Day 3 of COP25

Day 3 of COP25 was extremely busy for EmpoderaClima, and for the overall agenda of climate justice, gender and human rights. Our team followed events with many amazing women from the Global South, specially indigenous leaders from all over the world, who are on the frontlines of climate action. The more traction gender issues gains within the climate negotiation space, the more hopeful it will be for a positive outcome with future agreements and their inclusion on gender.

Side event - The Take-Over: Young Politicians and the Environment

Youth4Nature Side Event

“Being young doesn’t mean you don’t have experience”. We started Day 3 of COP25 with this quote, in a talk at the SDG Pavilion, called “The Take-Over: Young Politicians and the Environment”, organized by the organization Youth4Nature. Ana Carolina Martinez from Panama and Eduardo Enrique Murat Hinojosa from Mexico were the main speakers.

This discussion approached the different barriers that exist by being young in the political world, and also how the gender element makes it even more challenging. 

Side-event: The Right to Climate Justice: Collective Convergence for Just Solutions and Against Geoengineering

This event highlighted the danger that geoengineering posed to humanity as a ‘solution’ to the climate crisis. Ms. Marion Gee eloquently spoke about these false solutions that acted as a form of climate action. However, not only do these technologies provide a false solution to the climate crisis, but they also have unequal impacts, with those who are most responsible for climate change benefitting from these technologies. The need to respect and listen to indigenous and traditional knowledge was described as critical in order to tackle this emergency. If we want to inhabit a livable planet, then we must listen to those who are on the ground and know the changes that are happening first-hand. Women and indigenous people along with person’s from developing countries are aware of the climate emergency and the threats that it poses, and it is time for their voices to be not only heard, but listened and acted upon.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

Article 6 has been one of the most controversial issues at COP25 up to this point of the negotiations. In the Paris Agreement, Article 6 stands for the decision to set up a new global carbon market system to assist countries in decarbonizing their economies. It is one of the trickier mechanisms for parties to agree on, though crucial for reducing carbon emissions.

Today at the negotiations, some countries wanted to remove human rights and sustainable development language from Article 6, stating that it would not be applicable to developing countries for the implementation of the article. This led to very sensitive and emotional talks about the importance of human rights for Article 6, which we outlined below, through side events and actions by those affected the most by these decisions: indigenous women.

Side Event: People over Markets - Making Article 6 work for gender equality and indigenous people’s rights: learning from local experiences

EmpoderaClima attended this very inspiring talk with Dr. Pasang Sherpa from Nepal, Casey Camp from the United States, Marcela Mella and Pablo Orrego from Chile, Lauren Eastwood of WOCAN, and Erica Lennon, of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), about the correlation between Article 6 and human rights.

Marcela and Juan Pablo talked about the importance of the protection of water in Chile and the consequences of actions by extractivism projects in the rivers of their country, containing their waters and impacting the health of the people, specially indigenous peoples, and biodiversity.

Panel of side event “People over Markets”

Pasang Sherpa, from Nepal, introduced her work on REDD+, and Casey Camp, indigenous woman from North America, emphasized the need for including indigenous rights’ and human rights in the discussions of Article 6. Casey gave a very powerful speech about the complexity of the climate crisis, the negative consequences of extractivism and fracking, finishing her talk with this statement: “Keep it in the ground”. Finally, Erica Lennon, of CIEL, urged all of the people in the room to tell negotiators at COP25 that it is “unacceptable to have Article 6 without human rights”. 

Indigenous Peoples’ speak out about Article 6

The highlight of the day was most definitely the action taken by the Indigenous Climate Action Network on the need for reference to indigenous peoples and local knowledge in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Indigenous peoples rights, particularly indigenous women’s rights, have long been ignored in climate action. The fact that we must keep fighting for the recognition of human rights within these agreements shows that we have a long way to go until we reach equality. Indigenous peoples, especially women, shined at this action by speaking about their local lands and their relatives, and even singing native songs about their homes. It was a true eye-opening moment, amidst the daily chaos that global negotiations usually are.

Action: Indigenous Rights are Essential #Article6

Fun fact: actions by civil society at UNFCCC events such as COP are allowed, but the UN Security needs to be informed in advance through an Action Form, with details about the movement, which is to be executed outside of the UN rooms, usually in the halls of the conference venue.

Speakers of the Press Conference, moderated by Bridget Burns by WEDO

Press Conference of the Women & Gender Constituency (WGC)

The Women and Gender Constituency took to the press conference room this afternoon to demand the integration of a women, human rights and the gender equality perspective in climate action. Gender should not be viewed ‘alongside’ or ‘as well as’ certain issues, it is of critical importance and needs to be fully integrated within all spheres of climate action.

This is ensuring that gender is more than just a word on paper, or the Gender Action Plan (GAP), but is integrated within oceans, finance mechanisms and challenging the patriarchal structures that upholds such inequalities. Climate change is a systematic issue, and feminists demand system change in order for there to be truly meaningful climate action.

Side event – Can the GCF catalyze inclusive, gender-responsive local climate action globally & in Latin America?

This side event on climate finance and gender equality included the following panelists: Pa Ousman Jarju, Director of the Country Programming Division at the Green Climate Fund Secretariat, Laura Marrero, UNFCC Gender Focal Point in Uruguay, Liane Schalatek, Heinrich Boll Stiftung Washington DC, Wanun Permpibul, Climate Watch Thailand and CSO Gender Monitor to the GCF, and Eileen Mairena Cunningham, Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Autonomy and Development (CADPI) of Nicaragua.

Eileen Mairena, from Nicaragua, was one of our favorite speakers, as she highlighted the struggles that indigenous peoples in Latin America already face besides gender discrimination, stating “some people think finance and human rights don't go together", in an effort to humanize the need for climate finance in indigenous lands.

WGC Plenary Intervention

Kavita Naidu, member of the Women & Gender Constituency, spoke on today’s plenary, the Pre-2020 Technical Meeting, on behalf of the NGO group. For context: COP 23 decided to convene stocktakes on pre-2020 implementation and ambition at its 24th (2018) and 25th (2019) sessions, as it is said that the pre-2020 ambition may lay a solid foundation for enhanced post-2020 ambition. You can find more information about this topic here, on the UNFCCC website.
In her intervention, Kavita stated: “In the last year, we have seen three IPCC reports. We surely do not lack scientific evidence about the impacts of climate change and the urgency to act. What we do not see is ambition to support enhancing gender equality and protect human rights".

Intervention by Kavita, on behalf of the WGC

Innovative Partnerships for Bridging Capacity-Building Gaps: Lessons from Community, Youth and Education OrganizationsWe ended Day 3 of COP in Madrid by speaking about Empoderaclima and education through innovation as one of the guest speakers at the Capacity-Building Hub of COP25, for the event “Innovative Partnerships for Bridging Capacity-Building Gaps:  Lessons from Community, Youth and Education Organizations”. The Capacity-Building Hub is a result of the Paris Committee on Capacity-building (PCCB), created in 2015 with the Paris Agreement.

EmpoderaClima, represented by Renata Koch Alvarenga, at the Capacity-Building Hub

The PCCB addresses current and emerging gaps and needs in implementing and further enhancing capacity-building in developing countries. Today was the first day of the Capacity-Building hub at COP, and will continue in the next few days - but with different themes for each conference day, such as loss and damage and finance.

And that is it for Day 3! It was a very long, yet inspiring and interesting day, in terms of negotiations on youth, human rights, and gender. Not only were the negotiations heated, but there were also many amazing side events on gender equality and climate action - of course we had to attend all of them! EmpoderaClima hopes this content helps you understand what really happens inside the global climate negotiations, this very exclusive world not everyone gets to see or be a part of it.