Publications

Who Will Feed Us?

2009’s most important intergovernmental meeting on the climate and food crises has already happened. In October, as climate negotiators were fighting in Bangkok and as the UN food agencies were jousting over a restructured response to the food crisis and plans for the World Food Summit, FAO’s Commission on Genetic Resources met quietly in Rome to review the preparedness of the international community to adapt and develop crops, livestock, aquatic and microbial genetic resources used in food and agriculture to address climate change. The meeting also considered the political and corporate constraints that could prevent a major strategic shift to achieve our food security. The Rome Food Summit in November and the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December should pay attention. At stake is the answer to the most important question not being asked in Copenhagen, “Who Will Feed Us?”

To read... Read more

Time’s Up

Climate Justice Now! Network Denounces False Climate Solutions in Barcelona

BARCELONA, November 6, 2009 – The international civil society network Climate Justice Now! deplores the downplaying of expectations for the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Barcelona by industrialized countries, UNFCCC officials and the host of the Copenhagen Summit.  On the eve of Copenhagen, there is still no real progress on targets, a naĂŻve and dangerous reliance on market mechanisms, no commitment to human rights, and a frightening context in which some countries are beginning to talk seriously about dangerous climate techno-fixes.

"Instead of discussing practical approaches to rapid emissions reductions -- like a massive investment in safe renewable energy and rapid technology transfer -- here in Barcelona, the developed countries are downplaying expectations, inching toward weak targets, minimal financing and no meaningful agreements... Read more

At the beginning of October 2009, the CĂłrdoba Group -- a small gathering of independent food and agrocultural specialists (including the first and current UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Food) that have been meeting over the past two years -- published a brief (two-page) analysis of the state of global governance around food and agriculture and of the need to place the Right to Food and the interests of peasant producers at the center of the food and climate debate.  The Group’s report was widely distributed  at the UN Committee on World Food Security that met in mid-October and is influencing deliberations around both the World Food Summit in November and the December Conference in Copenhagen on Climate Change.  The Report, "Call from CĂłrdoba", follows.

-ETC Group

The Cordoba Group is formed by senior experts on hunger, agriculture, agrobiodiversity and human rights, convened in his/her personal capacities by the Chair of Hunger and Poverty... Read more

Au début d’octobre 2009, le Groupe de Cordoue – un petit regroupement d’experts indépendants en questions relatives à l’alimentation et à l’agriculture (dont font partie celui qui a été le premier rapporteur spécial des Nations Unies sur le droit à l’alimentation ainsi que le titulaire actuel du poste) qui se réunit depuis deux ans – a publié une brève analyse (deux pages) portant sur la situation de la gouvernance à l’échelle mondiale en matière d’alimentation et d’agriculture et sur la nécessité de placer le droit à l’alimentation et les intérêts des paysans producteurs au centre du débat sur l’alimentation et le climat. Le rapport du Groupe a été largement distribué aux membres du Comité de la sécurité alimentaire mondiale des Nations Unies, qui s’est réuni à la mi-octobre, et il exerce depuis une influence sur les délibérations entourant le Sommet mondial de l’alimentation de novembre et la Conférence de Copenhague sur... Read more

Report Card from Reform School

The Committee on World Food Security Passes a Test, but…

Rome, October 14-17, 2009

The food and fuel crisis that only became apparent to OECD governments in early 2008 arrived as the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, WFP, IFAD) were responding to external and internal evaluations that found all three organizations wanting.  Most severely criticized was FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization).  In April 2008, the UN Secretary-General took advantage of the crises and the institutional weaknesses of the Rome agencies to establish a High-Level Taskforce involving 22 UN and Bretton Woods institutions to develop a Comprehensive Framework for Action to address the crises.  Almost simultaneously, President Sarkozy of France called for a Global Partnership of intergovernmental institutions, the private sector, mega-foundations, and civil society... Read more

ETC Group 4 September 2009 www.etcgroup.org

The Royal Society’s Report on Geoengineering the Climate: Geoengineering or Geopiracy?   With the Royal Society’s President, Lord Martin Rees, presiding and James Lovelock, the father of the Gaia Hypothesis, commenting, the release of the Society’s report[1] outlining the possibilities for geoengineering the world out of the climate crisis could seem the very embodiment of the precautionary principle. In his 2004 book, Our Final Century, it was Lord Rees after all who warned us that technological hubris could obliterate a million lives through “bio error or bioterror” before 2020. He is a cautious man not disposed to put faith in technological silver bullets. Likewise, Dr. Lovelock has been outspoken in his alarm over the impending climate chaos – edging toward geoengineering, but equally perturbed by the “Kafkaesque”... Read more

ETC Group Communiqué de presse 28 août 2009 www.etcgroup.org

sciences-fictions : le 1er  septembre, la royal society de Londres rendra public un rapport majeur sur la géoingénierie; pour etc group, il faut interdire les essais grandeur nature

La Royal Society, la plus ancienne académie des sciences du monde, s’apprête à rendre public, le 1er septembre 2009 à Londres, un rapport longtemps attendu sur la géoingénierie. On s’attend à ce que le document préparé par des experts, pour la plupart, des partisans enthousiastes de la géoingénierie, contienne des recommandations pour que les pouvoirs publics soutiennent la poursuite des recherches voire des essais grandeur nature de nouvelles technologies controversées permettant la manipulation délibérée du climat... Read more

ETC Group News Release 28 August 2009 www.etcgroup.org

SCIENCE FICTIONS: UK’S ROYAL SOCIETY TO ISSUE MAJOR REPORT ON GEOENGINEERING SEPTEMBER 1; BAN REAL-WORLD EXPERIMENTS, SAYS ETC GROUP

The oldest scientific academy in the world, the UK’s Royal Society, will release its long-awaited report on geoengineering September 1st  2009 in London. The report, drafted by a panel dominated by geoengineering enthusiasts, is widely expected to recommend that the government support more research and perhaps even real-world experimentation of these controversial new technologies that intentionally manipulate the earth’s climate on a large scale with the aim of lessening the effects of climate change.

“Geoengineering is a bad idea, and, unfortunately, it may transform Lord Rees’s book from musings to memoir,” says Diana Bronson, researcher for the international technology... Read more

ETC Group Special Report 28 August 2009 http://www.etcgroup.org The Emperor’s New Climate: Geoengineering as 21st century fairytale

The idea of re-engineering the entire planet (geoengineering) used to be the stuff of science fiction, but in the past few years a small group of geoengineering enthusiasts has worked hard to give it a veneer of respectability. On 1st September, they will have succeeded in getting the world’s oldest scientific academy, the UK’s Royal Society, to legitimize dangerous planet-tinkering schemes with minimal transparency and even less public participation.

170 years after Hans Christian Andersen penned his tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes, an analogous tale is being woven around an event in his homeland that will affect the entire planet: the global climate change negotiations this December in Copenhagen. This time, it’s not a naked emperor... Read more

News Release Biofuelwatch / ETC Group / Greenpeace

BIOMASS POWER GRAB HIGHLIGHTED AS BIOTECH INDUSTRY MEETS IN MONTREAL

Montreal- July 21 2009 -- As hundreds of delegates gathered for the Sixth Annual Conference on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing at Palais des congrès in Old Montreal, a group of NGOs held an early morning press conference across the street. Greenpeace, ETC Group and Biofuelwatch joined forces to warn that the “green” energy of the biotech industry was mostly hype, that governments should not add to their already generous subsidies of the industry and that the feedstock on which it is all based – so called “biomass” – is neither plentiful nor easily converted into renewable chemicals, plastics and fuels.

Jim Thomas, a researcher from ETC Group, charged that behind the thin, green veneer of clean energy and renewable plastics, Big Bio is, in fact, engaged in a huge industrial power grab:... Read more

Press Release and Media Advisory

NGOs Denounce Corporate Greenwashing: ‘No to Dubious Biotech-fixes for Climate Change’

Montreal, 16 July 2009. Several groups including Greenpeace, ETC Group and Biofuelwatch are warning that the biotech lobby will mount a major green-washing public relations exercise during the Sixth Annual Conference on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing that will be held at the Palais de congrès (19-22 July 2009).

During the Conference, the biotech industry will present various untested biotechnology innovations as solutions to climate change. “The biotech industry is seeking massive public and private investment for their untested technologies, whose health and environmental impacts have not been fully examined. Rather than be duped by yet another green mirage, governments should invest in real solutions to climate change and get serious about reducing CO2 emissions and commit to... Read more

Communiqué et avis aux médias

Des ONG dénoncent l’écomarketing des entreprises biotechnologiques « Non aux prétendus remèdes miracles aux changements climatiques »

Montréal, le 16 juillet 2009. Plusieurs organisations environnementales, parmi lesquelles figurent Greenpeace, ETC Group et Biofuelwatch préviennent que le lobby biotechnologique s’apprête à se lancer dans un vaste exercice de relations publiques destiné à faire accepter certaines innovations comme étant des solutions écologiques. La 6e Conférence annuelle sur la biotechnologie industrielle aura lieu au Palais des congrès de Montréal du 19 au 22 juillet prochains.

Pendant la conférence, l’industrie biotechnologie va présenter diverses innovations comme s’il s’agissait de véritables solutions aux... Read more

ETC Group News Release 14 July 2009 www.etcgroup.org

Enola Patent Ruled Invalid: Haven’t we Bean here before? (Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.)  On July 10, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that U.S. patent 5,894,079 (the “Enola” bean patent), which claims a yellow bean of Mexican origin, is invalid because none of the patent claims meet the criterion of non-obviousness. The case has been closely watched by civil society groups concerned about biopiracy, the patenting of life and the corporate control of food production. The Court’s clear 7-page decision argues that anyone interested in reproducing or improving Mexican yellow beans would have done exactly what the “inventor” Larry Proctor did: “plant the beans, harvest the resulting plants for their seeds, planting the latter seeds, and repeat the process two more times.”[1] The decision concludes... Read more

ETC Group News Release June 5, 2009 www.etcgroup.org

A Sizable Step Towards a Real Commitment to Farmers’ Rights at the FAO?

TUNIS, June 5, 2009 – After four days of difficult negotiations among 121 governments at a UN Food and Agricultural Organization Treaty meeting on the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture held in Tunisia, a Canadian effort to block progress was overturned. At midnight on Thursday, Brazil read an amended resolution on farmers’ rights to a tired plenary, shifting the prevailing tension amongst delegates into relief and enthusiasm. Following corridor negotiations, in which Europe, Latin America and Africa confronted Canada’s effort to derail the implementation of farmers’ rights, governments agreed to:

o    encourage member countries to review all measures affecting farmers’ rights and remove any barriers... Read more

ETC Group and Biofuelwatch News Release June 1, 2009 www.etcgroup.org, www.biofuelwatch.org.uk

White Roofs, Black Dust And Slippery Slopes:

Climate Engineers Seek Techno-fix As Global Negotiations Get Underway

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s speech last week advocating painting rooftops and roadways white to reflect sunlight may be yet another attempt to test the international waters on the controversial subject of geoengineering.[1] “We need an unequivocal statement from the White House that the U.S. Government is not green-lighting geoengineering in the run-up to Copenhagen,” said Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group, an Ottawa-based civil society organization monitoring new technologies. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets in Denmark this December; UNFCCC... Read more

communiqué de presse Le 1er juin 2009 www.etcgroup.org, www.biofuelwatch.org.uk

Toitures blanches, poussière noire et pentes glissantes :

Les ingénieurs climatiques prônent des solutions technologiques dans la foulée des négociations mondiales

Le discours prononcé la semaine dernière par Steven Chu, Secrétaire à l’énergie des États-Unis, qui proposait de peindre les toitures et les routes en blanc afin de réfléchir les rayons solaires, pourrait bien constituer une nouvelle tentative de tâter le terrain international sur le sujet controversé de la géoingénierie.[i]  « À la veille de la conférence de Copenhague, il importe que la Maison-Blanche déclare de... Read more

**The Second International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM), meeting in Geneva May 11-15, closed today. The ICCM addressed nanotechnolgoy and manufactured nanoparticles as an emerging policy issue for the first time. ETC Group's Diana Bronson attended the meeting and worked with NGO partners to urge the ICCM to take effective action on nano-scale technologies.**

IPEN International POPs Elimination Network [POPs = persistent organic pollutants]

News Release

NGOs disappointed at nano outcomes from International Conference on Chemical Management

Geneva, May 15 2009 -- “The actions on nanotechnology that were agreed upon today do not reflect the urgency of the issue. The delegates were made aware that nanomaterials are an intergenerational risk, with nanoparticles being passed from mother to child via maternal blood. Yet these risks appear to have been ignored in the response by ICCM2," said Dr. Mariann Lloyd-Smith, IPEN... Read more