08/11/2022
Ensuring that those who suffer first and foremost from the damages of climate change are repaired, the just transition to a green economy and environmental education are the priority issues in Spain that FIIAPP and EUROCLIMA will work on during the Sharm El-Sheikh summit.
The FIIAPP team involved in the EUROCLIMA programme will address during its participation in the COP27 some of the issues identified as priorities by Spain for the event: the damages and losses caused by climate change, the just transition towards a green economy and environmental education. Progress in these three lines of institutional cooperation will thus converge during the United Nations Annual Climate Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh with those of the national agenda led by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO).
The events that FIIAPP will hold during COP27 in the framework of the EUROCLIMA Programme will take place in the EUROCLIMA pavilion, although the Spanish public technical cooperation institution will also take part in activities in other pavilions such as the Spanish pavilion, led by MITECO. All the events can be followed in streaming through the EUROCLIMA website dedicated to COP27, as well as on the EUROCLIMA and FIIAPP Twitter and Facebook profiles.
The restoration of damages and losses caused by climate change will be one of the key negotiations at COP27, where concrete agreements are expected to be reached. “The most vulnerable countries and least developed nations want the COP27 summit to establish a compensation mechanism for losses linked to warming that will compensate them for a climate crisis that inevitably drives them into poverty. This is an issue that has been continually postponed in previous negotiations and cannot wait any longer: the increase in the negative impacts of climate change on these countries and their associated losses, which come on top of the current economic crisis, makes it more urgent than ever to concretise the support to be provided,” explains Elsa Velasco, Coordinator of the EUROCLIMA+ 2020 Programme at FIIAPP.
FIIAPP, through EUROCLIMA, works on this issue in projects such as the National System for the registration of adverse impacts of climate change in Uruguay or the Community of Practice on Climate Policy Monitoring and Assessment, which during 2022 has been working on climate impact assessment in Latin America.
A total of four FIIAPP events will analyse this issue at COP27: “Advances in Climate Risk, Generation of Climate Change Scenarios” (Panama Pavilion, 10 November); “Damages and losses expected in Colombia due to the effects of climate change” (Colombia Pavilion, 10 November); “Planning decarbonisation strategies in Latin America, their alignment with the NDCs, the inclusion of adaptation and financing strategies” (EUROCLIMA Pavilion, 12 November); and “Progress in the implementation of the damage and loss agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean” (EUROCLIMA Pavilion, 16 November).
Spain was the first country in the world to draw up a National Just Transition Strategy, an area that is therefore of particular relevance on the national agenda. The FIIAPP has led various actions in this context, including the preparation of the study “Just Transition: an approach to link the climate, economic and social agendas”, a prospective analysis to understand the implications of the Just Transition agenda, identify good practices and the state of appropriation and implementation in Latin America.
During COP27, the events held on Wednesday 9 November will focus on just transition, focusing on gender equality and vulnerable groups, as well as those organised in the Spanish Pavilion on 14 and 16 November under the titles “Women and employment in the framework of just energy transition” and “Ibero-American cooperation in time, water and climate: building bridges”.
Environmental education is one of the 6 dimensions of the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE). The FIIAPP team in EUROCLIMA leads the ACE action line in the Programme, which has achieved results such as the Capacity Building and Strengthening Strategy in Chile or the activities for education, training and awareness raising on climate change in Uruguay.
On Thursday 17 November, ACE thematic day, the EUROCLIMA Pavilion will host three events: “Action Strategies for Climate Empowerment”; “Climate Participation and the Escazú Agreement” and “Capacity Building in Climate Empowerment”.
