MyClimate researchers organise panel at Burma Studies Conference
On 9-11 June 2023, researchers from the MyClimate project organized and participated in a panel for the 15th International Burma Studies Conference entitled ‘The Politics of Climate Change Actions Amidst Myanmar's Deepening Political and Environmental Crisis’.
The panel began with a paper presentation by senior researchers on the MyClimate project, Helene Maria-Kyed and Myat Thet Thitsar. Drawing on a community researcher study across Myanmar, their paper explored local perceptions of climate change and its perceived relationship to extractive activities of powerful military and armed group elites. Justine Chambers, a postdoctoral research fellow at DIIS, then presented a paper on the lives of Indigenous Karen communities displaced by military airstrikes, and the increasing challenges they face as a result of climate change. Saw John Bright from the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) then followed, with a discussion of the importance of grassroots driven and indigenous led initiatives on climate change that seek to simultaneously support local livelihoods, cultural traditions and protect the environment. Marianne Mosberg, a PhD student at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, then presented her PhD research on the politics of internationally-led climate change adaptation interventions before after the 2021 military coup. Finally, Naw Thiri May Aye, a researcher from the Autonomous University of Barcelona spoke about the violence, values and virtues of climate change discourse, based on insights from the Environmental Justice Atlas.
The panel highlighted the significant challenges facing communities and the environment in Myanmar in the post-coup context and the importance of investing in grassroots community-led initiatives, rather than directing climate change assistance through the military state.
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