About the Conference PDF Print E-mail
Join us at a Regional Meeting to
Meet the Challenge of Climate Change
Bangkok, Thailand
12-14 July, 2008


We have no time to lose…in forging a just, equitable, and effective response to climate change!

Climate change will affect all life in this planet, yet the discourse on how humanity should respond has been hijacked by the global elite.

This was glaringly evident at the Bali Climate Conference last December.

The Global Elite’s Answer to Climate Change
There was consensus that significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions were urgent. But, not surprisingly, the main solutions on offer were techno-fixes such as mega-dams, nuclear power plants, and biofuel plantations. That the central problem is overconsumption, especially in the North, and that the fundamental solution lies in replacing the paradigm of high growth based on ever-rising consumption, was not even discussed.

Also hardly a cause of surprise was the fact that strong state action in dealing with the crisis was discouraged in favor of the market. Like everything else, the world was told, the climate crisis will be solved by the “magic” of the market. As a t-shirt distributed by a business “NGO” proclaimed: “I love emissions trading.”

The subtext at Bali was: techno-fixes and the carbon market will make the transition relatively painless and—why not?—profitable, too.

Dangerous Illusions
Pinning our hopes on the market and techno-fixes is dangerous: not only is there no guarantee that they will work, as we have already seen by the failure of the European carbon trade and the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions, but they will inevitably increase injustice and inequity. The rich countries and corporations and those who control the technology will be in a position to take advantage of the new regime, leaving the global South once again marginalized and powerless.

A Network is Born
At the sidelines of the Bali meeting, on December 14, a number of organizations came together to denounce the absence of a justice dimension in the climate change negotiations. They resolved to break the elite capture of the climate discourse and to bring the perspectives of those below to the crafting of a response to the climate crisis. They warned that without people’s participation in forging the solution, there will be no lasting answer to global warming. They pointed out that even as the climate debate is framed by the media as a North-South issue, the elites of the South benefit as well from a model of growth based on overconsumption and, like their counterparts in the North, prefer technofixes and market-based mechanisms as the “solution” to the climate crisis.

From this meeting emerged the Climate Justice Now! Network, which pledged to recapture the discourse on climate change and contribute to forging a truly pro-people and pro-environment approach to meeting the challenge of global warming. In their first press release, CJN’s founding members expressed their support for the following propositions:

- reduced consumption of the North and global elite

- substantial financial transfers from North to South--based on the principles of historical responsibility and ecological debt--for adaptation and mitigation; such funds would come from money derived from cutting military budgets, innovative taxes, and debt cancellation;

- a strategy of keeping fossil fuels in the ground and investing in and developing appropriate technology, energy-efficiency, and safe, clean, and community-led renewable energy, even if this means discarding obsolete and unjust pro-corporate patent regimes;

- rights-based resource conservation that enforces indigenous land rights and promotes people’s sovereignty over energy, forests, and water; and

- sustainable family farming and people’s food sovereignty.

Articulating these ideas was seen the start of a process that would eventually result in a more fully fleshed out answer to the climate crisis as well as a strategy that would translate it to policy globally.

From Bali to Bangkok
In July, 2008, this meeting in Bangkok will discuss and promote the climate justice agenda and contribute to the expansion and consolidation of the Climate Justice Now! Network.

Although the conference is intended primarily as a regional meeting of Asia-based organizations and movements, the meeting will be and open and inclusive one that will welcome the participation of groups from other parts of the South as well as organizations from the North.

The next critical intergovernmental meeting on climate change, Conference of Parties 14 (COP 14), will take place in Poznan in December 2008. By then, there must be in place a network that will make its presence felt in the forging of a global agreement that would truly take into account justice and the welfare of the world’s poor and marginalized peoples.

We face a global emergency and we must respond quickly. But a solution to climate change that is not just and equitable is no solution at all.

COORGANISERS AND SUPPORTERS (AS AT 18 June 2008)

Focus on the Global South (India, Philippines, Thailand)
Nicola Bullard, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jacques-chai Chomthongdi, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Benny Kuruvilla, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Joseph Purugannan, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), United States
Janet Redman, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
John Cavanagh, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thai Working Group for Climate Justice, Thailand
Sajin Prachason, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Green Net, Thailand
Vitoon Panyakul, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Legal Rights & Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth Philippines
Judy Pasimio, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

North East Peoples Alliance on Trade Finance and Development, India
Wangkheirakpam Ram, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jitn Yumnam, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ravindra Nath, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kerala Independent Fishworkers Federation
T Peter, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The National Forum of Forest Workers and Forest People, India
Souparna Lahiri, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Gerak Lawan, Indonesia
Mohammed Ikhwan, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jack Syah, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Dani Setiawan, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tejo Pramono, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Elisha Kartini, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ridwan Darmawan, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

JATAM (Indonesia Mining Advocacy Network), Indonesia
Arief Wikasono, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Nadi, Indonesia
Titi Soentoro, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia
Risma Umar, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development/Jubilee South
Lidy Nacpil, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

gendercc -- women for climate justice
Ulrike Rohr, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Via Campesina (to be confirmed)
Nico Verhagen, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tejo Pramono, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

World Federation of Fisher People
Herman Kumara, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative
Nia Robinson, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Carbontrade Watch/TNI
Tamra Gilbertson, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Kevin Smith, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Oscar Reyes, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

International Forum on Globalisation
Victor Menotti, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Our World is Not for Sale (OWINFS) Climate Working Group
Verda Cook, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Migrant Forum in Asia
William Gois, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
Changgeun Lee, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ATTAC Japan
Yoko Akimoto, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

OilWatch Southeast Asia
Penchom Tang, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Friends of the Earth Australia
Stephanie Long, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

With support from
Larry Lohmann, Cornerhouse, UK


FUNDERS
Isvara Foundation
Mike Sansom, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

11.11.11, Belgium
Hanneke Ven Eldik Thieme, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Christian Aid, UK
Ben Hobbs, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Caipirinha Foundation, US
Iara Lee and Claude Ibrahimoff, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Texas Harambe Foundation, US
Jere Lock, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Gale Spear, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Solidago Foundation, US
Sarah Christiansen, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Heinrich Boell Foundation, Thailand/Germany
Supaporn Khrutmuang, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it