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PRESS RELEASE
Rice NGOs push for climate change adaptation funds
Philippine NGO Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) and other NGOs from Southeast Asia urged the government negotiators from the region to ensure that the United States, European Union and other major emitters of greenhouse gases will finance the adaptation mechanisms in developing and least developed countries.
In a dialogue recently, with the government negotiators from the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam during the climate change negotiations being held in Bangkok, the NGO leaders belonging to the East Asia Rice Working Group called on the governments to stand firm together with the other developing countries under the G77 in securing commitments from developed countries to fund adaptation, not as loans and on top of the current ODA commitments.
“Lives and livelihoods have been lost in developing and least developed countries that are most vulnerable to disasters. Our rice farmers in Southeast Asia who provide for the bulk of the global rice supply continue to endure the wrath of global warming, gravely affecting their livelihoods,” said Jessica Reyes-Cantos, R1 lead convenor.
Cantos said there is no better way to highlight the clear and present danger posed by climate change on the region than the damages wrought by typhoon “Ketsana” ravaged through the region leaving hundreds of people dead and millions homeless.
The Philippine government reported that the agriculture sector incurred P5.4 billion pesos worth of losses as “Ketsana” flooded key farm areas in Luzon, northern Philippines, a latest report said on Saturday.
The rice sector posted the biggest amount of damage at P4.2 billion pesos as an estimated 243,898 tons of palay were damaged when the typhoon submerged 168,065 hectares of rice lands.
Cantos said the ongoing talks in the 15th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are hardly able to agree on the need to fund the mechanisms of developing and least developed countries to adapt to the impact of climate change.
“The United States and other developed countries refuse to accept their responsibility as major emitters of greenhouse gases. They are undermining the principle of “historical responsibility” as affirmed in the Bali Action Plan that demands greater accountability to these long-time emitters of greenhouse gases to finance the adaptation mechanisms,” explained Cantos.
Aside from R1, the East Asia Rice Working Group (EARWG) also includes non-government organizations working with the rice farmers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand.
With Vietnam and Thailand as major producers of the global rice market, EARWG ironically also includes the world’s biggest rice importer which is the Philippines, toppling its neighbor, Indonesia from the topmost mark.
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