BOLIVIA-ENVIRONMENT Latin leaders close out climate conference with call to action

Record ID: 135263

  • Title: BOLIVIA-ENVIRONMENT Latin leaders close out climate conference with call to action
  • Date: 13th October 2015
  • Summary: QUILLACOLLO, BOLIVIA (OCTOBER 12, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CLOSE OF SECOND PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE WITH CROWDS WAVING INDIGENOUS AND OTHER FLAGS CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER BRUNO RODRIGUEZ, BOGOTA MAYOR, GUSTAVO PETRO, BOLIVIAN VICE PRESIDENT ALVARO GARCIA LINERA WITH OTHER OFFICIALS GENERAL OF MEMBERS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS CLOSE-UP OF ECUADOREAN PRESIDENT RAFAEL
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADVSPX74Z9HBO8WDA9EEHDPQUQ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A roster of left-leaning leaders from throughout Latin America addressed the People's Conference in Bolivia organised to combat climate change and urged rapid and concrete actions be taken as the two-day summit closed out.
    The meeting took place as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings wrapped up in Lima. Those talks too aimed to gather proposals and financial pledges for combating climate change ahead of a new global deal in Paris later this year. The Paris talks, formally called the Paris Climate Conference (COP21), will start on November 30.
    Earlier in the conference, United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon was present, planted trees and helped to inaugurate the Ban Ki-Moon Stadium to be used for the environmental meetings.
    The People's Conference aims to provide a platform for those most affected by climate change.
    Social movements from throughout Latin America sent delegates.
    "What we the indigenous people of the world lives, feels, we want to pass on to the next generations. Today we can't lose sight of the great importance of planet Earth that is life. Without it, we are nothing," said Panamanian indigenous activist, Kitty Penha, said.
    The talks focused on the disparity generating climate change, whereby developed nations are responsible for almost 75 percent of historical greenhouse gas emissions, according to UN figures, whilst developing countries bear the greater burden. Left-leaning including Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro and host Evo Morales of Bolivia forcefully demanded the leaders from developed countries step up.
    One of the ideas to come from the talks was the setting up of an international environmental court to punish the world's biggest polluters with heavy fines.
    The world's richest nations have set a 2020 goal to raise $100 billion dollars a year to help poor countries combat and adapt to climate change.
    Correa, for his part, suggested protected status be granted to beneficial technological advances.
    "(We're here) to declare the technologies that mitigate climate change and its respective effects as public global goods guaranteeing free access, my friends," he said.
    Participants at the conference are advocating the creation of an international legal body to punish governments and corporations responsible for committing environmental crimes, either by action or emission.
    Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez aimed to underscore the express the urgency with regards to climate change.
    "The increase in temperature must be stopped. We're not talking about one degree anymore. We're already talking about two degrees. If it goes up two degrees, the vegetation of sub-Saharan Africa would disappear. Carbon emissions must be reduced but as compared to (levels) from 1996, no with those from 2005. We shouldn't be fooling ourselves," he said.
    Non-governmental leaders in attendance encouraged nuanced leadership to effect change.
    "Bolivia has to think now how to articulate to its partners but also to the rest of the world with a message that says, 'I am in agreement with this, but not that.' But it can't be with a strategy that I deny everything, or approve everything. That has advanced," Eduardo Forno, the executive director for the Bolivia branch of Conservation International, a U.S.-based environmental organisation.
    The Americas are among the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to a 2015 study by Germanwatch, which ranked six Latin American nations among the 20 most at risk from extreme weather conditions.
    The countries hosting the conferences this week, Bolivia and Peru, ranked 19 and 42 respectively in the report´s study of the Latin American and Caribbean Group of the U.N. (GRU-LAC) countries most affected by extreme weather conditions in 2013.
    Ahead of the Paris climate conference, 147 countries, representing more than 87 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, have already publicly presented what post-2020 climate actions they intend to put in practice, known as their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
    These initial engagements help in determining how likely the world can reach the objective of keeping global warming below 2°C (35°F).
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