Manifest to sign on: Moving towards a low carbon, energy supply solution

Organisations and groups are invited to sign this important Manifesto for the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. Manifesto: Moving towards a low carbon, energy supply solution HOW CAN EUROPE SUPPORT THE YASUNI-ITT INITIATIVE AND THE ECUADORIAN GOVERNMENT’S DECISION TO EXTRACT OIL RESERVES IN THE YASUNI NATURAL PARK?

Call to action

We are asking that organizations and groups adhere to the joint Manifesto for environmental groups, solidarity organizations and other social movements.

You can join the Manifesto until May 20th by completing the form you'll find below.

The declaration is also available in: french, spanish, portuguese and German.

Any organization that wishes to may cooperate by helping to distribute the Manifesto and sending it to authorities once the signatures, which will be recorded on the same link, have been collected. If you have any doubts or concerns you may contact: yasuni.europa@gmail.com

Foto: "Yasuni Green Gold, The amazon fight to keep the oil underground"

March 22nd 2010

Manifesto: Moving towards a low carbon, energy supply solution

HOW CAN EUROPE SUPPORT THE YASUNI-ITT INITIATIVE AND THE ECUADORIAN GOVERNMENT’S DECISION TO EXTRACT OIL RESERVES IN THE YASUNI NATURAL PARK?

EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS SHOULD SUPPORT THE MOST ADVANCED, INTEGRATED INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES THAT AIM TO REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS, CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY AND SHIFT TO GREENER ENERGY SOURCES.

The Yasuni-ITT initiative proposes leaving oil reserves in the ground in the Yasuni National Park , in Ecuador. The ‘Yasuni’ is one of the most biologically diverse places on earth and has world record number of species of amphibians, reptiles , bats and, above all, trees. The park gives shelter to a large number of threatened species that are native to the region. This earthly paradise is also home to indigenous people such as the Huaorani as well as the Tagaeri and Taromenane who live in voluntary isolation.

The suggestion to leave Yasuni’s oil underground was first voiced a few years ago by groups within civil society and was taken up by president Rafael Correa as soon as he began his term of office. The initiative calls has profound implications for the rest of the world as it calls on all of the world’s inhabitants to build alternative ways of living. These involve making economic sacrifices out of respect to the indigenous people who are living in voluntary isolation in Yasuni, and to protect an area of unparalleled biodiversity which is invaluable to all of humanity. The implementation of this initiative would mean that one fifth of Ecuador’s oil reserves would remain untouched. The Ecuadorean government is therefore looking for compensation worth $4 billion, to be paid out over 12 years. This money would be used for social development projects and to finance Ecuador’s transition to supplying renewable and clean energy. The Ecuadorian government would be prepared to meet most of the costs of not extracting these oil reserves because of the benefits derived from avoiding the high environmental and social costs which such a development would bring with it.

Strong international support for projects like Yasuni-ITT are vitally important in our current post-Copenhaguen state of paralysis and our inability to propose specific initiatives that provide a way forward out of the climate, environmental and social crises which pose a threat to our current and future world population. Justice demands that we should increase our support to this kind of initiative: rich nations owe an environmental and climate debt that should be repayed to the countries of the southern hemisphere. The Yasuni-ITT initiative will not resolve all of the world’s crises but it will help the international community to focus on the right way forward. We need to move towards a post-oil economy and civilization by reducing our extraction and burning of hydrocarbons, particularly in areas of the planet that are socially and environmentally fragile. Those who are committed to initiatives such as the Yasuni-ITT project will help to show the rest of the world the way forward by adopting an integrated and specific plan of action at a time when there are generally too few commitments made.

This initiative is not a form of Development Aid or a Clean Development Mechanism (carbon credit) and it must not result in generating new foreign debt. It is based on acknowledging the environmental and social debt that rich northern countries owe to the South. This is due, amongst the reduction other factors, to the North’s above average emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). We propose that the money to fund this initiative comes from reducing activities and suspending projects that have traditionally used enormous quantities of fossil fuels and have thereby increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The financing of this project should not come from debt swaps unless these have been audited to ensure that only legitimate debts are included in the arrangement. Furthermore, support for the initiative should not be linked to any negotiations regarding free trade agreements or their European equivalent, an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Those who support the Yasun? initiative will truly become precursors of the new post-oil civilization.

We appeal to European governments, led by Germany, Spain and Belgium who have already shown their sympathy towards this initiative, to contribute politically and economically to this impressive initiative which is now under threat. Europe’s contribution is important, given that we are partly responsible for emitting GHGs and thereby contributing, directly and indirectly, to our planet’s loss of biodiversity.

See here the signatures

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