Global Speak Out: Feminist Struggle, Resistance and Joy in the Face of Climate Injustice
APWLD Member Wanun Permpibul delivers a statement at NGO CSW Consultation Day for CSW66.
My name is Wanun Permpibul and I am here today representing my own organisation, the Climate Watch Thailand, along with the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development.
Sisters,
Speaking before you through this pre-recorded video is not what I wished for. I wish I could be there with you on this consultation day. Face to face. Meeting and interacting directly with you, talking about our struggles and resistance in the face of these global crises. The Covid19 pandemic, the worsening climate emergency, and how we harness our feminist power together for a just and equitable recovery to shape our radical feminist vision for climate justice.
Living the reality of climate injustices, it has been globally recognised that women and girls, especially from Asia and the Pacific are disproportionately affected. With their extreme vulnerability, they are presented with no choice but to bear layers of burden, forced to be at the frontline of this war against climate emergency while surviving the increasing violence against their human rights.
The current reality of women and girls who bear the brunt of the impacts while contributing the least to the disastrous climate reality is highly connected to the historical gender injustices.
In my country, Thailand, women working in the farms have been faced with and become vulnerable to climate threats with unseasonal and unpredictable rainfalls, prolonged droughts and extreme heat. Rice and food crops are damaged leading to the loss of household incomes and increasing household expenditure. Their health is also being affected due to being highly exposed under direct sun and working longer hours in their farms. They also implement different measures by using their own resources, access to finance for these measures has been very limited and women are not prioritised.
We are all aware about the most recent IPCC report which stated that nearly 4 billion people on this planet are now extremely vulnerable to climate crises and many are women in the Global South including in Asia and the Pacific. This is not something new. Grassroots women have been consistently loud and clear in showing the impacts of climate emergency including the losses and damages we face on the ground.
Especially for rural and indigenous women who are at the forefront of this war against climate catastrophe, loss and damage is not only about losing lives, houses, farmlands, and other properties. It wipes out their lifelong ties with nature, their forest and ocean, it wipes out their cultures and distinct identity, threatening their existence.
Yet, we are witnessing how gender injustices continue to soar amid the pandemic. We are witnessing how global climate negotiations remain dominated by the fossil fuel industry while grassroots women are voiceless and underrepresented.
We are witnessing the increasing corporate grip in climate negotiations and the continuous promotion of business as usual hiding behind the so-called ‘climate ambitions’ oppressing and violating women’s human rights.
Real climate action is an urgency for women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. Every single step taken by the governments, especially the rich countries in tackling climate crises is a matter of life and death for women in the community.
Sisters,
With our anger for systemic injustices, comes also our hope. One thing I have learned for the last 25 years of my work with the women in the community is that in our collective struggle for justice, we should never lose our hope!
Just like for the CSW session this year, for months, our entire team has been haunted by the continuous uncertainty regarding the whole participation modalities including our access to the UN building. Only yesterday we received the news from the UN Secretary General that CSOs are allowed to access the building, preventing many non-U.S-based CSOs from planning their travels in a timely manner. This is far from the effective and inclusive CSO participation, especially women from the Global South, that we have been continuously calling for.
Despite the uncertainties… With hope and determination, some of us flew to New York and now they are there in the building with you during this consultation day, ready to directly bring the voices of women in Asia and the Pacific. Our hope for a radical change in a healthy planet, our determination for a just and equitable transition from this climate catastrophe is our driving force. However, we still need to remember that there are many missing voices left behind.
My plea is for all of us who are able to attend the CSW physically to strengthen our collective efforts to ensure that the missing voices are heard by governments, amplified in every corner of the negotiation room, and ultimately reflected in the final outcomes of the CSW.
As the global negotiations take place, women in the community continue to present substantial analysis on how the current neoliberal, capitalistic and exploitative system needs to be redefined.
We must keep on strengthening our solidarity to continue dismantling the root causes of climate injustices, gender injustices. We need to continue to be loud and clear in demanding the immediate fossil fuel phase-out, holding polluters accountable for their historical and ongoing responsibility.
Women’s collective power can build mountains and I now am standing on a mountain built by the hope and relentlessness of many women before me.
There is no MY struggle or YOUR struggle. There is only OUR struggle. The win will be OUR win. Because us, feminists and grassroots women’s movements across the globe are fighting a collective fight against the root causes of climate injustices.
Thank you very much!
Watch her video statement here.
