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Parliamentarians Commit to Building a Regional Agenda for Climate Ambition and a Just Transition
Legislators from Latin America and the Caribbean committed themselves today to building a concrete regional agenda for climate ambition and a just transition, during the first Parliamentary Summit on Climate Change and Just Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean which was held on April 20th at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.
In a Joint Statement, the legislators agreed to promote actions linked to ecosystem conservation; the financing framework and green and sustainable taxonomy; budgeting for sustainability; and sustainable and climate-resilient development and green industrialization towards a new economic model.
Joint Declaration 2023Joint Declaration 2022Joint Declaration 2021 More informationKey data and updates
To date, we have identified 271 environmental laws in force (423, if decrees are included) and 189 environmental bills under consideration over the last couple of years in nine Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Turks and Caicos Islands and Uruguay).
Within the scope of the OPCC, the development of a policy brief for an in-depth analysis of the climate change framework legislation identified in this database is in progress. Via the Climate Change Framework Legislation Working Group, comparative research is being prepared that will ultimately allow one to identify the current best legislative practices, as well as the opportunities for improvement that may arise from them. The main focus of this effort is to contribute to the improvement of the environmental regulatory framework in Latin America and the Caribbean and, in consequence, to promote a robust and powerful regional climate action.
Background
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 and from other regions of the world, with the aim of constituting a shared information tool on the state of parliamentary procedures related to environmental initiatives and environmental legislation in the Latin America and the Caribbean region and beyond.
The initiative originated from the identification of the need to strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation so that policy makers can review and pass legislation relevant to the just transition to low-carbon economies.
Since then, Parliamentary Dialogues on Just Transition were held, an initiative coordinated by the Environment Commission of the Federal Senate of Brazil, the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission of the National Senate of Argentina and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), to mobilize actors and map topics of interest for the construction of the Parliamentary Observatory. These dialogues included two high-level international seminars with political leaders from the region and the world, as well as a series of technical meetings to coordinate and agree on the structure, objectives, and activities of the observatory's construction work.
Parliamentary representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, the British Virgin Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curaçao, the European Union, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Montserrat, Nicaragua, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United States and Uruguay participated in the dialogues.
Objectives
The general objective is to constitute a shared information tool on the state of environmental legislation and parliamentary procedures in the Latin America and the Caribbean region and beyond.
The specific objectives are to:
- Identify and classify the environmental legislation sanctioned (in force) by the Legislative Power of the participating States;
- Identify and classify the parliamentary procedures under consideration (advanced legislative proposals) during the current legislative period in the specific commissions on environmental matters of the parliaments of the participating States;
- Identify, analyze and comparatively summarize the status of the climate change framework legislation of the participating States.
Structure of work
The Parliamentary Observatory will gather information from the participating States on environmental legislation sanctioned by the Legislative Power (in force), parliamentary procedures under consideration (advanced legislative proposals) and a comparative summary analysis on framework legislation on climate change. Information collected by the technical teams of the participating parliamentarians will be included.
