The climate puppets

Documentary web created by students of the European schools participating in the project Youngsters I.Doc Makers (YIDOCM)

Social-Political Impact

Sami Naïr

Sami Naïr is an Algerian-born French political philosopher and former adviser of the European Parliament.

People flee from countries like Syria because they prefer to die trying to get to other countries before surrendering to a certain death in their native country.

The conflicts result in a displacement of populations. They could be caused by wars but also by environmental degradation. That is already happening in Latin America and Africa.

Climate change is largely responsible for this serious environmental damage. The basic strategies to fight the impacts of climate change on the population are the strategies of adaption and mitigation.

The strategies of adaption are very important to alleviate the suffering of the population in their countries of origin. An international cooperation will be necessary that will allow the reception of millions of immigrants because of wars and lack of resources.


Florent Marcellesi

Florent Marcellesi is a french politician and ecologist activist, living in Spain.

Today, climate change is the main reason for migration on a global level. There are approximately 30 million migrants, a number that can increase to 250 million in 2050 if we don't do anything to fight climate change.

He points out that the developed states are mainly responsible for the climate change, especially the producers and consumers of fossil fuels. Climate change is a serious risk for our agriculture and crucial economic sectors, like tourism in Spain. Europe will be the destination of large numbers of climate refugees if we don't reduce CO2 emissions.

At the Paris summit most of the governments agreed that climate change is a crucial challenge for mankind, but they didn't take adequate measures to fight that problem effectively. There have to be political solutions on a national or international level but also the civil society has to tackle the issue. To talk about climate change is to talk about the real problems of the people.

The media has to comply with its obligation to put climate change at the core of the social debate, as well as a problem as an opportunity to alter our model of development in order to create a more equal society.


SOCIAL ACTIVISM

Almudena Grandes, writer, and El Gran Wyoming, TV showman, both Spaniards, claim for the rights of the regugees.

Is the refugees crisis in Europe only a problem for the politicians? In this video you can find numerous point of views about what is happening nowadays in Europe. Many institutions, public figures and activists are working to help the people who came from several countries for different reasons, especially to escape war and poverty. An activist of CEAR (NGO), a TV actor, writer and journalists, a photographers and other activists are interviewed as citizens concerned about this humanitarian crisis.


Aspects of politics in handling climate change

Here you may watch the three parts of the in depth interview with Dr. Martin Kowarch, from Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin, who is working as a political consultant explains ethical issues about the property of global ressources which shall belong to the global community.

Emission Trading and reasons for CO2 taxes

The emission trading is a concept of the environmental policy which was established in the EU in 2005 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this, a maximum level of CO2 emissions has to be defined. Based on this maximum, CO2-certificates are issued. Each of this certificates allows the owner to discharge one ton of CO2. At the moment, all industries which are causing extremely high emsissions are compelled to regulate their emissions with regard to these certificates. If they emit more than they are allowed to, they have to pay high fines.

There is also a market for these certificates, so the industries can buy or sell certificates. The problem of this is, that the cost of these certificates is too cheap (4 Euro/ton) because there are more certificates than needed.

Taxes are proportional to CO2 emission. Less CO2 emissions means less payment. That would be a motivation to decrease emissions. It would also be a motivation for technological advances. If technical things use CO2 the taxes would be a reason to change something about it.




Problems of CO2 taxes

Inconsistent implementation Companies, emitting a lot of CO2, could translocate their productions into countries without CO2 taxes, causing less jobs in the taxed country. A burden for economically deprived population layer Of course the taxes would burden the consumer and especially economically deprived population layer. As a balance for the CO2 tax other expenses could be decreased.

The petition - What can we do?

A good way to do something against climate change is to interact with the local politicans. Talk to them about the topic and how they are going to work on it. Also you can do it like Lars and get attation for this topic by collect signs from people in your city. Do you have other ideas how we can fight the climate change? Contact us!

Dr. Kowarsch analyses the responsibilities of different countries on a global scale and also gives insight to the delaying effects of emissions on the climate.

Political actions have different effects on the challenge of fighting climate change. Martin Kowarsch describes the relation of personal and global actions to fight climate change. Germany is a leading country in terms of tackling the energy transition from fossile to renewable energy sources. He gives a brief analysis of the effectivity of political means already taken in german politics.

Dr. Kowarsch explains the importance of the abandoning of coal energy and how to use the instrument of CO2 or carbon taxes more efficiently for our climate. Furthermore he gives some recommendations of what we personally can do to live in a climate-compatible way.