This primer traces the roots of the climate crisis as well as other social crises to the dominant economic paradigm and IBON Primer on the Climate Crisis Roots and Solutions the prevailing socio-economic system in the world today -- a system that has proven capable of generating unprecedented wealth for some at the same time impoverishing the majority of the people and devastating the planet. It shows the limits and adverse implications of profit-oriented technological fixes and market-based solutions being promoted by corporate and elite interests who are determined to maintain the status quo.  It points to the need for a radical change in the distribution of wealth and power within societies and between countries in order to arrest climate change and shift towards sustainable human development.  The primer concludes by identifying urgent tasks for social movements fighting for a just and sustainable future.

This primer reviews the history of ODA since World War II and identifies the major problems with the aid system. It reveals the yawning gap between aid rhetoric and aid practice. It also argues that current donor-led efforts to improve "aid effectiveness" fail to grapple with power asymmetries in aid relationships. The primer challenges the premises, priorities and the configuration of aid partnerships at present. It sketches an agenda for transforming the international aid architecture from one that serves the interests of elites in the North and South, to one that ensures the progressive realization of the human rights of the poor and the marginalized.

This primer is being published as a contribution to the urgent need to raise awareness among the people about climate change, the possible consequences for humanity and the urgent need for action.
This primer takes the standpoint of the world’s poor who are the most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change and the least able to adapt to the challenges of climate change.
The primer takes a partisan stand in pointing to those most responsible for what has been rightly termed as the “great catastrophe of the 21st? century” and the measures they must take to make amends for their debt to humanity.
This primer then puts forward the People’s Protocol on Climate Change as a statement of the stand of the people on the various issues surrounding climate change and what action must be taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change.