English Files

Submitted on 06/09/2020

The last years have seen a growing influence of corporations and private interests in new technologies. New technologies are being introduced into society without a real assessment of what they are, how they work, who is funding them and what their impacts may be. These two principal concerns inspired the coming together of several different groups in Latin American to form TECLA in 2016.

Submitted on 17/08/2017

Brief Background of the Red TECLA

(2008 – 2016)

Social movements and civil society organizations in general have become more and more concerned about the pace and direction of technological change over the last several years. That concern has been greatest in Latin America. ETC Group and REDES-AT have been talking together and with numerous partners in Latin America about the need for civil society-led Technology Assessment since the global Montpellier gathering in 2008. From the outset, the technology focus has been around agriculture propelled by the incursion of GM crops and the resistance of peasant organizations. The level of concern increased with the “In Defence of Maize” process in Mexico and the petition, supported by ETC Group in Latin America, of a number of scientists calling upon the Pope to intervene in the GM debate in 2014. In conversations with the Vatican, ETC and its Latin American partners have stressed their wider concerns about new technologies and this concern was reflected in the 2015 Papal encyclical. Some of the milestones and meetings that stimulated discussion and lead to this proposal are described chronologically below:

Submitted on 12/07/2017
Geopiracy: The case against geoengineering ETC Group Communiqué number 103 Issue: Realpolitik, we are advised, recognizes that the multilateral system can’t produce an equitable or effective agreement that will mitigate climate chaos: Recognizing this, concerned governments and scientists have no reasonable choice but to investigate technological strategies that could reduce or delay climate change, at least until social forces make a practical agreement possible. Also according to Realpolitik, there is no more hope of achieving a multilateral consensus on re-jigging the thermostat than there is of adopting effective targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, the issue is to create a narrative and construct a governance model that will allow a courageous, far-sighted, science- based “coalition of the willing” to justify their unilateral manipulation of the Earth’s systems. They call it geoengineering – we call it geopiracy.
Submitted on 12/07/2017

The UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM):
A Civil Society Guide for Action
ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration)
October 2016
We need technology assessment if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals