2nd December 2020
Concept note by :
The climate crisis is compounded by an economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic for which none of us was prepared for. The brunt
of the multiplying inequalities, discrimination and violence is being faced by the most marginalised women in all their diversities in the Global
South and our region in Asia and the Pacific. It is now critical to strengthen and develop stronger intersectional feminist political strategies to tackle these challenges as we face rising authoritarianism; sweeping measures restricting movement and political dissent; digital surveillance and crippling debt. States and corporations ‘cope’ by continuing ‘business as usual’; weakening existing laws and policies on environment, gender and labour rights; persecuting indigenous and women environment defenders and are reversing or indicating very poor climate ambitions. Most pressing is knowing that we are nearly out of time to keep the temperature at 1.5 degree celsius.
Discussions with our members and allies have revealed gaps in identifying and strengthening feminist climate justice movements from the
grassroots and national to regional and international spaces from this region. The disconnect from the local to the international level must be
addressed by strengthening national movements that would then influence regional and international advocacy in UNFCCC/COP, Beijing +25, HLPF/SDGs, GCF, etc. In turn, decisions and policies made at the regional and global level should be available and accessible to grassroots and local movements. Moreover, given the challenges of influencing anything at the international level, the success of climate justice depends
largely on national civil society holding their States accountable in their domestic jurisdictions.
In order to build grassroots and national activism across the region, the key is increasing awareness of the climate crisis and its impact on
human rights. One step is to start connecting our work at the regional level to be able to collaborate, increase political awareness and
movement and make a strong unified position against State and corporate violations. Increasingly, our campaigns in solidarity add pressure
to provide media attention and build momentum against injustices in this region. Together we can mobilise stronger.
We host this roundtable with all of you to learn and engage together and strategize on how we can support strengthening a feminist climate
justice movement in this region. Together we would like to identify the urgent climate priorities for the region to then shape our solidarity and
political advocacy.
NGOs/ CSOs representatives participated in the 2 days workshop to develop strategies to contextualise feminist principles into the climate justice framework in Asia and the pacific.
Some of the participants include:
Aksi! Indonesia
Solidaritas Perempuan (Indonesia)
Klima Action Malaysia (Malaysia)
ESCR-Net (regional)
Youth Advocates for Climate Action (Philippines)
Climate Watch Thailand
ALGA (Kyrgyzstan)
Centre for Human Rights and Development (Mongolia)
National Indigenous Women Forum (NIWF) - Nepal
Roots for Equity (Pakistan)
CCERR (Myanmar)
350.org
International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) Asia Pacific
National Federation of Peasant Women in the Philippines (AMIHAN)
Some of the exercises include;
Identifying local feminist climate realities to understand common regional climate (and related COVID-19) priorities in the region,
Identifying common climate injustices in the region,
What are the existing strategies/responses being used to address the climate crisis by advocacy/movements in the region,
Collective sharing on our response to the intersecting climate, public health and socio-economic exigencies during this time and;
Charting the regional platform for the diverse feminist environment and climate activists from Asia and the Pacific
A full report will be available soon
