From April 30 to May 10, countries will come together for a United Nations climate meeting, to continue to make progress toward implementing the Paris Agreement and meeting key goals at this year’s COP24 climate conference in Poland. To ensure positive climate outcomes that benefit both the planet and communities across the world, we must uphold the standards of public participation, human rights, and indigenous peoples’ rights in both the climate negotiations and the actions we take to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Many studies and cases have shown that such principles are essential not only to ensure that climate policies do not harm local communities, but also lead to better environmental outcomes. For example, one study showed that when Peruvian Indigenous peoples’ land rights were legally recognized, the rate of deforestation dropped 81% in the first year and a further 56% in the following year. Further, when women make up at least a third of a forest community’s management council, there are positive results for both the forest and for how equitably resources are distributed in the community. These are just two of a growing body of examples showing that incorporating rights into climate action is not only an ideal, but a necessity.
At the upcoming meeting, countries will be tackling important questions. At COP24 in December, the world will hopefully agree to rules to holistically implement the Paris Agreement at the national level. These rules will ensure that we collectively meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and keep global temperature rise to well below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The preamble of the Paris Agreement includes a set of essential rights and principles, including human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment, food security, ecosystem integrity, Indigenous people’s rights, and a just transition for workers. These same principles are central to the implementation of the agreement and the rules that guide climate action moving forward. For that reason, CIEL will be participating over the coming weeks to promote inclusive, participatory, and people-centered climate action.
What to watch for at the upcoming meeting:
Progress toward rights-based guidelines for implementing the Paris Agreement
Negotiations in the upcoming weeks will set the course for the guidelines to be approved in December. Countries must make progress at this meeting to ensure that climate action is not solely about mitigation and emissions reductions numbers, but that it is also people-centered and rights-based. Therefore, countries must begin to articulate a set of guidelines that deliver on the full vision of the Paris Agreement, including the full package of rights and social principles spelled out in the preamble of the Agreement.
For example, parties to the Paris Agreement must submit plans to address climate change on a national level, known as “nationally determined contributions.” As such, the guidelines for implementing the Paris Agreement should invite countries to include information on how these policies incorporate human rights and contribute to societal progress while delivering outcomes that meet climate objectives.
In addition, we must take a rights-based approach as we discuss mechanisms created to help countries meet their emissions goals. One such example is the Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM). It is critical that the SDM not be set up to repeat the errors of the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows mitigation projects to earn credits that can be bought and sold to help meet emissions reduction goals, but does so without any safeguards in place to ensure registered projects protect human rights. From its creation, the SDM must incorporate robust environmental and social safeguards, public participation, and grievance mechanisms to ensure that climate action does not violate peoples’ rights.
Development of a robust Indigenous Peoples Platform
The Indigenous Peoples Platform aims to draw on traditional knowledge in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and to enhance the capacity for local communities and indigenous peoples to engage in climate talks. At the COP23 climate talks in November 2017, indigenous peoples’ representatives made progress by securing language that would protect indigenous peoples’ rights in climate action. At the upcoming negotiations, negotiators should carry this momentum forward so that the Platform can deliver on its promises.
Promotion of the right to public participation in climate action and climate negotiations
Civil society and negotiators alike must promote public participation and access to information in climate action and the climate negotiations themselves. 71 of the 197 parties to the UNFCCC are involved in a regional agreement to promote public participation in environmental matters, such as the Aarhus and Escazu Agreements: For these countries, it is not only good practice to promote public participation, but also an obligation under international law. We are working with the secretariats of these two conventions and other civil society partners to make countries aware of their obligations on public participation and to share ways to foster inclusive public participation in the many stages of climate policy.
Providing support to developing countries to ensure that they can effectively implement rights-based actions
To move from slogans to solutions at the national and local level, support and capacity building will be key – in particular for developing countries. CIEL applauds the decision to consider how technical and institutional support can be provided to assist countries interested in ensuring that their policies build on human rights, gender equality, and traditional knowledge.
Focus on rights-based climate action through the Talanoa Dialogue
These climate negotiations also include the first of several conversations to be held as part of the Talanoa Dialogue. Through the Talanoa Dialogue, parties and non-state actors can share stories and good practices to build momentum for a necessary increase in ambition. This dialogue also presents an opportunity to demonstrate how rights-based climate action is central to addressing climate change in a way that does not harm people and increases the ambition of our climate goals.
The April meeting will be an important step in ensuring that we meet all the objectives of the Paris Agreement in a way that respects rights and increases ambition to combat and respond to global climate change.
Contacts in Bonn:
Erika Lennon: elennon@ciel.org, +1-714-381-6429
Sébastien Duyck: sduyck@ciel.org, +41-78-696-6362
Briefing Notes for the May 2018 Climate Talks
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This note provides detailed information on the Talanoa Dialogue, identifies opportunities for stakeholders to provide input, and offers guidance on how information about the importance of integrating rights to climate action can be incorporated as part of the Dialogue.
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This note provides a review of references to human rights, including the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, just transition, public participation, ecosystem integrity, and food security in the negotiations on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement, noting in particular the position of individual countries/coalitions on these proposals.
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This note provides an overview of opportunities for parties to enhance public participation and access to information in climate policies during the 48th Session of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies. At this session, parties will have the opportunity to consider in more specific terms how public participation and access to information can inform and be reflected in the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement to ensure that its implementation is participatory and transparent.
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