Southeast Asian Leaders - Go for Solution Not Delusion!
A Joint Statement, Copenhagen, Denmark, December 14, 2009
Copenhagen - 14 December 2009: We, members of Oilwatch Southeast
Asiai and Indonesian Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice (CSF)
declare our common position and demands on the current climate
negotiation in COP 15 UNFCCC Copenhagen. We have witnessed the lack of
leadership among industrial countries to significantly cut carbon
emission let alone show their responsibility to support developing
countries to tackle the impacts of climate change.
Southeast Asia is considered as one of the most vulnerable regions in
the world to impacts of climate crisis. Most of the Southeast Asian
countries are poor and majority of the population in the region live in
deep poverty resulting to a very low capacity to adapt to climate
change impacts. The location of the region poses high risk for
disasters such as typhoons, droughts, earthquakes, and flooding.
We are disappointed that the negotiations in COP15 UNFCCC do not take
into account the reality in the ground that fossil fuel exploitation by
industrial countries have been going from strength to strength. Oil and
gas projects of transnational corporations are mushrooming and demand
for coal is increasingii..
Big foreign and private corporations such as Royal Dutch Shell, BHP
Biliton, CNUOC, Chevron Texaco, Amarada Hess, Conoco Phillips and Bumi
Resources, are the same actors who plunder natural resources and
pollute the environmentiii. These big corporations control and exploit
the rich natural resources of the region particularly fossil resources
like oil, gas and coal. Also these entities with the support of
international financial institutions like International Monetary Fund,
World Bank and Asian Development Bank, are the owners and suppliers of
fossil-based technologies and products that the people of Southeast
Asian are forced to be dependent with.
Given the fact that burning and consumption of fossil fuels especially
oil and coal is the leading cause of global carbon emission, we demand
the national governments in Southeast Asia
To agree on a common position to push for more than 40% carbon
reduction from ANNEX I countries by 2020 from the level of 1990.
To demand from ANNEX I countries to compensate Third World
countries from ecological debt and fund their mitigation and adaptation
initiatives
To declare an immediate moratorium on new exploration and
commercial operation of oil, gas and coal by big transnational
companies in the region.
To define a concrete timeline and comprehensive plan on eventual
phase out of fossil fuel extraction and usage in the region.
In this regard there should be a significant investment on research and
fast development of technologies that harness alternative and renewable
resources of energy that are cheap, safe and clean. This is needed to
make the economy and energy needs of Southeast Asia to veer away from
relying on the production and consumption of fossil
fuels. Majority of the income and revenues from the existing extraction
of fossil fuel in the regions should be automatically appropriated for
funding public services
We oppose the false solutions being implemented and pushed for by ANNEX
I countries and their transnational corporations such as carbon
trading, clean development mechanism, the proposed REDD and ‘clean’
coal technologies. These market-based and profit-oriented solutions put
the interest of private corporations and ruling elite above anything
else.
We push for the leaders of Southeast Asia countries to unite for truly
address the issue of climate change and curb global warming. There
should be a reversal of the orientation and framework of economic
development and production in the region. In this regard, climate
solutions should be based on human security, rectification of
ecological debt, land rights, the change of production and consumption
pattern, to realize social justice and people’s sovereignty.
These principles ensure in the heart of climate solutions are the welfare and interest of the people and the environment.
The Oilwatch Southeast Asia, CSF, PACC, La’o Hamutuk and TCJ remain
committed not only in pushing for genuine climate solutions but also in
steadfastly fight along with grassroots communities against agreement,
policies, program and projects that will further aggravate climate
change and endanger our communities.
Media contacts:
Clemente Bautista, People's Action on Climate Change (PACC), email:
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; cell phone: +45.2639.2749
Ines Martius, Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring
and Analysis, email:
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; cell phone: +45 5274 8769
Siti Maemunah, CSF Indonesia, email:
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; cell phone +45 5049 9567
Penchom Saetang, Thai Working Group for Climate Justice (TCJ),
email:
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; cell phone: +45 2862 7267
[i]Oilwatch SEA is a regional alliance of fossil fuels-affected
communities and support organizations from Arakan Oil Watch from
Burma; Indonesian Civil Society Forum on Climate Justice (CSF) and
JATAM from Indonesia; Friends of the Earth from Malaysia; People’s
Action on Climate Change (PACC), Kalikasan People's Network for the
Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) and Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development
Center Inc. from Philippines, Timor-Leste Institute for Development
Monitoring and Analysis (La’o hamutuk) from Timor Leste; and Thai
Working for Climate Justice (TCJ) and Ecological Alert and Recovery –
Thailand from Thailand.
[ii]Almost half of Indonesia coal production, - around 100 million tons
- , was extracted by Bumi Resources mostly for export. The company
Climate Justice (TCJ) and Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand from
Thailand.
[iii]Today 80% of 216 million tons total coal product from Indonesia is
aimed for export and the demand has been increasing over the year.
