Nov 18, 2022 | CCHR, Opinion Articles
By Mercy Barends.
As COP27 draws to an end, the dozens of Southeast Asian politicians and government officials who attended the global climate change meeting must answer a crucial question: are they going to take real steps to address the climate crisis and its devastating impact or continue to treat it as if it did not exist?
With over 56 million living along its coastlines, Southeast Asian people are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. For many in the region, climate change is not just the abstract notion of rising temperatures; it is a real threat to their lives and livelihoods, to their right to health, to their right to education, and even to their right to suffrage. Unfortunately, few among the region’s political leaders take this threat with the seriousness it demands.
A case in point is Malaysia, which plans to hold general elections on 19 November. In December last year, Malaysia faced devastating floods that left nearly 50 people dead, thousands displaced, and an estimated RM6.1 billion (USD1.3 billion) in financial losses. The post-flood recovery is still ongoing today, nearly a year later. The scheduling of the elections during this year’s monsoon season risks further compounding those losses and could limit the ability of many Malaysians to vote.
And yet, while the floods were often discussed in the Malaysian parliament, their root cause was hardly addressed. According to research by Greenpeace, of the 19,401 questions asked in parliament since the last elections in 2018, only 8.4% contained environment-related keywords. The term ‘climate change’ or ‘perubahan iklim’ was only discussed less than 0.3% of the time. Of the 350 questions related to ‘flood’ or ‘banjir’, only 16 mentioned ‘climate change’.
This lack of discussion in the Malaysian parliament reflects a wider reality in the region: too few Southeast Asian politicians are willing to publicly recognize climate change as the inherently political issue that it is – one that threatens the stability of our democratic systems and the rights of our peoples, especially the most vulnerable.
We must recognize that the most politically disenfranchised in our society are also the most endangered by climate change. In the Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone and affected countries, the urban poor often live in informal settlements designated as danger zones because the land is especially prone to flooding, earthquakes or landslides. The impact of climate change means that they are at higher risk of suffering destruction of property and loss of life during, and in the aftermath of, a disaster.
In my own country, Indonesia, indigenous peoples are often the most vulnerable to both the effects of climate change and some of the proposed solutions to climate change that often do not take their needs and aspirations into account.
The urban poor and the indigenous peoples, incidentally, are also groups that have historically faced more barriers to participate in democratic processes, including to their access to voting.
Our national leaders, in Malaysia and elsewhere, need to realize this and prioritize climate change: national governments can no longer ignore that climate change is a political issue, including during their campaigns, particularly with elections coming up not only in Malaysia but also Thailand, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste. They should do that not only for the public interest but for their own as well – calls for climate action are gaining a growing constituency, especially among young voters, who will hold to account leaders who dither over addressing the climate crisis.
So what should Southeast Asian politicians do, starting with those running in the Malaysian elections? First, political candidates can support the climate action campaigns organized by civil society and show a unified front on climate policy. Lawmakers should create a comprehensive climate action framework that covers both mitigation and adaptation measures.
Second, election management bodies tasked with implementing the entire electoral process, such as the Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) in Malaysia, must design a clear contingency plan should a natural disaster strike, in order to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to take part in free and fair elections.
And lastly, both short-term and long-term electoral policy reforms should consider the impact of climate change on political participation, especially among voters whose political rights are most at risk. This could be done through establishing a more independent SPR in Malaysia, by moving its supervision from the Prime Minister’s office to the Parliament, so it can make fully independent and non-partisan decisions, as well as be held accountable for its actions, or lack thereof.
Climate change is here and it is disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable among us, leaving loss and devastation in its wake. The least that those seeking their votes can do is to take it seriously.
Mercy Barends is a member of the House of Representatives in Indonesia, and a Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
This article first appeared in Malaysia Kini.
Nov 1, 2022 | CCHR, Statements
BANGKOK – The rights of indigenous peoples and local communities must be put at the center when discussing urgently needed solutions to the ongoing climate crisis, lawmakers, civil society members, and experts said in the first ever conference on the role of parliamentarians in addressing climate change in Southeast Asia, organized by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
“Climate change is not something that can be postponed; in fact action needs to be taken yesterday. Parliamentarians have a big role to play in order to avoid a climate catastrophe, which will disproportionately affect poor and marginalized communities.” said Charles Santiago, APHR Chairperson and former Malaysian MP.
The two-day conference, held in Bangkok on 29-30 October 2022, gathered former and current parliamentarians from the region as well as regional and international experts, civil society organizations, affected communities and other relevant stakeholders who have been active and engaged on climate change issues.
Participants shared their experiences and knowledge and discussed possible alternative approaches on what lawmakers can do to push further action on climate change from their respective governments, particularly how to ensure that such actions include meaningful involvement from indigenous peoples and local communities, who are often the most affected by the impacts of climate change.
“Climate-induced disasters don’t just result in economic damage, communities are displaced from their lands, indigenous communities lose their culture too,” said Patricia Wattimena, from the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). Wattimena added that proposed solutions to climate change, such as large hydroelectric dams, too often ignore indigenous communities’ voices and result in their displacement.
“Parliamentarians should come to the local communities, listen to the impact of climate change, and the impact of climate solutions, and listen to what they need,” said Wanun Permpibul, Climate Watch Thailand.
Participants also noted that funding for the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, which has been generally lacking in the region, has failed to reach local communities. Funding for adaptation efforts have been particularly insufficient, especially as Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world, with 56.3 million people living on the coastlines.
“Current climate change finance is not inclusive and less than 10 percent of it reaches the local level. Scaling up adaptation finance is especially important because even if we reach zero emissions today, we still need to deal with historical emissions,” said Dr. Ornsaran Pomme Manuamorn, advisor to Thailand’s Fiscal Policy Research Institute.
She added that adaptation finance was needed not just to address climate induced-disasters such as flooding, but also slow-onset events sea level rises, changing rainfall patterns, and biodiversity loss, which can be devastating to indigenous peoples and local communities.
Mercy Barends, APHR Board Member and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, said that influential leaders who champion climate change efforts must be protected, particularly as environmental and indigenous activists across the region have often faced criminalization in the past few years. “All levels of society have to work together in order to achieve a just and equitable energy transition that can help us avoid a climate catastrophe,” said Mercy.
Aug 4, 2022 | CCHR, Statements
JAKARTA – Malaysia urgently needs political unity across the board to recognize and tackle the deleterious impact of climate change in the country, Members of Parliament (MPs) and representatives of civil society organizations said during an event hosted by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) at the Malaysian Parliament on 1 August 2022.
The “Interface for Members of Parliament and Civil Society Organizations on strengthening climate action in Malaysia” brought together 11 MPs and seven CSO representatives for an open discussion on the harmful impacts and causes of climate change in their communities, and the measures required to push for more coordinated and effective solutions.
To strengthen climate action in Malaysia, political unity across party lines is more urgent than ever because climate change is not a local or party issue. No single constituency is immune from its effects, as seen in the flood disaster in December 2021 that affected eight states, resulting in the loss of at least 54 lives.
All the participants recognized that the climate emergency affects all Malaysians, but not in equal measure: the rights of marginalized and vulnerable groups are often more adversely affected. Stronger protection measures for these groups are needed in any proposed national legislation and policy on climate. Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr. Shad Saleem Faruqi recommended parliamentarians to push for the recognition of the human right to a healthy environment in the Constitution of Malaysia, urging Members of Parliament to remember that “human rights do not belong to you and me only, they also belong to the next generation.”
“MPs must work together to use our budgetary oversight to ensure that the national budget is providing sufficient funding to address the adverse impact of climate change,” said Charles Santiago, Malaysian MP and Chair of APHR, as budgetary issues were identified as one of the critical gaps on climate action by the attendees.
The issues discussed included assessing to what extent enacted and proposed measures, such as improving the urban draining system to reduce floodings, contribute to climate adaptation or mitigation. MPs advocated for the adoption of a standardized index on “green tagging”, to measure whether the budget helps to attain, or hinder, climate objectives. They also supported a tax on carbon emissions from power producers in Malaysia, in order to raise the capital needed for a just transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy.
For their part, CSO representatives suggested that their work could be improved if they are granted access to official data on the national budget allocation to climate measures. They also urged MPs to institutionalize and expand current budget commitments, including under the ecological fiscal transfer, to enable state governments to protect forest areas.
The representatives also detailed the need for stronger national legislation on key areas: to urgently cut down carbon emissions by stopping deforestation, a moratorium on building more coal power plants, and supporting ecotourism at the state-level. MPs agreed to develop a legislative roadmap that would help them to identify the climate legislation to push for, an institutional framework to make the fight against climate change a priority across all sectors, and an action plan to ensure the government’s accountability.
Both parliamentarians and CSO representatives at the event noted that, in the absence of an existing institutional mechanism for engagement on climate, it was necessary to widen and strengthen this kind of cooperation between CSOs and more MPs across party lines, and Mr. Santiago announced that a similar meeting between MPs and CSOs will be held in September, before the next Parliament session.
Jun 8, 2022 | CCHR, DFF, Internet Freedoms, Opinion Articles
By Eva Kusuma Sundari.
Indonesia has made a long journey since the fall of president Soeharto in 1998, from military dictatorship to a vibrant democracy in which most of its citizens enjoy greater political freedoms. This accomplishment has been accompanied by an impressive economic growth that has placed the vast archipelago in the Group of 20, where it is the only country representing ASEAN.
By holding the G20 presidency this year, and hosting the group’s summit in November, Indonesia has a unique position to give a voice to the often-sidelined aspirations of the Global South.
The Indonesian government should use that position to promote a form of inclusive collaboration among nations to address challenges that affect humanity as a whole. Among them are the need for stronger and more creative global responses to issues like the devastation caused by armed conflicts such as in Myanmar or Ukraine, the need to increase financial support for a sustainable energy transition, or the impact of the world’s digital transformation on human rights and democracy.
Indonesia has succeeded in sending its military back to the barracks. The country’s recent history of dictatorship, turmoil, and democratization has given it an invaluable wealth of experience that can provide a distinct advantage in its perspective on conflicts and their consequences.
Alongside other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia is already leading efforts within ASEAN to find peaceful solutions to the crisis in Myanmar, acting on the belief that only democracy and stability can foster economic development.
Now Indonesia could use the experience gained by its own history and propose a new working group at the G20 to discuss judicious responses from the largest economies in the world to crises like the one in Myanmar or those plunging countries such as Ukraine, Syria or Yemen into chaos. And, as the third biggest democracy in the world and the country with the largest Muslim population, Indonesia is particularly suited to play a role as peacemaker in the Muslim world.
Wars throughout the world are having devastating consequences that are not confined within national borders: from rising commodity prices, shortages of food and energy supplies, to increases in human trafficking and the production and trade of illicit drugs and weapons. In Myanmar, poverty has skyrocketed to rates not seen in 20 years.
The community of nations is in dire need of alternative platforms to explore new ways to tackle such crises. These platforms would work as complementary channels to global organizations like the United Nations, or regional groups like ASEAN, that have often failed to prevent atrocities, or alleviate the worst consequences of these wars. The G20 could be one of them and Indonesia is uniquely suited to initiate the discussion.
Meanwhile, the need for a sustainable energy transition is already in the G20 agenda, and Indonesia should be commended for acknowledging the importance of taking collective action to phase out fossil fuels and adopt renewable sources of energy.
The stakes have never been higher. The latest study from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed that current pledges to reduce carbon emissions will not be sufficient to slow global warming.
All countries must cut global emissions by 43 percent and reach net-zero carbon emissions by the early 2050s to avoid a climate catastrophe. Implementing a sustainable energy transition that takes into account the needs and perspectives of all the people involved is both the most efficient and cost-effective way to do so.
As a vital step, Indonesia must lead the G20 to agree to accelerate the phasing out from coal and fossil fuels, and to ensure there is sufficient financial support to do so. With its presidency, the country finds itself in the position to push for G20 countries to increase their financial commitments and assistance to those facing major barriers in their energy transition.
Last, but by no means least, as economies and societies at large increasingly move toward digitalization, it is no longer possible to ignore the powerful role played by “tech giants”, or big technological companies, in particular Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple, in shaping not only the world economy, but the state of democracy and human rights globally.
The services these tech giants offer come at a huge cost. By harvesting and selling our personal data in order to predict and shape consumers’ behavior, they track our online behavior in every view, click, purchase, and interaction, in order to analyze and monetize it. The profits obtained by these enormous companies on the back of people’s personal data are bigger than some rich countries’ gross domestic product.
Their unregulated money-making model is also allowing them to profit from the spread of disinformation, divisiveness, and hate. And these phenomena are undermining democracy, stability, and social cohesion in many countries, from the United States, where conspiracy theories like Qanon are spreading like fire, to the Philippines, where online disinformation is rampant.
Indonesia leads the streamlining of digital issues in the various working groups of the G20, and rallies for an inclusive, empowering and sustainable digital transformation aimed at a resilient recovery from the pandemic. But it must also ensure that these discussions do not take place without addressing the damage that the Big Tech’s business models are having on people’s individual rights and democracy worldwide.
Indonesia is not new to playing a central role in world affairs. In 1955, it organized the Bandung Conference, a watershed moment that led to the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement. The world has changed enormously since then, but Indonesia finds itself now in a position where it can once again represent the interests and aspirations of the Global South and help to find solutions to problems that deeply affect all the inhabitants of this planet.
Eva Kusuma Sundari is a board member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and a former member of Indonesian House of Representatives.
This article first appeared in The Jakarta Post.
May 11, 2022 | CCHR, Opinion Articles
By Kasit Piromya.
As US President Joe Biden is due to meet with leaders from Southeast Asian countries this week at the US-Asean Summit in Washington from May 12-13, one issue on which Washington bears an enormous responsibility — and from which Asean countries suffer enormous consequences — will be high on the agenda: climate change.
As the biggest economy in the world and the country responsible for more emissions than any other over the past three centuries, the United States ranks as the biggest single contributor to climate change, a dubious honour that China may be now chasing.
Meanwhile, Southeast Asia is among the regions where the climate crisis is the most destructive, as it threatens the livelihoods, security and rights of the more than 680 million people who live in areas prone to natural disasters, including typhoons, floods and droughts.
This kind of destruction is to a large extent caused by advanced economies like the United States and, to put it bluntly, they have an obligation to pay for the damage their model of development has inflicted on the planet. It is America’s responsibility to financially assist Asean, as well as poorer regions, in moving towards a just, sustainable and resilient green economy.
While our region has committed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, the commitments of Asean members under the Paris Agreement are far from sufficient to halt global warming.
One of the main obstacles to speedier and stronger climate action in the region is not just the lack of political will, but also the costs involved. Transitioning from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources requires enormous financial investments up-front. This is all the more difficult at a time when the region already needs to mitigate its debt crisis after having borrowed money to support the post-pandemic economic recovery. And here is precisely where the United States can and should help Southeast Asia, by making sure that Asean members get access to international climate funds and by financially contributing to support their energy transitions.
Sadly, the US government’s financial support for the bloc on this matter falls way short of the mark. At last year’s US-Asean Summit, President Biden pledged to double the climate finance contributed by his predecessor Barack Obama, raising the figure from US$3 billion (103.8 billion baht) to $5.7 billion, with the stated intention to “make the US a leader in international climate finance”.
However, that pledge does not reflect the US’s fair share of the $100 billion climate finance goal, promised by rich nations to less wealthy countries to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change. According to an analysis by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the United States should contribute between $43 billion and $50 billion each year to climate finance, based on its gross national income and cumulative emissions.
If Washington wants to protect its long-term strategic interests in Southeast Asia, particularly now that China is becoming increasingly assertive in the region, it should step up its commitment to climate finance at this week’s US-Asean Summit to help members of the bloc further reduce their carbon emissions.
Moreover, the US could use its preeminent position at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure a more equitable distribution to developing countries of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). SDRs are international reserve assets that can be traded between the central banks of IMF member countries to support the global recovery process from Covid-19 and address the climate crisis in the Global South — Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
A test of Washington’s willingness to cooperate with Asean in ensuring the region’s economic stability and tackling the climate change crisis would be to use its influence at the IMF to support a reallocation for developing countries of the SDRs’ funds as non-repayable grants instead of loans.
By doing so, Asean would be able to accelerate its energy transition and commitment to the global climate change objective of reducing emissions.
The challenges posed by climate change cannot wait. Asean members should join forces at the summit this week to secure a meaningful and stronger commitment from the US for climate finance in the region, at a time when more ambitious climate-related improvements are urgently needed.
Kasit Piromya is a former Foreign Minister of Thailand, and a Board Member of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
This article first appeared in The Bangkok Post.
