ASEAN can do more on climate, activists say

Martin Abbugao, Yahoo News 19 Nov 07

Environmental groups are piling the pressure on Asian nations to do more to fight global warming ahead of a key climate conference next month, calling their pledges so far nothing but empty promises.

Leaders of 16 countries meeting in Singapore this week have agreed to increase the region's forest cover, promote the use of clean energy sources and protect marine ecosystems, according to draft statements obtained by AFP.

But activists say the declarations from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the wider East Asia grouping including China and India do not go far enough.

"We want to see a more proactive stance from both ASEAN and the East Asia Summit," Rafael Senga, the Asia-Pacific energy coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund, told AFP.

He described the draft documents as "empty rhetoric," adding: "After making statements at the summits, nothing happens after that."

Athena Ballesteros, a climate campaigner with environmental watchdog Greenpeace, singled out leaders of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc for particular scorn.

"Outrageously, if this document is any indication, ASEAN has no intention to go beyond mere rhetoric. This response is not commensurate to the scale and severity of the climate crisis," Ballesteros said.

"The declaration recognises the severe impacts of climate change and yet the steps it is proposing fall far short of decisive action. Worse, it endorses false solutions such as nuclear power and supposedly cleaner fossil fuels."

Ballesteros called the lack of substance especially troubling as ASEAN member Indonesia is hosting a crucial UN-backed climate change conference next month in Bali.

"The very meeting that will determine the fate of the planet is taking place in ASEAN's backyard," she said.

Delegates there will try to thrash out a new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, after the UN's Nobel-winning climate panel warned that the impact of global warming could be "abrupt or irreversible".

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he hoped this week's ASEAN and East Asia summits would build momentum towards the Bali meeting.

"Southeast Asia can also play an important role in climate change mitigation because of its rich forestry resources," which can absorb carbon dioxide emissions, Lee told the Straits Times newspaper.

But Senga said the 16 nations invited to the East Asia Summit -- including Japan, which he called the world's most energy efficient country -- could make deeper commitments in the post-Kyoto era.

India is the world's fourth biggest producer of wind energy and the Philippines is the world's second largest geothermal energy producer, while China is an emerging solar power producer, he said.

"Members of the East Asia Summit and ASEAN have the technologies and experience that they can share with each other," Senga said. "But right now, there are no workable mechanisms by which these countries can help each other."

Senga called on ASEAN and its partners to cooperate more fully so they can "harness these strengths of individual countries in terms of sustainable energy."

Close-up of the Forestry Outlook in Asia and the Pacific
Fe Panaligan Koons, Inquirer, the Philippines, 20 Nov 07

Southeast Asian nations at the ASEAN summit in Singapore are focusing on energy efficiency and to take action on climate change. These leaders of 16 countries have agreed to increase the forest cover and promote the use of clean energy sources and protect marine ecosystems.

But the environment activists say the declarations from ASEAN and the wider East Asia grouping that includes China and India do not go far enough.

Rafael Senga, Asia-Pacific energy coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund, said that delegates need to act and not just give statements. Athena Ballesteros, a climate campaigner with environmental watchdog Greenpeace, said that “ASEAN has no intention to go beyond mere rhetoric. This response is not commensurate to the scale and severity of the climate crisis. Worse, it endorses false solutions such as nuclear power and supposedly cleaner fossil fuels."

The necessity of increasing the forest cover in Asia and the Pacific and around the world is a continuing campaign of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Last month in Chiang Mai, Thailand, participants of the international conference, “The Future of Forests in Asia and the Pacific for 2020” came up with major perspectives on forestry.

Patrick Durst, a former US forester who wrote “In Search of
Excellence: Exemplary Forest Management in Asia and Pacific” and has been in the Philippines and Asia for many years, stressed that FAO in the region continues to provide various consultations with NGOs, country representatives, stakeholders and governments in order to focus on forestry challenges in relation to hunger and environment. “

Durst, a FAO senior officer, added that “FAO provides support to agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural development. It has helped to shape the region’s perception about forests, offered services in innovative ways and assisted countries in addressing forest management.”

Frances Seymour of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) pointed out that “for forests to have a future, constituencies for forests need to influence policies and engage institutions outside the forestry sector and beyond the Asia Pacific region. There should be efforts to promote reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, and decentralization of the forest management authority and increased roles for community based management.”

Participants from the Philippines like Dr. Florentino Tesoro, consultant to the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau said that the Philippine Congress still needs to pass bills on sustainable forestry management and biofuels that would utilize biodiesel and ethanol instead of fossil fuel.

Farther in 2020, Tesoro said, the Philippines will increase forest plantations and forestry would be a source of energy in biodiesel. He added that there is apparently more involvement of the local government units and other stakeholders in efforts for reforestation and alleviation of climate change.

Raquel Lopez, a Filipina with the Center for Development Research in Bonn, Germany, pointed out that there should be more of a social dimension in forestry programs. “Many of the village folks are in need of livelihood programs and income generating projects in the countryside so that they will not have to cut down trees and resort to illegal logging to earn money for their own survival.”

Trixie Clemente a master’s graduate at the University of Wales, hopes to apply what she has learned when she returns to Bicol where she has served as a councilperson. “Bicol has many problems in particular, in dealing with mining and natural disasters. We really need to pursue development programs in a holistic approach.
Forest management that improves livelihoods for local people, ecosystem management and socio-cultural dimensions,” Clemente emphasized.

The Philippine Action Group for the Environment (PAGE), a nonprofit environmental justice organization based in California, is now seeking funding to assist the fisherfolk of Guimaras impacted by the disastrous oil spill of the Petron Philippines tanker last year.

Many of the participants both from the Philippines and around the world underscored the importance of seeking ways to adapt to the changes in the coming years. They expressed the need to restore degraded forests and strengthen forest management programs as well as for the Philippines to summon the political will to finally stop corruption and illegal logging.

Forestry is a major global concern in these critical times and the conference mood was the necessity for revolution, with people, public and private institutions strongly united to survive and stop global warming. Reforestation and regeneration of trees redounds to human benefit. Transparency in government must combat corruption breeding profit from illegal logging, but above all, livelihood must be part of forestry programs fir farmers and peasants who bear the vital burden of providing food for the world.