OPEN LETTER
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

FOR THE RECOGNITION AND INTEGRAL REPARATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
WITHIN THE AGREEMENTS REACHED IN COPENHAGEN

 The Southern People´s Ecological Debt Creditors Alliance supports the demand of Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala, Cuba, Belize, Dominica, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Antigua and Barbados, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, for the RECOGNITION AND INTEGRAL REPARATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE THAT IS OWED TO COUNTRIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH BY COUNTRIES IN THE GLOBAL NORTH, within international agreements of the 15th United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark (COP15).
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New York, 22 September 2009

Mr. President, excellencies, Heads of State, distinguished colleagues, ministers, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of our Planet:

Developing nations are facing a threat of catastrophic proportions today: climate change. The peoples of the south are today paying for the ever increasing additional costs of the necessary actions to adapt to the adverse conditions posed by climate change and for the mitigation of its consequences.

However, those States principally responsible of the direct causes of global warming, are not assuming their responsibility for the incremental social and environmental debt they are accumulating, owed to the most vulnerable peoples of the world, generating an unjust situation that need to be urgently reversed.

In Paraguay, the recurrent droughts we suffered during the last decade, required, over the last 3 years, spending of some additional US$70 million per year, which we are mostly absorbing on our own, communities and Government, though we appreciate the support received in solidarity from our friends, nations and organizations. In the meantime, we are exposed more and more frequently to powerful storms which cause grave damages to our crops and livelihoods of those most vulnerable.

Food production and water supply are held at high risk. In the whole of Paraguay, in fact, the succession of extreme events derived from severe alterations in the climatic patterns, generate a social and environmental emergency scenario, every time more frequent and prolonged. We recognize that changes in the climate are the result of patterns of production, distribution and consumption, based on the exhaustive exploitation of nature's wealth.

This unsustainable model considers nature and the commons such as water, air, land, forests, seeds, as mere resources available for sheer exploitation and privatization. The struggle against climate change is not only a struggle for the survival of our Planet, it is also a struggle for socio-environmental justice at the global level. The financial, social and environmental costs of the climatic emergencies we face, increase exponentially in direct proportion to the unmet commitments of developed countries.

The latest scientific reports available do not only indicate that the expenses for adaptation will be much higher to what was earlier forecasted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only two years ago. They also tell us that atmospheric warming has determined that on our Earth, high levels of insecurity are being reached. By not accomplishing their reduction targets to avoid climate change, industrialized countries not only negate the mandate of the Convention, but also go counter basic principles of international law, such as the responsibility for not causing damages to the territories of other States.