ASEAN, GEC: Towards Low Carbon and Climate Resilient ASEAN Community Post-2015
Despite the countless negotiation meetings and hectic schedule, Dr Gary Theseira, our respectable Head of the Malaysian Delegation in COP21 has spoken in the “Towards Low Carbon and Climate Resilient ASEAN Community Post-2015”, particularly on the “Cooperation among the ASEAN Countries on Climate Change”. “(This is) new era of sharing on a number of (different) levels,” said Dr. Gary. Five points of the ASEAN collaboration on climate change: 1. Sharing on information – countries have been sharing the information about the threats such as the rising sea level and the extreme events, at very detailed levels. Furthermore, the Southeast Asia countries have their diversity in terms of climate change action. For example, not all of them do carbon labelling. In this case, Thailand which made a good position in carbon labelling (Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management & Asian Institute of Technology) can share their knowledge and experience with their neighbouring nations. 2. Sharing expertise – different ASEAN countries have different forte in addressing climate change. For instance, Thailand has good education program whilst Singapore has invested a lot of effort on private sectors. Exchange in expertise will improve the capacity of each country.
3. Collaboration of monitoring and hotspots researching – A number of joint programs related to forest and natural areas have been organized between countries, for example, the Borneo forest. When two countries work together, there will be much lesser trouble on forest management and can prevent biodiversity trafficking. 4. Familiarize each other with climate finance and funds – Not all ASEAN countries are familiar with the private sectors of financing and climate. Malaysia’s Green Building Index, which is a monitor system of the building’s lifecycle (eg, carbon emission), is not common in the Southeast Asia region. Therefore, sharing of information should be done to improve communication and knowledge. 5. Drafting the Joint Statement on Climate Change – Although the ASEAN is not a negotiation bloc in the COP21, we have been working as a group to produce the joint statement for 2 consecutive years. This has strengthened the bond among the countries and showed that they are taking it very serious, as the ASEAN members are vulnerable. Food security, indigenous people are important yet fragile in these nations.
After much more anticipated, it is now DAY 3 in Conference of Youth (COY), Tokyo. The day starts with an important sharing session on Day 2 activities. I have shared my reflection on the Planetary Health Flim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2tctLlNycI Mamtaz’s Story” – The fight for climate justice in the Bay of Bengal. Click on the link to watch the video. After watching the video, you may start thinking how am I blessed with what I have today and owning a sense of appreciation. Most of the people never thought about how others are suffering while we are constantly exploring our resources. Nowadays, generation do not even know or care about how the water, food and basic necessity come from. The answer might be water come from the tap, food come from supermarket and electricity come from turning on the switch. From this video, each of every individual can do our parts to save those countries suffering from climate change. It can always be a simple action – Monday Veggie Day, Drive Less and Walk, Save every drop of water, etc. After that, we slowly spread it to friends, family and local community. When there is a change in local community, it will be much more effective to urge government moving toward climate actions.
We continued the Youth of East Asia Action Agenda (YEAAA). It was the final round discussion to adopt the YEAAA Declaration. We managed to reach a consensus between participants on the topics discussed in the earlier YEAAA Session. There is also plan to submit the declaration to ASEAN youth, ASEAN and translate to different languages to have a better understanding. Since COY11 in Japan is the fastest team to come out with a declaration, the final text of declaration is not announced because other local COY are still working on the manifesto. However, the final manifesto will be compiled by COY team in Paris and submit to COP21.
The most exciting moment for COY 11, Tokyo is finally here. EARTH PARADE 2015 in TOKYO! This is the kind of parade which we usually saw it in the news, newspaper and TV especially in developed countries. Now, I have a chance to experience it myself. I am simply amazed by the number of crowds who joined the parade because this is the first year an Earth Parade is happening in Tokyo. http://climate-action-now.jp/parade2015/ . The event started with several stage performances at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Two representatives from COY 11 have given a speech to the audience. It is an honour that youth is given an opportunity to voice up their concern about climate change in public. After listened to the theme song of “Earth-Parade 2015 in Tokyo, we started the march in TOKYO areas. I hold the bunting of Power Shift Malaysia during the march. This comes along with EARTH PARADE CHANT as below:
I say SOLAR you say POWER
I say WIND you say POWER
I say PEOPLE you say POWER
Save the Planet, Protect the Climate!
Climate Action Now!
No more coal No more oil,
Keep your carbon in the soil.
I say climate…you say justice!
I say No…you say COAL / Nuclear
Many Japanese are standing at the side lane and looking at US. We managed to catch the attention of people and most importantly raise awareness. I am motivated, inspired and looking for continuity of such events in future. May be we can have an EARTH PARADE in Malaysia! Lastly, I hope to see more movement from local communities and pushing pressure for world leaders to act against climate change. Think about your children, grandchildren, learnt from history and CHANGE for a better tomorrow.
Amalen here from #MYD, I’m in Paris now for COP21 and the following is my account for today, the 29th of November 2015,one day before the official launch of COP21. If you want live updates from me do follow me on twitter @amalen_fs
Feeling excited to be in the COP21 area!
Its 3.30pm and its badge collection time for us. Arriving at Le Bourget, closest train station to COP21 venue, was pretty standard but once we made our way to the shuttle centre it was intense. So many people waiting for the shuttle busses to the convention centre. I’m sitting in the bus and I’m hearing all sorts of language around, French English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and others I didn’t recognise. Everyone’s excited. And it’s just giving me a whole lot of energy. Our story begins NOW. And I can’t wait to see how things will unfold.
Collect badges – done
Familiarise self with areas within cop21 – done
How I feel right now – overwhelmed. Simply overwhelmed
This place is huge. It’s intense. There is just so much going on and this is a day before cop21 officially starts. There are a total of 6 halls and two plenary halls. And these places are immense. Each Hall has its designated allocations of spaces such as parties meeting rooms, exhibition areas, eating areas, media centre, etc.
Seeing everything and trying to take it in is perplexing me right now. I’m trying to get my bearings and head on proper but still I feel very ‘jakun’. But we’ll there’s 14 days left. Let’s hope things get better.
It’s already 5.05pm and the Opening plenary for the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) is yet to begin. The hall is already crowded with tons of people and more are flooding in. Later on we find out that they had to shut the door after the plenary began and a number of negotiators were stuck outside which created some drama of its own.
Map of COP21 venue
5.08pm and the first plenary for ADP has begun!
The ADP opening plenary begins!
It begins with a moment of silence to honour those that have lost their lives in the Paris attacks and for those that have contributed to the continuing COP process that are not with us anymore.
The outgoing President of Cop from last year (COP20, Lima) gave an opening statement to talk about the cop process to thank those involved and to give motivations for the process ahead.
This was followed by the incoming President of Cop who gave a speech in French about the things that he has in mind for the next 2 weeks as well as encouraging ambitiousness. He then went on to talk about the text and his optimism for it as well as the challenges that he expects. He mainly stressed on transparency.
A second co-president of the ADP followed up about the ADP text and what has been done and what needs to be done for this process. He continued to inform the hall about working group meeting times as well as deadlines and reasoning’s behind them. Something I found interesting was that he addressed observers and where they may be so they can observe the sessions going on properly. And a lot of these meetings will be publicly displayed as well.
After giving all his clarifications, he went on to commence that work would begin today itself and this was not met with any objections.
The other co-president then followed with a lot of fluff about keeping promises and meeting deadlines and the importance of them.
The Tuvalu Delegation brought up an important point of transparency, stating that they had a lack of information about the previous ADP sessions that went on in the past week. The Co-president of the ADP then assured him of the transparency process through the pledges they’ve taken before to ensure this. Ending the plenary, he made an interesting statement about how ‘If we save Tuvalu we save the world.’ Something rather interesting to say, and I wonder why. Something to read later I guess.
That’s all for now. Till next time.
Amalen
Malaysian Youth Delegation
Welcome to day 2 of COY 11 in Tokyo. It’s great to see new participants coming in for today’s session. The program starts from 9am to 10pm. I get to mix around with different participants from Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Of course, thanks to the advancement of technology, I managed to say HI to my teammates in Paris: Emily and Thomas who are attending the COY11 at Paris during the session of “meet a local COY Session”. It is so happy to meet up with team members even though we are far apart. There are several round table discussions today. I learnt the importance of teamwork in finding a common solution. As we know, one voice can’t be heard but many voices make a huge impact.
I joined COP in My City session. The main objective of this session is to bridge the gap between youth and COP. We are given the chance to experience a Model COP in 3 hours. It is just like the real negotiations in COP with each of the participants representing different countries such as: China, India, US, EU and other developed countries. We are given confidential data as a reference. I represented other developed nations which comprised of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and other former Soviet Republics like South Korea, etc. Our main goal is to negotiate a global agreement to reduce green house emission (GHG) based on the current situation of economies and national interests. At the end of the session, we managed to reach a consensus. Each delegation signed on the World Climate Agreement. The organizer will submit the document to COY 11 Paris and COP21.
The first session of the day is Renewable Energy. Participants gained greater insights on what is sustainable energy and what’s Japan has learnt from Fukushima Disaster. It is a disappointment to know the fact that 26 out of 46 nuclear plants are applying for inspections to restart. Japan’s energy policy is not moving towards sustainable energy. Our team, Malaysian Youth Delegation, participated in the poster session where we presented the rice and PowerShift Malaysia bunting. It is a great platform to interact, exchange information and most importantly to inspire each other. If you read the day 1 blog post, we continued the discussion of Youth of East Asia Action Agenda (YEAAA). It can be pronounced as YEAH !!! Team members got together and provided a final solution to the topics mentioned earlier. This is a very crucial step as selected ideas will be included in declaration.
I joined an interaction session between Paris and Tokyo. We discussed about the necessities of nuclear power plants, individual actions to reduce CO2 and important aspects to combat climate change.
The last session of the day was the planetary health flim, “ Mamtaz’s Story” – The fight for climate justice in the Bay of Bengal. The people are leading a simple lifestyle depending on the available resources. They are least responsible towards climate change yet most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
We are getting closer to submitting a declaration to COP21. I am very excited about it and looking forward to get youth voices heard in COP21. This is the future we want and remember “YOU”th are the solutions. I’m counting down to Day 3 of COY11 at Tokyo.
Date: Friday, 27th November 2015
Time: 22:57
Author: Loh Rachel, 18 (Selangor, Malaysia)
Current location: Yoyogi Olympics Memorial Youth Center (Tokyo, Japan)
So before I begin my account of today’s activities, this is a quote that really stuck with me today: “We shouldn’t live at the expense of our younger generation.”
My highlight of the day was the poster making session for the Earth Parade where we designed posters for the march tomorrow. Along with part three of the “Youth of East Asia Action Agenda” (YEAAA) brainstorming session. We will be finalising the declaration tomorrow as well, so it’s a really busy and productive evening for all of us here at COY11 Tokyo! Our declaration will be representing the voices of the youths of East Asia and will be sent to world leaders in time for COP21 to ensure our(the youths’) opinions are taken into account during the negotiating process.
The result of our brainstorming session.
I’ve also learnt more about divestment through a short presentation by 350 Japan and a film “This Changes Everything”. The session was really interesting because it shed light on the possibilities of solutions for climate change…. Divestment is one of them (start Google-ing!).
❤️(movie)
Additionally, my group and I learnt more about trans-boundary haze: its relation to climate change and its solutions. We churned out many creative and innovative solutions including: increasing the opportunities for youths to speak up through organising roundtable discussions, combatting the issue of lack of enforcement of environmental laws by establishing a HAZE Watch group. I’ll explain in more detail after finalising the declaration with the COY11 Tokyo committee tomorrow, so please stay tuned!
Making posters for the Earth Parade tomorrow.
Furthermore, I met with many accomplished and talented youths today and snagged interviews with five of them. I will be posting them soon on my social networks in hopes of inspiring youths who are passionate about tackling climate change.
So that’s it from me, I’m extremely excited for the Earth Parade tomorrow (a.k.a. Global Climate March), where COY11 Tokyo participants will be marching from Hibiya Park to “Kajiyabashi”. Not to mention, this movement will be happening in over 150 countries simultaneously!
The event COY 11 Tokyo is being held at National Olympics Memorial Youth Center. Even though the event is taking place in Japan, there is no language barrier between the participants. Most of us understand English and we try to communicate with each other regarding the issue on climate change. I managed to improve on my networking skills. I am grateful to meet like-minded people especially youth from East Asia as there are many common problems we are facing. Here are some of the problems we discussed: haze, poor air quality, sea level rise, ecosystem disruption. I feel that it is very important to not be SHY in front of people. Keep in mind “Be Brave to Speak Out Our Opinions”.
Highlight
One of the highlights of the day is our guest speaker, Mr. Tareshi. He is from Tuvalu and married to a Japanese wife. It is an eye opener to know the presence of Tuvalu country. It is a small country with a population of 11,000. It is located near to the east side of Australia. People living in Tuvalu basically depend on the local resources for living. Each household must own a canoe for fishing. It is heart wrenching to know that the Tuvalu is getting more floods and droughts as the years come by. They were hit by a cyclone last year and it was the second time being affected by a huge wave. Local communities, especially the youth are taking actions to voice up their concern. The Prime Minister of Tuvalu and respective delegations will be attending COP21. The fear for losing livelihood for the future generation has forced local communities to find a new HOME. The speaker highlighted that should you become a leader for the climate movement, please help to protect Tuvalu.
Learnt
Youth of East Asia Action Agenda (YEAAA): The participants selected five topics that are concerned with the impact of climate change.
Poverty: A lot of consequences of climate change lead to poverty.
Haze: East Asia such as Malaysia and China are facing this issue. The consequences of global warming worsen the haze situation.
Destruction of Ecosystem: Lost of species.
Rise of Sea Level: Islands are most vulnerable.
Economy: The countries which suffer from climate change face poverty, lack of food security, etc.
Guest speaker from Tuvalu : Learnt about how an island such as Tuvalu is struggling for the survival of their people.
CLIMATE: Make it work!. Watched the documentary flim from a COP simulation in Paris to rethink climate negotiations. Carolin shared her experience on how 200 students in her university mimicking the process of Conference of Parties. The negotiation process is tough at the beginning. It is time consuming, tiring, complicated and tough process. It is a remarkable achievement to finally getting everyone to agree on the text and reaching an agreement.
All COYs’ Round Table Session – Meeting with COY from Brazil, France, Indonesia and Canada through Google Hangout. It was great to know youth from other parts of country are concern about climate change issue.
Goal – Yes. I am achieving my first goal to meet East Asia youth who might be the leaders of tomorrow.
Highlight