COP 20 Peru: An opportunity for Latin-American to push for climate change measures

The global warming “phenomena” was not really an issue to be considered in the political agenda until society around the world started to industrialize many decades ago, and that new “revolution” and its practices brought improvements in energy development, life quality and also impacted the financial system.

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Despite what many ecologists and activists would call harmful to our planet, at that time it was just considered by others as the only way to achieve life integrity, prosperity and technology based development.

Nowadays, what was merely measured as harmful to the planet has proven to become its biggest threat. Peru in 2014 is the key for the climate negotiations and will definitely prepare the world for a global legally binding agreement in COP 21 Paris.

Nowadays, the struggle to eventually achieve a climate change agreement that would help reducing the damages that are already taking place in the world is having its maximum momentum. Since 1992 when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol were created their substantial impact have only shown that the current climate change policies are obsolete and require new directions.

When the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are having trouble to comply with the present goals which includes slowing global warming and regulate emissions according with the existing agreements, and the developing countries are having the worst consequences, it is time to act.

Each year governments all around the world meet in the Conference of the Parties (COP) to make decisions that until today have important outcomes such as the Durban platform, the Kyoto protocol, the Copenhagen agreements, among others. However those outcomes are not enough to stop the global warming which is increasing each year and overpassing the safe limit of 350 parts per million.

Being the next host of the COP next year, Peru could develop a great role pushing for climate measures in the region and unifying the actions for adaptation to climate change in the region.

However new environmental measures known as the “Paquetazo” are being criticized because they modify the regulations of the environment protection to promote foreign investment despite of the commitment of the local government to reduce its emissions, fact than increased the expectations for the climate agreement of 2015 . But Peru will not be the only host of the negotiations, for the first time there will have a Pre-conference of parties (PRE COP) that will take place in Venezuela.
This will be an international meeting with the presence of official delegations and civil society activists. Therefore there will be no just one chance, but two to flourish the road to a climate treaty.

Yes, all that in Latin America the region which nations whose development model is being based in extractivism… 2014 is the year for Latin America to place the climate issues as one of the main topics in the regional agenda and to influence the negotiations towards 2015 and increase the international exposure in this topic, also it means the opportunity to re think our development model its consequences beyond the economic “growth”.