Climate Change and False Solutions

Osver Polo

MOCICC

5 years after the Paris agreement, scant progress has been made

• 2015, the Paris Agreement was approved with the main objective of limiting the raise in the planet's temperature to 1.5 ° C.
• 6 years have passed and little progress has been made
• In 2020, the world suffered the impacts of the pandemic and millions of people died.
• The planet also had its respite and the economy was paralyzed.
• The UN expressed the importance of reorienting the economy and advancing towards environmental, ecological and climate recovery.
• At the end of the year, the UNFCCC requires countries to present their progress and new climate commitments, in preparation for the COP26

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• In September of this year, the UNFCCC released a report that the new commitments do not comply with emission reduction targets.

The scientific warning

According to the WHO report on The State of the Climate 2018:

2 million people displaced, 49,000 million dollars in losses and 62 million people exposed to natural hazards.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) 2019, 1 million species are currently endangered, more than at any other time in human history.

The world is headed for a catastrophic temperature raise of more than 3 degrees.

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The global objective of reducing the raise in temperature to 1.5 °C will be missed if there is no urgent action, an IPCC report warns.

6th IPCC Report Analysis

• The rise in temperature has not been slowed
• Human activity is responsible for changing the climate, but we all know that it is the system
• The increase in GHG emissions continues, mainly fossil fuels.
• Countries are not making their best effort to limit the rise in the planet's temperature.
• It is in doubt whether the Paris Agreement objective to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 ° C will be met.
• We are currently between 1.1 ° C and the impacts of climate change are increasingly visible around the world

The Climate Crisis Deepens

Incendio en la isla de Grecia - 2021.

NO to false solutions

Countries and corporations:

• Want to capture and store CO2 from the atmosphere.
• Promote tree plantations that absorb CO2 or buy large areas of forests.
• Want to use geoengineering to manipulate the weather and nature.
• Seek to breach their obligations to reduce and end fossil fuel reliance.
• Propose Net Zero by 2050, promoting green technology that until now has not been proven effective.
• Seek to continue polluting and altering the objectives of limiting the planet's temperature.
• By 2030 they must have halved emissions or we will have lost this decade of inaction.
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Ivonne Yánez

Their natural cycles are altered

• Banks
• Large corporations
• Conservation transnationals
• Northern Governments
• Governments of the South
• Consumers of the global North
• The elites of the South
• Multilateral institutions that allow collusion with the private sector and that allow this to happen
• The media that joins the delusion of false solutions

Dorothy Guerrero

Tom Goldtooth

• 2020-2021 has been a year of accelerated climate impacts.
• Science says the world doesn’t have the atmospheric space for any more carbon.
• Science tells us we must drastically cut emissions at their source in order to keep temperature rise below 1.5 degrees and avoid irreversible impacts. �

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Net Zero and Nature-Based Solutions

Global Initiatives for Climate Mitigation & Adaptation

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Global Warming

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The UN Paris Agreement put the Mother Earth on course for a disastrous 3-5 degrees of warming �������

�A 'Net Zero Emissions’ goal in the agreement leaves a door open, leading to risky so-called “negative emissions” – Carbon Pricing & Geoengineering Techno-Fixes

The Agreement promises to privatize, commodify and sell forested lands as carbon offsets. Those responsible (POLLUTERS) for the climate crisis not only get to buy their way out of compliance but they also get to profit as well. They lock us into:

• Increased Emissions – Net Zero does NOT cut emissions at source
• Temperature increases
• Continued fossil fuel use and decades of inaction, distraction, and corporate power-grabbing
• Increase land grabbing and human right violations in the Global South
• More devastation to Mother Earth: Nature – ice, oceans, glaciers, rivers, springs, floral and fauna, forests, ecosystems & habitat

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What We are Seeing - Expanded Fossil Fuel Investments and Developments

• Enbridge Line 3 – Black Snake with 2-Heads
• ANWR – Big Oil lurking to drill ‘Sacred Place Where All Life Begins’
• From Fracking to LNG’s, to pipelines, tankers, to offshore
• Banking on Climate Change 2020 , reveals that 35 global banks have expanded the fossil fuel sector with more than $2.7 trillion in the four years since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement

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• NW Salish Sea – oil & coal trains, tankers,

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The Black Snake has Two Heads – Extractivism and Carbon Trading/Techno-Fixes| To Defend the Sacred, not only do we have to shut down the Tar Sands, Stop Fracking and Halt Pipelines, we also have to oppose carbon trading that compensates for the destruction fossil fuel exploitation causes. We have to reject Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) that is a distraction from fossil fuels taking real action.

Newest Trends under a ‘Net Zero Emissions’ frame�

• Nature Based Solutions-Natural Climate Solutions-Natural Capital (forests, soils, agriculture, LAND)
• Forests and Ecosystem Restoration (carbon offsets)
• Regenerative Agriculture-Carbon Farming (soil carbon)
• Blue Carbon (ocean/coastal ecosystems-seagrass/mangroves)
• Conservation and Biodiversity Offsets
• Embedding REDD+ (now rebranded as NBS) in all the trends posted above, Green Funds and Green Bonds
• Link between CCS/CCUS and other geoengineering technologies with carbon pricing

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Nature-Based Solutions �

• NBS - umbrella term covering a range of schemes for climate, conservation and biodiversity protection;
• NBS concept is dangerous and could be very damaging;
• NBS - a concept so broad and vague that it can refer to anything from wetlands, peatland and in the Global South, mangrove restoration to monoculture plantations;
• NBS is firmly based in carbon markets, offsets, Payment for Ecological Services (PES) that views nature as capital;
• NBS utilizes these mechanisms that have given way to the “financialization of nature” process, which separates and quantifies the cycles and functions of Mother Earth – such as carbon and biodiversity – turning them into “units” to be sold in financial and speculative markets.

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Nature-Based Solutions �

• NBS provides no certainty that nature and ecosystems will not be further eroded and lost;
• NBS talks of using nature to solve the global problems of a changing climate and of global warming. It is made to sound attractive, but NBS is a smokescreen;
• NBS is promoted mainly by corporations and northern governments to distract from a lack of real action to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises;
• NBS is supported by some large conservation groups as a way to attract funding for protected-area conservation approaches in the global South which do not value the role of local communities and Indigenous Peoples in managing forests—essentially a new version of the discredited REDD and REDD+ schemes;
• NBS is such a vaguely defined concept that it will enable hugely harmful practices such as monoculture tree plantations and industrial agriculture

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Nature-Based Solutions �

• NBS is already co-opted by corporations to provide them with a new form of greenwash—including fossil fuels, agribusinesses, plastics and plantation companies that claim to be investing in NBS while expanding their destructive practices and failing to cut carbon at source;
• NBS perpetuates a lack of will and funding to implement real, known structural and holistic solutions to the climate, biodiversity and food crises;
• NBS is being promoted to sugar-coat offset schemes such as ‘net- zero’ carbon and ‘no net loss of biodiversity’ and even to allow polluting corporations to profit from new nature-based market mechanisms and schemes;
• NBS does not cut emissions at source that is needed to keep the world from not exceeding 1.5 degrees C.

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Demand to the members of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC to exercise their duties and responsibilities under the following, to Reject Net Zero and Nature Based Solutions that violate the Rights of Nature – the Rights of Mother Earth:���

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• Article 3: Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth
• (2) Human beings, all States, and all public and private institutions must:
• (e) establish and apply effective norms and laws for the defence, protection and conservation of the rights of Mother Earth;
• (f) respect, protect, conserve and where necessary, restore the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Mother Earth.

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Demand to the members of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC to exercise their duties and responsibilities under the following, to reject Net Zero and Nature Based Solutions :���

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• Article 2: Inherent Rights of Mother Earth
• (1) Mother Earth and all beings of which she is composed have the following inherent rights: (a) to (j)
• (2) Each being has the right to a place and to play its role in Mother Earth for her harmonious functioning.
• (3) Every being has the right to wellbeing and to live free from torture or cruel treatment by human beings.

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Resources

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IENEarth.org

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SkyProtector.org

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Co2Colonialism.org

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No-REDD.com

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Banking on Climate Change

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IndigenousRising.org

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Chief Ninawa

Bruno Rodríguez

Katta Alonso

�Quintero-Puchuncaví Bay Background��Plaint Against AES Gener and the Chilean State before the Rights of Nature Tribunal

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Women for the Resistance of the Quintero y Puchuncaví Sacrifice Zone

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November 2021

Katta Alonso Raggio

Spokeswoman MUZOSARE

March 23, 2011

Puchuncaví school children are affected by toxic substances

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A preliminary report from the Ministry of Health detected high concentrations of copper and arsenic in the classrooms of the La Greda basic school, part of the Puchuncaví commune, located in the middle of the Las Ventanas industrial park, where a Codelco smelter and a AES Gener thermoelectric plant.��

March 23, 2011

La Greda school closed after toxic gas emanations from the Codelco plant in Ventanas

The incident that occurred this morning due to a failure of the facilities, intoxicated 20 students, two teachers and a child from another educational establishment, who had to be taken to a healthcare facility.

Soil samples taken from 14 schools

in Puchuncaví

26 Abril 2020

The SMA reports that Quintero registered a peak

in Sulphur Dioxide Levels

Quintero registers a new peak in Sulphur Dioxide

Levels last night

May 24, 2020

May 26, 2020

Environmental Pre-emergency declared in Quintero due to new SO2 peak

Termoeléctricas Gener

Petróleos Marinos Chile

Puerto Ventanas

Bodega Cemento Melón

Bodega Angloamerica

Catamotum

Cancha Petcoque ENAP

Cemento Melón

Fundición y Refinería CODELCO

Minera Monte Carmelo

Oxiquím

Gasmar

Shell

Terminal Petróleo ENAP

GNL

Lubricantes Copec

Termoeléctricas Endesa

Pista Fuerza Aérea

March 12, 2020 �

More coal washed up on beach incident in Ventanas revealed a 4525% growth in similar episodes in the last 10 years

5 de abril. �Hongo ceniza GENER Ventanas por fallas sistemas de Filtros.

Dangerous emanation of ash from AES Gener substation in Quintero reported

May 26, 2020

Sulphur Dioxide levels surpass WHO-established limits during the pandemic in Quintero-Puchuncaví

August 3, 2019

Arsenic detected in children's hair in

contaminated regions of Chile

September 26, 2018

Escazu Agreement: The international pact that facilitates access to environmental justice, which Chile proposed

September 26, 2018

Industries Celebrate: Chile proposed the Escazu Agreement and then refused to sign it

May 29, 2019

Supreme court rules in favour of the population affected by Quintero and Puchuncaví companies, takes up National Human Rights Institute Recommendations

August 21, 2018

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More than 80 people are given emergency treatment in Quintero and Puchuncaví due to poisoning of unknown origin.

Three schools in Quintero are evacuated because of toxic cloud intoxication

August 23, 2018

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More than 180 new intoxicated victims received emergency services in Quintero and Puchuncaví.

More school children poisoned in Puchuncaví

August 28, 2018

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President Piñera visits Quintero hospital amid protests over intoxications

4.- Environmental Management Instruments Applied to the Territory

PREVENTION AND DECONTAMINATION PLANS

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Delegates approve Investigatory Commision on Contamination in Puchuncaví in the midst of protests

April 7, 2020

Quintero Registers new SO2 peak during pandemic: MMA asks companies to reduce emissions

October 8, 2019

Government evaluates closing the Ventanas de Codelco Foundry in the context of the COP25

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“Por errores de planificación en el pasado, trabas a la aprobación y ejecución de inversiones y alzas en el precio internacional del petróleo, el costo de la energías se ha triplicado en los últimos diez años y casi todas las plantas de generación aprobadas fueron en base a hidrocarburos, sin normas adecuadas de emisión. Las tragedias ambientales y sanitarias de Ventanas, Huasco, Coronel y Mejillones hablan mejor que mil palabras. Chile no merece esto”. https://www.bcn.cl/obtienearchivo?id=recursoslegales/10221.3/22933/6/20120521.pdf

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21 de Mayo 2012 , el Presidente de la Republica, Sebastián Piñera en su “Cuenta Pública” hiso un reconocimiento público de la responsabilidad del Estado respecto el territorio a la Zona Quintero y Puchuncaví.

Toxic cloud in Quintero forces the evacuation of more than 50 children

11 December 2018

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In Geneva, within the framework of the Universal Human Rights Periodic Review, a presentation is made to the permanent delegations regarding the UPR report on the situation of the inhabitants of the area.

Now at the UN: Quintero is still standing, fighting for the environmental contamination crisis

Hernán Ramírez

Impacts of AES Gener on the Marine Ecosystem of the Bahía de Quintero

�Plaint Against AES Gener and the Chilean State before the International Rights of Nature Tribunal

Noviembre 2021

Hernán Ramírez Rueda

MUZOSARE Consultant

https://www.aes.com/about-us/aes-locations/default.aspx

1. AES GENER Background

Locations

AES Corporation is a global fortune 500 energy company that operates in 4 continents

https://www.aesgener.cl/investors/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Memoria-AES-Gener-2018-ESP-vF.pdf

Locations, Power, and Participation- Carbon Generation

Some of their historic collaborators…

AIR POLLUTION

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Three out of 4 communes where AES Gener operates have been declared dormant or saturated by emissions from its coal-fired thermoelectric plants

https://ppda.mma.gob.cl/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/DS-79-2010-Plan-de-Descontaminacion-Atmosferico-para-la-ciudad-de-Tocopilla-y-su-zona-circundante.pdf

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https://ppda.mma.gob.cl/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/DS-38-2017-Plan-de-Prevencion-de-Contaminacion-atmosferica-para-la-localidad-de-Huasco-y-su-zona-circundante.pdf

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https://ppda.mma.gob.cl/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/56._PPDA_CQP_DO_2587-2617.pdf

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Environmental emission requirements in Chile are lower than in the US and the EU (DS13 / 2011)

SMA OPENED SANCTIONING PROCESS FOR NON-COMPLIANCE DS13 / 2011 AGAINST ANGAMOS, WHICH WAS DECLARED SATISFACTORY

DS13/2011. PROCESS OF REVISION

MARINE CONTAMINATION (DS90/2000).

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THE SMA HAS BEGUN SANCTIONING PROCESSES AGAINST AES GENER IN VENTANAS

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SMA SANCTIONING PROCESSES AGAINST AES GENER

SUCTION AND SEAWATER EMISSIONS COOLING SYSTEM (RETC)

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Ventanas 1

Ventanas 2

Campiche

Nueva Ventanas

6 months of suction is equal to the entire volume of Quintero Bay

For their operation, thermoelectric plants constantly suck in seawater, which, after using it, is dumped back to Quintero Bay, at 10°C above normal temperature and with heavy metal residues AND DEAD OR DAMAGED MARINE MICROORGANISMS

The volume of water sucked per hour by the 4 thermoelectric plants is 105,000 cubic meters, which would be equivalent to filling the National Stadium in a period of 6 hours.

SUCTION OF MARINE ORGANISMS

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Mammals sucked in by Gener Ventanas thermoelectric plant during 2009. SERNAPESCA

Sea Lion

Sea Otter

Sea Lion

Pipes that suck and discharge water used by thermoelectric plants

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FOTO SUCCION SARDINAS 2014

Ventanas, 25 December 2013

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FOTO SUCCION SARDINAS 2014

Marine Organism Suction- SERNAPESCA Register

2. Reports of hydrobiologic resources inserted in facilities located in Bahía de Quintero

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Manzano Syndicate Loco and Limpet Management Area

Embarcadero Syndicate Loco and Limpet Management Area

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Horcón Syndicate Loco and Limpet Management Area

Syndical Association Loco, Limpet, and Sea Urchin Management Area

Ventanas Syndicate Loco and Limpet Management Area

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Circulation of Surface Currents according to a study by Malet and Andrade (1991)

Management Areas with 1,600,000 units of loco and 1,200,000 limpets among other marine resources that inhabit the areas.

AES GENER water extraction point

Papagallo Syndicate Loco Management Area

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It is estimated that the cooling system of a medium thermoelectric unit to be installed in Quintero Bay absorbs more than 2 billion mollusc larvae per year, without considering crustacean larvae, fish or phytoplankton production.

QUINTERO BAY MARINE EMISSIONS (RETC)

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Ventanas 1

Ventanas 2

Campiche

Nueva Ventanas

AES GENER VENTANAS INSTALATIONS

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Ventanas I 1964 114MW

Ventanas II 1964 208MW

Nueva Ventanas 2010 250MW

Campiche 2013

270 MW

2.- CARBON CONSUMPTION BACKGROUND

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IN 2018, AES GENER'S 4 THERMOELECTRIC POWER PLANTS BURNED 2,200,000 TONS OF COAL. (CNE)

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IN THE YEAR 2019, 1,600,000 TONS OF COAL. (CNE)

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ALL OF THE COAL (APPROXIMATELY 44 SHIPS) WAS UNLOADED BY WAY OF THE VENTANAS PORT

ORIGEN CARBON CONSUMIDO

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3. COAL WASHING UP ON BEACHES

AES GENER

Carbon Transportation Belt 1 Km

VENTANAS PORT Site 5. Coal Unloading

Coal Washed Up

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2 ago. 2019

12 sep. 2019

The Social Crisis Is Also An Environmental Crisis

March 5, 2020

Greenpeace denounces AES Gener's "attempts to silence" those affected by its thermoelectric plants

Coal washed up on Ventanas beach in Puchuncaví for the fifth consecutive day

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8. SMA SANCTIONING PROCESSES

According to the SMA website, 85 audits have been carried out on AES Gener, opening

4 sanctioning processes including one that is currently in process.

Sanctioning process currently open against AES Gener Ventanas.

On October 1, 2019, four charges were filed:

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1. For non-compliance with mandatory reduction of operations on critical S02 "Alert" and "Warning" days (Slight)

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• Exceeding Maximum Sound Pressure Levels, exceeding by Up to 10 decibels the nightly permitted value (Serious)

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• Exceeding power generation limits in Ventanas and Campiche power plants (Slight)

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• Exceeding sea and river waste discharge limits. (Serious)

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TERRAM SMA LAWSUIT (10 SEPT 2020)

Recurso protección

Protection filed against the company AES Gener for contamination within the international judicial action framework

AES GENER AND DESALINATION PLANTS

Requests for the Tribunal

1. Order the immediate shutdown of the AES Gener (AES Andes) coal-fired thermoelectric plants in Quintero Bay in order to prevent the death of millions of marine organisms as a result of the suction and discharge of water used in the thermoelectric plants, as well as the dumping of coal into the bay and the emission of millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, as well as the emission of thousands of tons per year of particulate material; Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrous Dioxide that damages the nature of the area.

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Requests for the Tribunal

2. Order the immediate shutdown of licenses for the installation of new industrial projects in Quintero Bay.

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Requests for the Tribunal

3. Order the cleaning of the coal from the seabed and the environmental recovery of the marine ecosystems of the Quintero-Puchuncaví bay.

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Requests for the Tribunal

4. Order the repeal of the Decree that assigned Quintero Bay as a port of preferential use.

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Requests for the Tribunal

5. Order the creation of a Multiple Use Marine Protected Area that extends from the Quintera-Puchuncaví Bay, which will protect populations of marine mammals and birds, fish, mollusks, crustaceans and restore marine ecosystems damaged by human activity.

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Lili Fuhr

5^th International �Rights of Nature�Tribunal

Lili Fuhr

Heinrich Böll Foundation / ETC Group / HOME!-Campaign

CLIMATE�GEOENGINEERING

A set of technologies to intentionally intervene in and alter Earth systems on a planetary scale with the intention to manipulate ecosystems and counteract some of the effects of climate change to counteract some of the effects of climate change.

A technofix for climate change.

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CATEGORIES OF GEOENGINEERING TECHNIQUES �- as proposed by geoengineers

CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL

Remove GHGs from the atmosphere after they have been emitted

SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENT

Reflect sunlight back into space to reduce warming effect

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WEATHER MODIFICATION 

Manipulating or modifying the weather

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Reasons to OPPOSE Geoengineering�https://www.geoengineeringmonitor.org/reasons-to-oppose/

• Geoengineering proposals require the intensive exploitation of vast areas of land or ocean which would inevitably displace millions of people and potentially wipe out entire ecosystems.

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• All geoengineering technologies, if tested outdoors and implemented at scale to have an effect on the climate, would violate Articles 2 & 3 of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth.

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• Geoengineering technologies do nothing to address the root causes of climate change.

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• None of the technologies have a track record of actually working, all of them come with major risks and unknowns, and in some cases the effects would be catastrophic and irreversible.

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• It threatens to delay the implementation of a transition away from fossil fuels, and could redirect funding and investments away from real and just climate solutions.

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• Computer models show that geoengineering interventions can have regional winners and losers; to the extent that geoengineering successfully changes climate patterns in a predictable way and/or creates control over powerful new technological infrastructures, it could be weaponized.

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INTERACTIVE GEOENGINEERING WORLD MAP

map.geoengineeringmonitor.org

Real-world experiments: Arctic Ice Project (AIP)

• Experiment: Application of tiny silica glass spheres on sea ice formations and permafrost intending to deflect sunlight away from ice. This experiment was formerly known as Ice911.
• Actors: Arctic Ice Project
• Location: Utqiagvik, Alaska, and Lake Elmo, Minnesota with plans to expand to Svalbard, Norway, University of Manitoba’s sea ice test facility in Winnipeg and the Himalayan region.
• Risks: Potential disruption of weather patterns, precipitation and sea currents; unknown effect of synthetic silica glass spheres entering food chain, potentially inhibiting growth of flora disrupting food chains; ocean acidification from continued use of fossil fuels. This project could come with unintended impacts on habitat and animal migration in the Arctic, which includes inhalation/ingestion of silica glass spheres, among other unanticipated effects. The testing is opposed by Indigenous groups in the area, who also have questions on the potential impacts of inhalation of the silica glass spheres.

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Violations of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

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This violates all points stipulated under Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth, and Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

Photos: Arctic Ice Project

Creative Commons License�

Real-world experiments: Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx)

• Proposed experiment: SCoPEx aims to test out the stratospheric aerosol injection technology which aims to spray large quantities of tiny reflective particles into the stratosphere in order to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space (mimicking a volcanic eruption)
• Actors: Frank Keutsch (Principal Investigator), David Keith (Mission Scientist), based at Harvard University
• Location: Kiruna, Sweden (to test aircraft), possible relocation to the USA (tbd)
• Risks: For SAI to have a cooling effect, it would require large quantities and continuous injection of aerosols for very long periods of time. It would modify the Earth’s radiative balance, and is also associated with significant potential global risks and uncertainties such as impacts on extreme weather events, ecosystems, rain patterns, agricultural yields due to droughts, ozone chemistry, solar energy output, human health and many more. Another major potential risk is the termination effect which means that if abruptly stopped, there will be a spike in global temperature which would leave the Earth in an even worse condition than before. Because of the unequal global impacts and its potential to be weaponized, solar geoengineering carries unsurmountable challenges for governance.

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Violations of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

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If implemented, this will violate all points stipulated under Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth, and Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

Sweden against SCoPEx

Due to resistance from the Saami People and Swedish civil society groups, the Swedish Space Corporation announced in March 2021 that “no technical test flight for SCoPEx from Esrange will be done”. Since then, the Saami Council, along with many other indigenous voices around the world, sent proponents in Harvard a written petition to shut down SCoPEx.

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*All photos are screen shots of information found on public websites

Real-world experiments: Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) over the Great Barrier Reef

• Experiment: Marine Cloud Brightening (spraying sea water to brighten clouds to reflect sunlight into space)
• Actors: Southern Cross University and other Australian institutions
• Location: Coastal waters near Townsville, Australia
• Risks: At scale, could shift precipitation patterns regionally or even globally (i.e. causing drought in the Amazon basin). There may be additional ocean acidification and coastal pollution of coral reefs from continued use of fossil fuels. It is vulnerable to physical attack since deployment is done from sea vessels. This outdoor experiment contravenes the UN Convention on Biodiversity’s moratorium on geoengineering. Australia is a party to the CBD.

Violations of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

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This violates all points stipulated under Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth, and Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

Photo: The Guardian Creative Commons License

Real-world experiments: Ocean Fertilization, Chile

• Experiment: Ocean Fertilization is the stimulation phytoplankton growth to hypothetically sequester carbon by dumping large amounts of micro- or macro-nutrients (like iron or urea)
• Actors: Oceanos, Canada
• Location: Coastal waters of Chile and Peru
• Risks: There is a wide scientific agreement that OF could have negative impacts in the marine food web. This would have huge negative impacts on artisanal fishers, algae cultivators and the livelihood of coastal communities. More effects include deoxygenation creating “dead zones”, potential growth of toxic algae, removal of nutrients from water disrupting down-current ecosystems, release of other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Violations of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

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This violates all points stipulated under Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth, and Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

Photo: Geoengineering Monitor Creative Commons License

Real-world experiments: Artificial Upwelling, Peru

• Experiment: Artificial Upwelling is bringing nutrient-rich deep ocean water to the surface to stimulate plankton growth, hypothetically removing CO2.
• Actors: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Germany
• Location: Coastal waters of Chile and Peru
• Risks: AU has very limited sequestration potential. Potential environmental and socio-political risks include ocean deoxygenation, increased release of methane, substantial changes in species composition as well as potential transboundary effects on artisanal fishers, coastal communities, fisheries and weather patterns. It can result in an unfavourable composition of dissolved gases: additional carbon uptake may pile on ocean acidification. Scaling up would mean larger structures to the ocean.

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Violations of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

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This violates all points stipulated under Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth, and Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

Photo: ScienceDirect Creative Commons License

REQUESTS TO THE TRIBUNAL

1. Support the Saami Council and other Indigenous Groups in their call to cancel the SCoPEx solar geoengineering project at Harvard University

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2. Undertake on-site visits to the Arctic Ice Project’s current and future test sites in Alaska and beyond to collect evidence of how the outdoor experiment in its current and planned scope violates the Rights of Mother Earth and her stewards, the Indigenous people of the Arctic and the Himalayas�

3. Support the global call for a ban on outdoor testing and deployment of solar geoengineering

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4. Call on governments to respect the CBD’s decision for a moratorium on all climate-related geoengineering that would affect biodiversity

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THANK YOU!�

Connect with the HOME!-Campaign:

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coordinator@handsoffmotherearth.org

www.handsoffmotherearth.org

www.geoengineeringmonitor.org

https://map.geoengineeringmonitor.org/

Lili Fuhr: fuhr@boell.de

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*Thank you to Niki Miranda-Martinez and Serayna Solanki from the HOME!-Campaign for help with this presentation!

Leonela Moncayo &

Alexandra Almeida

GAS FLARING IN ECUADOR

ALEXANDRA ALMEIDA

ACCIÓN ECOLÓGICA

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LEONELA MONCAYO

UDAPT

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ECUADOR

PETROL EXPLOITATION IN ECUADOR

Ecuador been extracting oil from the Amazon for more than 50 years.

Part of the technology used has been to burn the gas associated with the oil that comes out of the subsoil in

tubes called gas flares.

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GAS FLARES OF THE AMAZON

Company

Gas flaring sites

Gas flares

Lit flares

Gas flares with no flame

• In the oil industry, gas flaring occurs during the well drilling stage, during well testing, and at oil production stations.

PLACES WHERE THE GAS IS BURNED

Combustion is an oxidation reaction between a fuel and an oxidizer. This starts with a certain activation energy, with the release of heat and light. The fuel in this case is the associated natural gas, and the oxidizer is O2 that comes from the air

GAS COMBUSTION

COMPOSITION OF NATURAL GAS

Natural gas is a mixture of elements of both organic and inorganic nature:

- Hydrocarbons ranging from Methane to Heptane and even heavier hydrocarbons. Methane is the largest constituent in the mix.

- Inert compounds such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Nitrogen (N2), Oxygen (O2), Water Vapor (H2O), Helium, Argon, Krypton, Xenon.

- Pollutant compounds such as: Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), Carbon Disulfide (CS2), Carnonyl Sulfide (COS), Mercaptans (RSH), Organic and free sulfur. Most of them have a toxic and harmful effect on the environment.

COMBUSTION PRODUCTS

Among the polluting gases produced by the burning of associated natural gas are:

- Carbon monoxide (CO),

- Carbon dioxide (CO2),

- Elemental carbon (C) also called soot,

- Unburned hydrocarbons,

- Nitrogen oxides (NOx),

- Sulfur oxides (SOx),

- Particulate matter,

- Volatile organic compounds (VOC),

- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),

- Ozone, among others.

PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THE FLARES

The problems that usually occur are:

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- Incomplete combustion,

- Thermal radiation,

- Smoke generation,

- Bad smell,

- Noise,

- Formation of soot,

- Fire rain,

- Toxic concentration at floor level,

- Effects after the flame has been put out

- Soil contamination

- Acid rain

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These problems expose operating personnel, the population and the fauna to skin damage, poisoning, damage to the respiratory tract and the formation of explosive clouds.

Both the burning and venting of gas in oil fields causes a considerable environmental impact, even more so if this gas has not received any treatment, so it disperses or burns with all its pollutants. Furthermore, incomplete combustion generates a large amount of heat. The effects are seen in biodiversity and climate change.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

EFFECTS ON BIODIVERSITY

Alteration of the trophic compositional structure of nocturnal insects occurs due to their continuous incineration in lighters that burn gas, when they are attracted by the infrared wavelength.

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There are imbalances in the populations of microorganisms such as phytoplankton and yeasts.

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There are changes in the distribution and structure of the populations of aerial microorganisms.

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There is an impact on the populations of birds that are directly exposed to gas flaring.

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The gas penetrates rapidly into the body of

aquatic animals through the gills causing problems in the physiology of the respiratory, nervous, and circulatory systems, in enzyme activity and more.

EFFECTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The burning of natural gas is one of the human activities that generate the emission of the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, including Carbon Dioxide, methane, soot, nitrogen oxide and ozone. The practice of burning associated gas in lighters in the oil fields of the Ecuadorian Amazon are emitting these gases into the atmosphere, mainly two of them that are responsible for the greenhouse effect, CO2 and methane.

LAWSUIT AGAINST THE ECUADORIAN STATE

On February 20, 2020, 9 girls from the Ecuadorian Amazon filed a protection lawsuit against the Ecuadorian State for issuing authorizations to oil companies to burn gas associated with oil in gas flares, causing impacts that violate their right to water and health, food sovereignty and a healthy and ecologically balanced environment.

Mi Nombre es Leonela Moncayo vivo en la provincia de Sucumbíos cantón Lago Agrio de la Amazonia ecuatoriana. Soy una de las 9 niñas demandantes del caso “eliminen los mecheros de la Amazonia ecuatoriana”.

Decidimos ser demandantes y defensoras de la vida, del ambiente y la naturaleza, porque la actividad petrolera está contaminando y destruyendo la salud de los seres vivo, yo veo como esos mecheros están a la intemperie esparciendo su contaminación y enfermando nuestros pulmones, nuestro aire, nuestro oxigeno que necesitamos para vivir.

Hemos recorrido algunos lugares donde están los mecheros y he observado animales nocturnos que son atraídos por la luz de los mecheros, de diferentes tamaños y especies como, pájaros escarabajos, mariquitas, mariposas, grillos, culebras y otros insectos, que mueren calcinados y si no se queman caen al suelo y se mueren con el calor de la tierra porque está siempre caliente, partida, reseca, está muerta sin vida por el calor que emana estos mecheros.

Al frente de mi casa, donde yo vivo, hay un mechero y pasa prendido día y noche, nosotros para poder dormir tenemos que usar cortinas gruesas para que no pase la luz incandescente que sale de esos mecheros, llegan malos olores y sale humo negro, cuando llueve el agua es color negra y apesta a humo y esa agua cae a las plantas que nosotros cultivamos para el consumos de nuestros alimentos.

Nosotros no contamos con agua potable consumimos agua lluvia que está contaminada por esos mecheros, quizás por esa contaminación ha de ser que hay muchas personas enfermas de cáncer con granos en la piel, dolor de cabeza garganta y estómago, se gasta mucho dinero para poder salvar la vida por que nosotros vivimos cerca de la actividad petrolera.

Por estos motivos demandamos al Estado ecuatoriano con la ayuda de la UDAPT y de algunos colectivos.

Le ganamos el juicio pero no nos convence la sentencia porque en la reparación hemos pedido que se eliminen los mecheros en un plazo de seis meses, pero los jueces han designado que se eliminen: unos en 9 años y los que están cercanos a la población en 18 meses, también pedimos que se construya un hospital para el tratamiento de las personas que tienen cáncer y no tengan que viajar a Quito o a otras provincias, la respuesta que tuvimos del juez fue que el ministerio de salud haga un seguimiento para verificar si en verdad se requiere crear un departamento oncológico en el hospital, para el tratamiento del cáncer.

La verdad es que no entendemos por qué los jueces en su veredicto dicen que los mecheros provocan daños a la salud, al medio ambiente y a la naturaleza, y sin embargo en el plan de reparaciones hacen lo contrario y no respetan nuestros derecho a vivir con dignidad como todo ser humano merece.

Por esta razón nos toca recurrir a la Corte Constitucional para pedirle que exija a los jueces que acorten el plazo para la eliminación de los mecheros y que hagan una aclaración más entendible, porque casi todos los mecheros están cerca de la población.

PETITIONS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS OF NATURE TRIBUNAL

Because of all of the above, we ask the International Rights of Nature Tribunal to urge the Ecuadorian State to comply with the provisions of the Constitution, since the Ecuadorian justice has recognized in a ruling that the gas flares violate our Right to live in a healthy and ecologically sound environment, the Right to health, and the Rights of Nature, and that a comprehensive reparation plan be implemented immediately. For the state to prohibit the construction of more flares in the Amazon for being a violation of rights, and for it to retake the initiative of leaving the oil underground as a true solution to the problem of Climate Change.