A three-day Study and Strategy Seminar dubbed "On Cancun Agreements and Developments and the Road to Durban and Beyond" was organized by JSAPMDD from March 29 to 31 at the Ibis Sathorn Hotel in Bangkok. Participants included members of JSAPMDD as well as the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice.

The seminar sought to (1) collectively discuss the Cancun agreements, trends and dynamics, positions of governments and major blocs and their implications; (2) gain deeper understanding of the scientific and technical aspects of the issue; (3) further develop the platform on climate finance in the light of Cancun developments; (4) develop specific strategy and calls regarding emission cuts through domestic measures; and (5) come up with a collective plan for key tasks, common activities and joint actions on key issues.

On the first day of the seminar, JSAPMDD Regional Coordinator Lidy Nacpil provided a review of unities of JSAPMDD as she gave a rundown on the basic concepts that govern climate change, climate debt and reparations for climate debt. Matthew Stillwell of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development tackled the effects and causes of climate change, and what climate debt and reparations are all about.

On the other hand, Lim Li Lin from the Third World Network discussed the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol structure, particularly the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA). Philippine negotiator Bernarditas Muller gave an assessment of the UNFCCC as it relates to the Cancun decisions.

The second day of the seminar consisted of a discussion by Lidy Nacpil on the two-track campaign regarding climate change that was decided by JSAPMDD's Regional Committee. First is the demand for deep drastic emissions cuts from Annex 1 countries, with the US as the main target, as well as opposition to false solutions such as offsets, carbon trading, REDD, biofuels, and harmful and dirty energy. Second is the call for climate finance, alternative global climate fund and national mechanisms, fair and just allocation and proper use of funds.

The body broke out into workshop groups to brainstorm on specific calls, demands and slogans for the campaigns, the objectives and targets, as well as regional and national initiatives that can be conducted towards realizing the objectives.

Two workshop sessions were also undertaken during third day of the seminar. The first one

involved a discussion of the substance of the position of JSAPMDD on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as well as the perspectives and platforms on adaptation. The second involved calls, strategies and plans to advance the alliance's work and campaigns on 1) World Bank and ADB Out of Climate Finance; 2) the GCF; and, 3) monitoring and addressing developments in the GCF.

Later, Mithika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance shared information about his organization as well as their initial plans for the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) 17 in Durban this November. Meanwhile, Nicola Bullard of the Climate Justice Network (CJN) talked about CJN and its initiatives. Asad Rehman of Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) tackled the developments in climate talks in view of the decisions reached in Cancun.

After the sharing of the panelists, the seminar ended with a report back on the results of the workshop discussions.