Parties to the UN climate change treaty (COP-6) will not be easy.
U.S. chief climate negotiator, the State Department's under
secretary for global affairs Frank Loy, explained the current
U.S. position to a meeting of the American Bar Association July
20 in London.
"Perhaps one of the most contentious philosophical differences in
the negotiations is between the European Union and the Umbrella
Group, a pairing of like minded countries that includes Japan,
Russia, Canada, Norway, Australia and the United States," Loy
said.
At its core, the difference is between the European Union which
favors accomplishing most greenhouse gas emissions cuts within
the countries producing those emissions, and the Umbrella Group
which wants no limits placed on their ability to build projects
in developing countries that count as emissions credits at home.
"We believe," Loy said, "that if it is allowed to function
effectively, the market, rather than governments, will determine
the right investments in new technologies. We reject the notion
that tackling climate change should be unreasonably painful."
Juniper, the UK's Friends of the Earth spokesman said today, "It
is vitally important that the governments of the world -
especially the United States government - go to The Hague in
November with the intention of negotiating a treaty that will
lead to emissions reductions, rather than blaming other people
and pointing falsely to the economic dangers involved."
The FoEI report calls for industrialized countries to achieve 80
percent of their Kyoto objective through emissions reductions
within their own borders. That has been a major sticking point
for the United States and the Umbrella Group, which have sought
to meet emissions through emissions trading and other development
and market mechanisms detailed in the protocol.
Loy said the European Union is coming around to the market
approach. "The idea of emissions trading is growing in popularity
in capitals on the continent, and also in London and Brussels,"
he said. "Economists are warning that few countries, with the
notable exception of the United Kingdom, are on track to meet
their Kyoto commitments. I am hopeful that these forces will
allow governments at COP-6 to mold the Protocol into a sensible,
practical shape, one which the United States can support."
Loy said that U.S. ratification of the Kyoto Protocol is growing
more likely. "The coalition in the United States supporting
strong action on climate change is growing stronger every day,"
he said. "Second, the United States is already taking major steps
to reduce its emissions. Third, we still have a real opportunity
to address the legitimate concerns of the U.S. Senate in a manner
that will make U.S. ratification possible."
Lawyers will have an important role to play as greenhouse gas
emissions limits are ratified, Loy told the American Bar
Association gathering, but he was not referring to litigation of
the type Friends of the Earth is considering. Instead, Loy said,
lawyers will advise corporations how manage emissions and assess
risks.
"Consider a client with a potential investment project, such as a
copper mine in a forested area or a new electricity generating
plant. Your clients will need advice about whether they are
eligible to sell emission credits if they manage the forest above
the copper mine to sequester carbon or if they choose to generate
electricity from climate friendly natural gas instead of coal,"
Loy said.
In Washington today, FOEI's Juniper warned that the economies of
the world will suffer if global warming is not curbed. "There's
been a four fold increase in insurance payouts due to extreme
weather events by the global insurance industry over the last few
decades, Juniper said. And evidence collected by companies ...
shows that the effects of climate change are starting to bear
down on the financial community."
But Juniper estimates that a great number of jobs will be created
by companies creating new products and services to address
climate change problems. "In the UK, it has been calculated that
the implementation of the government's 20 percent CO2 reduction
target ... could lead to a net increase of about a quarter of a
million new jobs in Britain, in the public transport, renewable
energy, and energy efficiency sectors," Juniper said.
In the final analysis, the world is watching to see how the
United States will handle the challenges of the Kyoto Protocol,
and that will be decided by who is elected in November.
"Environmentalists across the world are looking very closely at
the U.S. Presidential elections, and waiting to see which of
these people who enters the White House is going to deliver the
world from catastrophe," Juniper said. "The implications of this
election really are that serious, in terms of what will happen on
the global stage."
SOURCE: Environment News Service (ENS)
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