[Qui-deu-a-qui] [Fwd: URGENT Need your comments and help re G8 Summit Sign on statement]

[platera en edpac.org]

Hola,

La traducción la podemos tener para el lunes, ¿demasiado tarde?

Besos
Platera

> Hola
>
> Nos envían desde Jubileo Sur el comunicado sobre el próximo g8, que se
> reuniran en breve en Japón (del 7 al 9 de julio) trantando los temas de
> precio de petroleo, cambio climatico y crisis alimentaria.
>
> Os lo envio sin tiempo de repasarlo antes, por lo que no sé si podemos
> firmar como QdQ.
>
> En cualquier caso *nos piden ayuda con la traducción al español ...
> algun/a voluntario/aria?*
>
> Besos
>
> Iolanda
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> **
>
> *Challenge to the G8*
>
> * *
>
> * *
>
> The gathering of the richest and most powerful countries of the world is
> an occasion for the people of the world to demand that this G8 Summit
> address the twin 'tsunamis' that plague humanity today – the food and
> climate crisis – and the continuing problem of debt that has contributed
> significantly to these two crises and exacerbate their impacts.
>
>
>
> */The Food crisis/*
>
>
>
> The high price of oil, worsening climate conditions and price
> manipulation by domestic and international trading cartels have
> certainly contributed significantly to the abrupt, massive increase in
> the prices of food.  However, the food crisis can be also be traced to
> economic policies that have been imposed on the countries of the South
> for decades, with the use of debt, access to credit and debt relief as
> instruments for coercion.
>
>
>
> The combination of several policies that were part of conditionality
> packages of the IMF and World Bank led to falling productivity in basic
> food agricultures and heavy reliance on imported fertilizers and
> pesticides, consequently resulting in higher costs and less sustainable
> production of food. For example, there has been a massive shift to
> non-staple and non-food export crops and a drastic conversion of prime
> agricultural lands for non-agricultural uses, such as the building of
> export processing zones. These policy conditionalities included the
> removal of state subsidies for production of basic food crops, the
> stress on export-oriented high growth development strategies, the
> privatization of services and infrastructures, the liberalization of
> trade which gave rise to   unfair competition from subsidized food
> products from the north, and the liberalization of finance capital flows
> that fed speculative industries including real estate.
>
>
>
> In addition, the effects of huge debt payment on government resources
> include the deterioration and neglect of many public infrastructures
> needed to boost agricultural production, such as irrigation systems, and
> farm to market roads.
>
>
>
> The ability of many countries of the South, from Asia to Africa to Latin
> America and the Caribbean, to produce sufficiently for their own food
> needs and keep prices accessible to the domestic market have thus been
> steadily and dramatically eroding since the 1980's.  This is indicated
> by the increase of net food importing countries from the South in the
> past two decades, the diminishing capability of many countries to
> maintain adequate buffer stocks of staple grains, and the increasing
> vulnerability to world food market supply and price dynamics.
>
>
>
> The mantra of the international financial institutions pushing these
> policies was—"food security is not about producing what you need but the
> ability to buy what you need."  This argument is ridiculous in
> situations where per capita income is far removed from the actual income
> of the majority and the withdrawal of state intervention and regulation
> in food distribution (another policy conditionality accompanying loans
> and debt relief) virtually means hunger and malnutrition for this
> majority.  Such argument is rendered even more ridiculous in the face of
> fast dwindling global buffer stocks of rice and of other staple grains
> needed by billions of people in the South, stocks which could be nearly
> wiped out by extreme weather in the next harvest seasons.   What do you
> do with your money if there is not enough rice and grains to go around
> and last till the next harvest?  For peoples and countries of the South
> assert – without food sovereignty there is no real food security.
>
>
>
> Many point out that the food crisis is less about supply but more about
> access. They argue that there is enough food being produced globally to
> feed everyone. This may be true, setting aside food culture and norms
> and notwithstanding supply problems for specific staples.  It needs to
> be raised yet again that the burden of debt and related conditionalities
> impact greatly on the question of access.
>
>
>
> A tragic irony of the spiraling increase of food prices is that small
> farmers and landless peasants have had no real benefits as farm gate
> prices continue to be low and less than enough to support their
> families. And as consumers themselves, they share in the greater
> suffering caused by the food crises.
>
>
>
> The G8 governments bear primary responsibility for the debt burden and
> the debt-related policy conditionalities that contributed to the current
> food crisis and magnify its impacts. They are, after all, the biggest
> bilateral lenders and the most influential members of international
> financial institutions. They also bear responsibility for other factors
> to the food crisis -- as governments of countries which are home to most
> of the biggest multinational food corporations and food commodities
> market traders, as powerful governments which shape bilateral and
> multilateral trade agreements affecting food production, food prices and
> food distribution.
>
>
>
> */The Climate Crisis/*
>
>
>
> The G8 governments also bear primary responsibility for the climate
> crisis.  Half of the world's green house gas emissions come from the G8
> countries. Most, if not all, of the G8 countries are lagging behind the
> reduction targets of GHG emissions. Even the European Union, which
> considers itself a world leader in addressing climate change through its
> bold plan of being the first de-carbonized economy in the world, has
> undermined its own claims by planning to build 40 major new coal power
> plants in the next five years.
>
>
>
>  And again, as the most powerful members of international financial
> institutions, they are accountable for debt-related projects and
> policies that exacerbate the climate crisis.
>
>
>
> The World Bank and the regional development banks are major lenders to
> projects involving fossil fuel industries, paid for by peoples of the
> South. The Export Credit Agencies of G8 countries also provide financing
> to these industries, part of which translates to liabilities of Southern
> governments, again paid for by peoples of the South.
>
>
>
> Since the Earth Summit and the signing of the Climate Convention in
> 1992, and even after instituting "environmental policies," the World
> Bank has approved more than 133 financial packages to oil, coal and gas
> extraction projects, comprising mainly of loans but also including
> equity investments, guarantees and some grants. The total amount exceeds
> US$28 billion dollars. Fossil fuel corporations based in G8 countries
> benefit from almost every project finance package.
>
> In 2006, more than 70% of the World Bank's total energy program was for
> oil, gas, and power commitments with "new renewables" such as wind,
> solar, and mini-hydro comprising on 6%.   The International Finance
> Corporation of the World Bank (which lends to the private sector) is
> increasing its fossil fuel lending portfolio.
>
>
>
> The Asian Development Bank, to which Japan and the United States are the
> biggest shareholders, is a major lender to coal, oil and gas projects in
> Asia, approving close to US$2 billion worth of loan packages since the
> year 2000.
>
>
>
> Other loan-financed projects and policy conditionalities of
> international financial institutions have led to massive deforestation,
> another major factor to climate change. These include, for instance, the
> building of large-scale dams, road development in tropical forests, and
> the promotion of palm oil production for export.
>
>
>
> It is indeed ironic and deplorable that with such a record, the G8
> governments is granting the World Bank a pre-eminent role in global
> financing of climate mitigation and adaptation and the promotion of
> "clean technology" and "clean development."  In the July 2005 Summit,
> the G8 declared that the /"The World Bank will take a leadership role in
> creating a new framework for clean energy and development, including
> investment and financing."/  The regional development banks are also
> claiming a similar or supporting role within their sphere of operations.
>
>
>
> The World Bank announced very recently that it will be establishing
> Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) including the Clean Technology Fund.
> Aside from the obvious inappropriateness of the World Bank managing
> these Funds given its record and continuing role in worsening the
> climate crisis, the concepts, design and intentions of the funds are
> seriously flawed. For instance the definition of "clean technology" is
> so ambiguous as to include coal plants which are being justified as
> "less dirty" and necessary for "poverty reduction".
>
>
>
> The G8 governments are not only promoting false solutions through the
> different facilities under the auspices of these international financial
> institutions, they are intending to finance these through loans, thus
> adding to the debt burden of developing countries. The UK government has
> been leading the call for other governments to contribute to funds to be
> administered by the World Bank as loans.
>
>
>
> Instead of asking for repayment of financing for climate mitigation and
> adaptation or treating this financing as "assistance" – the G8
> governments should begin with the recognition of the huge ecological
> debt that they owe the countries and peoples of the South. They should
> bear the responsibility for the financing of climate mitigation and
> adaption in the South as part of the restitution and reparations for the
> environmental damage and destruction their policies and programs, their
> economies and corporations have caused. The funds should be managed by
> democratic and accountable institutions.
>
>
>
> */The Injustice of the Debt Burden and the problem of Illegitimate
> Debts/*
>
> */ /*
>
> The payment of huge amounts of debt service amplifies the effects of the
> food and climate crises and hampers the ability of countries and peoples
> of the South to deal with these crises.   This is part of the injustice
> of the debt and for this alone debt cancellation is urgent.
>
>
>
> But the debt is more than just the implications of losing much needed
> resources to debt payments. Debts which have not benefited the people in
> whose name they were incurred, debts which were used for harmful
> projects or to impose harmful conditionalities such as those which
> contributed to the food and climate crises -- these are illegitimate
> debts and should not be paid.
>
>
>
> Addressing the debt burden and illegitimate debt is a major step towards
> immediate as well as long term solutions to the food and climate crises.
>
>
>
> */Calls and Demands/*
>
>
>
> We urge all people's organizations and movements (labor, farmers, women,
> youth and indigenous peoples), faith-based organizations, social and
> political movements and all concerned citizens to challenge the
> governments of the G8 countries to acknowledge their responsibility for
> the food and climate crises and the continuing problem of debt, and take
> decisive action to:
>
>
>
>    1. Cancel all illegitimate debt
>    2. Stop financing projects and policies that contribute to climate
> change
>    3. Reverse policies that have led to the food crisis
>    4. End the practice of using loans and debt cancellation to impose
>       conditionalities
>    5. Pay restitution and reparations for the huge ecological debts owed
>       to the South.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> **********************************
> Iolanda Fresnillo i Sallan
> Observatori del Deute en la Globalització
> www.odg.cat
> iolanda.fresnillo en odg.cat
> +93 785 13 18
> Skype Id: ifresnillo
>
> Atenció! Els correus electrònics de l'ODG ara acaben en @odg.cat (enlloc
> de debtwatch.org)
> Atención! Los correos electrónicos del ODG ahora acaban en @odg.cat (en
> lugar de debtwatch.org)
> Attention! ODG e-mail addresses now finish in @odg.cat (instead of
> debtwatch.org)
>
> **********************************
>
>
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