FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Paris, December 10th
“Women Warming Up! Building Resilient Grassroots Feminists Movements for Climate Justice in Asia-Pacific” – Women from Asia-Pacific at COP 21 Demand a fair, gender equitable truly transformative Paris agreement.
As world leaders are gathering in Paris at COP 21 to adopt a new binding agreement to deal with the increasing impacts of climate change, the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) has launched its regional report “Women Warming Up! Building Resilient Grassroots Feminists Movements for Climate Justice in Asia-Pacific” on Gender day, December 8th. The report outlines the results of a Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) programme that supported the collective work of grassroots women in 9 communities in Asia-Pacific, including the Philippines, Nepal, India,Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and Bangladesh. The programme supported local women to document their experiences, responses and needs to ensure that those most affected by climate change are able to shape policies at the local, national and international level. The very finding of this report is that empowered women’s movements are imperative to responding to climate change, to building resilience, to developing people-centered climate policies and, ultimately, to drive the system change required to shape just, equitable and sustainable futures.
Helen Hakena from Papua New Guinea, Tess Vistro from the Philippines, Alina Saba from Nepal, Toan Tran from Vietnam and Kate Lappin, Regional Coordinator of APWLD were at the launch at COP 21 to bring the stories of the local women that suffer the most the impacts of climate change but are organising to demand climate justice. Alina highlighted that the FPAR programme ‘‘has not only helped woman to be aware about climate change knowledge but also helped them to get organized and talk about theirs rights and participation in local decision-making bodies about climate policies and project. It was able to give woman knowledge, resources and opportunity to help them build their capacity to demand for climate justice“.Helen stressed the importance for her to be at COP 21 representing the voices of the displaced women from Carteret Islands whose voices are never heard: “It is so important that local women views and stories are heard at COP 21 because they are the ones feeling the impacts of climate change yet they have not contributed to climate change. We are here to try to influence the final outcome of this critical agreement, asking governments to put people, in particular women, at its core”.
At COP 21, they are calling on all countries to do their fair share in fighting climate change in order to stay under an increase of temperature of 1.5C and ensure their very existence. Kate Lappin shared that a civil society review of the mitigation pledges currently on the table lead us in a pathways of increasing emissions of more than 3C degrees. This review also showed that the responsible are developed countries because they are not doing their fair share to the global efforts scientifically required to avoid dramatic impacts of climate change while developing countries are doing more than what they are expected to do. The current negotiations reflect this trend as developed countries are trying to shirk their responsibilities away and refuse to provide the means necessary to support developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. At the launch, APWLD members called on developed countries to remedy this situation. Tess Vistro reiterated the call for climate justice and highlighted that “there can be no climate justice without historical responsibility, without ensuring the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), without referencing to the mitigation pledges in the text, without a binding agreement and without financing for a just and equitable transition, for adaptation and loss and damage”. Because there is no gender equality in a dead planet, they ask the Paris agreement to be globally fair and equitable, gender equitable and truly transformative.
For interviews of the FPAR women, please contact Camille at camille@apwld.org
