Parliamentarians committed to building a regional agenda for climate ambition and just transition

Parliamentarians from Latin America and the Caribbean pledged today to build a concrete regional agenda for climate ambition and just transition, during the first Parliamentary Summit on Climate Change and Just Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean that was held at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

The meeting, held within the framework of the first face-to-face meeting of the Parliamentary Observatory for Climate Change and Just Transition (OPCC), was attended by parliamentarians participating in the OPCC from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador, and the British Virgin Islands. , Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.

In a Joint Declaration, the legislators agreed, especially, to promote actions related to the conservation of ecosystems, the financing framework and green and sustainable taxonomy; budgets for sustainability; and sustainable and climate-resilient development and green industrialization towards a new economic model.

In terms of ecosystem conservation, the parliamentarians committed, among other things, to promote initiatives for the protection, conservation and restoration of ecosystems, seeking the imperative of expanding the surface of protected natural areas in line with the “30×30” goal of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, also promoting the creation of ecological corridors and other areas for the conservation of species, providing them with legal certainty through specific regulations.

In relation to the financing framework and green and sustainable taxonomy, for their part, they agreed to establish a financing framework that promotes investments not only aimed at mitigating climate change, but also climate resilient, promoting adaptation and linked to losses and damage, to provide financial support for investments in public infrastructure, facilities and green communities.

In the area of ​​budgets for sustainability, meanwhile, the authorities stressed the importance of public spending in the just transition to sustainable and low-carbon economies, while committing to promote a common and high standard for projects and actions publicly financed, which considers the need to ensure that all public spending and investment are sustainable.

Finally, in terms of sustainable and climate-resilient development and green industrialization, the parliamentarians stressed that the transition towards a low-carbon and sustainable economy must be the hard core and inseparable element of a country’s development strategy, at the center of which must be meet the objective of guaranteeing human rights, human dignity and promoting the well-being of the populations of our region in all their diversity.

“From our different roles in the parliaments of Latin America and the Caribbean, we are committed to promoting regulations to accelerate the fair and sustainable energy transition and promote strategic sectors, to build a new economic model that supports a healthy environment, human life in its diversity and sustainable development”, affirmed the legislators in their Declaration.

They also agreed to identify, based on a process of dialogue between the parliamentarians participating in the OPCC and within the framework of existing regional integration processes such as the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and the Community of the Caribbean (CARICOM), common mechanisms for the measurement, compensation and reduction of the impacts of productive industrial, agricultural and tourism activities, and for the agile and transparent implementation of payment mechanisms for ecosystem services.

“We urge parliamentarians around the world to join their efforts in this initiative, through inter-parliamentary cooperation and alliance for the common goals and challenges we face as parliamentarians from the Global South,” the Declaration concludes.

The Parliamentary Observatory on Climate Change and Just Transition (OPCC) is an initiative carried out jointly by parliamentary leaders from various countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The OPCC seeks to be a shared information tool about the state of legislation and parliamentary treatment of the environment in the region.