The final day builds up the anticipation of what the Forum has to deliver as they approach to an end. It started off with an Opening Plenary Session on Climate Resilient Development. An enlightening presentation by Kira Vinke, a research analyst from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, which captures the essence of the Paris Pathway for Asia and the Pacific. She remarked that the Paris Agreement was a success at the conference but it needs to be filled with action. A call for action that was suggested is to identify the most vulnerable areas and produce hazard maps.

Another speaker on the panel that caught my attention is Christina Rumbaitis del Rio, Regional Programme Manager, Action on Climate Today, India, who addressed the issue of climate denial. Even though the evidence of science behind climate change is clear, there are still a large number of people who are still sceptical about the whole concept. “Issue of denial is very real and serious that is affecting progress. I would prefer to use climate change resilience rather than climate change adaptation. Resilience is a better mental framework for what we are willing to achieve. Resilient framing is positive,” said Christina.

The session was then followed by a very empowering “Enhancing gender responsive adaptive capacity in communities” parallel session. Gender issue is a critical agenda. There has to be a paradigm shift of not looking at when as being most vulnerable, although women are most affected, but also the ones that can make the most change. Nisha Onta, Gender and Climate Expert, Woman Organising for Change in Agriculture and NRM, Bangkok (WOCAN), expressed that climate financing is a crucial factor in mobilising women in taking action for climate change. It was nice to see a women majority on the stage for a change.

Written by: Jasmin Irisha Jim Ilham