CAMPAIGNS: Agro-fuels and Climate Chaos
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Colombian organizations recently held a Climate Justice Tribunal, which highlighted how climate chaos is a social justice issue, having the worst effects for the poorest populations and being is a consequence of a system based on economic growth and huge levels of consumption by those who can afford it.

The promotion of agro-fuels was also high on the agenda. Agro-fuel crops, especially African Palm, now cover large parts of the Colombian countryside, with small-scale farming communities and the production of food staples being violently displaced by right-wing paramilitary death squads to make way for agro-industry and monocultures. Agro-fuels are theoretically ‘greener’ than fossil fuels as they are ‘carbon-neutral’ - i.e. the carbon emitted by burning plant oils is absorbed from the atmosphere by the plants when they are growing. However, they are still hydrocarbon-based fuel and contribute to climate change, as well as destroying biodiversity and violently displacing rural communities.

Here’s the report by people from Espacio who attended the tribunal.

Another one of us also wrote this report for the Schumacher Institute on the effect on Afro-Colombia communities of oil palm plantations, an important agro-fuel crop.

The Tribunal called for grass-roots social movements to unite in action against climate chaos and capitalism, and not wait for ‘solutions’ from an establishment that is part of the problem.

One thing that was mentioned alot were the links between the forced displacement and dispossession caused by monocultures like agro-fuels and the increasing forced displacement and dispossession of poor communities resulting from climate chaos, as well as the need for ecological activists to join together with people involved in other struggles – especially in solidarity with communities fighting for their survival and sovereignty over land and resources.

We’re working on the issues of agro-fuels and climate chaos with Colombian groups and have been working with Rising Tide support back at home, whether locally-focused or in more direct solidarity with Colombian communities.

Please contact us for more info.

More information and resources coming soon…

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