| Asian Peoples Calls, Initiatives and Actions I. Background Asia is the largest and most populous continent in the world, covering 29.4% of the Earth's total land area and serving as home to almost 4 billion people. It also houses one of the most destitute countries in the world where majority of the population live in abject poverty. In 2001, there were 767 million people in Asia's two regions who live on less than $1 a day. The region of Southeast Asia (SEA), according to the World Bank, “accounts for approximately half of the world are poor." Among the environmental concerns that are beginning to adversely impact the most on Asian countries is climate change. Global warming and the inter-related impacts that it brings about will take a heavy toll on the lives and livelihoods of poor peoples, already reeling from impacts of neo-liberal policies in the region. In many of these countries, a significant portion of the population live in low-lying areas or in dangerous hilly terrains which are most critical to the impacts of climate change, such as flooding, landslides, and super typhoons. These are also the same areas and sectors (e.g. peasants, rural women, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, and urban poor) which have the least access to support, technology, basic social services, and material and financial recourses to cope and adapt to these changes. With barely any means to cope with this situation, the grassroots people of the region become the most vulnerable communities to various impacts of global warming. Yet, programs, policies and funds to help alleviate this condition are hardly considered. Talks leading to the Conference of Parties (COP)15 on December 2009, where a new protocol will replace the Kyoto Protocol, hardly give space to their participation, much less to consider the real impacts on their lives and survival. There is a clear need to identify areas across the region where the impacts of climate change and global warming will be most adverse and damaging to grassroots communities. For while the changes in temperature, sea level, and climate may be localized, the resulting impacts on the lives of poor and vulnerable communities will be felt in differing degrees of intensity throughout the region. Dialogue among peoples and across countries must be strengthened and consolidated; the voices of victims and communities loudly heard. In this light, the Philippine Climate Watch Alliance (PCWA) and the NGO Coordinating Committee for Development (NGO-COD) in Thailand plan to collaborate with other Asian grassroots organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs) and international networks to hold a regional assembly which has been dubbed as the “Peoples Actions on Climate Change (PACC)” from September 28-October 3, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand. Through this grassroots-based assembly, the proponents hope to present the voice and face to the serious impacts of climate change – grassroots sectors in Asia, who are undoubtedly the ones who would be most affected. II. Concept The project shall be a regional grassroots venue for exchange and expression of local climate change issues and coping mechanisms, calls and actions towards asserting their right to access and conserve the Earth’s resources, while protecting and advancing their welfare over the global environmental and economic crisis.
This event shall also serve as a build up civil society action to the Conference of Parties 15 in Copenhagen on December 2009. III. Project Objectives and Expected Results General Objective: To contribute to global efforts to bring about climate justice by bringing forward and highlighting Asian grassroots situation and calls on the challenges posed by impacts of climate change Project Objectives: At the end of the PACC, grassroots and civil society organizations (CSOs) will have
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