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Your letters: 'Bajaj' to Paris to tackle climate change
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yclones. Droughts. Floods. Southeast Asia is all too familiar with extreme weather events, which turn into disasters ' destroying lives and livelihoods ' when we cannot prepare for them.
At the end of the year, world leaders will meet in Paris to make decisions about how to deal with climate change. One of these decisions is whether they will commit to adaptation funds or money that will help developing nations to adapt to climate change from the year 2020 onwards ' which they are calling the adaptation goal.
Estimates for the adaptation goal vary. Some think US$150 billion would be a good start, others believe only three times that amount will be sufficient. So it's time to speak out for Southeast Asia ' and for our leaders to take our voices straight to the heart of the talks in Paris. Let's urge ASEAN ministers to push world leaders to back the adaptation goal at the Paris climate talks.
As those seeing the climate crisis with our own eyes, we need to lead the fight. It is time to jump on board the #TuktukToParis and add your voice to the call for ASEAN leaders to fight for funding action at the climate talks in Paris this December.
I urge ASEAN ministers to push world leaders to back the adaptation goal at the Paris climate talks.
Women smallholders, for example, have been experiencing the impact of climate change on their livelihoods in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. From Indonesia, Mrs. Habibah, a 52-year-old fisherwoman from Marunda, North Jakarta, has to spend 17 hours every day to earn money for her family since catching fish is getting more difficult. In the morning, she sells fish at the market, and then goes to work for a middleman. She also makes shrimp paste, and sometimes bakes cakes from mangrove leaves, which she sells at bazaars.
'The climate is unpredictable now. The waves are too high for fishing and the west monsoon causing this bad weather will not end until December. But we need money for our food and household expenses. Our lives have become harder because of this,' she said.
Maya Quirino Maboloc
Oxfam, East Asia
