Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific is active in the process of developing an ambitious new global plastics treaty that seeks to end plastic pollution by dramatically reducing plastic production, consumption and trade, and scaling up system change solutions.
Economic Justice and Resisting Neoliberalism
We believe our economic system should improve people’s lives and the environment. Yet the current dominant economic thinking —often referred to as neoliberalism— puts greed and private interests ahead of people and the planet.
Popular movements now and in the past show us there is another way forward. The domination of neoliberalism needs to be challenged to be able to create better conditions for alternative systems with a more sustainable and equitable approach.
Trade agreements, investment contracts and resource use policies are often conducted without public access. Yet these affect the lives of peoples and communities. They could spell the displacement of communities, violation of peoples’ rights and the destruction of the environment. The work forward requires exposing and challenging the influence of big corporations and international institutions, interrogating the neoliberal policies promoted by development banks and opposing trade negotiations that open market access to corporations instead of taking people’s needs into account. We point out the contradictions of the current development model and expose how today’s economic system benefits a few while impoverishing many.
With social movements, including feminists, indigenous people and peasant movements around the world, we work in solidarity against destructive logging by big companies, the push for large scale agro-industrial plantations, and mining investments and projects that local communities do not want. We advocate for a legally binding treaty to hold transnational corporations to account on human rights and environmental abuses. We expose and denounce the power of corporations in policies and practices that prevent communities from asserting their rights to sustainable livelihoods and environmental justice.
We advocate economic justice solutions that promote sustainable and culturally appropriate livelihoods like cooperatives and public services that reduce inequality, contribute to equitable power relations including between women and men and expand the role of cooperation, community management and sustainable planning in all aspects of life.
“People powered solutions show a pathway to change; our challenge is to scale them up.”
Hemantha Withnage, Centre for Environmental Justice, Sri Lanka
What is Neoliberalism?
Neoliberalism is a form of free market fundamentalism that has been the dominant global economic ideology for the last 30 years in which profit and “efficiency” are the central goals of society. It is a framework focused on reducing the role of the state and taxation, while promoting privatisation, deregulation and corporate trade deals. This has led to soaring inequality, whereby just 8 people have the same wealth as half the world’s population and an environmental crisis in the form of unprecedented species loss and dangerous climate change.
For more information contact:
Regional Program Coordinators
Email: foeapac_programmes@lists.foei.org
Reflections on a year into the Marcos Jr. Presidency
June 30 marks Year 1 of the regime under Philippine president Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr., son of previously deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The Philippines is both a globally critical hotspot of biodiversity and natural resources and a historic beacon of...
Podcast: A Year into the Marcos 2.0 Regime
June 30 marks the full circle of the first year under Philippine president Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., son of previously deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The Philippines is both a globally critical hotspot of biodiversity and natural resources, and a...
Historic negotiations on global plastic treaty move forward despite attempts from polluting interests to delay
3 June 2023, Paris The second round of negotiations for a new global treaty to end plastic pollution has concluded in Paris, France. After five days of negotiations, important steps forward in the process towards ambitious global action have been made. Key outcomes...
Meet Asia’s zero-waste warriors fighting for a new global plastics treaty
A new global plastics treaty might become reality this week, when heads of State, Ministers of Environment and other representatives from 175 countries will meet in Paris for the second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international...
Podcast: Breaking the Plastic Cycle in Asia
Asia is drowning in plastic, with national production and imports from the global north having devastating environmental and public health impacts. According to a report by Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific, most South and East Asian countries lack proper waste...
Waters of March: Action for rivers in the Philippines
The Philippines has 421 principal rivers spread across 119 proclaimed watersheds. Aside from providing water to drink for 110 million Filipinos, these are also the source of irrigation for almost a million hectares of agricultural lands across the nation, and a...
Prosecute Coca Cola Company and compensate the people of Plachimada
Friends of the Earth India (FoE India) stands in solidarity with the people of Plachimada in Kerala, India, who have been waiting for years for compensation for the losses they have suffered due to Coca-Cola Company’s plant in the region. In addition, FoE India raises...
Friends of the Earth India extends full solidarity to the fishers and farmers resisting the ecologically destructive Vizhinjam Sea Port
Friends of the Earth India extends its solidarity to the fishers of Trivandrum, Kerala, who are demanding immediate end to the construction of the Adani Vizhinjam International Seaport. The project is an ‘international transshipment deep water multipurpose seaport’...