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.
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.
Apr 22, 2021 | CCHR, Statements
JAKARTA 23 APRIL – Southeast Asian lawmakers today commended the United States and fellow countries for announcing, on the occasion of the “climate leaders summit”, enhanced action to tackle climate change.
“In this time of global climate meltdown and a devastating pandemic, the United States’ and fellow countries’ announcements are a welcome development to get the world one step closer to complying with the Paris Agreement.” said Wong Chen, member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and a Member of Parliament (MP) of Malaysia. “However the world must do more to tackle climate change. As for ASEAN, we deeply regret that parties like Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore did not use this opportunity to enhance ambition despite being invited to the summit and we urge all countries in the region to put maximum efforts to realise their climate plans. If we do not step up to meet our obligations, we will risk a destabilised region with catastrophic geo-political impacts, including rising food insecurity, conflicts and environmental disasters”, he added.
With the world on track for a temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius this century, MPs highlighted the critical need for more international action to address climate change and the lack of ambition of countries in the region.
Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam’s climate action plans submitted to the Paris Agreement process are still considered highly insufficient and Thailand’s upgraded plan has still made no improvement to mitigate the impact of climate change, added APHR.
“Ambition across the world is not just too low, it’s abysmal. 2021 is the final year for countries to submit meaningful plans before their first review at COP26 in November. More countries, including the United States, must still increase their climate targets this year if we are to avoid a critical situation, with rising numbers of pests and diseases and displaced populations,” said Ibu Mercy Barends, board member of APHR, and Indonesian MP.
APHR added that although the COVID-19 pandemic remains a challenge, it also creates a critical opportunity to decarbonize economies and ensure a green recovery.
“States can harness this critical disruptive moment caused by the global pandemic to restructure their economy at minimal costs so as to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. This means committing to decarbonizing economies, stepping away from coal power and tackling countries such as Cambodia’s alarming rates of deforestation. Last year, APHR submitted a manifesto committing to promoting a sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19. We call on fellow MPs and member states to join us in achieving this objective” said Wong Chen.
The United States announced a 50 to 52% reduction in the country’s greenhouse gas pollution levels in 2030 compared to 2005. This comes as groups demanded a fair share reduction of at least 70% domestically. Japan and Canada announced plans to cut their emissions by 46% in 2030 as compared to 2013 and 40-45% as compared to 2005 respectively. This was followed by further countries’ announcements to increase climate ambition including by South Korea and South Africa.
