UN Climate Change Conference
Photo credit: Justin Catanoso
Every year the world comes together to discuss progress on combating climate change. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change hosts the COP–the Conference of Parties–where the world’s 192 countries negotiate how to address climate change. This year’s COP is in Lima, Peru, where the framework for the replacement to the Kyoto Protocol will be deliberated in advance of the COP in Paris in 2015.
Key to this COP is the role of tropical forests. When they are converted to agriculture or degraded they produce greenhouse gas emissions that are the same as those that come from power plants or cars. The loss of tropical forests accounts for 20% of the total emissions to the atmosphere–and the human rights of the people that live in them.
More coverage from CEES affiliate Justin Catanoso:
Climate change talks: the takeaway
The saving face of corporate climate change
Bianca Jagger defends forests
New view of forests
Press conference video with the UN General Secreatary
The human rights perspective, including commentary from John Knox, CEES board member and UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment:
Global Climate Talks Open with Push for Human Rights
More coverage: