News & Press
NEWS: Human Rights in the Climate Negotiations: 3 questions asked but much left unanswered – #SB42
During the first half of June, climate negotiators converged in Bonn for two intense weeks of negotiations. With only 6 months left before the Paris COP-21 Conference, negotiations towards the 2015 climate agreement constituted the most important work on-going during this session. But many other key aspects of international climate policy were also on the agenda in Bonn. Throughout these two weeks, negotiators unfortunately made little progress on three main questions to address in relation to the integration of human rights in climate policies.
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NEWS: Review of the CDM rules at the Bonn intersessions
Currently, parties to the UNFCCC are meeting in Bonn for a new round of climate negotiations. One of the topics that is on the table is the review of the Modalities and Procedures of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Parties are thereby discussing rather “light” issues and shy away from more conflicting topics. But, when turning a blind eye on the necessity for more controversial themes, such as the establishment of a grievance mechanism, the review of the Modalities and Procedures may fall behind its great potential to improve the CDM for the future.
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NEWS: The Global Fund & human rights – Lessons from the health sector
As the financial and market mechanisms established under the UNFCCC struggle to implement policies aimed at the protection and promotion of human rights, these institutions might benefit from learning how other global financial mechanisms are dealing with this issue, such as the Global Fund’s new Human Rights Complaints Procedure.
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European Parliament discusses human rights dimension of EU’s climate finance contributions
Last week in an event in the European Parliament, various stakeholders discussed experiences with existing climate mechanisms against the future climate finance policy landscape, where potentially huge amounts of climate finance will not only be channeled through the Green Climate Fund (GCF) but also through bilateral agreements and other instruments where it is still unclear what types of safeguards and compliance mechanisms will be applicable and how the respective public and private stakeholders involved will be accountable.
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Proyecto Barro Blanco, registrado bajo el Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio de la ONU, es suspendido por incumplimiento con su Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental
Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá y Ginebra, Suiza. En una decisión histórica, la Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM) de Panamá ordenó ayer la suspensión temporal de la construcción del proyecto hidroeléctrico Barro Blanco debido al incumplimiento con su Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental. La represa fue registrada bajo el Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio (MDL) de la ONU pese a que amenaza con inundar el territorio de las comunidades Ngäbe Buglé.
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UN registered Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Dam temporarily suspended over non-compliance with Environmental Impact Assessment
PANAMA CITY, Panama and GENEVA, Switzerland In a landmark decision, Panama’s National Environmental Authority (ANAM) temporarily suspended the construction of the Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam yesterday over non-compliance with its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The dam was approved by the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) despite risks of flooding to the territory of the indigenous Ngäbe Bugle communities.
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UN approved hydroelectric dam Barro Blanco suspended over community rights violations
Following community protests by the indigenous Ngobe communities, Panama’s environment agency ANAM supended the Barro Blanco hydroelectric yesterday. The decision was taken because of breaches of the national environmental impact assessment requirements, including shortcomings in the agreement with the locally affected indigenous communities.
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Human rights council’s premises expected to deliver future climate treaty text
In less than one year, the world’s countries are expected to flesh out an agreement to address climate change and advert dangerous global warming. UN negotiators will meet for the first time in 2015 in Geneva with the goal to deliver a final negotiating text to form the basis for such a deal. This first session will also be significant because it will take place in the premises of the UN’s human rights council where UN delegates will have to find a solution to protect the world’s most vulnerable citizens from climate change while insuring their human rights.
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Press Advisory: Carbon Offsetting Benefit Tracker launched to showcase local reality of CDM projects
Brussels/Lima 8 December 2014, today the ‘CDM Benefit Tracker India’ will be launched in Lima, Peru. The Tracker compares eye witness accounts of local communities with sustainability objectives of CDM projects and finds severe discrepancies between claims and local realities. Local groups are now calling on countries in Lima to establish monitoring and verification provisions…
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International human rights day adds pressure to implement safeguards in carbon markets
At the occasion of the international human rights day on 10 December 2014, the need to protect human rights in all climate actions will be high up on the agenda in Lima. The clock is ticking for delegates to put in place a robust institutional safeguards system for existing and new carbon markets to protect the people most vulnerable to climate change.
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