This region has many untold stories of those impacted by climate change. Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific made it a priority in the last two years to focus on having these stories told and demand solutions for those impacted by climate change.

This year’s UNFCCC 23rd Conference of Parties (COP) in Bonn, Germany, under the Presidency of Fiji, an Asia Pacific nation, gave FoE Asia Pacific a good opportunity to prepare and release a study titled “Calls for Just Solutions for Climate Induced Migration in Asia Pacific”. The study focused on three short case studies from Philippines, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea on climate impacted people to give a little glimpse of the reality on the ground and to show the world that climate change is so very real and serious.

At this UN climate conference, Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific is demanding climate justice. Every single aspect of human rights and the safety and dignity of climate impacted peoples must be protected and respected. The governments of wealthy nations must stop siding with and aiding dirty energy industries, and take their fair-share of responsibility. What we want is for a fundamental system change to create real, fair and just solutions to save the world and leave a decent liveable planet/home for future generations.

Francesca Gater, of Friends of the Earth Europe and Real World Radio´s correspondent in Bonn, interviewed Hemantha Withanage, of Friends of the Earth Sri Lanka and the Executive Committee of Friends of the Earth International, and Yuri Onodera, of Friends of the Earth Japan.

* This text was written for Real World Radio by Theiva Lingam, regional facilitator for Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific, and Yuri Onodera.