Chulalongkorn University Campus, Bangkok, Thailand
12-14 October 2011
In late 2011 we organised a regional civil society workshop together with our Network member Focus on the Global South in Bangkok. This event provided a forum for South East Asian civil society to discuss the problems of the CDM, how they could be addressed and what the role of civil society in this process should be.
Over 50 civil society representatives from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines made the journey to Bangkok for this Civil Society Workshop, despite continued risks of flooding in the capital. Participants shared their views on the CDM, on specific CDM projects and discussed their experience in engaging with CDM actors. Many were highly critical of the CDM, pointing out that the mechanism has failed to reduce global emissions and that many projects implemented under the scheme have little or no benefit for the local populations – or even cause harm.
Discussions on how to address these problems resulted in a call for the creation of a stronger role for civil society in the CDM validation and implementation process, the setting up of grievance mechanisms, and in particular, the need for effective public scrutiny throughout project implementation. Joining the critical audience, a panel of CDM market participants provided their views on the issues raised. The panel pointed out that the CDM will certainly play a role in the future. They also acknowledged that rules in place were not strong enough to address the expressed concerns and that there was a need for more dialogue between civil society organisations (CSOs) and other CDM actors.
Participants concluded that there is a clear need for more information available at grassroots level about the CDM and its functioning, to help avoid negative impacts from projects. They agreed that in addition to the monitoring of project-impacts at implementation phase, accessible grievance procedures need to be put in place. These would allow local communities to effectively convey problems to CDM decision makers at all project stages.
Presentations:
Day 1
- CDM Thailand greenhouse gas management organization – TGO
- CDM thailand case studies – Faikham Harnnarong
- Climate finance and the clean development mechanism cdm in the philippines – PMCJ
- Indonesia’s carbon market – Walhi
- Lessons learned from the ground two hydropower dams in the Mekong region – Carl Middleton
- UN cdm principles and practicalities – Jerome Whitington
- Views from different CDM actors – Sudeep Kodialbail (SGS)
Day 2
- Public scrutiny of cdm projects – tools for civil society – CDM Watch
- REDD and carbon markets- a look at two parallel planets – REDDmonitor
- Rethinking the CDM – Fabby Tumiwa
- Sacrifices for CDM – Sumatera and Kalimantan cases
- Why CDM project in Isabela should be rejected – APC
Day 3
