- Asian Civil Society Groups Call For 'Climate Justice'

Over 170 activists who gathered in Bangkok from 12-14 July harshly criticised governments and corporations for their failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They called for "climate justice" and a "fundamental departure from the current global order" to solve the climate crisis. Conference participants included fishers and farmers, forest and indigenous peoples, women, youth, workers and activists from 31 countries.

"By climate justice," participants asserted in a conference document, we mean that the burden of adjustment to the climate crisis must be orne by those who have created it, and not by those who have been east responsible."

The conference signaled the growing voice of social movements and ivil society groups in Asia on the issue of climate change.

Throughout the three-day conference, participants repeatedly xpressed frustration at how governments and corporations, who have hus far dominated the climate discussion, have failed to address the oot causes of planet-threatening climate change.

After over 30 workshops and plenary debates, participants reached onsensus on their opposition to carbon trading and "offset" schemes, uch as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Reduced missions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) rogram, which allow polluters to buy their way out of reducing missions.

Participants also rejected industrialized agrofuels, megadams, and uclear power, saying these "false solutions" will "merely exacerbate he climate crisis and deepen global inequality."

As a solution, participants insisted that governments must confront the roblem of overconsumption, both in developed countries as well as mong elites in poorer countries.

The conference heard that while industrialized countries have been esponsible for about 90% of historical greenhouse gas emissions, 9% of the risks posed by climate change are being borne by people rom developing countries.

"Dealing with the climate crisis inevitably involves a fundamental eparture from the current global order, and a comprehensive ransformation of social, economic, political and cultural relations at he local, national, and global level," participants concluded.

The conference was hosted by Focus on the Global South, a policy nd advocacy group housed at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, ogether with 24 other co-organizers from around the world. The
majority of participants came from Asian countries, but there were also epresentatives from North America, Europe, Latin America, and frica.

For more information about the conference, go to
www.focusweb.org/climatechange

World Rainforest Movement - http://www.wrm.org.uy
Article published in the English edition of WRM Bulletin, N? 132,
July 2008.
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