On February 2nd, during the 13th session of Environmental Development in New Delhi India, Accion Ecologica amd Oilwatch got the Georgescu-Roegen award. It was given by the president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change R.K. Pachauri, on behalf of a jury composed by several ‘green economy’ figures such as Herman Daly and Joan Martinez Alier.
Georgescu-Roegen was a Romanian mathematician, statistician and economist better known for his book: Law of Entropy and the Economical Process. He was the first economist to talk about thermodynamics and entropy. He pioneered the relation of the economy and the biosphere in the long term – the pillars of the green economy and what he referred to as “bioeconomy”.
Accion Ecologica received this award in recognition of its trajectory of more that 25 years promoting the defence of the environment, rights of the communities and local economies.
In its letter of acceptance Accion Ecologica and Oilwatch state: “We live this award as a tribute to the local, national and international efforts to walk towards a new post-oil civilization that respects life and its natural cycles – of which we all are part of”.
It also states “we live in a context of schizophrenia, we exploit natural resources, particularly we exploit oil in spite of the local and global environmental crisis it is causing; we want to open new markets although we know that the lack of autonomy condemns us; we maintain an idea of efficiency of the economy when it comes to helping the rich and an idea of economic crisis when helping the poor”.
In this document, the organisations has made clear its commitment to “continue defending life, continue working in the initiative of not exploiting the Yasuni and towards yasunizing new territories in different parts of the world. We work together with the global movement – with whom we share this distinction – for the defence of life”.
It manifests also that “the communities that are resisting and defending their territories should not be criminalized but recognized, protected and respected. This award shows that the local resistances, environmentalism, ecofeminism and the defence of human rights remain valid, are necessary, make a lot of sense politically and economically speaking and are part of the international movement that keeps the utopian road open”.
