LDC Watch Events

Roundtable on Impacts of climate change on the lives and livelihoods of the people in the LDCs: People testifying themselves

(Voices from the Survivors of Climate Crisis)   

Rationale:

Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are the worst sufferers of the climate catastrophes although they are not responsible for increased rates of Green House Gas emissions causing enhanced global warming and environmental damage. In respect of international negotiations, LDCs' concerns are being sidelined, if not neglected, so it is the reason that LDC civil societies in collaboration with other friendly alliances and networks would like to campaign, lobby and advocate people's concerns and issues in relation to CoP15 in Copenhagen.

Climate change is affecting the people of LDCs very unevenly and disproportionately. These changes are already having severe impacts on the lives and livelihoods of millions of poor people who remain exposed to climate risks. Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and storms associated with climate change are often terrible experiences for those affected: they cause great loss of life, destroy countless livelihoods supporting infrastructures and leave millions of people devastated.  Therefore, the issues of climate change have become central to the development, poverty eradication and vulnerability reduction agenda of the LDCs. Progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) such as eradicating poverty, combating communicable diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability, are in jeopardy without properly addressing the problems related to climate change. Because, climate change is already posing serious threats to the development reality in the LDCs.

LDCs’ existing concerns about food, water, health and energy security have made all the more difficult by climate risks that challenge the goals of inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth.  Although the people in the LDCs are the worst victims of climate change impacts but their concerns are rarely heard and addressed in the official negotiation processes and other international fora. Therefore, it is important to raise voice of the climate victims from the LDCs during the climate negotiations at CoP15, while the transition plan for replacing the Kyoto Protocol is being finalized.

A roundtable interaction participated by different stakeholders including the survivors of climate catastrophe is being organised where the LDC concerns supported by testimonies of climate crisis are discussed.

 Objectives:

The overall objective of this roundtable is to protect and promote human rights, social and climate justice of the people in the LDCs. The specific objectives are:

• To raise the level of awareness of the government delegates, their development partners, policy makers, civil society and the public on the issues and impacts of climate change in the LDCs;
• To influence the policies of the LDC governments and their development partners for introducing adequate measures to reduce the impacts of climate change in LDCs; and
• To strengthen CSO networks to work on the issues of climate change in the LDCs and the world.

Suggested format:

The moderated roundtable will be made as informal and interactive as possible. Speakers and testimony presenters will be given maximum of 8 minutes each to present their cases. In any case, this presentation should not take more than 60 minutes in total. After the presentation, other participants of the roundtable will be given time to interact with the presenters and/or make their points. This round will last for another 60 minutes. The moderator will summarize the proceedings and wrap up the session. All the participants are encouraged to participate actively in this forum.
 
A compilation of the testimonies from different LDCs will also be released during the event.

Discussants and presenters of the testimonies:

Arjun Karki (International Secretariat of LDC Watch), Demba Dembele (Senegal), Azeb Girmai (Ethiopia), Rezaul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh), Elsa Joaquina Araujo Pinto (Timor Leste, Rep. from MS Action Aid Denmark (tbc), Lidy Nacpil (tbc), Mr. Deepak Bohora, Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation of the Government of Nepal, Minister of Bangladesh (tbc), Coordinator of LDC Climate Group (tbc) etc.

Expected participants:

Efforts will be made to invite as many delegates as possible representing governments, UN agencies, civil society, media and academia. We are expecting high level participation from relevant UN agencies, LDC governments and other governments.