Call for Civil Society’s Participation
In the 2nd ASEAN Peoples’ Forum / 5th ASEAN Civil Society Conference
18-20 October 2009
Cha-am, Phetchaburi Province, Thailand
http://aseanpeoplesforum.net
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The issue of climate change has come to the forefront and people both in the North and the South have been feeling the devastating effects of global warming. However, the links between the neo-liberal system and the model of over consumption to the climate crisis are not clearly stated.
Filipino Parliamentarian Walden Bello and Australian Carbon Trader Doji Sun Debate Carbon Trade
Al Jazeera Special on Carbon Trading
101 EAST: Cash for Carbon
Imagine a way to save tropical rainforests without having to reduce greenhouse gases. Imagine a way to make environmental conservation profitable.
Some claim carbon trading is the best option for major corporations to pay for emitting pollution.
They can do this by buying a forest, or funding a conservation program in a developing country. But critics say this billion dollar business will only benefit banks and investors and allow polluters to keep on polluting.
The global carbon market is expanding, particularly in Asia. But is it reducing emissions or impeding real solutions to climate change?
On this edition of 101 East, we ask if carbon trading can slow down global warming.
This episode of 101 East airs from Thursday, February 18, 2010 at the following times GMT: Thursday: 1230; Friday: 0300; Saturday: 0530, 1730; Sunday: 0330, 1130; Monday: 1630; Tuesday: 1430; Wednesday: 0830, 1930; Thursday: 0630.
For more information please visit: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/
The Prince of Denmark
by Akbayan! Representative Walden Bello
Like Hamlet, Shakespeare’s conflicted Prince of Denmark, China was caught between conflicting currents in Copenhagen. Its failure to manage these led to its biggest diplomatic debacle in years.
Almost a month after the debacle at the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen (Conference of Parties or COP 15), the question of who scuttled the talks elicits fury and derision.
Interestingly, in many accounts, President Barack Obama comes across either as a figure who valiantly tries to rescue a doomed conference or as a well-meaning head of state whose hands are unfortunately tied by the realities of US politics
(Click the image to enlarge. From L to R) Paul de Clerck from the NGO Friends of the Earth
International, Dorothy Guerrero from NGO Focus on the Global South and
Canadian author Naomi Klein annouce the winner of the Angry Mermaid
award, given to the company which has done the most to sabotage
effective action to tackle climate change, at the Bella center.
Monsanto received 37% of the votes ahead of Royal Dutch Shell 18% and
the American Petroleum Institute 14%.
(Photo courtesy of the guardian)
UN: Leaked document not formal text
The head of the UN
Climate Change Secretariat has said a leaked text which appears to
undermine the existing Kyoto Protocol and on-going UN
climate negotiations in Copenhagen is out of date and is unlikely to
constitute the final outcome.
There has been widespread anger among developing nations over the document, which was leaked by The Guardian, a British newspaper and appears to have been drawn up by a small group of rich nations including the US, UK and Denmark.
The G 20, Global Capital, and the Conjuncture: An Interview with Walden Bello
(From International Socialist Review, November-December 2009 (No. 68))
Walden Bello is a longtime global justice activist, professor of sociology, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and senior analyst at Focus on the Global South. He was recently elected to the House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines on the platform of the Akbayan! (Citizens’ Action Party), and his newest book, The Food Wars, has just been released by Verso. The International Socialist Review’s ASHLEY SMITH interviewed him at the People’s Summit in Pittsburgh held prior to the G20 summit at the end of September. The article first appeared in International Socialist Review issue 68, November-December 2009.
WHAT IS the G20, why was it formed, and what is its political function?
FIRST OF all, there are a great number of questions that must be posed regarding this meeting of the G20. The G20 is a body that was formed in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. The G8, the group of Western economic powers, included all its members and chose a select group of other members from the global south. It is an informal body and it really does not enjoy any legitimacy as an institution to formulate a response to the global crisis. Obviously it was an attempt to subvert the authority of the United Nations as a body. The UN is the only body with any legitimacy to deal with this crisis. It’s also a kind of admission that the multilateral system, the main institutions of which are the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have so little legitimacy. So to entrust the solution to the crisis to these organizations would enjoy very little support. So that’s why the G20 came into being. It is a self-appointed body dominated by the United States and the European countries, with a few countries like China and Brazil and India thrown in for some sort of cover, but with no real authority that would be respected.
Water justice, like water, travels in networks: notes on reclaiming public water
An
international seminar of the Reclaiming Public Water Network brought
together participants from more than 30 countries, who shared knowledge
and experiences about how to improve water provision through the
democratization of water management.
The initiative People’s Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms, involves regional alliances such as Hemispheric Social Alliance (Latin America), Southern African People’s Solidarity Network- SAPSN (Southern Africa), Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy – SAPA (South East Asia), People’s SAARC (South Asia) as well as organisations and networks in Europe, including Transnational Institute (TNI), that struggle for “Another Europe”. These networks and the organisations part of them, share a strong commitment on the need to RECLAIM the regions, RECREATE the processes of regional integration and ADVANCE people-centered regional alternatives.
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