Climate change is more than an environmental issue; it has far-reaching social consequences that affect communities worldwide. Chiara Soletti, Climate Change Manager, and Marta Medusa, Africa Programme Officer, explore how these changes are fuelling migration patterns in Ghana and increasing risks of modern slavery and exploitation.
As our planet faces the extreme threat of climate change, we know that people are more vulnerable to the combined risks of climate change and modern slavery. At Anti-Slavery International, over the past two years, we have been advocating to governments and international bodies to recognise and address the links between climate change and modern slavery. In this article, our Climate Change Manager Chiara Soletti explains more about the work of Anti-Slavery International.
Anna Marry and Chiara Soletti of Brooke's External Affairs team discuss the Nexus Resolution that was adopted by the UN earlier this year.
In July this year, the 50th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) took place in Geneva, ending with the adoption of a specific resolution dedicated to the link between human rights and climate (HRC 50/L.10). The document emphasised the urgent need to include the fight against climate change within human rights policies related to social and economic development.
The working group on human rights brings together members of various constituencies of civil society within the UNFCCC system, with the aim of coordinating its action to amplify its impact. The group, led by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), during the Bonn interim negotiations, asked for a meeting with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, Ian Fry.
Since Jair Bolsonaro assumed Brazil’s presidency in 2019, the foreign policy of South America’s largest country has traced the style of its leader. A political exponent is known for his national conservatism, polarizing and controversial style, Bolsonaro has often been described as a far-right populist politician. For this reason, it cannot be said that in Bolsonaro’s handling of his country’s international relations, he has had an accommodating style, something that has been reflected in the work of his diplomatic envoys, including the negotiators of the Brazilian delegation to the UNFCCC.
One of the knots that remain to be unravelled during these UN interim climate negotiations is that of the so-called Global Stocktake (GST) of greenhouse gas emissions.
The 66th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) took place last March, with a theme related to climate change: “Achieving gender equality (…) in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programs.”
With the choice of this theme, an attempt was made to link the traditional work of the Commission, dedicated to the full implementation of the rights of women, girls and children, to the climate issue, which had not yet been officially addressed by this UN body. The Conclusions Agreed by the Member States will serve as a model for world leaders to promote the full and equal participation and leadership of women and girls in the design and implementation of policies and programs related to climate change, the environment and disaster risk reduction.
The actions that will be taken in the coming decades to counter the causes and impacts of climate change will increasingly be at the heart of every aspect of the administration of every society on the planet. The Conferences of the Parties (COPs) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in particular seem to be increasingly influencing the agenda of other UN bodies and entities, making it clear that no societal challenge can any longer be addressed without taking climate into account. This is not new to that part of civil society working on climate, environment and human rights issues, but for a great many specialists and policymakers, this new dimension has only taken shape in recent years.
On December 10 we celebrate the World Human Rights Day, a reflection on the link between human rights and climate is not avoidable.
The UN climate negotiations are not only about climate but also about human rights, the key to ensuring that people and the environment are not sacrificed in the name of emissions reductions. Chiara Soletti, Policy Advisor and Coordinator of the Climate and Human Rights section, reports on the situation at COP26 in Glasgow.
Chiara Soletti, Global External Affairs Advisor at Brooke, covers the newly-launched Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security and explains why this is good news for working livestock.
The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will start in just over a week and the Egyptian presidency, government representatives, technicians, scientists and civil society are preparing for another round of negotiations. Finding solutions for joint climate action is dramatically urgent, but unfortunately, the Parties seem to be showing no signs of breaking the deadlock on key issues such as Loss and Damage and Climate Finance.
From 5 to 15 July, the High-Level Political Forum, the culmination of the review process of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda, took place in New York. The results revealed the current political immobility on key issues such as climate, environment, development and rights.
The first technical assessment session of the Global Stocktake (GST) of greenhouse gas emissions concluded yesterday at the UN Interim Climate Negotiations. The GST is the process under Article 14 of the Paris Agreement for the five-yearly review of the commitments made by nations party to the agreement to reduce their climate-changing emissions. During these two weeks, negotiators have been meeting together with members of civil society, including scientists and experts called upon to support the assessment of the emissions data collected so far with presentations and technical opinions on their areas of expertise.
The first session of the Glasgow Climate Dialogues, the informal meetings on climate change loss and damage (L&D), formally concluded on June 11, the first step in a cycle of working sessions that will take place each year during the first session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) until June 2024.
Ian Fry, an international environmental law and policy expert, is the first Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Climate Change of the United Nations. He was appointed by the Human Rights Council at its 49th session in March 2022 and began his mandate on 1 May 2022.
His nomination is the result of 12 years of advocacy by numerous states in the global south and civil society organisations, including the Climate Vulnerable Forum, the Permanent Mission of the Marshall Islands and Bangladesh in Geneva.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 following the Stockholm Conference on environmental protection. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, it has a mandate to collect and assess environmental data at every level and to coordinate the development of policy instruments for environmental protection. Since 2013, UNEP has been joined by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), tasked with monitoring and assessing individual nations’ effective efforts to manage the environmental impacts of climate change, chemicals management, green technology development and the transition to a green economy.
The second chapter of the sixth IPCC report deals with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change and is probably the most “social” one presented by the group. In this sense, the new publication completes the range of indications provided so far by the group on the characteristics and criticality of the phenomenon of climate change – in August 2021, in fact, the first chapter was presented, the one on the most up-to-date scientific evidence.
Every climate conference has goals. Important topics have been addressed at this COP: transparency, climate finance, NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions), Article 6 and human rights, adaptation and loss and damage. Here is a specific commentary on each of these negotiation topics that Italian Climate Network followed directly with its Observers.
As the world gathers for COP26, Brooke Policy Advisor Chiara Soletti discusses the need for governments to recognise working animals and their intersectional role in many of the priorities of the sustainable development and climate action agenda.