Parallel Event COP27 – Latin American Parliaments Protagonists: mobilizing climate finance

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Presidency of the Environment Commission of the Federal Senate of Brazil and the Presidency of the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission of the Argentine Senate, with the support of the Union Through the Euroclima+ Program, they hold the parallel event “Latin American Parliaments Leading: mobilizing climate finance”, to be held on November 10 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Sharm El Sheikh time).

The event takes place within the framework of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) and has the double objective of: (i) discussing the treatment of financing in the climate legislation of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean; and (ii) express the common voice of Latin American and Caribbean parliamentarians on climate finance through the symbolic signing of a joint declaration.

The side event results from the initiative of parliamentary leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean participating in the Parliamentary Observatory on Climate Change and Just Transition (OPCC). A year ago, at the Euroclima+ Pavilion at the COP26 in Glasgow, fifteen parliamentarians from twelve Latin American and Caribbean countries signed a joint declaration that marked the creation of the OPCC, with the aim of constituting a shared information tool on the state of situation of legislation and environmental parliamentary treatment in the region.

The observatory initiative arose from the identification of the need to strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation so that policymakers can review and pass legislation relevant to the just transition to low-carbon and sustainable economies.

Since then, the OPCC has identified 271 current environmental laws (423 if decrees are included) and 189 environmental bills under concrete treatment in the last two years in Latin American and Caribbean countries. A year later, parliamentary leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean meet again, at COP27, to discuss the treatment of financing in the climate legislation of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and to sign a new joint declaration that will express the perspectives, concerns and commitments that they have in common.

Parliamentary leaders from more than ten Latin American and Caribbean countries are expected to participate in the event, including Gladys González (National Senator from Argentina), Jaques Wagner (Senator from Brazil), Juan Carlos Lozada (Representative to the Chamber of Congress of Colombia ), Ximena García (National Deputy of Argentina), Maximiliano Ferraro (National Deputy of Argentina), Cecilia Requena Zárate (National Senator of Bolivia), Rodrigo Agostinho (Federal Deputy of Brazil), Juan Federico Ruiz (National Deputy of Uruguay), Samuel Pérez Alvarez (Deputy of the Congress of Guatemala), Melvin “Mitch” Turnbull (Minister of Natural Resources and Labor of the British Virgin Islands), Ximena Órdenes Neira (National Senator of Chile – tbc), Gwendell Mercelina (Member of Parliament of Curaçao – tbc), Otis Chuck Morris (Minister of the Interior, Energy and Utilities, Trinidad and Tobago – tbc) and Veronica Dorsette-Hector (Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment te and Climate Change, Montserrat – tbc). Santiago Lorenzo (Head of the Climate Change Unit, ECLAC) will also participate.