COP27 side event - Protagonist Latin American and Caribbean Parliaments: 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 Commission of Environment and Sustainable Development of the National Senate of Argentina, with the support of the European Union through the Euroclima+ Program, carry out the parallel event "Protagonist Latin American and Caribbean Parliaments: mobilizing climate finance", to be held on November 10 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm (Sharm El Sheikh local time).

The event takes place within the framework of the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) and is aimed at 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 (the Spanish acronym is 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 parliamentary procedures related to environmental initiatives and environmental legislation in the region.

The observatory initiative arose from the identification of the need to strengthen interparliamentary cooperation so that policymakers can review and approve 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 from Argentina), Maximiliano Ferraro (National Deputy of Argentina), Cecilia Requena Zárate (National Senator of Bolivia), Rodrigo Agostinho (Federal Deputy of Brazil), Juan Federico Ruiz (Congressman of Uruguay), Samuel Pérez Alvarez (Deputy of the Congress of Guatemala), Melvin “Mitch” Turnbull (Minister of Natural Resources and Labour, British Virgin Islands), Ximena Órdenes Neira (National Senator of Chile – tbc), Gwendell Mercelina (Member of Parliament of Curaçao – tbc), Otis Chuck Morris (Minister Home Affairs, Energy & Utilities, Trinidad and Tobago – tbc) and Veronica Dorsette-Hector (Minister of the Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment & Climate Change, Montserrat – tbc). Santiago Lorenzo (Head of the Climate Change Unit, ECLAC) will also participate.