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Photo: UNFCCCMonitoring the UN Climate Negotiations
As changes in climate become more extreme, their affects are being hardest felt throughout developing countries. Since 1994, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has laid out actions to limit the increase of global average temperatures and confront the impacts of climate change.
The States that are Parties to the Convention meet every year in the so-called Conference of the Parties (COP) to review their commitments, the progress made in fulfilling them, and pending challenges in the global fight against the climate crisis.
At COP21 in 2015, they adopted the Paris Agreement, which seeks to strengthen the global response to the climate emergency, establishing a common framework for all countries to work on the basis of their capacities and through the presentation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) that will:
- Limit the increase in global temperatures to 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels and continue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C;
- Increase the capacity of countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change; and
- Ensure that financing responds to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Our focus areas
THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The climate crisis, due to its transversal character, has repercussions in various fields, geographies, contexts and people. In this regard, the Preamble to the Paris Agreement states that it is the obligation of States to "respect, promote and fulfill their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, the empowerment of women and intergenerational equity."
AIDA at the COP
COP25: Chile-Madrid 2019
At COP25 in Madrid, Spain, we advocated for the inclusion of the human rights perspective in various agenda items. We promoted the incorporation of broad socio-environmental safeguards in the regulation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which refers to carbon markets. We closely followed the adoption of the Gender Action Plan, as well as the Santiago Network, created "to catalyze technical assistance […] in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse affects of climate change." We also encouraged the inclusion of ambitious and measurable targets for the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants in the climate commitments of States.
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Strengthening society’s call for climate action
When Cristina Briseño learned that the twenty-fifth United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP25) would be moved from Santiago, Chile to Madrid, Spain she felt like crying. "I had a lot of faith in the pressure that an event as big as this would create for urgent environmental issues in Chile," she told me. At 46 years old, Cristina, a Chilean citizen who has always supported environmental causes, signed up to volunteer at the Social Summit for Climate Action, planned as a parallel event to COP25. When the Conference was move to Madrid, the People’s Summit stayed in Santiago. "The opportunity to discuss climate change issues in a country as vulnerable as Chile was missed," Ingrid Wehr, director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Southern Cone Regional Office, said during the Summit. But all was not lost. COP25 was moved due to social unrest in Chile—the result of a historic movement in which the society’s most vulnerable are making their voices heard. In this context, the Social Summit further demonstrated that citizens have a lot to say on environmental issues, and much to contribute to confronting the climate crisis. "In the end, you have to keep fighting with the tools you have," Cristina told me. The Summit that persisted The Summit was organized by Civil Society for Climate Action (SCAC), a platform that brings together more than 130 organizations from different sectors in Chile. It took place at the Tío Lalo Parra Cultural Center in the municipality of Cerrillos, located in southwest Santiago, where the official COP25 was to be held. Characterized by a large amount of waste and unused land, Cerrillos has a desert-like appearance and eroded terrain. "Holding the Summit there meant decentralizing a problem that tends to be discussed in big cities or in the most central spaces of the capitals," Cristina explained. Over 10 days, from December 2 to 11, the Summit hosted hundreds of activities on issues related to the climate crisis, emphasizing the need for more ambitious actions to address it. There were talks, conferences, workshops, art exhibitions, plays, and interactive activities. Participants discussed many issues. While one group focused on socio-environmental activism and conflict, or the role of young people as agents of change, another delved into the impacts of the climate crisis on the ocean and fisheries. Citizens, researchers, activists and community representatives reflected together. From their shared experiences, they demonstrated that the social crisis in Chile is also an environmental crisis reflecting the inequality that plagues the region. "SCAC, which was born with the intention of celebrating the Summit alongside COP25, achieved something very important for the country's environmental movement," said Florencia Ortúzar, an AIDA attorney who participated in an event on decarbonization and just transition. “It achieved the union of Chile’s environmental groups, from the smallest and youngest to the largest and most consolidated. Now we are all connected.” The voice of Latin America Historically, international climate negotiations have failed to respond to the demands of Latin American civil society. That’s why efforts to include the region and the voice of its citizens in climate conversations are so valuable. The Latin American Climate Manifesto embodies this spirit of inclusion. It was jointly developed by hundreds of individuals and organizations from across the region, and launched simultaneously at the Social Summit in Chile and a parallel event in Madrid. The document calls for a better world and outlines the actions necessary to achieve it, focusing on nine water; nature; energy transition; new development models; women; native, indigenous, afro-descendants, and ethnic and tribal peoples; human rights and climate change;climate justice; and climate governance. If anything characterized 2019, it was increased global awareness about the seriousness of the climate crisis and the urgency of facing it together. Last year also saw the awakening of a new social consciousness, and with it the rising voices of the most vulnerable among us, demanding justice. These awakenings are not coincidence, but two sides of the same coin. The call for social justice and environmental justice is being heard around the world, opening up a window of opportunity for change. That’s why it’s essential that human rights be recognized as a central element in all climate action.
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COP25: Organizations call on governments to improve air quality and, with it, slow the climate crisis
In a public letter, environmental and social organizations from Latin America and around the world urge governments to limit short-lived climate pollutants in their international climate commitments, which must be submitted to the United Nations by March 2020. Madrid, Spain. Governments must include ambitious and measurable targets for the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants in their new climate commitments, more than 100 organizations said in an open letter presented today, on the occasion of Human Rights Day, at the twenty-fifth Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "Mitigating short-lived climate pollutants implies reducing global warming in the short term and, at the same time, advancing in the decontamination of our cities," said Javier Dávalos, coordinator of the Climate Change Program at the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA). These pollutants are sometimes called "super climate pollutants" because they contribute to the climate crisis with much more intensity than carbon dioxide (CO2). As their name indicates, they stay a relatively short time in the atmosphere—from days to decades—unlike CO2, which can remain for millennia. Short-lived climate pollutants include black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone and hydrofluorocarbons. They degrade air quality, affect glacial areas, and reduce crop yields. Poor air quality is the world's most deadly environmental problem. Each year, more than four million people die from the health damages caused by air pollution. The benefit of reducing these harmful emissions has been backed by science. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which brings together experts on the subject, stressed that to tackle global warming we must incorporate the mitigation of non-CO2 pollutants, specifically black carbon and methane. In addition, more than 11,000 scientists from around the world noted that the early reduction of short-lived climate pollutants would reduce warming by more than 50 percent over the next several decades. "The coming update of Nationally Determined Contributions opens up the possibility of governments betting on the elimination of these pollutants and thus contributing effectively to the fight against climate change and poor air quality," said Florencia Ortúzar, AIDA attorney. The deadline for governments to update their contributions is March 2020. That’s why the signatory organizations have called for the inclusion of ambitious and measurable goals for the reduction of these short-lived climate pollutants, and for governments to detail how the targets will be implemented, monitored and reported in the new commitments before the United Nations. "The solutions needed to reduce and eliminate each of the four short-lived climate pollutants are not mysteries. They are known and have been proven. But we need governments to prioritize those solutions if we are going to be able to avoid the worst impacts of climate change," commented Amanda Maxwell, director of the Latin America Project for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In addition to the open letter, the organizations have launched an online petition for the cause to be supported with signatures from individuals around the world. Both problems, the climate crisis and poor air quality, most severely affect the most vulnerable segments of the population, among them children, pregnant women and the elderly. Confronting poor air quality is a human rights issue. Read the letter to governments. Read and sign the citizen petition. pRESS CONTACTS Victor Quintanilla (Mexico), AIDA, [email protected], +521 5570522107 Fabiola Nuñez, NRDC, [email protected], +1 (646) 889-1405 Renata Assumpção (Brazil), Instituto Alana, [email protected] Ricardo Ruiz (Mexico), CEMDA, [email protected], +5215559644162
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A Plan to Decontaminate Our Cities and Contain the Climate Crisis
In an open letter made public at COP25, more than 100 organizations from Latin America and around the world urged governments to include ambitious and measurable targets for confronting air pollution in their new climate commitments, which must be submitted to the United Nations by March 2020.Join the Global Call for Clean Air! SIGN NOW!Read it in Spanish In Portuguese Poor air quality is the environmental problem that claims the most lives worldwide.Each year, more than four million people die from the health damages caused by air pollution. Official data shows that, globally, nine out of ten people breathe polluted air, and that the problem affects more than 80 percent of urban residents. The majority of those affected are in developing countries and the damages most severely impact the most vulnerable sectors of the population: children, pregnant women and the elderly.At the same time, humanity is seriously threatened by a climatic emergency whose impacts are also suffered with greater force by the most vulnerable segments of the population.Both problems, the climate crisis and poor air quality, are related to the atmosphere around us and are a matter of human rights. In this sense, there is an efficient way forward on both fronts. It’s an opportunity we must seize, and it has to do with reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs).Short-lived climate pollutants are atmospheric agents that contribute to the climate crisis with much more intensity than carbon dioxide (CO2) and, as their name indicates, remain in the atmosphere a relatively short time, from days to decades—unlike CO2, which can last millennia in the atmosphere. In addition, these pollutants degrade air quality, affect glacial areas and reduce crop yields. They include black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).Aiming to mitigate them implies reducing global warming in the short term and, at the same time, advancing in the decontamination of cities.This opportunity has already been supported by science.The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which brings together experts on the subject, stressed in its Special Report on 1.5°C that, in order to confront global warming, we must incorporate into our efforts the mitigation of pollutants other than CO2, specifically black carbon and methane.Recently, more than 11 thousand scientists from around the world joined the call. In a public declaration recognizing the climate emergency, they identified among the measures necessary to solve it the prompt reduction of short-lived climate pollutants, noting that this would reduce warming by more than 50 percent in the coming decades.The forthcoming update of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)— containing the climate commitments that governments must submit to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—opens the possibility of betting on the mitigation of these pollutants and contributing effectively to the fight against the climate crisis and poor air quality.The deadline for governments to submit new and more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions is March 2020.For all of the reasons stated above, the undersigned organizations consider that the States that are part of the UNFCCC must respect human rights, protect them with the highest standards, and consider them in their climate commitments.In this sense, we ask that governments:Include ambitious and measurable targets for the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants in the update of their NDCs by March 2020.Detail in their commitments the means of implementation, which must ensure compliance with the targets they set.Frame the fulfillment of commitments in comprehensive policies that recognize the different levels of impact among the population, with special emphasis on the protection of children and other vulnerable groups.Specify the monitoring, reporting and verification procedures that will accompany the implementation of their commitments.Ensure that local governments and companies respect the policies established and adapt their actions to the urgent need to improve air quality. Download the letter
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