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Bolivia Hosts People’s World Conference on Climate Change
The People's World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth convened in Cochabamba, Bolivia, from 19-22 April 2010.An initiative of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the Conference provided a forum to discuss the structural and systemic causes of climate change and propose substantive measures that facilitate the well-being of mankind in harmony with nature. A 10-page declaration adopted at the Conference calls on developed countries to: commit to quantified emission reductions that will limit the global temperature increase to a maximum of 1°C; bear the costs and ensure technology transfer necessary to compensate developing countries for their lost development opportunities due to a compromised atmosphere; and take responsibility for climate change migrants, through the conclusion of an international agreement.
The declaration also urges the approval of a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol in which developed countries commit to reduce domestic emissions by at least 50% against 1990 levels without resorting to market-based mechanisms. It further calls for the recognition and integration of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the climate change negotiations. The final declaration also rejects a definition of forests that includes plantations and condemns market-based mechanisms such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD), conservation, sustainable management of forests, and stock enhancement in addition to REDD (REDD+), and all terrestrial carbon in addition to REDD+ (REDD++), as violating the right to the prior informed consent of indigenous peoples and national sovereignty. The final declaration foresees that a second People's World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth will be held in 2011 to discuss the results of COP 16.
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