Sihanouk Ville hosts CALD’s Climate Change Summit

Sihanouk Ville – this picturesque Cambodian province overlooking the Gulf of Thailand served as the venue of the most recent CALD climate change event last 12-16 June 2015.  Attended by CALD member-party representatives from Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand, as well as by a Norwegian resource person from International Federation of the Liberal Youth (IFLRY), the event’s theme focused on the upcoming United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Paris, France towards the end of the year, and how CALD could make a positive contribution to this global environmental gathering.

The summit was divided into three distinct but interrelated events – a seminar, a workshop, and a youth conference.  The international participants first gathered in Phnom Penh on 12 June, and were treated to a welcome dinner and cultural show hosted by the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).  The following day, 13 June, they, together with CNRP members, travelled south to Sihanouk Ville for the start of the summit proper. “International Climate Change Negotiations: How Far Have We Gone” was the theme of the opening seminar, and featured a panel discussion with veteran climate change negotiators such as CNRP’s Saumura Tioulong, Democrat Party (DP) of Thailand’s Monthip Sriratana-Tabucanon, and IFLRY’s Tone Bjorndal.  Speaking on the importance of adaptation and mitigation, Bjorndal noted: “It may be difficult for people to understand how important adaptation is for countries that suffer from climate change today. On the other hand, you would also need mitigation to reduce the need for adaptation, because if you don’t actually reduce emissions, the effects would be worse. We need both.”

On 14 June, the workshop, “Preparing for COP21: Asian Perspectives on Climate Change”, took place with the goal of facilitating “the drafting of a CALD Climate Change Statement for COP21 that outlines a comprehensive Asian perspective on climate change”.  After another round of inputs from Tioulong, Sriratana-Tabucanon and Bjorndal, the participants actively discussed and debated the most important climate change issues and concerns in the region through highly participative methods like Open Space technology and World Café.  Highlighting the importance of disaster risk reduction in effective climate change response, Tioulong said:  “The philosophy behind disaster risk reduction is a philosophy of prevention… We have to use (it) in order to reduce the vulnerability of our population to natural hazards.”

After the workshop sessions, a plenary on the results of the discussions followed, where the CALD Statement for COP21 was finalized.  The day ended with the adoption of the statement, which CALD hopes to present to the Paris Conference through CALD Chairperson and United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Chairperson Oyun Sanjaasuren and IFLRY’s Bjorndal.

The last day of the summit, 15 June, commenced with the participants travelling back to Phnom Penh for the youth conference at the CNRP headquarters.  With more than a hundred Cambodian youth in attendance, the panelists – which included Bjorndal, CALD Youth Secretary General Kashane Wangpatravanich, and CNRP Members of Parliament Yim Sovann and Phirum Keo – tackled how the youth could play a constructive role in addressing climate change, particularly in relation to the Cambodian context.  The event also witnessed the launch of CALD’s climate change educational video, which caters to the youth in particular. Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OezNcLPa7AU.

“Climate change is the theme of many international conferences and international negotiations”, said CNRP President and former CALD Chairperson Sam Rainsy. “Many of those international negotiations are slow because of the conflicting interests of developed countries and developing countries.  It is all the more important that we exert more pressure – for the youth to exert pressure on more senior leaders – so the latter can make appropriate decisions”, he added.