asad rehman Profile picture
Nov 18, 2020 17 tweets 5 min read Read on X
When I hear net zero 2050 I always remember Ambassador Lumumba (the Chair of the G77) at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 when he said 2c “certain death for Africa”, & a type of “climate fascism”. The UK, EU, Obama’s US supported by big northern NGOs opposed 1/1.5c target. 1/ Image
He sat silently, tears rolling down his face, put his head in his hands & said “We have been asked to sign a suicide pact.” & that Africa is being asked to “celebrate” this deal for $10 billion. “$10 billion is not enough to buy us coffins”. This is a colonisation of the sky 2/
The global North want to ignore historical emissions & allow their citizens to carry on emitting & prevent African countries from lifting their people out of poverty. “It is unfortunate that after 500 years-plus of interaction with the West we are still considered disposables“.
“I would rather die with my dignity than sign a deal that will channel my people into a furnace.” He called for “One Africa, One degree” & “Two degrees is suicide”. It was clear then that rich country govts & big NGOs were more than happy to sacrifice the global South. 4/
Now despite the science, the urgency, the devastating impacts we are told that 2030 targets are radical & we should be pragmatic. Anti-racists & #climate justice activists should not accept ‘channeling the people of the global South into the furnace’ by supporting net zero 2050
In 2009 global South countries were calling for cuts of 80% by 2030 by rich countries & to pay their climate debt because even then the IPCC said 2c globally means 3.5c across every region of Africa. Since then the science is even clearer that preventing a breach of 1.5c is key
Today the UK is 16th highest global emitter, 6th highest historically, responsible for 3.5% of global emissions. Just to meet it’s fairshare of emissions cuts for the 1.5c budget - it would be -200% by 2030 so it would need to be at zero by 2030 & transfer £1 trillion to the poor Image
Some folks are asking for more details about what happened at COP15. So here goes: 1/ After years of the UNFCCC negotiating a binding treaty based on the Climate Convention & 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol that said rich countries who were most responsible for the
2/ crises had to have legally binding targets & provide support for poorer countries. The US, UK & Danes drew up a secret text - that would effectively derail the climate talks, ignore historical responsibility, allow rich countries to have no legally binding targets,
3/ them to continue to pollute & hand over climate finance into the hands of the undemocratic World Bank that rich countries controlled. theguardian.com/environment/20…
4/ Big philanthropy, big US & northern NGOs, the EU were locked into the ‘Obama will save the planet’, & empty pleas to ‘seal the deal’ & ‘act on climate’ with the primary goal no criticism of Obama irrespective if it action was unfair or ignored the science.
5/ And as countries of the global South refused to accept the UN talks - rich countries bullied & bribed poorer countries. Lead negotiators from the global South were recalled to capitals, the Ethiopian PM was summoned to Paris & offered a bribe to break the African group unity.
6/ Civil society were barred from the talks so poorer countries would not have critical support. And the US spied on developing country delegations theguardian.com/environment/20…
7/ global South countries would not allow global North govts from gavelling through this illegitimate text. Ian Fry the negotiator from Tuvalu pleaded to govts not to accept the text ‘I woke up this morning crying, the fate of my country is in your hands’
8/ Over the next 6 years to the Paris talks - the US backed by the EU & mainstream NGOs finally got what they wanted with the Paris Agreement - no binding targets, weakening of equity, weakening of finance pledges - & a world heading to 3.4c warming worldat1c.org/a-brief-histor…
9/ IMHO Obama’s legacy on climate was dismantling of science & equity based action. So when folks say Trump was the climate wrecker - he was simply carrying on Obamas policy of US exceptionalism. Biden will be no different unless US NGOs & philanthropy stop sacrificing the poor.

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More from @chilledasad100

Jun 1
🧵It’s been a tough week, a tough 8 months & years for many of us who call ourselves ‘progressive Muslims’. For years we who took the fight to right wing in our community - arguing against those who said disengage with British politics because it offered us nothing but crumbs 1/
How our faith inspired justice movements, from the Red Mullahs, the anti-colonial struggles, anti-apartheid struggle, to the anti-racist struggle in Trade Union movement & Lab Party. That social movements of diverse communities that together could build power to change politics 2
The illegal war on Iraq, torture, Guantanamo, drone strikes on civilians deepened cynicism. See some said the universality of human rights & that black/brown lives matter means nothing to politicians. We said look at the millions of people on the streets refusing to be complicit
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Enough is Enough - the deeply racist undertones that frame how the media & politicians talk about British citizens who happen to be Muslim - because they oppose war crimes & racist dehumanisation of Palestinians is no less valid than when parts of the Jewish community raised 1/
their concerns about anti-semitism. It’s deeply racist to minimise it by claiming this is some sort of ‘Iranian plot’. As if Muslims are puppets or any less intelligent not to draw their own conclusions about the complicity of the UK in war crimes, or are less worthy because 2/
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Apr 22, 2023
🧵1/ Cant quite believe it’s 30 years since Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racists & we took to the streets as part of decades long campaigning for justice by families the black community & groups like Newham Monitoring Project. Image
Stephens murder wasn’t an isolated case- 2 years earlier in 1991 Rolan Adams, 15 was stabbed to death in Eltham by a gang shouting the N word. 2/ Image
In July 1992, Rohit Duggal, 15, was stabbed to death in a racist attack outside a kebab shop in S London. 3/ Image
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Feb 15, 2023
🧵1/ Some thoughts on the 20th anniversary of the Feb 15th Stop the War on Iraq global marches as one of the founders of the Stop the War coalition & one of the organisers of the March in London. Firstly the coalition was a deliberate break from previous theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/f…
2/ anti-war marches. The driver of the change for an inclusive, explicitly anti-racist coalition was the experience of 1st Gulf War in 1990 when black groups such as NMP set up ‘Black People Against War in the Gulf’ because mainstream movement failed to connect it to anti-racism
3/ ‘Black People Against War in the Gulf’ connected the attack on civil liberties, the racism that dehumanised Arabs & Justice for Palestine to the War. When Stop the War was founded in 2001 it was black groups who moved to include the demands on civil liberties, anti-racism.
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Feb 8, 2023
1/ Climate justice means recognising that inequality within countries between the rich & poor can’t mask the continuing inequalities as a result of racialised capitalism between the global North & global South whatnext.org/wp-content/upl…
2/ that means simply saying end fossil fuels without recognising energy poverty in the global South means making energy a public good. Similarly there is no climate justice without addressing inequality - living wages, social protection & public services
3/ it is of course overwhelmingly the top 1% and top 10% of the world who are most responsible for emissions - most of whom are based in the global North whatnext.org/wp-content/upl…
Read 4 tweets
Nov 19, 2022
The dismantling of climate action in 3 steps 🧵First rich countries don’t deliver their legal commitments under the Koyoto Protocol, they promise if you give us a new Treaty (Paris) we promise to increase our pre 2020 actions. New Treaty rips up climate theguardian.com/environment/20…
2/ architecture- no more legally binding targets based on science - it’s a do what you fancy pledge system so they don’t have to do their fairshare of effort. Result 2.8c warming likely. Now they want to rip up both the Convention & Paris - by making false promises that getting
3/ rid of equity & of course rich countries will help you with finance for loss and damage. It’s utter lies & deception. They are trying to divide developing countries so they can blame others when they have failed to cut their own emissions, meet even existing paltry finance
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