ATM joins call for climate finance; warns against indiscriminate mining in just transition

ATM Statement | November 15, 2024

Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) joins various social movements and grassroots organizations all over the world mobilizing on November 15 and 16 for the Global Days of Action (GDOA) for Climate Justice. The alliance echoes the call worldwide for the Global North to pay up for climate finance to the Global South.

Jaybee Garganera, ATM National Coordinator, said “we support the demand for rich countries to provide financing to the Global South as part of reparations for their climate debt.” He added that “climate finance should cover adaptation, loss and damage, mitigation and equitable and just transition.”

This year’s Conference of Parties (COP) 29 is dubbed the Finance COP because governments are slated to agree on new finance targets.

Also included in the demands during the GDOA is the rapid, equitable, and just transition out of fossil fuels, directly to 100 percent renewable energy.

Garganera, however, warned that this transition to renewable energy should not be used by corporations to justify expanded and indiscriminate mining operations.

“While we recognize the need for transition minerals, we are also aware that mining companies are taking advantage of the unquestioned high demand for minerals. Already, corporations are greenwashing their operations as they continue to amass huge profits,” he said.

The ATM Head particularly called for a cost-benefit analysis of mining projects that would not only determine the economic costs of mines but also the more significant costs, such as environmental, social, cultural and health costs.

“Also, there should be no ‘sacrifice zones’, where more mining is justified to deliver the requirements of electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies even if this means more deforestation or displacement of indigenous communities,” he added.

He further called on the Global North to reduce its consumption of metals and minerals, particularly for the mobility and transport sector. “There must be programs and policies meant to curb consumption by the Global North in order to lessen the need for minerals and mining operations in the Global South,” he said.